By Shelby Siegfried
for the Register
Mass with prayers for healing
Sunday, Feb. 25, at St. Patrick Church in McCook
Confession offered from 3 to 4 p.m., the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3:30 p.m. and Mass at 4 p.m.
The Mass is the ultimate form of healing prayer, a sacred time when Christ, the Physician of souls and bodies, intimately encounters His people.
It’s a moment where His healing love and power profoundly touch lives. While every Mass inherently offers healing, a “Mass with Prayers for Healing” specifically encompasses prayers aimed toward physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.
“The Mass with Prayers for Healing is for those who wish healing for themselves or loved ones in their bodies, their emotions, their memories, and in their relationships with God and neighbor,” said Father Christopher Barak. “These Masses are the Sunday Masses that normally occur on that day. However, the emphasis in the homily and prayers of the faithful is on our asking God to heal us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”
Father Barak will celebrate a Mass with Prayers for Healing Sunday, Feb. 25, at St. Patrick Church in McCook, with confession offered from 3 to 4 p.m., the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3:30 p.m. and Mass at 4 p.m.
While the common perception of healing often revolves around the physical aspect, the Mass with Prayers for Healing embraces a more expansive view, including emotional, spiritual and mental wounds. Attendees are invited to pen their prayer petitions for healing on slips of paper that are then gathered and brought to the altar during the Mass. The act symbolizes a communal offering, placing the diverse needs and hopes of the congregation into the caring hands of the Divine Physcian.
Before Mass, priests are available for confession, a vital component for spiritual healing.
“Through forgiveness of sins, Jesus heals wounded hearts and helps people forgive people who have offended them,” Father Barak said. “Unforgiveness can be a block in a person that causes health problems.”
Music is also an essential part of a Mass with Prayers for Healing. Jo Beebe of McCook directs the St. Patrick choir which will begin the afternoon by singing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, followed by two or three songs of praise to God.
The Mass hymns are sung in both English and Spanish. Father Bernard Lorenz will also provide a homily in Spanish as part of the Hispanic ministry he leads in western Nebraska.
A unique aspect of the Mass with Prayers for Healing is the blessing of sacramentals. Father Barak said the priests will bless everyday items: salt, water, olive oil, St. Benedict medals, religious images and statues, medals, crucifixes, rosaries, scapulars, candles, cell phones and medicines.
“Sacramentals are used by people to deepen their relationship with God and the saints and angels, who help them along their earthly journey,” Father Barak explained. “Through the use of these blessed material items, people often sense God’s protection, security, comfort, and healing. Demons may bring illnesses or intensify natural illnesses and problems. Sacramentals, especially the St. Benedict medal, help people break free from their influence.”
The sacramentals are placed at the church doorways for people to freely take after Mass.
The Mass with Prayers for Healing also offers a profoundly personal moment of Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. Here, the faithful are invited to draw near to the Blessed Sacrament, echoing the Gospel instances where the sick were brought to Jesus for healing.
“As we kneel before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” Father Barak described, “we bring our needs for healing. Since Jesus’ touch often accompanied the healing miracles for the sick, the priest as alter Christus, lays his hands on the heads of those who kneel at the Communion railing, silently praying for their healing,” he said. “Members of the prayer team also pray silently for the people as they kneel before the Sacred Host. Gregorian chant and other spiritual music accompany this prayer time. It’s a powerful reminder that Christ’s touch still brings miracles today.”
The atmosphere is one of great reverence, in which the primary focus is on the sacredness of the Blessed Sacrament, and is maintained through prayerful and meditative music and silent Eucharistic adoraton, as well as the use of incense and bells.
Father Barak offered insight on how to prepare mentally and spiritually before attending, to open oneself to recieve healing.
“Confession is an important sacrament of God’s healing, so people may go during the days prior to the Mass or in the Church or chapel shortly before the Mass begins,” he said. “When people ask for forgiveness or when they forgive, they begin to feel God healing them.”
In partcitular, he suggested the popular “Forgiveness Prayer” by Father Robert DeGrandis. He said the prayer helps examine many relationships which may need forgiveness and healing.
For spiritual reading, Father Barak recommended reflecting upon the Holy Gospel according to Luke.
“This Gospel has many healing miracles by Jesus that will build up faith in Him doing the same today,” he said.
Father Barak guides a local prayer team to spiritually support those attending. Everyone is invited and encouraged to pray and fast, whether attending the Mass or not. Team members are especially encouraged to offer up their sacrifices so that they and others might experience an increase in faith, the grace to forgive, healing and deliverance.
Leading up to the Mass the prayer team prays a daily rosary. During the nine days prior to the Mass they pray a “Novena of Supplication of the Holy Angels.”
Brenda Miller of St. James Parish in Trenton helps organize the prayer team for the St. Patrick Mass. Miller has attended many Masses with prayers for healing over the years, and said they have greatly influenced her spiritual journey.
“Each time, I prepare a mental list of healing requests to take to Mass,” she said, “and each time I receive grace, acceptance, and love. It’s such a gift to attend a Mass with Prayers for Healing. We are all in need of healing of one kind or another.”
Those who attend the Masses have experienced peace, Father Barak said.
“Many people attending these Masses say as they leave that Jesus brought them deep peace and happiness in their hearts and minds. We have heard of people getting some physical healing, such as a man being freed of cancer, and another man cancelling his knee operation scheduled for a few days after the Mass because his knee was healed.”
Father Barak said everyone should seek healing and the diocese offers opportunities to help.
“Pray intensely for healing in every area of life: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually,” he said. “The Lord Jesus and His disciples went out and healed the sick to show the Kingdom of God was at hand. People went to them for healings and received them. As Jesus said to many, ‘Your faith has healed you.’ Many people believe Jesus heals, and they pray to Him for the healing of others and often, the healing occurs.”
He added, “Some priests, religious and laity in our diocese are involved with Encounter Ministries, which includes prayers for healing. They offer prayer services for healing in various parishes, which are very effective in building up people’s faith in Jesus and His power to heal them.”
Pilgrimages offer another source for healing, he said.
“When people make spiritual pilgrimages for special graces, they often receive them from the Lord,” he said. “The Eucharistic Passport Pilgrimage going on in our diocese gives people a chance for healing as they make their sacred journey to adore Jesus. They may kneel at His feet in front of the Tabernacle, and like the leper ask Jesus, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean,’ and Him saying (from Luke 5:12f), ‘I am willing, be cleansed.’”
The next Mass with Prayers for Healing will be held March 3 at the John XXIII Diocesan Center in Lincoln, at 1:30 p.m. Future dates in Lincoln are June 23, Sept. 8 and Dec. 8. The final Mass with Prayers for Healing in McCook in 2024 will be Dec. 1.
