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Apostolic Healing Powers?


infinitelord1

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infinitelord1

Luke 9:1-2 (New International Version, ©2010)

Luke 9

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.


http://www.christianhealingmin.org/about/foundation.php

-----------------------------

How does this apply today in the Church?

Edited by infinitelord1
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dairygirl4u2c

i see 'healings' on TV a lot, and know people who've gone places and been inexplicably healed. it's odd that within the CC healings only occur through prayer to saints, but elsewhere it's due to going to church..
probably just because of what people's expectations are, what they put their faith in.

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infinitelord1

First of all, I do not believe that many people would possess certain gifts of the Holy Spirit. Of these gifts, Speaking in Tongues or Healing Powers. But I will admit...this is the only area that Phatmass has let me down with. Whenever someone brings up Gifts of the Holy Spirit...nobody has much to say about it. Its as if it is sensitive area that We don't want to get into.

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[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' timestamp='1297872086' post='2212971']
i see 'healings' on TV a lot, and know people who've gone places and been inexplicably healed. it's odd that within the CC healings only occur through prayer to saints, but elsewhere it's due to going to church..
probably just because of what people's expectations are, what they put their faith in.
[/quote]

Based upon my studies in anthropology, I have learned that expectations often play a significant role in healing. Healings also happen in many religious and cultural contexts. Shamans of many indigenous traditions, for example, heal through the use of prayers, herbs, rituals, etc. Sometimes, people are inexplicably healed after healing ceremonies that include alternate states of consciousness induced by means such as rhythmic singing and dancing. It's amazing the role that expectations/ beliefs can play in the sickness/ healing discourse, making people ill and well.

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Hinter dem Horizont

The power of prayer is a wonderful thing. I am friends with people that work in hospitals and they say that when an extremely ill person has friends and family that pray for them they become healthy again quite fast. For example, if a patient has nobody and nobody to share their faith with they are not as lucky and remain sick for quite some time. Then again, this could a mental/psychological thing?

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[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' timestamp='1297872086' post='2212971']
it's odd that within the CC healings only occur through prayer to saints, but elsewhere it's due to going to church..
[/quote]

What is odd that you don't know better than this. I have witnessed many healings in the CC. There is no claim in Catholicism that it happens only through saints. However in the lives of the saints before they were canonized there were healings. Now the CC doesn't have money making TV programs sensationalizing it but healings do occur.

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Archaeology cat

Yeah, healings definitely aren't only through the prayers of the Saints. I know I've read on My Daily Eucharist about a man who was healed through the Eucharist, and that's not a one-off thing, AFAIK.

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dairygirl4u2c

yeah after i posted that and left, i remembered there are healings associated with teh eucharist.
against though, not just by going to church. but again, in ways people would expect, as mentioned,.... it's about expectations.
also noticably not the way it's done in the bible, laying on of hands, preaching the word, etc.... not that that means the CC is wrong for it, but.

i never hear of anythi gother than saint, or eucharist related anyway. i'm open to hear stories that say otherwise.

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Archaeology cat

There are those that don't entail receiving the Eucharist, but being in the Presence of the Eucharist, like another one I read on My Daily Eucharist about a woman who was healed from her heroin addiction after the Consecration.

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infinitelord1

So none of the Benny Hinn types of healings? As in the Holy Spirit working through an individual to heal other individuals?

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[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' timestamp='1298147438' post='2213887']
yeah after i posted that and left, i remembered there are healings associated with teh eucharist.
against though, not just by going to church. but again, in ways people would expect, as mentioned,.... it's about expectations.
also noticably not the way it's done in the bible, laying on of hands, preaching the word, etc.... not that that means the CC is wrong for it, but.

i never hear of anythi gother than saint, or eucharist related anyway. i'm open to hear stories that say otherwise.
[/quote]

Actually, in the Roman Catholic Church there is a sacrament of healing -- it's called variously the annointing of the sick, the laying on of hands or Extreme Unction. Its origin is reflected in James 5:14-15 [i]"Is any man sick among you? [u]Let him bring in[/u] the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him."[/i] But it is a sacrament which is reserved for Catholics and those who are facing a grave illness, potential surgery, etc, which makes the number of those prepared to receive it a relatively small group.

On the other hand, you don't have to believe in any of the tenets of Catholicism to ask for the help of Saint Therese or the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary which makes the pool of people who are aided by saints much larger. Another benefit of asking the saints for help is that when saints intercede with Christ for your benefit as citizens of Heaven they are immune from the potential ego problems that can go hand-in-hand with success. If you or I were to continuously pray for the healing or help of individuals around us and were constantly successful it could very easily go to our heads.

Having said that, the Catholic Church is big and you can find almost everything in it (we are all members of the one body, but not all members have the same office! Rom 12:4) There is a charismatic movement within the Catholic Church and they have more of a focus on healing ministries in the fashion that I think Protestants typically think of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charismatic_Renewal

We have a healing Mass at my parish once a month but I have not attended it both because it is a late service and because it is not really my thing.

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LouisvilleFan

[quote name='infinitelord1' timestamp='1297840449' post='2212892']
How does this apply today in the Church?
[/quote]

Reminds me of a brief exchange I read once:

Pope Innocent IV: "You see the Church in no longer in an age when she must say like Peter, 'Silver and gone have I none.'"
St. Thomas Aquinas: "It is true, Holy Father. Nor can she now say to the lame man, 'Rise and walk.'"

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LouisvilleFan

[quote name='infinitelord1' timestamp='1298064079' post='2213677']
Whenever someone brings up Gifts of the Holy Spirit...nobody has much to say about it. Its as if it is sensitive area that We don't want to get into.
[/quote]

Could be that it's been talked about so much that people here are finally tired of regurgitating the same points again and simply refer people to one of the countless previous threads on the topic. :)

Edited by LouisvilleFan
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[quote name='dairygirl4u2c' timestamp='1298147438' post='2213887']
yeah after i posted that and left, i remembered there are healings associated with teh eucharist.
against though, not just by going to church. but again, in ways people would expect, as mentioned,.... it's about expectations.
also noticably not the way it's done in the bible, laying on of hands, preaching the word, etc.... not that that means the CC is wrong for it, but.

i never hear of anythi gother than saint, or eucharist related anyway. i'm open to hear stories that say otherwise.
[/quote]

I've laid my hands on my wife and she was healed. I've gone to Catholic Evangelists, i.e. Alan Ames, Fr. Ralph Diorio, Fr. Scanlan, and there were healings. There was a woman in our parish who had locutions and laid hands on people and there were healings. They are not posted all over the tv but they occur. During the lives of the saints themselves there were healings. There are 300 cases where the dead were raised for instance. Maybe if you join the Catholic Church you might be able to provide better info.

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