Healing school filled with Holy Spirit

By RENEE WEBB
Content and Design Coordinator

More than 150 people attended the School of Healing hosted by St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll at Holy Spirit Church Feb. 28 and March 1 to learn ways to be instruments of God’s healing and words.

Facilitated by Gilbert Rodriguez and Jay Jong of Encounter Ministries, Father Patrick Behm, pastor of St. John Paul II, explained they offered catechesis on various aspects of the charism of healing.

“These topics included how to pray for someone for physical healing as well as understanding how the church’s teaching on redemptive suffering fits in with the healing ministry, among other topics,” he said.

EmmaLee Miklosovic, director of evangelization at SJPII Parish, said most of attendees were from the diocese and the surrounding area but one woman came from New York.

Positive feedback
“I felt that it went very well. Everything ran smoothly and I’ve had numerous parishioners reach out to me to thank us for having the event,” she said, noting that many participants shared their positive experience with other parishioners. “There are also the stories of miraculous healings that happened over the weekend.”

Father David Hemann, diocesan liaison for the charismatic renewal who is a pastor in Milford and Spirit Lake, took part in the healing school as a student. And while he has been drawn to this ministry since he was 17 and worked with this ministry for 40-plus years as a priest, he mentioned he even learned some things.

“I thought it was very well put together and the talks were outstanding,” he said, noting the program was based on solid theology and is approved by the USCCB. “I thought it was very helpful personally and was deeply touched when they prayed with me.”

Father Behm said the catechesis offered during the School of Healing equipped Catholics, primarily lay people, “to be comfortable praying for healing with and for others in their life. It also hopefully gives them the courage to talk about God and his working in our lives. Healing is only a means to an end; the end is knowing the triune God – father, son and Holy Spirit – intimately and personally.”

Lay faithful
The pastor pointed out it was important to offer this opportunity to lay people in particular because about 90-95% of his time is working with people who are already evangelized to some degree.

“Which leaves me precious little time to work with those who don’t know Jesus,” noted Father Behm. “That task largely falls to the lay faithful in today’s church, since they’re the ones who work and go to school with these individuals.”

Encounter Ministries, he added, equips people to evangelize “those in their immediate sphere of influence, because those people are usually not in my sphere of influence.”
Father Hemann affirmed Father Behm’s thoughts about the laity, stating that all people by virtue of their baptisms can pray with and for others.

Tessie McKinney of Lytton, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Plains Parish, said she decided to attend the School of Healing because she leads a Bible study and felt she struggled praying with people for their special intentions.

“I really wanted to be better at being able to pray for others and bring in the Holy Spirit,” she said. “My testimony is that is what I got out of this.”

Both McKinney and Father Hemann spoke of the five-step approach of praying over people that included things such as an introduction and asking if you can pray for them, asking about their condition and level of pain, asking the Lord how to pray for them and so on.

“That is something I will use forever,” said McKinney, who mentioned she will use these new skills to pray with people in the Bible study and in day to day circumstances. She also plans to teach this to other Bible school members so they can benefit from the information.

Steve Fisher and his wife Laurie of Carroll attended the School of Healing because he felt it was another opportunity to build on their faith.

“I still think we have a lot of learning to do, but will try to apply it when we can,” he said, adding that they will try to help others apply these techniques as well.

Various topics
Miklosovic said the event began with an evening session on Feb. 28 with a talk by Rodriguez about baptism in the Holy Spirit, a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person and there was time to pray for this.

Praise and worship started the day on March 1, followed by a session on the theology of healing where Jong spoke about God’s perspective on healing and how people have the power to pray for healing. A talk by Rodriquez centered on the role of faith and how to pray over people for healing.

“Students of the school then had an opportunity to practice with each other and we saw miraculous healings right there,” said Miklosovic.

Jong spoke about the power of testimony and words of knowledge. The students then prayedJay Jong of Encounter Ministries for words of knowledge – what God wanted to heal that night. She mentioned she received a word that God wanted to heal someone with headaches on top of the head. A woman approached her later in the evening and said that word was for her and she was healed of chronic headaches that night.

The event concluded with a healing service on March 1 that was open to the public. Noting that they saw God do many amazing things at the service, Miklosovic said, “It was awesome. We’re hoping to host some more healing services in the future at our parish.”

Erin-Jane Stevens of Carroll said she was informed the parish was going to hold the School of Healing and decided to sign up for it because she felt God kept calling her to attend.

“I didn’t plan to be prayed over, but I was and a lot of revelation happened for me,” said Stevens, who firmly believes the Holy Spirit put together the small group she was a part of and who prayed for her.

In relation to applying what she learned, rather than being a lead person in praying over people, she envisions her role will be more of a support person joining in prayers rather than leading the prayers.

Father Hemann called it a wonderful experience and mentioned that he as well as others were able to witness many healings – pain and tremors taken away.

“People left empowered by the Holy Spirit to evangelize through this healing ministry,” Miklosovic said. “They are now equipped to pray with their neighbors for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on their lives and to share the love with Jesus through healing and prayer ministry.”

Father Behm pointed out according to Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, the mission of the church is to evangelize.

“Ultimately, it’s important to bring something like this to our parish because it’s a means to evangelize,” he stressed. “It’s certainly not the only means, but it is a means.”