September 4, 2022 - Pastor Message
04/26/2024THE YEAR OF HEALING
SPIRITUAL HEALING
“The enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. My spirit is faint within me; my heart despairs…I stretch out my hands toward you, my soul to you like a parched land. Hasten to answer me, Lord; for my spirit fails me. Do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those descending into the pit. In the morning let me hear of your mercy, for in you I trust. Show me the path I should walk, for I entrust my life to you” (Psalm 143:3-4, 6-8).
Continuing our Year of Healing here at St. Boniface, we reflect this month on our need for spiritual healing. Just like our bodies and our minds can be wounded or become ill and disordered, so can our souls, and just like a wounded or ill body and mind need healing, so too do wounded and ill souls.
Through the mind/body/spirit connection, our souls can be wounded or become ill through injury or sickness in our bodies or minds. A serious physical or mental illness, for example, can weaken our faith and drive out hope, leading us to spiritual despair, rejecting God and his grace in our life. Also, just like a body can become ill when it hasn’t been nourished with healthy food and strengthened by exercise, our souls can become sick through lack of spiritual nourishment and spiritual exercise. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, our souls can be wounded and become ill through the destructive power of sin. We have seen and perhaps even personally experienced all of these forms of spiritual injury and illness in a most acute way during the COVID pandemic - traumatizing individuals, families, and communities with a deadly and debilitating physical illness; isolating us from one another and closing off the sources of spiritual nourishment and support; and tempting us with deadly sins like greed, envy, wrath, sloth, and gluttony.
In all these ways and more, our souls need healing, just like our bodies and minds. But where do we find spiritual healing? We will reflect on that question this month, beginning with the last speaker of our speaker series on healing, Deacon Dr. Frank Pregler. Deacon Pregler brings dual experience as a healer to share with us as both an ordained deacon and a medical doctor, and he will speak with us on the subject “Healing of the Spirit” on Saturday, September 10, at 11:00 AM, in the St. Anthony Room. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
COVID not only wounded our bodies, minds, and communities, but also our souls. May our reflection together this month help us all to seek and to find the spiritual healing we so desperately need so that we can emerge from this dark chapter of our lives healthier, holier, more spiritually alives than ever before.
Fr. Marc Stockton
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