Preparing the way for God’s Blessings.

When we pray for healing we begin to grow in knowledge and understanding about God’s garden of grace.  Learning how to pray is like being a gardener. A gardener will water his garden regularly, be conscious of the soils condition, learn how to recognise if the plants have diseases and then fertilize them. He then waits patiently for the seasons to unfold and God to bless his harvest.

When we pray for the healing of our life’s hurt we too will need to learn how to be a gardener for our soul .To learns how to fertilize the soil, prevent the weeds from chocking the shoots of new life. We then wait in expectant hope and faith for God’s blessings to bear abundant fruit.
A Gardner asks questions and seeks answers when they recognise their plants are not thriving.  Our role in prayer is to ask questions and seek answers if the promises of Christ are not evident in our lives. The gardener doesn’t continually blame God when his harvest is poor. He looks for the causes of his crops poor yield.  We too need to prayerfully adopt this same approach and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray and garden our souls through God’s word and the sacramental life of the Church.

This General Prayer for Inner Healing gently leads us through the events of our life for the Holy Spirit to nurture and fertilise us with his many blessings. The prayer also helps us to identify any unhealthy leaves or diseases like un-forgiveness, resentment, bitterness etc that prevent new growth and abundant fruit.
The Prayer of Inner Healing begins the healing process for our emotional pain, hurts, fears and rejection so God’s love can renew, rejuvenate and restore us for a new life of grace.
The prayer begins with us inviting Jesus to walk with us from the moment of conception and for us to imagine ourselves being present to him as the baby, child, adolescence or adult.

PRAYER

Come Holy Spirit, gift me with your love and grace to believe Jesus’ presence is with me now as I bring to mind my life hurts and memories.

Jesus … you are my God and Saviour … my Lord and Healer … I surrender to You my whole life … past, present and future.

Jesus … You loved the idea of me so much that You wanted me to be born. … You called me forth in love.

Jesus, … I ask You to bless me from the first moment of my conception, … and set me free from any wounds affecting me from my parents’ inability to accept and rejoice in God’s gift of life for me. …

Heal me, Jesus, from any sickness or inherited traits transferred to me through my heredity. ……………………………………………………………

Jesus, I ask You to be present during the nine months of my formation in my mother’s womb. … It was You who watched me take shape there. … Jesus, if I was harmed in any way through my mother’s anxieties, … bad health … poor diet … if any of her fears communicated themselves to me … and made me anxious and fearful … Jesus, I ask You to heal me.

Jesus … You were present at my birth. … If the labour was long and difficult … if my brain cells were damaged through instrument birth, or rough handling … heal me Jesus.

Let Your hands receive me as I come into the world, and heal the birth trauma. … Take me, Jesus … and give me to my Mother Mary to stroke me into life. …
Heal me, Jesus, of any feelings of abandonment, or from the fear of being separated from my mother at birth. … The rejection if my parents wanted a boy and a girl arrived … and already there were children to be provided for … and I felt unwanted, …

Lord Jesus, let me know You wanted me from all eternity. …

Let me feel the peace and contentment of being healed at Mother Mary’s breast before being put into my mother’s or father’s arms.
Walk back, Lord Jesus, into the first years of my life … hold me in Your arms …and give me the love I needed. … Sometimes my mother and father could not give the love I wanted … but You can Jesus. … You taught me to talk. …

It was You who taught me to walk. … You led me with reins of kindness … with leading strings of love. … Stooping down You held me close to your cheek.  (Hosea 11:3-4)

Make up, Lord Jesus, for any lack in my mother’s and father’s love. … If I was frightened or lonely … if I suffered from being separated from my parents in the early years of my life. …  If there was fighting or drinking to excess … if I felt left out when a new baby arrived … please heal me, Jesus, by Your merciful love … renew me by the power of Your Spirit now. …

Thank you, Jesus … I know You want to restore the beauty of my inner being.
Lord Jesus, perhaps my father loved me but couldn’t show it. … Perhaps he was harsh … or didn’t have time for me … perhaps he couldn’t help it. … Maybe I have always been searching for the security of a Father’s love. …
Thank You, Jesus, it is not too late. … Place me in the arms of my loving Father.

Lord … heal me of any hurts in my school days. … Perhaps it was the first time away from my parents. … Maybe there were teachers who didn’t understand me … or I was not able to live up to what was expected of me. …

Maybe I felt inferior because I didn’t accept myself at this time. …
If I felt I had to compete with a brother or sister in order to be accepted, help me to realise Jesus, that You loved and accepted me from all eternity … simply because You loved me .. not because of my performance.

Through the difficult years of adolescence, Jesus, come into the time I didn’t understand myself. … Often I was unsure and uncertain, and suffered embarrassment.
Heal me of any relationships which are hurtful. … Leaving home … new relationships … new work places. … Perhaps I withdrew into myself at this time. … Be with me in anything     I did … or that others did to me of which I felt ashamed. … even though I may have made mistakes.

Jesus, my adult life has had its sorrows as well as joys. … Heal me, Jesus, of any grief. … Help me to know that grief is temporary … but Your joy is everlasting. … You will wipe away every tear. …

Sometimes single people feel lonely and forgotten, heal me, Jesus, … of the feeling of being abandoned …and rejected by others. … Help me to accept Your call in the reality of my life situation.
Priests, ministers, pastors and religious leaders can suffer from lack of understanding … loneliness … and lack of communication. … Heal me, Jesus, of any feelings of this kind … or of any way I have been made to feel not a person … just a functionary … or a professional with no personal feelings. …

Jesus, let me experience Your respect and love for me.
Heal me in my married life, Jesus. … If it didn’t work out … heal me of the tension, guilt and hurt. … Heal the wounds if we stayed together only because of the children … or for              convenience. …
Pour in Your healing love, Jesus, to make up for the lack of love. … Help me to forgive, Jesus.

Heal me, Jesus, of the pain of separation that death brings. …
Comfort me for the loss of a loved one … husband … wife … child … father … mother … friend. …
Heal, Jesus, the shock of a sudden death … the grief of a miscarriage or a still birth. …
Thank You, Jesus, for healing the pain of my grief.

Pause and let the healing love of Jesus flow over you. … Let Him bring to mind any other incident … or any hurt that needs healing. …

Lord Jesus … I believe You make all things work for good for those who love You. …
I surrender my whole past to You. …

May You make everything that has happened to me good.
Thank You, Father … thank You, Jesus … thank You, Holy Spirit … One God … for hearing my prayer, and healing me.
Following this prayer many people will become aware of deep seated hurts and wounds that are still unresolved and may desire to invite Jesus specifically into those areas.

(This prayer has been adapted from the Book “Its Good to be Me” by Father Hobson)

Prayer Comment:
When you meditatively pray through these events in your life and experience tears, an emotional response or a tightening in the throat, heart flutters or aware of some other movement; the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate with   you about an unhealed area in your life.   You may need to revisit those areas  with Jesus and pray for Inner Healing.