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Be Healed
“Somewhere deep inside each one of us is a burning desire to finally become the person God created us to be.” Do you suffer from spiritual or emotional wounds that are keeping you from reaching that goal? The bestselling book Be Healed is based on retired Catholic therapist Bob Schuchts’s popular program for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing. Incorporating elements of charismatic spirituality and steeped in scripture and the wisdom of the Church, this book offers hope in the healing power of God through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments. Schuchts, founder of the John Paul II Healing Center, sensitively shares his own journey of healing after enduring a series of betrayals in high school—his father’s infidelity, his parents’ divorce, his older brother’s drug addiction—and his subsequent periods of struggle with God and faith. Be Healed includes helpful tools such as charts, tables, lists, reflection questions, and personal challenges to guide you on your journey of healing. Schuchts’s trusted process for finding inner peace and healing is boldly Christ-centered, maintaining focus on the person of Jesus as “the life-giving and ever-present physician of our souls.” Schuchts will help you recognize your brokenness and find your hope and healing in the risen Christ.
209 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
582 people are currently reading
1791 people want to read
About the author
Bob Schuchts
18 books67 followersDr. Bob Schuchts, Ph.D. is the founder of the John Paul II Healing Center and the author of the best-selling book, Be Healed: Encountering the Powerful Love of Jesus in Your Life, and other numerous titles. He has also contributed to a variety of other publications and has published resources available through the Center.
Bob spent more than 30 years as a therapist, while also teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in marriage and family relationships, human development, applied psychology, and marriage and family therapy. He held adjunct professor positions at Florida State University; Tallahassee Community College and the Center for Biblical Studies in Tallahassee, Florida. He has also taught courses at the Theology of the Body Institute and the Augustine Institute.
Bob spent more than 30 years as a therapist, while also teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in marriage and family relationships, human development, applied psychology, and marriage and family therapy. He held adjunct professor positions at Florida State University; Tallahassee Community College and the Center for Biblical Studies in Tallahassee, Florida. He has also taught courses at the Theology of the Body Institute and the Augustine Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 119 reviews
October 17, 2023
I am not a big one for self-help books or books on healing, even though my husband does have MS. Maybe I should be, but then he isn't either. We have seen so much good (in terms of personal and relational spiritual growth) come from his physical illness that it seems more a gift than a problem. Even so, when I saw this in the back of a church one day, I picked it up.
Since then, I have been reading it off and on without a great deal of enthusiasm until I got to the part when the author was talking about early wounds and trauma, how they can be healed. Then I could relate to my own past hurts, and I saw ways that my husband and I could benefit from it, whether or not he is physically cured. Personally, I have already experienced a great deal of healing during and through prayer, the sacraments, forgiveness and the Grace of God.
It is a worthwhile read. The author is honest and open about his own life and spiritual journey and very good about giving examples for his points. The book could be better organized, and it tends to be repetitious at times, but even those minor distractions made it seem more personal.
I am grateful for the insight into the relationship between wounds and beliefs. Also, there were a number of excellent book recommendations towards the end.
Since then, I have been reading it off and on without a great deal of enthusiasm until I got to the part when the author was talking about early wounds and trauma, how they can be healed. Then I could relate to my own past hurts, and I saw ways that my husband and I could benefit from it, whether or not he is physically cured. Personally, I have already experienced a great deal of healing during and through prayer, the sacraments, forgiveness and the Grace of God.
It is a worthwhile read. The author is honest and open about his own life and spiritual journey and very good about giving examples for his points. The book could be better organized, and it tends to be repetitious at times, but even those minor distractions made it seem more personal.
I am grateful for the insight into the relationship between wounds and beliefs. Also, there were a number of excellent book recommendations towards the end.
October 21, 2020
Great book. Would highly recommend priests and laity alike to read its contents on comprehensive spiritual and physical healing and the tools of growth in personal and communal prayer, which leads ultimately to redemption, i.e., Redemption sourced in Christ's Paschal Mystery.
This book will serve as a fundamental resource for years to come.
This book will serve as a fundamental resource for years to come.
May 7, 2024
I have never had such mixed emotions about a spiritual read. Went back and forth from 2 stars to 5 stars but I think it’s a 3.75
Would I recommend it? Definitely.
Almost quit in the first 50 pages because it was so prot and like personal gospel sounding. Actual healings and healing services/prayers are pretty foreign to us trads but I found myself adjusting to the idea pretty quickly.
Really heavy on the personal experience, which I think brought down the quality just a little bit because when I hear from a specialist I like to hear concrete evidence, not personal stories to back up big claims
To further this point the citations were a little spotty and I got a little tired of made up definitions for things, especially when they should’ve been rooted in the Bible or catechism
And the personal experiences themselves are heavy- I had to take breaks from reading for sure. I wish he had explained his entire origin upfront instead of sprinkling it throughout. I think the book could’ve been more to the point this way too. Could’ve been much shorter
Overall learned a lot about wounds and I definitely agree that God wants to heal every part of us so I wrote down a lot of notes from this one!
Would I recommend it? Definitely.
Almost quit in the first 50 pages because it was so prot and like personal gospel sounding. Actual healings and healing services/prayers are pretty foreign to us trads but I found myself adjusting to the idea pretty quickly.
Really heavy on the personal experience, which I think brought down the quality just a little bit because when I hear from a specialist I like to hear concrete evidence, not personal stories to back up big claims
To further this point the citations were a little spotty and I got a little tired of made up definitions for things, especially when they should’ve been rooted in the Bible or catechism
And the personal experiences themselves are heavy- I had to take breaks from reading for sure. I wish he had explained his entire origin upfront instead of sprinkling it throughout. I think the book could’ve been more to the point this way too. Could’ve been much shorter
Overall learned a lot about wounds and I definitely agree that God wants to heal every part of us so I wrote down a lot of notes from this one!
April 2, 2021
Really great resource to pray with and allows you to truly encounter Jesus by facing your brokenness and learning to heal from it. Very applicable to self, family, and spousal relationships and teaches you what wounds people are suffering from and why. Definitely should be read at some point by all!
December 1, 2019
A practical look at how wholeness and healing is a building block of holiness. Perspective changing. Read this somewhat slowly on purpose because there was so much to reflect on, would definitely reread and would love to do so with a book club to talk in depth about these topics.
July 7, 2021
Great book that helps you deep dive into yourself and wounds with practical exercises to start working on them
March 4, 2023
Read this for strictly IRONIC purposes. Good that I can connect with my friends and see what brokenness is like through this book.
September 26, 2025
Excellent. Thank you, Dr Bob🙏 this is one that I could definitely go back for a second (or third) read and uncover a new layer of my heart which needs to be healed.
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April 26, 2022Tytuł w 100% określa o czym jest ta książka, a jej treść zdecydowanie nie zawodzi. Autor pokazuje źródło wszelkich ran (fizycznych i duchowych) oraz jak sobie z nimi radzić. Książka zawiera też świadectwa ludzi uzdrowionych, w tym autora i jego rodziny. Schuchts pokazuje pewną drogę, trzeba jednak zdawać sobie sprawę, że ta książka sama w sobie nie uzdrawia. Mam na myśli to, że samo przeczytanie tej książki nikogo nie uzdrowi. Książka uświadamia i jest pewnym drogowskazem, ale to czytelnik sam (lub z bliskimi sobie osobami) w modlitwie i pełnym zaufaniu Bogu może znaleźć uzdrowienie. Zdecydowanie polecam!
May 1, 2023
The book that convinced me that everyone can benefit from therapy! Normalized conversations about mental health from a Catholic perspective and outlined the possibility of healing in communion with the compassion and mercy of the Lord. Spent months on each chapter connecting, meditating and wrestling. a must read!!!!!!
October 7, 2022
The best book on healing I have read. Cannot recommend it enough.
October 9, 2025
Really really solid. Very informational. Should have read this as a senior in college when I initially started my deep interior healing journey. Gives really helpful language surrounding healing wounds and inner beliefs. Dr. Bob does a great job here weaving in his own story.
December 7, 2023
Considered by many to be a life changing manual for personal and spiritual healing, Be Healed by Dr. Bob Schuchts is “a guide to encountering the powerful love of Jesus in your life”, and I can certainly see how this book has impacted so many people’s lives. Schuchts offers a great perspective on healing, sharing his experience from his long career as a Catholic therapist as well as experiences from his own healing journey. Through these experiences he is able to take a systematic approach to the healing of the whole person through a deeper encounter with Jesus, offering an incredibly thorough and well laid-out model for healing. Schuchts captures in language how we experience woundedness in our lives and the pathways to greater healing, offering a legitimate process for healing which is exceptionally effective. Each chapter also includes memorable examples to make the content applicable and relatable and the reflection questions offer practical ways to relate the material in each chapter to your own personal journey.
Personally, this book helped me tremendously in diving into my own wounds, naming them, and bringing them to Jesus for greater healing. Be Healed acts as more than just a book communicating information, but rather serves as a guide to finding healing in your own life. Although it is a relatively short book, there is a lot of content packed in so taking the time to pray and reflect with the material and questions in each chapter rather than breezing through its contents was fruitful for me. The book is broken up into three parts; Encountering Jesus, Facing our Wounds, and Healing our Brokenness, with each focusing on a specific stage in the healing journey. Personally, the section on healing our brokenness was the most helpful and groundbreaking for me, as Schuchts takes the reader through the anatomy of a wound, the seven deadly wounds, and the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil as the pathways to freedom and sin respectively. Although some may be tempted to label this book as self-help, it ultimately always points back to Christ as the source of our healing. All of the book’s contents remain rooted and grounded in Scripture and the Church’s tradition and teaching, making it an authentically Catholic work. Schuchts always focuses his attention on the incredible hope of the Gospel and Jesus’ compassion, mercy, and desire to bring us into greater wholeness through Himself. Because of this, I would highly recommend this book as necessary reading for anyone on the spiritual journey and desires to receive more of Christ's love and be freed to love others as He does.
Personally, this book helped me tremendously in diving into my own wounds, naming them, and bringing them to Jesus for greater healing. Be Healed acts as more than just a book communicating information, but rather serves as a guide to finding healing in your own life. Although it is a relatively short book, there is a lot of content packed in so taking the time to pray and reflect with the material and questions in each chapter rather than breezing through its contents was fruitful for me. The book is broken up into three parts; Encountering Jesus, Facing our Wounds, and Healing our Brokenness, with each focusing on a specific stage in the healing journey. Personally, the section on healing our brokenness was the most helpful and groundbreaking for me, as Schuchts takes the reader through the anatomy of a wound, the seven deadly wounds, and the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil as the pathways to freedom and sin respectively. Although some may be tempted to label this book as self-help, it ultimately always points back to Christ as the source of our healing. All of the book’s contents remain rooted and grounded in Scripture and the Church’s tradition and teaching, making it an authentically Catholic work. Schuchts always focuses his attention on the incredible hope of the Gospel and Jesus’ compassion, mercy, and desire to bring us into greater wholeness through Himself. Because of this, I would highly recommend this book as necessary reading for anyone on the spiritual journey and desires to receive more of Christ's love and be freed to love others as He does.
April 22, 2025
I got recommended this years ago, and had read through most of it before lending it to another. I started it from scratch a few months ago, and I'm very grateful I did. There is profound wisdom here. In all honesty, I have not done all the activities in the book (something that "prevented" me from finishing last time), but even just reading through it has been very fruitful for me.
I also really appreciate the accessibility of the writing style. Helped make things easy to understand (and useful graphics? lets go).
This definitely asks quite a bit of you, and certainly asks you to set aside certain skeptical ideas you could have. But what he proposes to be done *after* you take the book with an open mind are so healing (or at the very least, harmless self reflection) that I can't really recommend this book enough if you are looking for a self help book on healing.
In addition, I want to advertise that the author is very devout. But he is also a licensed therapist and worked as one for decades. He is legitimately educated on issues of psychology and mental health, and that gives his work a real and palpable edge to it. It is very comforting knowing this is written by a mental health professional.
I also really appreciate the accessibility of the writing style. Helped make things easy to understand (and useful graphics? lets go).
This definitely asks quite a bit of you, and certainly asks you to set aside certain skeptical ideas you could have. But what he proposes to be done *after* you take the book with an open mind are so healing (or at the very least, harmless self reflection) that I can't really recommend this book enough if you are looking for a self help book on healing.
In addition, I want to advertise that the author is very devout. But he is also a licensed therapist and worked as one for decades. He is legitimately educated on issues of psychology and mental health, and that gives his work a real and palpable edge to it. It is very comforting knowing this is written by a mental health professional.
May 11, 2016
This is a solid book. I'm to the point where I have read so much spiritual / twelve-step literature that a lot of this is redundant for me, but if you're not and you wonder why your life hurts so badly or why you can't overcome some system of sins, vices, bad habits (and you're any kind of Christian), this could be a fine beginning or early-middle book for you.
It's both Catholic and very St. Paul-based with language that is very charismatic in tone or even Protestant-sounding, like "fortresses" or "strongholds" (I forget which, which means I need more sleep since he uses the word over and over in the latter half of the book).
It's both Catholic and very St. Paul-based with language that is very charismatic in tone or even Protestant-sounding, like "fortresses" or "strongholds" (I forget which, which means I need more sleep since he uses the word over and over in the latter half of the book).
May 8, 2024
Wow! This book is rooted deeply in scripture and an amazing tool for healing with Christ. It brings to light many human struggles and allows you to look through your past and see areas that the Lord may be calling to be healed.
September 19, 2025
Read this completely, but in spurts, after a healing prayer experience based on the practices of the JPII Center for Healing. Like other reviewers, I found the personal stories a little too heavy, too much. There is some real spiritual wisdom here, though, and important reminders that we all have wounds, regardless of our backgrounds, because we live in a broken world, Jesus still wants to heal everyone. My healing prayer experience was transformational, but I am learning that I need to stay in communion with Jesus, as I was during this prayer. I was hoping this book would teach me more of that, and it did provide a list of resources that I can follow up with.
September 22, 2025
Phenomenal read! I’d advise reading with a journal nearby to take notes and answer the questions posed by the author. The book does a wonderful job of helping identify which of the deadly sins or wounds you may have/struggle with. Then, the book offers suggestions and ideas to start working through them.
May 18, 2023
(4.5 ⭐️) A great resource for walking through healing and the desire that God for us to be free, fully healed, and fully alive. I appreciate the anecdotes and weaving in scripture and other resources into the book, plus the way he ties in his own practice and stories from his life to illustrate his points. A lot of the things that are developed, particularly the anatomy of a wound, is very helpful to use as a starting point for journaling and prayer, and also to lead to professional help.
October 19, 2024
Big news everyone: I am 100% healed! kidding aside, this book offered gentle yet forceful encouragement to come wholly and honestly to Christ and give Him my brokenness in exchange for His healing and mercy. A good introductory read for the beginning of healing.
June 8, 2022
Highly recommend this book on healing
February 25, 2023
“Freedom is only a gift if one knows how to use it for everything that is true good.” - St. Pope John Paul II
March 15, 2024
BE HEALED, need I say more?
December 25, 2024
Really enjoyed this. I was convinced this was for women, I was totally wrong. Shoutout @mattcasteneda for encouraging me to read this as a man. EVERYONE needs healing. Would suggest to anyone striving for humility and peace
July 4, 2024
God’s desire for our freedom is infinitely greater than our own.
Most of us live life with flat tires and think this is as good as it gets.
God desires us; our hearts, our lives our history.
The healing process is never ending and ever deepening.
Healing is the process of being made whole: body soul, and spirit.
For the past 2000 years of church history, all our worship, all our theology, and all our prayers are directed toward our restoration, as we are brought every deeper into communion with the holy Trinity.
Blasphemous thoughts about God were revealing unhealed places buried in my heart.
Desolation involves feelings of being flat and lifeless.
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. Pope Paul VI
Philosophy Means love of wisdom.
When a woman was searching for truth and reading all kinds of ideas, Someone recommended she narrow her focus only to the person of Jesus. When she did, everything became crystal clear, eventually causing her to fall deeply and passionately, in love with Jesus.
Jesus is humility. Jesus never did anything out of ego or pride, but always acted out of love for his father.
Jesus wanted to take away any grounds for this man’s self righteousness or self reliance, showing that God is the source and origin of all good, and that genuine faith requires a radical dependence on God and not on oneself.
He invites us to bring our brokenness to him so that he can heal us.
Our physical healing, astonishing as it is, pales in comparison to the healing he now offers us. Without words, he speaks to the depths of our hearts. His penetrating gaze says at all, offering to restore those areas of our souls that have been blinded by pride, fear and unbelief.
St Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis DeSales teach us to stretch our faith by placing ourselves subjectively in the gospel stories. In doing so, we allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus as we encounter him in faith.
Our faith becomes real only when it is put to the test courageously. Pope Francis said a prayer that calls for an extraordinary action must be a prayer that involves all of us, as though our very life depends on it. In prayer, you have to put yourself to the test.
I said to God, “You know I can’t heal. You alone have the power to heal. I acknowledged my dependence on you. I will pray for anyone you asked me to pray for and leave the results to you.”
The healing ministry should be an ordinary, normal part of the Christian life.
At the baptism of Jesus, we learn that before Jesus accomplishes anything, the father expresses unconditional, love, and delight in his son. The Father’s approval is not based on Jesus’s performance. Rather, he delights in Jesus because of who he is. “This is my son. I delight in him. He brings great joy to my heart.” Thank
It was during prayer, following his baptism, that Jesus was able to see heaven open. All of us since our baptisms, have a similar kind of access to heaven through prayer.
Heavenly Father, please speak to our hearts and allow us to know that, in Jesus, we are beloved children in whom you delight. Stir into flame the gift of the Holy Spirit that you have placed within each of us, filling us with your love, joy and strength, and taking away our fear. We ask this in union with your beloved son, Jesus.
When we trust him, we can bring our desires and brokenness to the father and allow ourselves to become vulnerable enough to receive the healing we need in our lives.
In the prodigal son story both sons remain blinded to the father’s unconditional love for them. Neither realizes that the father is waiting with open arms to receive them. They both try to resolve their pain apart from the father. The older brother covers his heart with performance, the other relieves his pain with addictions. Whether we are rebels or peace keepers, we cannot shake the tentacles of pride and shame.
While denying the glory of God in us we instead choose the cheap counterfeit, vainglory.
Vainglory grows stronger when we refuse to face our brokenness. It brings death to our hearts, blinding our eyes to the truth. We worship ourselves in self idolatry and avoid intimacy with the father.
Saint Iranaeus said, “the glory of God is man fully alive.” Only when we are fully alive in Christ, are we capable of beholding our dignity as beloved children of the father.
To be fully conformed to the image of the beloved son, we must humble ourselves and follow in Jesus’s footsteps all the way through the cross and into the resurrection. We all have to die in order to live.
The cross is God‘s only path to true healing and salvation.
Doing it my way makes me an enemy of the cross of Christ. Running from suffering has never brought me into resurrection life.
Man’s ultimate healing can only be God‘s life. Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic Christian worldview of healing and wholeness: Jesus Christ came to restore everything that has been broken by the ravages of sin. He promises to fully restore all things into their intended wholeness. His redemption brings healing for the whole person, the whole family, the whole church, the whole world, and even the whole universe.
Our Catholic faith, centred in the person of Jesus Christ, provides a unique perspective that brings hope and allows us to see all brokenness in light of God’s vision for wholeness.
The father created us to share in the intimate communion of love that he enjoys with his son and the Holy Spirit. We are created out of love and for love. Love is the origin and destiny of our lives. Our lives are senseless without love.
Apart from Grace the entire universe now tends toward disorder.
The primary route of our suffering and sickness is separation from God, resulting in the fragmentation of our bodies and souls, and thus manifesting in broken relationships with other people and nature.
Hopelessness is often the driving force in depression.
Love heals. Ultimate healing can only be God’s love.
Hopelessness is often the driving force in depression.
Ultimate healing can only be God‘s love.
The tree of life is as symbol of our life in union with Christ, whereas the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents our life cut off from God.
The tree of life is a symbol of our communion with God, a life filled with the virtue and good spiritual fruit.
In the year of drought, it shows no distress, But still bears fruit. Jeremiah 17:8. They will be called oaks of Justice, planted by the Lord to show his glory. Isaiah 61:3.
This tree does not bear rotten fruit, but instead bears good fruit that will remain. This fruit is non other than the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patient kindness, and so forth.
The tree of life is a metaphor for our communion with Christ. This abiding relationship with Jesus is the source of our healing. Jesus’s love is the best medicine for our bodies, souls, and spirits.
Security, maturity, and purity. These three words are the summation of our life in the spirit. Security is being rooted and grounded in love; maturity is growing into Christ’s likeness by increasing our capacity to love; purity is the fruit of that love.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil, according to Pope John Paul II, represents God‘s covenant broken in man’s heart.
The flesh is rooted in ungodly self-sufficiency, - the tree of knowledge,- whereas life in the spirit refers to our abiding in Christ, - the tree of life. Every thought and action in our life comes from one of these two invisible trees. Whatever we sow in our life will progressively manifest in our emotions, habits, and character. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.“
Whenever good things become a replacement for our relationship with God, it becomes a vice in our lives. Pride is an excessive belief in our abilities that interferes with the recognition of the grace of God. Pride may have looked like an abundance of self-confidence, but it actually served as a remedy for my pervasive self doubt. It became a way of hiding my feelings of shame and inadequacy.
Gluttony – – you use food to numb your pain and to feel the emptiness of abandonment in your life. If you wrestle with sloth, you have probably given up trying because it is too hard to meet others’ expectations. Deadly sins, give the illusion of satisfying needs, but in actuality, they only block us from God‘s grace.
One of the symptoms of pride is taking myself too seriously.
Trying to get rid of pride is just more pride. You can’t solve pride on your own. You have to offer it to God. He is the only one who can get rid of it.
We cannot overcome the deadly sins easily or on our own. They need to be brought continually into the light through encounters with Jesus. Self reliance is the very source of our brokenness and sin.
The Lord promises to be near the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.
Whether we consider it sin or not, our choices certainly become the breeding ground for later difficulties in life.
Fortresses are spiritual and psychological strongholds, built invisibly in our minds and hearts, to protect us from harm.
Strongholds begin as beliefs, rooted in our minds and hearts. They are based on Satan‘s lies and deception. They often develop in response to traumatic wounds that have been left unhealed.
The stronghold of unforgiveness prevented her from receiving the healing graces she. so desperately desired.
The image of being tied up is akin to what happens when the foothold becomes a stronghold. We become bound in whatever area we have allowed a foothold to grow stronger than our will to do God’s will.
What begins as a healthy emotion, signalling an injustice, if not submitted to the Holy Spirit, can become a destructive force in our lives, damaging ourselves, and our relationships.
In any place in your life where you have felt stuck and hopeless, there is a good chance that a stronghold is in place.
Self righteousness can keep us from seeing our need for God and blocking our ability to seek and receive his mercy.
As a healthy emotion, anger is signalling that we or someone else has been deprived of love or has been treated unjustly.
Whether conscious or not, our response to the inevitable wounds in life come from one of two trees. When we respond in the spirit, the tree of life, by facing our pain in communion with Jesus, we grow in security, maturity, and security. When we respond in the flesh, the tree of knowledge, these traumatic wounds can plague us for the rest of our life, until they are healed. Given our spiritual weaknesses, the flesh response comes more easily.
Self protection is futile at protecting us from further pain. Traumas are most common. They may include not being cherished and celebrated by one’s parents; not knowing we are a delight; not being understood or nurtured; not receiving appropriate discipline or boundaries; not being able to develop personal freedom or talents.
Memories influence our thoughts, actions, and behaviour for the rest of our life, until they are healed. Rejected, confused, abandoned, afraid; each of these wounds is a particular taste of hell, bringing torment to our soul.
Initially, our distorted beliefs protect us from feeling pain, but in the long term they become part of the mechanism by which our pain gets locked into our body and soul. These distorted beliefs become the building blocks that form the strongholds in our minds and hearts.
Ungodly judgements do damage to our souls.
Strongholds. These beliefs were not in keeping with God’s truth; they come from the father of lies. Though they seem true to me, they are actually false, intended to keep me from trusting God and receiving his love.
Innervows are decisions we make consciously or unconsciously to protect ourselves, comfort, ourselves, and take care of ourselves, usually in the midst of chaos and trauma.
Jesus was so stern in warning us not to make any vows. We aren’t instructed to simply submit to God‘s will in humility; anything else is considered prideful arrogance.
And vows are often taken, unconsciously, in the depths of our hearts in response to fearful circumstances.
The sacraments are the means of grace and strength in our life. They establish godly strongholds that give us security in Jesus, mature us in Christ-like virtue, and ultimately bring us life. These vows flow from the tree of life.
Our ungodly inner vows originate in the tree of knowledge and are born from pride.
Every unholy vows set us on a path of ungodly self-sufficiency, where we attempt to be our own God rather than trusting God.
My marriage vows were positive, focussed on loving Margie, faithfully in communion with Jesus. My ungodly inner vows were made in fear, judgment, and pride. I was living in the shadow of my broken childhood and wounds from my family of origin. I was bound by these vows. They were choking the life out of our love. Rather than prevent me from repeating my parents path, they led me right into it.
This area of my heart was formed in pride and resisted God‘s grace, just as my wounds, vows, and beliefs kept my heart walled off from God‘s life and healing power .
John needed the Holy Spirit to heal his wounds. He needed to humble himself and face his brokenness in order to receive the healing he so deeply desire.
Bring all you are suffering to Jesus. Open your heart to be loved by him as you are. He will do the rest. Saint Mother Teresa
Three powerful medicines from the tree of life: redemptive suffering, the sacraments, and healing prayer.
In the majesty of Divine Providence,
Pope Francis: Bear the victory of Christ’s Cross with love and lasting joy.
We are encouraged to carry these crosses with joy and not sadness.
Jesus knew that he was about to enter into the most difficult battle with evil that any human being could ever face. And yet he did it willingly, because he knew that his suffering would redeem the entire world.
And the Cross of Christ, not only is the redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed.
Jesus, through everything he suffered, he continue to rely on his father and not on himself, and thus responded to the most horrific evil by bringing about the greatest good ever known in the history of mankind.
He made it possible for us to live without condemnation and guilt. Because he was pierced for our offences and crushed for our sins we are enable to come before the father without fear of rejection.
Deadly sins have become strongholds that will require powerful weapons for them to be overcome. Jesus showed us how to overcome these deadly sins by responding in the opposite spirit. Facing his suffering with the Holy Spirit , he exhibited lively virtues in the face of every deadly sin.
As we grow in communion with him, we learn to be meek and humble of heart, as he is.
When Jesus felt the full force of their anger, hatred, and rage, he patiently endured, surrendering control, and giving up his right for revenge.
By abiding in him, we can endure our suffering patiently rather than reacting in anger.
Jesus hung on the cross is a direct result of the insidious envy of the devil expressed through each of those leaders who were filled with raging jealousy. He responded simply with kindness and brotherly love.
Be grateful for what we have been given and look out for the needs of others, even in our pain.
In response to the indifference of the bystanders and our own sloth, Jesus remain diligent, fully engaged, and faithful to the end. Combatting greed, he offered everything. His example teaches us to work diligently and to trust the father in all circumstances, no matter how threatening they may seem.
Overcoming gluttony, he displayed moderation, abstaining from any drugs or satiation on the cross, though he was emanciated and thirsty. By his spirit, we are able to exercise self-control and chastity.
Bitterness is the deadly sin of anger and self righteousness is the deadly sin of pride.
I thought I was protecting myself from rejection but I was actually rejecting Margie instead. Still struggling, I knew I needed to express love and kindness. When I did, she immediately softened, and our love was repaired very quickly.
Redemptive suffering is the substance of every day life. This is what Jesus meant when he commanded us to take up our cross and follow him. Each of these little deaths help to prepare us for our final death and resurrection. Only when we choose to die to our selfish reactions in these small ways, will we have the grace to make the final surrender.
Jesus refrained from any hint of bitterness, formed no ungodly judgments, and avoided self-reliant vows that might keep him from trusting completely in the father.
The shame that invariably comes from rejection…
Jesus freely chose to enter into powerlessness and the apparent hopelessness and confusion of the cross, but he never lost sight of God‘s will and mighty power.
Though he felt abandoned by him, he continued to turn towards him. He did not turn his back on the father. In his suffering, Jesus continued trusting his father, believing he remained with him.
Every man has his own share in the redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the redemption was accomplished. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also be a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.
John Paul showed the whole world how the evil of suffering can become a powerful source for good and a means of healing.
JPII rejoiced in his suffering for the sake of the church, continuing Christ redemptive sacrifice in our modern world. He showed us when we choose to participate in Jesus’s redemptive suffering, we allow our worst nightmares to become rivers of healing grace for ourselves and others.
Mary’s Fiat was her yes to everything she would experience, including Calvary, where her own heart would be pierced.
The Baltimore catechism – sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Every sacrament is a tangible participation in his life, death, and resurrection.
Someone said we can compare the sacraments to switches for electrical current that allow the healing power of Jesus to touch each and every Christian in specific ways. This was precisely my experience. I went from sensing no electrical outlet to suddenly feeling God‘s presence light up my soul.
The fruit of the sacrament depends wholly on Divine grace, however, this divine grace does not act without the yes, the consent and affirmation of the person. God acts like a bride groom, who does not impose his love by for
Most of us live life with flat tires and think this is as good as it gets.
God desires us; our hearts, our lives our history.
The healing process is never ending and ever deepening.
Healing is the process of being made whole: body soul, and spirit.
For the past 2000 years of church history, all our worship, all our theology, and all our prayers are directed toward our restoration, as we are brought every deeper into communion with the holy Trinity.
Blasphemous thoughts about God were revealing unhealed places buried in my heart.
Desolation involves feelings of being flat and lifeless.
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. Pope Paul VI
Philosophy Means love of wisdom.
When a woman was searching for truth and reading all kinds of ideas, Someone recommended she narrow her focus only to the person of Jesus. When she did, everything became crystal clear, eventually causing her to fall deeply and passionately, in love with Jesus.
Jesus is humility. Jesus never did anything out of ego or pride, but always acted out of love for his father.
Jesus wanted to take away any grounds for this man’s self righteousness or self reliance, showing that God is the source and origin of all good, and that genuine faith requires a radical dependence on God and not on oneself.
He invites us to bring our brokenness to him so that he can heal us.
Our physical healing, astonishing as it is, pales in comparison to the healing he now offers us. Without words, he speaks to the depths of our hearts. His penetrating gaze says at all, offering to restore those areas of our souls that have been blinded by pride, fear and unbelief.
St Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Francis DeSales teach us to stretch our faith by placing ourselves subjectively in the gospel stories. In doing so, we allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus as we encounter him in faith.
Our faith becomes real only when it is put to the test courageously. Pope Francis said a prayer that calls for an extraordinary action must be a prayer that involves all of us, as though our very life depends on it. In prayer, you have to put yourself to the test.
I said to God, “You know I can’t heal. You alone have the power to heal. I acknowledged my dependence on you. I will pray for anyone you asked me to pray for and leave the results to you.”
The healing ministry should be an ordinary, normal part of the Christian life.
At the baptism of Jesus, we learn that before Jesus accomplishes anything, the father expresses unconditional, love, and delight in his son. The Father’s approval is not based on Jesus’s performance. Rather, he delights in Jesus because of who he is. “This is my son. I delight in him. He brings great joy to my heart.” Thank
It was during prayer, following his baptism, that Jesus was able to see heaven open. All of us since our baptisms, have a similar kind of access to heaven through prayer.
Heavenly Father, please speak to our hearts and allow us to know that, in Jesus, we are beloved children in whom you delight. Stir into flame the gift of the Holy Spirit that you have placed within each of us, filling us with your love, joy and strength, and taking away our fear. We ask this in union with your beloved son, Jesus.
When we trust him, we can bring our desires and brokenness to the father and allow ourselves to become vulnerable enough to receive the healing we need in our lives.
In the prodigal son story both sons remain blinded to the father’s unconditional love for them. Neither realizes that the father is waiting with open arms to receive them. They both try to resolve their pain apart from the father. The older brother covers his heart with performance, the other relieves his pain with addictions. Whether we are rebels or peace keepers, we cannot shake the tentacles of pride and shame.
While denying the glory of God in us we instead choose the cheap counterfeit, vainglory.
Vainglory grows stronger when we refuse to face our brokenness. It brings death to our hearts, blinding our eyes to the truth. We worship ourselves in self idolatry and avoid intimacy with the father.
Saint Iranaeus said, “the glory of God is man fully alive.” Only when we are fully alive in Christ, are we capable of beholding our dignity as beloved children of the father.
To be fully conformed to the image of the beloved son, we must humble ourselves and follow in Jesus’s footsteps all the way through the cross and into the resurrection. We all have to die in order to live.
The cross is God‘s only path to true healing and salvation.
Doing it my way makes me an enemy of the cross of Christ. Running from suffering has never brought me into resurrection life.
Man’s ultimate healing can only be God‘s life. Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic Christian worldview of healing and wholeness: Jesus Christ came to restore everything that has been broken by the ravages of sin. He promises to fully restore all things into their intended wholeness. His redemption brings healing for the whole person, the whole family, the whole church, the whole world, and even the whole universe.
Our Catholic faith, centred in the person of Jesus Christ, provides a unique perspective that brings hope and allows us to see all brokenness in light of God’s vision for wholeness.
The father created us to share in the intimate communion of love that he enjoys with his son and the Holy Spirit. We are created out of love and for love. Love is the origin and destiny of our lives. Our lives are senseless without love.
Apart from Grace the entire universe now tends toward disorder.
The primary route of our suffering and sickness is separation from God, resulting in the fragmentation of our bodies and souls, and thus manifesting in broken relationships with other people and nature.
Hopelessness is often the driving force in depression.
Love heals. Ultimate healing can only be God’s love.
Hopelessness is often the driving force in depression.
Ultimate healing can only be God‘s love.
The tree of life is as symbol of our life in union with Christ, whereas the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents our life cut off from God.
The tree of life is a symbol of our communion with God, a life filled with the virtue and good spiritual fruit.
In the year of drought, it shows no distress, But still bears fruit. Jeremiah 17:8. They will be called oaks of Justice, planted by the Lord to show his glory. Isaiah 61:3.
This tree does not bear rotten fruit, but instead bears good fruit that will remain. This fruit is non other than the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patient kindness, and so forth.
The tree of life is a metaphor for our communion with Christ. This abiding relationship with Jesus is the source of our healing. Jesus’s love is the best medicine for our bodies, souls, and spirits.
Security, maturity, and purity. These three words are the summation of our life in the spirit. Security is being rooted and grounded in love; maturity is growing into Christ’s likeness by increasing our capacity to love; purity is the fruit of that love.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil, according to Pope John Paul II, represents God‘s covenant broken in man’s heart.
The flesh is rooted in ungodly self-sufficiency, - the tree of knowledge,- whereas life in the spirit refers to our abiding in Christ, - the tree of life. Every thought and action in our life comes from one of these two invisible trees. Whatever we sow in our life will progressively manifest in our emotions, habits, and character. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character and reap a destiny.“
Whenever good things become a replacement for our relationship with God, it becomes a vice in our lives. Pride is an excessive belief in our abilities that interferes with the recognition of the grace of God. Pride may have looked like an abundance of self-confidence, but it actually served as a remedy for my pervasive self doubt. It became a way of hiding my feelings of shame and inadequacy.
Gluttony – – you use food to numb your pain and to feel the emptiness of abandonment in your life. If you wrestle with sloth, you have probably given up trying because it is too hard to meet others’ expectations. Deadly sins, give the illusion of satisfying needs, but in actuality, they only block us from God‘s grace.
One of the symptoms of pride is taking myself too seriously.
Trying to get rid of pride is just more pride. You can’t solve pride on your own. You have to offer it to God. He is the only one who can get rid of it.
We cannot overcome the deadly sins easily or on our own. They need to be brought continually into the light through encounters with Jesus. Self reliance is the very source of our brokenness and sin.
The Lord promises to be near the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.
Whether we consider it sin or not, our choices certainly become the breeding ground for later difficulties in life.
Fortresses are spiritual and psychological strongholds, built invisibly in our minds and hearts, to protect us from harm.
Strongholds begin as beliefs, rooted in our minds and hearts. They are based on Satan‘s lies and deception. They often develop in response to traumatic wounds that have been left unhealed.
The stronghold of unforgiveness prevented her from receiving the healing graces she. so desperately desired.
The image of being tied up is akin to what happens when the foothold becomes a stronghold. We become bound in whatever area we have allowed a foothold to grow stronger than our will to do God’s will.
What begins as a healthy emotion, signalling an injustice, if not submitted to the Holy Spirit, can become a destructive force in our lives, damaging ourselves, and our relationships.
In any place in your life where you have felt stuck and hopeless, there is a good chance that a stronghold is in place.
Self righteousness can keep us from seeing our need for God and blocking our ability to seek and receive his mercy.
As a healthy emotion, anger is signalling that we or someone else has been deprived of love or has been treated unjustly.
Whether conscious or not, our response to the inevitable wounds in life come from one of two trees. When we respond in the spirit, the tree of life, by facing our pain in communion with Jesus, we grow in security, maturity, and security. When we respond in the flesh, the tree of knowledge, these traumatic wounds can plague us for the rest of our life, until they are healed. Given our spiritual weaknesses, the flesh response comes more easily.
Self protection is futile at protecting us from further pain. Traumas are most common. They may include not being cherished and celebrated by one’s parents; not knowing we are a delight; not being understood or nurtured; not receiving appropriate discipline or boundaries; not being able to develop personal freedom or talents.
Memories influence our thoughts, actions, and behaviour for the rest of our life, until they are healed. Rejected, confused, abandoned, afraid; each of these wounds is a particular taste of hell, bringing torment to our soul.
Initially, our distorted beliefs protect us from feeling pain, but in the long term they become part of the mechanism by which our pain gets locked into our body and soul. These distorted beliefs become the building blocks that form the strongholds in our minds and hearts.
Ungodly judgements do damage to our souls.
Strongholds. These beliefs were not in keeping with God’s truth; they come from the father of lies. Though they seem true to me, they are actually false, intended to keep me from trusting God and receiving his love.
Innervows are decisions we make consciously or unconsciously to protect ourselves, comfort, ourselves, and take care of ourselves, usually in the midst of chaos and trauma.
Jesus was so stern in warning us not to make any vows. We aren’t instructed to simply submit to God‘s will in humility; anything else is considered prideful arrogance.
And vows are often taken, unconsciously, in the depths of our hearts in response to fearful circumstances.
The sacraments are the means of grace and strength in our life. They establish godly strongholds that give us security in Jesus, mature us in Christ-like virtue, and ultimately bring us life. These vows flow from the tree of life.
Our ungodly inner vows originate in the tree of knowledge and are born from pride.
Every unholy vows set us on a path of ungodly self-sufficiency, where we attempt to be our own God rather than trusting God.
My marriage vows were positive, focussed on loving Margie, faithfully in communion with Jesus. My ungodly inner vows were made in fear, judgment, and pride. I was living in the shadow of my broken childhood and wounds from my family of origin. I was bound by these vows. They were choking the life out of our love. Rather than prevent me from repeating my parents path, they led me right into it.
This area of my heart was formed in pride and resisted God‘s grace, just as my wounds, vows, and beliefs kept my heart walled off from God‘s life and healing power .
John needed the Holy Spirit to heal his wounds. He needed to humble himself and face his brokenness in order to receive the healing he so deeply desire.
Bring all you are suffering to Jesus. Open your heart to be loved by him as you are. He will do the rest. Saint Mother Teresa
Three powerful medicines from the tree of life: redemptive suffering, the sacraments, and healing prayer.
In the majesty of Divine Providence,
Pope Francis: Bear the victory of Christ’s Cross with love and lasting joy.
We are encouraged to carry these crosses with joy and not sadness.
Jesus knew that he was about to enter into the most difficult battle with evil that any human being could ever face. And yet he did it willingly, because he knew that his suffering would redeem the entire world.
And the Cross of Christ, not only is the redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed.
Jesus, through everything he suffered, he continue to rely on his father and not on himself, and thus responded to the most horrific evil by bringing about the greatest good ever known in the history of mankind.
He made it possible for us to live without condemnation and guilt. Because he was pierced for our offences and crushed for our sins we are enable to come before the father without fear of rejection.
Deadly sins have become strongholds that will require powerful weapons for them to be overcome. Jesus showed us how to overcome these deadly sins by responding in the opposite spirit. Facing his suffering with the Holy Spirit , he exhibited lively virtues in the face of every deadly sin.
As we grow in communion with him, we learn to be meek and humble of heart, as he is.
When Jesus felt the full force of their anger, hatred, and rage, he patiently endured, surrendering control, and giving up his right for revenge.
By abiding in him, we can endure our suffering patiently rather than reacting in anger.
Jesus hung on the cross is a direct result of the insidious envy of the devil expressed through each of those leaders who were filled with raging jealousy. He responded simply with kindness and brotherly love.
Be grateful for what we have been given and look out for the needs of others, even in our pain.
In response to the indifference of the bystanders and our own sloth, Jesus remain diligent, fully engaged, and faithful to the end. Combatting greed, he offered everything. His example teaches us to work diligently and to trust the father in all circumstances, no matter how threatening they may seem.
Overcoming gluttony, he displayed moderation, abstaining from any drugs or satiation on the cross, though he was emanciated and thirsty. By his spirit, we are able to exercise self-control and chastity.
Bitterness is the deadly sin of anger and self righteousness is the deadly sin of pride.
I thought I was protecting myself from rejection but I was actually rejecting Margie instead. Still struggling, I knew I needed to express love and kindness. When I did, she immediately softened, and our love was repaired very quickly.
Redemptive suffering is the substance of every day life. This is what Jesus meant when he commanded us to take up our cross and follow him. Each of these little deaths help to prepare us for our final death and resurrection. Only when we choose to die to our selfish reactions in these small ways, will we have the grace to make the final surrender.
Jesus refrained from any hint of bitterness, formed no ungodly judgments, and avoided self-reliant vows that might keep him from trusting completely in the father.
The shame that invariably comes from rejection…
Jesus freely chose to enter into powerlessness and the apparent hopelessness and confusion of the cross, but he never lost sight of God‘s will and mighty power.
Though he felt abandoned by him, he continued to turn towards him. He did not turn his back on the father. In his suffering, Jesus continued trusting his father, believing he remained with him.
Every man has his own share in the redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the redemption was accomplished. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also be a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.
John Paul showed the whole world how the evil of suffering can become a powerful source for good and a means of healing.
JPII rejoiced in his suffering for the sake of the church, continuing Christ redemptive sacrifice in our modern world. He showed us when we choose to participate in Jesus’s redemptive suffering, we allow our worst nightmares to become rivers of healing grace for ourselves and others.
Mary’s Fiat was her yes to everything she would experience, including Calvary, where her own heart would be pierced.
The Baltimore catechism – sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Every sacrament is a tangible participation in his life, death, and resurrection.
Someone said we can compare the sacraments to switches for electrical current that allow the healing power of Jesus to touch each and every Christian in specific ways. This was precisely my experience. I went from sensing no electrical outlet to suddenly feeling God‘s presence light up my soul.
The fruit of the sacrament depends wholly on Divine grace, however, this divine grace does not act without the yes, the consent and affirmation of the person. God acts like a bride groom, who does not impose his love by for
March 30, 2025
Wonderful book that invites people to take a deep dive into their wounds from their past sins or the sins of others. There Jesus wants to encounter and offer His healing mercy so that we may experience greater freedom as sons and daughters of the Father.
April 10, 2025
Insightful questions to aid prayer & understanding yourself. I liked it
October 6, 2024
This is a great book that explains the process of healing from a Biblical and therapeutic framework. Schuchts is a Christian therapist who uses the Bible, personal stories about his own healing, and the healing of his brother and family, as well as examples from his therapy patients.
The chapters are laid out clearly and walk you through the steps that he has found in facilitating healing through God’s power, using whatever God provides. There are many places to stop and think about questions provided as one moves through the book, presumably toward healing. It is both a “self-help” book and a primer for learning Biblical healing, whether through God’s immediate will or, more often, God’s use of community that He’s provided for the sake of learning to heal each other.
By answering the questions, contemplating the information given, journaling what thoughts God brings to mind, and putting suggestions into action, the author is confident that healing will come.
The book has three parts with 3-4 chapters in each. The parts include, Encountering Jesus, Facing Our Brokenness, and Healing Our Wounds. Most of the examples indicate that physical healing of chronic ailments are often connected to deep spiritual and emotional wounds. These wounds are underlying stressors that break down immune systems and open the body up to opportunistic illnesses. These illnesses include addictions, physical maladies, emotional breakdowns, and spiritual diseases. According to Schuchts, “many experts today agree that about 90 to 95% of all illnesses are ‘stress related.’”
I have found this very true in my life and firmly believe that a healthy mind is always a prerequisite to a healthy body. That doesn’t mean the body never gets sick, but that sickness cannot easily remain. And a healthy mind can only develop through the Holy Spirit’s intervention. We are born into a world of sin with a propensity to lean in the direction of evil. Without allowing God to intervene, through His Son, and by His Spirit, we are no match for the enemy.
God being communal, draws us into community, where we find the strength and resources to pursue health. “Healing is the process of being made whole: body, soul, and spirit. It includes the restoration of our communion with God, our own integration, and reconciliation with those around us….God has built the desire for healing into the fabric of every human being….We all share a common brokenness.”
Schuchts states that most people no longer really believe healing is operative. They believe it happened in the ancient days, but ended with the death of John. We tend to think that the gifts of the apostles ended with their deaths. I agree with the author that they have not.
There are many ways to healing. We tend to mostly be interested in the instantaneous, but even the instantaneous have had much prayer before that moment of immediate healing. There have been many people involved in that healing, whether they know it or not, or get “credit” for it or not. Of course, all such healing comes from the Father, but He, in His wisdom and love, often uses many people to pray, and prepares the person to be healed through those prayers and time and events that may never be fully understood. Because all healing includes all of the person.
“According to the Life Model, developed by a team of psychologists and neurologists, wounds can occur in one of two general ways: either through the deprivation of love (type A traumas) or through unloving actions that violate our personal boundaries in some way (type B traumas). Type A traumas are most common but can be easily overlooked. These may include ‘not being cherished and celebrated by one's parents; not knowing we are delight; not being understood or nurtured; not receiving appropriate discipline or boundaries; not being able to develop personal freedom or talents….Type B traumas, on the other hand, are the bad things that happen to us. They are what we typically think of as traumatic events: death, divorce, violence, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment by a parent or spouse, witnessing someone else being abused or injured, and so forth. Both types of trauma inflict pain and suffering, which then become permanently stored in our brains and in every cell of our bodies. That is the conclusion of Wilder Penfield, a neurosurgeon at McGill University in Montreal, who made his discoveries while doing surgery on the brain. He found that our brain records all of our experiences. When probed, our brain remembers every perception and feeling associated with those experiences. Even when not conscious, these memories influence our thoughts, actions, and behavior for the rest of our life, until they are healed.”
Schuchts goes on to explain, through personal stories and medical data, that often the physical healing only comes after the inner healing, sort of preparing the body to be healed. That’s why Jesus asked the lame man, “do you want to be healed?” (Jn.5:6) We can get used to our illness, especially our inner ailments. Our refusal to be healed of our emotional scars from childhood, can delay, if not cancel, the arrival of our physical healing.
All healing is available, necessary, and actually, “will be worked for your greater good and not just for your good. This grace extends to all people your life touches directly and indirectly in the presence and for generations to come.”
The chapters are laid out clearly and walk you through the steps that he has found in facilitating healing through God’s power, using whatever God provides. There are many places to stop and think about questions provided as one moves through the book, presumably toward healing. It is both a “self-help” book and a primer for learning Biblical healing, whether through God’s immediate will or, more often, God’s use of community that He’s provided for the sake of learning to heal each other.
By answering the questions, contemplating the information given, journaling what thoughts God brings to mind, and putting suggestions into action, the author is confident that healing will come.
The book has three parts with 3-4 chapters in each. The parts include, Encountering Jesus, Facing Our Brokenness, and Healing Our Wounds. Most of the examples indicate that physical healing of chronic ailments are often connected to deep spiritual and emotional wounds. These wounds are underlying stressors that break down immune systems and open the body up to opportunistic illnesses. These illnesses include addictions, physical maladies, emotional breakdowns, and spiritual diseases. According to Schuchts, “many experts today agree that about 90 to 95% of all illnesses are ‘stress related.’”
I have found this very true in my life and firmly believe that a healthy mind is always a prerequisite to a healthy body. That doesn’t mean the body never gets sick, but that sickness cannot easily remain. And a healthy mind can only develop through the Holy Spirit’s intervention. We are born into a world of sin with a propensity to lean in the direction of evil. Without allowing God to intervene, through His Son, and by His Spirit, we are no match for the enemy.
God being communal, draws us into community, where we find the strength and resources to pursue health. “Healing is the process of being made whole: body, soul, and spirit. It includes the restoration of our communion with God, our own integration, and reconciliation with those around us….God has built the desire for healing into the fabric of every human being….We all share a common brokenness.”
Schuchts states that most people no longer really believe healing is operative. They believe it happened in the ancient days, but ended with the death of John. We tend to think that the gifts of the apostles ended with their deaths. I agree with the author that they have not.
There are many ways to healing. We tend to mostly be interested in the instantaneous, but even the instantaneous have had much prayer before that moment of immediate healing. There have been many people involved in that healing, whether they know it or not, or get “credit” for it or not. Of course, all such healing comes from the Father, but He, in His wisdom and love, often uses many people to pray, and prepares the person to be healed through those prayers and time and events that may never be fully understood. Because all healing includes all of the person.
“According to the Life Model, developed by a team of psychologists and neurologists, wounds can occur in one of two general ways: either through the deprivation of love (type A traumas) or through unloving actions that violate our personal boundaries in some way (type B traumas). Type A traumas are most common but can be easily overlooked. These may include ‘not being cherished and celebrated by one's parents; not knowing we are delight; not being understood or nurtured; not receiving appropriate discipline or boundaries; not being able to develop personal freedom or talents….Type B traumas, on the other hand, are the bad things that happen to us. They are what we typically think of as traumatic events: death, divorce, violence, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment by a parent or spouse, witnessing someone else being abused or injured, and so forth. Both types of trauma inflict pain and suffering, which then become permanently stored in our brains and in every cell of our bodies. That is the conclusion of Wilder Penfield, a neurosurgeon at McGill University in Montreal, who made his discoveries while doing surgery on the brain. He found that our brain records all of our experiences. When probed, our brain remembers every perception and feeling associated with those experiences. Even when not conscious, these memories influence our thoughts, actions, and behavior for the rest of our life, until they are healed.”
Schuchts goes on to explain, through personal stories and medical data, that often the physical healing only comes after the inner healing, sort of preparing the body to be healed. That’s why Jesus asked the lame man, “do you want to be healed?” (Jn.5:6) We can get used to our illness, especially our inner ailments. Our refusal to be healed of our emotional scars from childhood, can delay, if not cancel, the arrival of our physical healing.
All healing is available, necessary, and actually, “will be worked for your greater good and not just for your good. This grace extends to all people your life touches directly and indirectly in the presence and for generations to come.”
July 26, 2021
I always knew I “needed healing” from my “wounds” but those words got tossed around so often in every talk and retreat that they lost all meaning. Bob gave a clear path to the concrete reality of being healed, in addition to proving how the path to healing is long and difficult, but nevertheless possible and absolutely freeing when we allow Jesus to do what He desires to do in our hearts.
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