A Prayer For The Healing Of Memories

In any worshiping community, there are persons, perhaps many persons, who suffer each day because of persistent memories of traumatic events in their past. Whether abused by a close relation, injured in war or in an accident, or rejected by a given person or group, memories can be a source of perpetual pain and affliction. The following prayer addresses such painful memories. Adapt or shorten as local situations may require.

We are grateful, Lord Jesus. Grateful that there isn't any time in your world. Grateful that you can walk back through our lives—all the way back to the very moment we were conceived, and you can heal us even then. You can free us from all those things that may have caused us difficulty at the moment of our conception, whether we were conceived in an act of love or whether we were an accident. And as we were being formed within our mother's womb, you were there, to heal and liberate us from any disturbing impressions that may have touched us from our mother or from the circumstances of our parents' lives. For whatever reason, there may not have been an atmosphere of love. Perhaps this environment was a result of poverty and discord; perhaps as each of us was carried within our mother's womb, she was overworked. For whatever reason, there was a lack of harmony and love, and our spirits picked this up long before we were ever delivered. And already then we wanted to withdraw; we preferred not to emerge, not to be exposed, not to be known. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would now supply all those things that have been lacking within us, and that you would remove from our spirits any anger, any resentment—whatever has been in our spirits, Lord, that is not of you. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for doing this. And we praise you too, Lord Jesus, that you are healing us also of the trauma of being born. For many of us, our mothers had to labor for hours, perhaps days, and we know the effect this has upon an infant. Perhaps someone here was a blue baby, a breech baby, or born by instrument. And so we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would heal us of the birth pains, the trauma, whatever it was we went through in being born. Remove any doubt, any fear, any feelings of insecurity, we may have incurred when passing from our mother's womb. Rid us of any guilt we may be burdened with in having caused another to suffer because of our coming into this world, especially if we perceived we were neither wanted nor loved. We pray, too, Lord Jesus, that you dispel any disappointment we may have been to our parents because they so much wanted a little boy and we were born a little girl, or because they expected a daughter and the doctor announced "?your son.?" We pray, Lord Jesus, that any disappointment, any frustration we may be carrying within our spirits because of our having been born the "?wrong?" sex would be healed and that from this day on we would be allowed to become the men and women you have destined us to be. Lord Jesus, we pray that whatever pain our coming into life may have caused another, especially our mothers, you would remedy now with your most precious blood. Lord, we pray a healing upon each one of us in this room for that particular time in our lives, and we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were there as we were being born, to receive us anew within those same hands. Lord Jesus, we thank you. We thank you too that you were there during those early months of our infancy, during those times when we were most in need of you. There are those who needed more love during those first months; and there are those who never received this love because they'd been separated from their mothers through illness, separated through divorce, separated through death. And so there were times when we didn't have a mother's love surrounding us that would have helped us feel stability and strength. We pray, Lord Jesus, that you would now supply within us what has been lacking since those times when we needed to have our mothers hold us very close, when we needed to have our mothers rock us, when we wanted our mothers there to tell us stories, but they couldn't be there. We ask, Lord Jesus, that all those things that only a mother could do would be done now in the very depths of our being that any one of us who may have felt neglect during those first months might experience now an overwhelming sense of maternal love. There are those, too, that lacked a father's love. Perhaps some among us never knew their father because he was away fighting in a war. Perhaps he never came home. There are many who have been separated from their fathers through divorce; and there are many more of us who have been separated from our fathers through death. Whatever the reason for the void, we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would now fill in that part of our lives with the strong, tender love that can come only from a father. When we needed to have those strong arms around us and a daddy to love us, when we needed a father's advice, when we needed to feel his strength and the security of his love, and he wasn't there—oh, Lord, if only we could have experienced all of this. You do that for us now. Let us know that we have not been abandoned, that there are strong arms to lean on, that we do have someone watching over us and caring for us, even when we aren't aware of it. Lord Jesus, as a father stoops to raise his child to his cheeks, we ask that you would now take us in your embrace and that the warmth, the strength, the tenderness of this embrace would heal us. Lord Jesus, we thank you for what you are now doing. And Lord, we pray a healing for us as we were growing up. Some of us were born into very large families, and so there wasn't much time for us as individuals. We can understand this and we can even accept this, and yet—there is a part of us that never felt loved. And so we pray that today, Lord Jesus, you would let us know that each of us is a very important person in your family, that each of us is a very unique and distinct individual and that you love each of us in a very tender and in a very special way. We pray too that you would heal any hurts that may have come to us because or relationships within the family: the brother or sister who didn't accept us, who didn't understand us, who didn't show us the love or the kindness that we needed to receive from him or her and from no other. A part of us never felt loved because of it. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would allow us right now to reach out with forgiveness to that brother or sister, whom over the years we've never quite been able to accept because he or she hasn't accepted us. Lord Jesus, you do that, launch out into the depths of our hearts and forgive them through us. And give us that extra measure of love for them so that the next time we see them it will be with such an overwhelming feeling of love that all the things that have stood between us over the years will have passed away, and behold, you will have made us new. Praise you, Jesus. Lord, we pray a healing for us as we went off to school. Perhaps the first real trauma in our lives came when we left for school for the very first time. Perhaps we had never before been separated from our mothers or from our homes, and the experience seemed unbearable. Some of us, Lord, were very sensitive and shy, and it was extremely difficult to be with that unknown teacher, with those unfamiliar kids and in that cold classroom. There were things that were expected of us; and things that were done to us by teachers who were unkind, by classmates who didn't understand us and didn't accept us. Maybe our parents thought our Cs should be Bs and our Bs should be As, and so we grew up thinking we couldn't possibly, ever, be good enough for anything. Lord, we pray a healing on all those years we spent in the classroom. Some of us began to withdraw; and we began to fear speaking out in groups because we'd been ridiculed, because we'd been criticized in classroom situations. We stopped speaking out, Lord, because it was just too painful. But now we pray a healing on that, and we ask that the door within the hearts of each of us might be opened up, that our tongues might be loosened, and that you would allow us to relate to one another in a more open and free way. Lord Jesus, we ask that you heal those years we spent in adolescence, when we began to experience sexual maturity and it frightened us; it embarrassed us and it caused us pain. Some of us have never forgotten the experiences that were ours in learning about ourselves and what it meant to be a person. And so we pray a healing on those years we spent as teenagers. We pray a healing on our doubts, our fears, and our insecurities. We pray too for those times when perhaps we were hurt in interpersonal relationships, when we were put down by others, when perhaps we were taken advantage of, or laughed at—Lord Jesus, all of those incidents that have caused us suffering or embarrassment. Enter into our hearts and transform all those experiences so that we remember them no more with shame, but with thanksgiving. Help us to appreciate the difficulties young people face in growing up. Aware of our own time of conflict, our own time of seeking and searching, somehow may we be able to help young people understand themselves. As we are now being covered with your most precious blood, as we are now being made as white as snow, we pray that somehow we could convey to young people that you do understand them, that you do wait for them. Though we fall, we will rise; and though we sit in darkness, you are our Lord and light. We thank you, Lord, for all that you're doing within us. General Conclusion As we emerged from that period of our lives and we began to enter into the vocation to which you called us, we pray a healing on the difficulties that came upon us—when we failed to become professional in areas where we wanted most to succeed; for the dreams and expectancies that we held before us, but were never realized. Lord Jesus, we hold up to you all of those longings. Some of us have been called to be wives and mothers, husbands and fathers; some of us have been called to the religious life; and others of us have been called to be single lay persons. In whatever way you have asked us to follow you, Lord, there has been suffering and there has been pain. There is no career or vocation on earth that doesn't entail some difficulty, some adjustment, some problem deep inside of us that needs to be healed. And so we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would heal us in the state of life we find ourselves in today and all that has meant to the world around us. We pray today that with each other, we would not fear to break the bread of ourselves, that with each other we would not fear to share our cup of weaknesses—a sharing of life built not on a false ideal, but on real hope, with faith in ourselves and with trust in each other. We pray, Lord Jesus, that the life we share might be your life. We thank you, Lord, for the words spoken to us through the prophet Isaiah:

Remember not the events of the past,

the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isa. 43:18–19) Lord Jesus, as your love flows over this room, as your love flows over these pages, and as each of us finds within his or her heart those things that need to be healed, to be set free, we praise and thank you, Lord, because we know it is being done. There is no power in heaven or earth that can stop it from being done because it has already been accomplished. Lord Jesus, you said on the cross, "?It is finished.?" First Conclusion for Religious (Members of Monastic Communities) As we emerged from that period of our lives and we began to enter into the vocation to which you called us, we pray a healing on the difficulties that confronted us. We pray especially for all your religious—your priests, brothers and sisters—that your healing hand would be upon them and that it would touch each of the religious and diocesan communities they represent. We pray that we would come to know the deep personal love you have for each of us, because without this love we are incapable of loving others; without your love, we are incapable of loving even ourselves. Wipe from our eyes any tear; remove from our hearts any pain, any suffering we have ever known. There are many who have experienced the sudden change of assignments, the sudden change of superiors. We pray that you would heal the wounds that have been inflicted upon us so that in remembering not the events of the past, the barriers of hostility that keep us apart—the barriers that separate us from our superiors, our pastors, our bishops, our parishioners, and our students; the barriers that divide us from each other; but more especially, the barriers that keep us distant from you—might be torn down. We pray that today we be lifted up to a new dimension of love—transformed—and that the Good News of your love would spread throughout our land. So may your people know it is you who love them in and through us. We pray that your glory may be made manifest and that unity may be made complete, that today we may go forth with a newness of purpose and with a boldness that can come only from your anointing. Lord Jesus, as your love flows over this room, as your love flows over these pages, and as each of us finds within his or her heart those things that need to be healed, to be set free, we praise and thank you, Lord, because we know it is being done. There is no power in heaven or earth that can stop it from being done because it has already been accomplished. Lord Jesus, you said on the cross, "?It is finished.?" Alternate Conclusion for Religious There are those whom you are calling to be the prophets of today, calling them into exile within and without community, so that your Spirit may be freed. There are those whom you are now preparing and calling to do a special work like Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Ruth—to lay their lives on the line as broken bread and poured-out wine for your people. For these leaving means far more than just a physical transfer from one place to another; it means leaving and letting go of a familiar context of life, with its own pattern of thinking, values, and viewpoints—leaving and letting go with the assurance that your protection would be forever with your chosen people. Lord Jesus, we stand on that promise, and we ask that we may go forth with a newness of purpose and a boldness that can come only from your anointing. Lord Jesus, as your love flows over this room, as your love flows over these pages, and as each of us finds within his or her heart those things that need to be healed, to be set free, we praise and thank you, Lord, because we know it is being done. There is no power in heaven or earth that can stop it from being done because it has already been accomplished. Lord Jesus, you said on the cross, "?It is finished.?" Conclusion for Married People As we emerged from that period of our lives and began to enter into the vocation to which you called us, we pray a healing on the difficulties that came upon us. We pray especially for husbands and wives and for their marriages, that you heal those things that have passed between them, the hurts and frustrations that can come between two people who are trying to live together and to learn about one another in a very close relationship. It is you who are our peace, and it is to you we turn, asking that you make each couple one by tearing down the walls of hostility that keep them apart. Cleanse each of these marriages so that they might begin again as new, freed, and healed. We pray that with each other, we would not fear to share our cup of weaknesses. Aid us toward a sharing of life built not on a false ideal, but on real hope, with faith in ourselves and with trust in each other. We pray, Lord, that the life we share might be your life. We pray that your life within us might be extended, that as we open the doors of our hearts you would heal the wounds, the frustrations, the misunderstandings that have been ours with our mother-in-law, our father-in-law. We pray that we might open not only the doors of our hearts, but the doors of our homes, and that your love within us would be extended to include and to embrace them. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for the words spoken to us through the prophet Isaiah:

Remember not the events of the past,

the things of long ago consider not; See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (Isa. 43:18–19) Lord Jesus, as your love flows over this room, as your love flows over these pages, and as each of us finds within his or her heart those things that need to be healed, to be set free, we praise and thank you, Lord, because we know it is being done. There is no power in heaven or on earth that can stop it from being done because it has already been accomplished. Lord Jesus, you said on the cross, "?It is finished.?" Some Scripture Passages on Healing

Hear me, O house of Jacob,

all who remain of the house of Israel, my burden since your birth, whom I have carried from your infancy. Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will bear you; it is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety. (Isaiah 46:3–4) At sunset, all who had people sick with a variety of diseases took them to him, and he laid hands on each of them and cured them. (Luke 4:40)

A leper approached him with a request, kneeling down as he addressed him: "?If you will do so, you can cure me.?" Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said: "?I do will it. Be cured.?" The leprosy left him then and there, and he was cured. (Mark 1:40–42)

As they were going, a women who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. "?If only I can touch his cloak,?" she thought, "?I shall get well.?" Jesus turned around and saw her and said, "?Courage, daughter! Your faith has restored you to health.?" That very moment the woman got well. (Matthew 9:20–22)

The apostles on their return related to Jesus all they had accomplished. Taking them with him, he retired to a town called Bethsaida, but the crowds found this out and followed him. He received them and spoke to them of the reign of God, and he healed all who were in need of healing. (Luke 9:10–11)

When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him. Jesus took the blind man's hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on him and asked, "?Can you see anything??" The man opened his eyes and said, "?I can see people but they look like walking trees!?" Then a second time Jesus laid hands on his eyes, and he saw perfectly; his sight was restored and he could see everything clearly. (Mark 8:22–25)