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This
piece first featured
in New Covenant Magazine
The Healing
Mysteries
By
Dwight Longenecker
As
a young Anglican curate
from an Evangelical background
I wasn’t too sure what
to do when a friend gave
me a rosary. Not wanting
to dismiss a form of
prayer which was important
to millions of Christians
around the world, I got
a book which explained
the rosary and started
to pray through the traditional
mysteries connected with
the life of Christ.
Before
long my life began to
change. I got involved
with a priest who had
a counselling ministry.
As I worked with him
dark areas of my own
life started to be exposed
to Christ’s healing light.
My life was turned upside
down as I faced areas
of sin and need that
I had hidden from myself.
There were times of depression,
confusion and fear as
God dealt with the deep
rebellion and unhappiness
which I had locked behind
my mask of a successful
young minister. The connection
with the rosary only
dawned when, after a
particularly gruelling
session of counselling
my priest friend said
gently, ‘Our Lady’s prayers
have helped you so much
haven’t they?’ Suddenly
I realised all the painful
revision God was doing
had begun after I started
to pray with the rosary.
About
a year later God led
me to help others in
the healing ministry.
The rosary was a tool
I put into their hands
to help them pray their
way into Christ’s healing.
Many inner problems are
linked with childhood.
Even the best parents
make mistakes, and children
internalise the traumas
of childhood. If nothing
is done about them the
traumas turn rotten and
cause emotional or physical
problems later. The joyful
mysteries are particularly
helpful for inner healing
because they connect
us with the formative
stages of life in childhood.
The five mysteries of
the Annunciation, the
Visitation, the Nativity,
the presentation in the
Temple and the Finding
in the Temple are all
about Jesus’ childhood.
Jesus went through the
stages of natural growth
in perfect love. Praying
these mysteries with
the rosary helps bring
Jesus’ healing love into
those same stages in
our own development.
Some
counsellors believe the
foundations of our personality
are laid down at the
moment of conception.
Studies suggest that
people conceived in a
moment of lust, drunken-ness
or violence have a tendency
to be lustful, violent
people who may develop
a drink problem. People
conceived in a secure
atmosphere of love will
have love and confidence
at the foundation of
their person. Jesus was
conceived in a moment
of miraculous and perfect
love. Praying the rosary
and meditating on the
Annunciation brings that
moment of perfect love
into the foundation of
our own lives. If we
pray with the intention
that God will heal any
deficiency in the moment
of our conception, then
Christ’s dynamic love
flows into that very
moment of our lives,
and the inner healing
can be profound.
Our
Lady’s visitation to
Elizabeth took place
while Jesus was in her
womb. Psychologists and
doctors have much reliable
evidence that our nine
months in the womb are
formative not only physically,
but emotionally and mentally.
If we grow for those
nine months in a stress-free
environment of love and
peace it helps make our
personalities full of
freedom and loving confidence.
If we were carried in
a situation where Mother
was stressed or angry,
those feelings were transmitted
and affected our forming
personality. As we pray
the mystery of the visitation
we can ask God to minister
to those deep memories
within our hearts—memories
of our time in the womb.
They won’t be specific
memories. They may be
feelings of frustration,
anger, guilt and fear.
Those unborn feelings
still exist at the base
of our person and may
influence our daily lives
and relationships. Mary
carried Jesus in perfect
love. As we pray the
Visitation the Spirit
can minister that healing
love to our own memories
of those crucial nine
months. As God’s love
flows into our primitive
feelings the effect will
be healing and good,
even if it remains mostly
unconscious.
At
the centre of the joyful
mysteries is the Nativity.
Even though Jesus was
born in a stable, he
was born in perfect love
and joy. Counsellors
often take their clients
through a re-living of
the birth experience.
Even the best of births
is a painful trauma for
mother and baby. This
is part of the curse
of original sin. As we
pray the mystery of the
Nativity we can ask the
Spirit to apply the perfect
love and joy of Christ’s
birth to our own birth
experience. Mary’s motherhood
will fill any deficiencies
in our natural mother.
If there are any traumas
and bad emotional effects
in our present lives,
the healing love of Christ
will flow through these
prayers and help us to
overcome the problems.
The
presentation in the temple
was a bit like infant
baptism. The child is
brought to the temple
and presented to God
for a blessing. Our baptism
was the first and most
important moment of grace
in our lives. As we pray
this joyful mystery we
can be taken back to
the joy of that moment.
In meditating on the
joy of Mary and Joseph
we will be able to share
now in the joy that was
present at our baptism
day, even though at that
time we were unconscious.
If we were not baptised
as an infant something
important was missing,
and by praying this joyful
mystery the Holy Spirit
can fill in the blanks,
helping apply the joys
and fruits of our later
baptism back into the
memories of childhood.
The boy Jesus entered
into childhood from that
point, and by praying
this mystery with an
open memory God can minister
to any traumas and bad
experiences which may
have afflicted our childhood.
Any present illnesses
connected with those
bad experiences can then
be healed by the perfect
love of the child Jesus.
When
Mary and Joseph went
to find Jesus in the
temple he was twelve
years old. This is the
age of the Jewish boy’s
initiation into adulthood.
It is about this age
that Catholics are confirmed.
It is an important milestone
in growing up, and it
is loaded with risks.
The new teenager has
to cross the difficult
terrain of growing up.
This is a time of trauma,
doubt, fear and new temptations.
If we pray the mystery
of finding Christ in
the Temple with an open
mind—asking God to bring
the sins and traumas
of adolescence to mind,
then any troubles from
that time can come into
the healing love of Christ.
The sins of youth often
hang around to plague
us later, and if certain
past sins come into the
memory they can be taken
to confession to receive
full sacramental forgiveness—even
if they are decades old.
Now
that I’m a Catholic the
rosary means more than
ever before. The joyful
mysteries not only take
me into the mystery of
Jesus and Mary, but also
into the heart of the
mystery of Christ’s body—the
Church. Through the church’s
ministry, Christ’s healing
can flow back through
the past events of our
lives, through our adolescence,
childhood, and even to
the events of our birth,
gestation and conception.
This doesn’t take any
special kind of prayer
technique, we only have
to pray the joyful mysteries,
imagining our own stages
of childhood and asking
God to minister to anything
that was lacking. God
wants to bring us to
perfection in His Son.
Simply opening our hearts
through the joyful mysteries
turns them into the healing
mysteries of love.
Dwight Longenecker used to be an Anglican minister. He now works for
the St Barnabas Society
and has a growing ministry
as a freelance writer
and speaker. He can
be contacted at dwight56@bellsouth.net.
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