The Finger of God for Healing: Faith Healing Priest Draws Thousands
mostly inner healing for emotional burdens. And when people are healed of those, often physical stuff can go away, too.
"There is a fervor to this, a zeal that can be expressed in a different way. We have to separate style from substance," he told the New Orleans Clarion Herald in March of this year. It is this philosophy and the guidance of the Church that informs his healing Masses.
By all accounts, they are quiet and reverent, focused on the spiritual interior with a specific emphasis on reconciliation and forgiveness, and Eucharist-centered. They include Adoration and a blessing by Fr. McAlear, who speaks of healing as rooted in the spirit.
"It's what is going on inside - the inner pain, depression, sadness, grief, loss, loneliness," he explains. "A lot of times it's manifested in physical illness. The need is there to touch the heart and the inner spirit. That's where the healing Masses make their contribution," he says. "The spiritual need can only be touched spiritually. Then everything else follows. The hope is restored, the darkness is lifted."
Fr. McAlear does not support exclusive reliance on faith healing, however. He encourages the use of effective natural means for preserving and restoring health as well, saying "Do both," and quoting Sirach 38:
"The doctor eases pain and the druggist prepares his medicines; Thus God's creative work continues without cease in its efficacy on the surface of the earth. My son, when you are ill, delay not, but pray to God, who will heal you.Then give the doctor his place lest he leave; for you need him too" (1-15).
Fr. McAlear "always" feels the emotional pain of those he prays for, but occasionally he senses their physical pain in what he calls "an 'inner knowing.'" But rather than overwhelmed or discouraged by the suffering in the long lines of people waiting for his prayers at healing Masses, Fr. McAlear is more affected by their hope and longing for God's love.
"Sickness, like other forms of human suffering, is a privileged moment for prayer" (Instruction on Prayers for Healing). Keenly sensitive to the moment and the privilege, Fr. McAlear, like Jesus before Him, is drawn by the hope and faith in those who suffer. It sustains him night after night in churches all over the world, says McAlear, because "God wants very, very much to love them back and for them to be happy."
"The longing for happiness, deeply rooted in the human heart, has always been accompanied by a desire to be freed from illness and to be able to understand the meaning of sickness when it is experienced. This is a human phenomenon, which in some way concerns every person and finds particular resonance in the Church, where sickness is understood as a means of union with Christ and of spiritual purification (Instruction on Prayers for Healing).
Although in his 40th year of healing ministry, Fr. McAlear does not claim to have the gift of healing, only the gift of prayer: "We pray to God and things happen. I know it's not me; I know God is there, and I'm almost watching Him do things. It's Jesus' compassion, the love of God that is doing the healing."
One is inexorably drawn to the mysterious intensity of God's compassion and love in Fr. McAlear as his lips move in silent groanings and he cradles the stricken faces of those for whom he prays, marking them with the sign of the healing cross on their foreheads. Simply watching it through second hand video moves one deeply with an awareness of humanity's insatiable need for wholeness and union with God.
Fr. McAlear receives no fee for his visits and depends entirely on offerings for his travel expenses. Perhaps it is such demonstrations of love, more than any other evidence, that help prove he is a true finger of God in healing His broken, suffering humanity.
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Sonja Corbitt is a Catholic speaker, Scripture teacher and study author and a contributing author for Catholic Online. She is available to speak on the New Feminism, current events and your preferred theme. Visit her at www.pursuingthesummit.com for information and sample videos, or www.pursuingthesummit.blogspot.com.
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
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I live in chronic pain and have a persistent form of Lyme Disease that main stream medicine refuses to treat. It is the greed of insurance companies that keep us completely poor. I would like to find out how to meet with Father McAlear. I need help badly, I am just barely hanging on and I know there is live out there... I just out of resources and finding it hard ti find someone who cares,God Bless,
Steven
Please pray for our daughter Colleen, 24. She was married on Aug 11, 2012 and diagnosed with cancer on Aug 24, 2012. Her womb was removed. Today they said the cancer has spred to her lungs and want to start chemotherapy. It sounds like the cure is worse than the disease. We have been praying the rosary with our family on Skype everynight... my husband, Bob is one of eleven children so it is a large prayer chain. We are devistated and are asking God's will be done.
Father, please pray for me and my family. I have been falsely accused of stealing the cash from work. I believe In God that one day the truth will come out. I have been suspended from work for almost 6 weeks. I have been at home and feel so low and humiliated with what accusations done on me. Father my case is on 9th Aug, 2012 at 1000 am. I want your blessings and that this wrongly accused case may be over tomorrow. Help me to get this job back. I have Faith In God our Almighty who will definitely throw this case. Father, I want your healing touch and strength to fight this case.
Dear father, Today almost 50days i am sitting at home without residence in kuwait. My company dint put residence and not even terminited me. They stoped my duties without any reasion and complaint that i run away and stolen things from company. My sponser is out of kuwait since one month and he is coming tomorrow. Today is the first day of ramadan, i hope my sponser have pity on me. I was living with my wife and my two chindreen, I served to my company 15years, my company management is changed since 2 years and new egytion engineers has come and they wnt to remove me from job. My family is in vacation and since i dont have residence they cant come back to kuwait. My childreen school is missing. I dont have any finicial support from my family because i am alone son of my family and i have see my old mom and dad and my wife and two childreen. Whai i will do if my company send me to my country? These 50 days i prayed to god Jesus and mother Marry so much. Why god did for me like this?PLEASE HELP ME AND PRAY FOR ME. I love you Jesus.
Johnny, perhaps you can share with us the names of the five priests you know that have the gift of healing. That would be nice. Thanks, Carl.
Father, if you would send me a pray to say for my friend who is very ill, Robert Port is very ill with infection, he ls in the hospital in Bullhead City AZ, he is in ICU unit.
Please send me a pray of healing so I might say it every day and night over his body by mind and spirit, I know it will take time for the recovery, But I believe I can deliver with your prays the hope of healing.
May our heavenly Father keep and bless Father Richard McAlear. (The Holy Bible in St. Luke 11:20.)
Suzanne McMillen-Fallon, Published Author
www.strategicbookpublishing.com/Mommys Writings “ Mommy, would you like a sandwich?
True God is at work.It is a clear manifestation of God's healing.The fathwer differentiates between gift of God and prayer.Those who pray with deep faith can move mountains.What we lack in today's world is the absence of this faith in God.
I believe in the healing power of God, and how it can be transmitted through the hands of a humble priest...and possibly others as well.
I have doubts about the so called humitlity of a healing priest who promotes his healing ministry...
I have seen this priest, and known him to give a "push" while praying over young and impressionable people...and have my doubts of his humility and sincereity, and also know of his disobedience to the bishop...
i know God could have healed people through him or through other means, God can do anything, but that is where our faith needs to stay, with God, not man.
Thank God for all the priests that allow Gods finger to move them in order to heal in his name! I know about five priest that have this extrodinary gift from God, it's very real.