God’s kingdom is creation healed.
Hans Kung
Being in touch with the magnificently rich reality of God is at the heart of our prayer for healing: imagining the depth and height and glory of what our life in God can be is a powerful, hopeful and healing antidote to the often fearful and narrow emphasis of much that passes as faith-healing today.
The purpose of healing is a deeper vision of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Health is a concept which cannot be defined. To define it is to kill it. Nor can it be possessed. It can only be shared. There is no health for me without my brother, my sister.
Michael Wilson
There is no distinction between healed, saved or made whole.
The Name which is above every name
[Jesus – Joshua= deliverance from and to]
is derived from a Hebrew root that denotes “to be spacious”
Donald Coggan
Image: Celure, Oliver Caroe, 2012,
University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford
To experience salvation is to experience spaciousness.
What’s it like when I have room to breathe, room to be myself?
St. Augustine said that God’s first gift to me is to be able to say “I am”.
Sickness is a curse and part of the mystery of evil – but it is not a punishment for my sin. The road towards healing begins with acceptance of myself as sinner and sick.
Looking back on my life, where can I claim healing?
In my physical well-being, health- which I too often take for granted?
Where have I grown emotionally –
in self-esteem, awareness, my sense of who I am,
acceptance of self and others,
emerging responsibility for my behaviour and attitude?
Can I identify and celebrate movement in my faith journey?
Can I name places where I have grown in freedom, compassion, or integration?
Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello
The images in this post show the work of two different architects who use their work to help people transcend the immediacy of themselves and find wholeness in the other.
Oliver Caroe’s work in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, is of a blue ceiling studded with stars. It is called a ‘celure’, from the Latin ‘caelum’, meaning ‘heaven’. It is used in the Passion and Compassion website that suggests a walk through Oxford in contemplation on the Stations of the Cross. This image is associated with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
For more information visit Passion and Compassion Oxford.
The concept of the neon pink teetertotters was developed by Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello. Constructed by Taller Herrería in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, neon pink teetertotters slot through the wall’s narrow gaps, allowing citizens on both sides to playfully engage with their cross-border counterparts. The fundamental design of the teetertotter, while delightful and chuckle-inducing, also functions by each user literally feeling the weight of humanity of the person on the other side.
For more information visit RAEL SAN FRATELLO
O Jesus, crowned with all renown,
Since thou the earth hast trod,
Thou reignest, and by thee come down
Henceforth the gifts of God.
Thine is the health and thine the wealth
That in our halls abound,
And thine the beauty and the joy
With which the years are crowned.
Lord, in their change, let frost and heat
And winds and dews be giv’n;
All fostering power, all influence sweet,
Breathe from the bounteous heav’n.
Temper fair with gentle air
The sunshine and the rain,
That kindly earth with timely birth
May yield her fruits again.
That we may feed the poor aright,
And gathering round thy throne,
Here, in the holy angels’ sight,
Repay thee of thine own:
That we may praise thee all our days,
And with the Father’s name,
And with the Holy Spirit’s gifts,
The Savior’s love proclaim.
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
1 Comment
Thank you once again, Philip. I’m looking forward to exploring this. I loved Practise resurrection and used it for a reflection day with Mothers’ Union.