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The spiritual laws are always in operation no matter what we believe or think about those events called paranormal, miraculous, superstitious nonsense
or pure chance. Some believe that God Himself is directly involved in healing work, or Jesus or one of His prophets, or Mother Mary, or the Great Spirit, or
some entity or god who is at the head of one or another of the many different sects amongst other faiths and religions. Healing mediums are unique
in that they can see and work with actual spirit doctors
and surgeons who have lived on earth, and who are
known to their former colleagues and patients. I think
this is closer to the actual situation in healing
work, though there is no need to deny the existence of
higher powers and spiritual laws which are the
originators and designing principles behind our
existence, and which enable the process of healing,
amongst our other experiences, to take place.
Whether healing effectively takes place depends on many
factors. For example, a person may become drastically
and dramatically sick as the only way to avoid
following an expected career in the family business or
profession. The illness becomes a way to negotiate a
new life free of family ties and traditions. The
process may be unconscious, and of course, this
approach is risky and may result in death, and the
change of lifestyle will have to await a new
incarnation. On the other hand, illness may be chosen
to experience the same suffering the person has
inflicted on others at an earlier time. This would not
be punishment, but an experience chosen as a means of
achieving greater understanding and compassion. Spirit
guides and mystics are able to see the deeper causes
of ill health, the etiology or personal history, and
so recommend ways to heal the present situation. The
effects of spiritual healing, whether through the
hands of a healer, or by prayer or distant healing,
are the same throughout all religions. So, although
each and every religion claims that THEIR god or
saints and sages do the healing, there must be a
common factor behind all these various systems and
methods.
Let us step back a moment, and take a look at our
reality here on earth. We humans with our religions
have been on earth a few thousand years, compared with
the billions of years taken to form the planet within
the solar system, and this galaxy is but a speck in
the universe. So how can our religions, a mere few
seconds old in a cosmic day, be the ultimate
organisations to be found operating our 'heaven' when
we pass?
All our gods and prophets, saints and masters,
may be seen by believers at first when they pass, but
eventually those images, icons, thoughtforms and
enitities will be replaced by the true God,
love-intelligence, Divine Mind-Imagination-Emotion
embracing not just planet earth, but the entire
cosmos. We will meet our loved ones, relatives,
friends, colleagues, pets and familiar objects and
places at first, then move on to greater realities
hardly conceivable to our present brains and human
minds. But in our review of reports back from
'heaven,' we need to see beyond the concepts images of
any one particular religion, and fuse into one
experience, all the images, metaphors and belief
systems.
So in our study of healers at work, we have to
accept the milieu they work in and what they say with
regard to who is helping with their work. We have our
own particular beliefs in this matter, which may clash
with those held by members of other religions, or by
scientists. But there is a common ground beyond all
the different beliefs, where the power of the spirit
is in operation, beyond all names and descriptions.
Bearing that in mind, let us look at the work of one
or two more healers.
Sister Briege McKenna from Northern Ireland, and
now based in Tampa, Florida, has been clairaudient
from an early age. She believes she is being guided
by Jesus in her healing gift, or by the Mother Mary.
The "Boy Who Saw True" also heard and saw Jesus from
an early age, but later came to understand that he was
actually in touch with a guide. This may be so, in
Sister Briege's case. We had best keep an open mind
on the matter. When she was thirteen her mother died
suddenly, but her grief was comforted by a voice
telling her "Don't worry, I'll take care of you."
Later in her mid-teens she became a nun, and in 1962
when she was kneeling, waiting to line up to take her
first vows, she saw Jesus dressed as the God Shepherd
coming to her to take her hand, saying, 'Come with
me.'
A year or two later she found she was suffering
from rheumatoid arthitis in her legs and feet, and
spent many months in a Belfast hsopital, her feet set
in plaster of paris boots to prevent deformity. After
moving to Florida to teach kindergarten, she was still
in constant pain in spite of cortisone treatments. In
1970 she attended an ecumenical retreat in Orlando,
where there was a meeting dealing with the power of
prayer, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Sister Briege writes: "I remember I had my
shopping list of all the things I wanted from God - on
my terms. There was a priest at this prayer meeting.
With my shopping list in mind, I thought, 'Now if this
priest would pray for me, I would get all these
things.' But healing was not on my list.
"The Lord, as though he had read my mind, said to
me, 'Don't look at him, look at me.' I remember
looking at the clock as I closed my eyes. It was 9.15
a.m. The only prayer I said was 'Jesus, please help
me.' At that moment, I felt a hand touch my head and
thought it was the priest who had come over to me. I
opened my eyes and no one was there, but there was a
power going through my body. It's diffucult to
describe the feeling, but I often describe it this
way. I felt like a banana being peeled!
"I looked down. My fingers had been stiff, but
not deformed like my feet. There had been sores on my
elbows. I looked at myself. My fingers were limber,
the sores were gone, and I could see that my feet, in
sandals, were no longer deformed.
"I jumped up screaming, 'Jesus! Your're right
here!' When Jesus revealed himself to me that day,
all I could say was 'You're right here!' It was an
act of faith in him.
"Since that day I have never had arthritis and
have been completely free of pain. That was the
miraculous healing, but my inner life saw the greatest
change. I was seeing more clearly God's great love for
us and what he has given us. Yet I had one
fear:healing. I was afraid of the sensational. When
I was healed I said to myself, 'I'm not going to tell
anybody I've been healed because they will
automatically attach healing power to it. They'll
think I'm a healer now.'
"Six months later, on the eve of Pentecost, in
our convent in Tampa, I went into the chapel to make a
Holy Hour for Pentecost. So, I sat there in our
little oratory, saying 'Jesus, here I am.'
"I had been in the chapel about five minutes when
suddenly this extraordinary stillness descended on the
chapel - it was like a cloud, like a fog. A voice was
so clear it sounded as though someone had come into
the chapel. No one was there, but I was very
conscious that someone was present. The voice said to
me as I turned back to the tabernacle, 'You have my
gift of healing. Go and us it.'
"As soon as I heard this, a burning sensation
went through my body. I remember looking at my hands.
It felt as though I had touched an electrical outlet.
This burning sensation went through my hands and out
of them. And then the stillness lifted."
Sister McKenna admits that at the time she still
didn't want the gift of healing, and kept the
experience to herself.
The next day, at a prayer meeting at St.
Jospeh's Hospital in Tampa, she was tempted to tell a
sister about what had happened the night before, but
as she began to speak, she went blank. "Although
nobody knew about this, I was invited to pray with a
child. Years later, I found out that the child had
been healed through that prayer."
That summer she spent a couple of months studying
in Los Angeles where she attended prayer meetings,
still keeping her healing gift a secret. "One evening
at a prayer meeting in St. Angels Merci Parish, I
found myself sitting beside an Episcopalian priest, an
elderly man. At the end of the meeting we all joined
hands in prayer. After the prayer, he turned to me and
said, 'Sister, I've never spoken to a Roman Catholic
nun before, but I have a message for you. As we were
praying, I got this very strong feeling that you have
the gift of healing - and you know you have it because
the Lord spoke to you in your chapel in Florida.'
"I told the minister, 'I really can't accept
that. I belong to a strict congregation in Florida.'
and I went on to tell him all the reasons. He just
looked at me and said, 'Tell me what happened in the
chapel.' I said to myself, 'How does he know? I
never told one single person.' I told him what had
happened in the chapel, but said that I just couldn't
accept it. He looked at me and said, 'Jesus will
never force you. He reveals his will, but you are
free to choose to follow him or not.' Then he turned
and walked away. A few days later, in church after
mass, I was talking with some people. A woman came up
to me and said, 'Sister, I don't know you, but when
you went to communion, the Lord gave me a picture of
you standing with a line of people coming to you. The
Lord told me to tell you that you are being called
into a great healing ministry.'
"In spite of the many people confirming what the
Lord had said in our Tampa chapel, I still rejected
his invitation to the ministry of healing."
[to be continued] Reviewed from "Miracles Do
Happen" by Briege McKenna with Henry Libersat. ISBN
0-394-56236-4 Charis Books 1987. reprinted 1996.
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