Why do we and many Episcopal churches offer prayer for healing at a special time and place in our services? Many of you may have wondered this. Isn’t the whole service one of prayer and interaction with God and God’s word to us? Yes, that is true. But having a healing station emphasizes the sacrament of prayers for the sick much the way the fonts filled with water remind us of our baptism.
Offering a special place for prayers heightens our awareness. It calls us to search our hearts and express the needs we have to God. When someone approaches the healing station during Communion, I say, “What are you asking for today?” Often the person expresses a need for themselves or a loved one. Sometimes it is simple thanks or a more general request. This articulation engages the person in their own healing.
What do we mean by healing? Healing can involved our body, mind, or spirit. It may even by social. The verb ‘heal’ is related to the words ‘whole’ and ‘hale.’ So it means making whole what was once fractured or broken, and it means being made healthy. When I pray for healing, I ask for God’s holistic grace and love to meet the person or people in need. I don’t know what God will do, but I know God will do something and that it will be good. Laying on of hands and anointing with oil, if desired, provide tangible support and transfer of energy through the person praying. We do not cause the healing. God does. But God allows us to participate in the grace if we “show up, and get out of the way,” as my mentor would say.
So this Lent, consider approaching the healing stations during our services. As Eugene O’Neill wrote, “We are born broken. We live by mending. And the grace of God is glue.”
~ Brian Cochran