‘Jesus wants to heal you and give life in abundance’

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In so many places in the Gospel, people who were sick and suffering were brought to Jesus, in hope of healing. Over and over again, Jesus touches them or they touch him. His healing love and mercy then become the source of new life for those who believed in his power. “Your faith has saved you,” he says over and over again.

Have you ever thought about the need for healing in your own life; that Jesus desires to give you that same new life? All of us are wounded in some way, wounded by many different experiences of life, wounded by hurtful events or uninvited traumas that happened in our childhood years from which we still feel the effects. We are left with inner wounds which cause emotional pain, and we try to manage our lives so that we get through each day with the least amount of suffering. Does this ring true in your life? Sometimes we are so good at managing life that simply to avoid pain has become our norm and we don’t know that life can be any different.

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly,” (Jn 10:10). This promise of Jesus may seem like just a dream to many people. But these words of Jesus from John’s Gospel reveal a gift that is offered to all of us. We know that he is not speaking of material abundance, but a deeper life in his love and mercy and healing. But how often do we ask for this gift? Or open our hearts to this gift?

In order to realize the need for inner healing, we must first identify the problem, those emotional wounds, so that we can then seek the healing Jesus wants to give us. Allow me to name a few common ones:

  • A hurt that doesn’t seem to go away
  • A tendency to become easily irritable with others, to lash out at others, even people who love you and have done you no harm
  • Low tolerance and/or irrational expectations of others, expecting and demanding more from them than is reasonable
  • Feelings of anger, hate, resentment, etc. that seem to “rise up” within you at the slightest offense from others
  • Feelings of anger or resentment that are brought up by events from your past
  • Difficulty in forgiving yourself and others, perhaps even God
  • Difficulty in feeling loved, in seeing clearly and realizing the love of others and God in your life, as if a wall has been erected that blocks the flow of love into your life
  • Self-hate
  • Becoming easily frustrated with others, with everyday tasks and responsibilities
  • Perfectionism
  • Feelings of hopelessness

These are just a few common emotional wounds that diminish the life Jesus desires for you.

How does one overcome these negative emotions to receive healing? 1) Believe that these things are not what defines you. What defines you is Christ’s love. 2) Believe that Jesus wants to heal you and give life in abundance.  Remember Jesus’ words, “Your faith has saved you.” You must have faith that he can and wants to do this.

Over the years I have come across many prayers that have helped me along the way – leading to a deeper life in abundance. Below are two prayers which have helped and which I pray daily with my morning Liturgy of the Hours. They have helped me. I hope and pray that they will help you and lead you to the healing you seek — and the promised life in abundance. They have come from the “Manual of Minor Exorcisms by Bishop Julian Porteous.”

 

Prayer for Protection and Deliverance

Heavenly Father, I praise and thank you for all you have given me. Please cover me with the protective, precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, and increase your Holy Spirit in me with His gifts of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, hunger for prayer, guidance, and discernment to help me know your will and surrender to it more completely.

Father, please heal my negative emotions and any wounds in my heart and spirit. Send the sword of your Holy Spirit to sever and break all spells, curses, hexes, voodoo, and all negative genetic, inter-generational, and addictive material, past, present, or to come, known or unknown, against me, my relationships, and family, finances, and possessions.

Father, I forgive and I ask forgiveness for my sins and failings, and I ask that my whole person, body and mind, heart and will, soul and spirit, memory and emotions, attitudes and values be cleansed, renewed and protected by the most precious blood of your Son, Jesus.

In the name, power, blood, and authority of Jesus Christ I bind and break the power and effect in or around me of any and all evil spirits who are trying to harm me in any way and I command these spirits and their companion spirits in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to leave me peacefully and quietly and go immediately and directly to the Eucharistic presence of Jesus Christ in the closest Catholic Church tabernacle, to be disposed of by Jesus and never again return to harm me.

Dear Holy Spirit, please fill up any void in me to overflowing with your great love. All this, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ by the guidance of your Holy Spirit. Immaculate Heart of Mary, spouse of the Holy Spirit, please pray for me and with me. Amen.

— Manual of Minor Exorcisms by Bishop Julian Porteous

 

Prayer for Inner Healing

Lord Jesus, you came to heal our wounded and troubled hearts. I beg you to heal the torments that cause anxiety in my heart. I beg you, in a

particular way, to heal all who are the cause of sin. I beg you to come into my life and heal me of the psychological harms that struck me in my early years and from the injuries that they caused throughout my life.

Lord Jesus, you know my burdens. I lay them all on your Good Shepherd’s heart. I beseech you — by the merits of the great, open wound in your heart — to heal the small wounds that are mine. Heal the pain of my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me will cause me to remain in pain and anguish, filled with anxiety.

Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of all the evil that is rooted in my life. I want to forgive all those who have offended me. Look to those inner sores that make me unable to forgive. You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, please, heal my own heart. Heal, my Lord Jesus, those intimate wounds that cause me physical illness. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it and give me the sentiments of Your Divine Heart. Help me to be meek and humble.

Heal me, O Lord, from any pain caused by the death of my loved ones, if it is oppressing me. Grant me to regain peace and joy in the knowledge that you are the Resurrection and the Life. Make me an authentic witness to your resurrection, your victory over sin and death, your living presence among us. Amen.

— Manual of Minor Exorcisms by Bishop Julian Porteous