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Healing ministry celebrates 25 years

Katie Scott | Catholic Herald

A couple attends the healing Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church. More than 150 people were at the 25th anniversary service.

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Pat (left) and Tsze Chan pray during the healing Mass Oct. 15. Pat will undergo brain surgery soon.

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Catherine Griffin, founder and administrator of the Arlington Healing Ministry, sits in a pew at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church.

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Fr. Horace (“Tuck”) Grinnell, pastor of St. Peter Church in Washington, Va., prays over a woman during a healing service at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church Oct. 15. The service marked the 25th anniversary of the Arlington Healing Ministry and included Mass and opportunities for confession.

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It was well past Isaac’s bedtime, but he was alert and calm
as Deacon Leo Flynn knelt down near the altar to pray over
the 5-year-old and his mother, Sarah, who brushed away tears.
Isaac has an autoimmune illness contracted from a bad
reaction to medication he received at 2 months old. He also
has chronic Lyme disease, likely the result of his poorly
functioning immune system.

On the other side of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls
Church, Juan Vitali stood, head bowed, as two prayer
ministers rested their hands on his shoulders and prayed
quietly. Vitali has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory
condition of the gastrointestinal tract. The parishioner of
Good Shepherd Church in Alexandria will undergo his 31st
surgery next month.

Sarah and Isaac (names have been changed for privacy) and
Vitali were among the nearly 150 people – some with physical
ailments, others with psychological or spiritual burdens –
who attended an Oct. 15 healing service. The evening service
marked the 25th anniversary of the Arlington Healing Ministry
and included Mass, opportunities to be prayed over and
receive the sacrament of reconciliation, and a post-Mass
celebratory cake.

“It was a beautiful night of healing, and you could just feel
the Holy Spirit,” said Catherine Griffin, ministry founder
and administrator and a parishioner of St. John the
Evangelist Church in Warrenton.

When Griffin’s husband was dying from cancer, there were no
local healing services, so she made the trek back and forth
to Baltimore for Masses. Just two months after his death in
1990, Griffin began building a healing ministry in her home
diocese with the help of Missionhurst Father Arthur
Verstraete and Deacons Harold Brodeur and Robert Curtin.

Because Father Verstraete was not in good health, Father
Horace (“Tuck”) Grinnell, then in his first stint as pastor
of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington and now pastor of
St. Peter Church in Washington, Va., was asked to take the
lead.

“Starting the ministry was my healing,” said Griffin. “I
never could have gotten through my husband’s death without
the people I met through the ministry, without the prayer.”

“We knew we needed a way to pray for one another besides the
sacrament of the sick; we needed to use the gifts that God
has given us in the Eucharist and in the sacrament of
penance,” said Father Grinnell during his homily at the
anniversary Mass. Father Grinnell celebrated the Mass with
concelebrants Father David L. Martin, pastor of St. Luke
Church in McLean, and Father John H. Melmer, parochial vicar
of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Arlington. Deacon Flynn of
the Washington Archdiocese assisted.

All three priests, along with Father Jeb S. Donelan,
parochial vicar of St. Anthony, take turns celebrating the
monthly Masses at parishes throughout the diocese.

The Oct. 15 service was a chance to “celebrate this
milestone, to remember and to renew what God has given us –
that is, the power and the desire to pray for one another,”
said Father Grinnell in the homily.

He emphasized that healing comes not from the person praying
over the sick but from God, that God longs to heal us, and
that the one assured way to achieve peace is by relinquishing
sins through confession.

“When you go home tonight, when you feel that peace beyond
understanding, … know that it comes from God in
heaven,” he said.

Moments of joy and tears took place throughout the church
after Mass, as people filed into lines to be prayed over by
the priests, deacon and prayer ministers. In the background
was the music of the New Spirit Singers, the ministry’s
choir.

“It was a moving experience,” said Vitali after being prayed
over. “I felt like the Lord was touching me.”

There are about 16 prayer ministers in the ministry, and each
goes through a training process.

“Prayer ministers are people who have been very active in the
church, people with great faith,” said Griffin. New ministers
are teamed up with seasoned ones, so they can witness
different praying styles. All take their cues from what the
sick person asks for and tailor their prayers to that
individual.

“The common denominator (for all ministers) is that they are
willing, that they believe in prayer, that they are good
listeners and that they are open to the Holy Spirit,” said
Father Grinnell.

He acknowledged some might be wary of a healing ministry, but
said the image of someone “slapping you on the forehead and
you falling back healed” is inaccurate.

“This is communal prayer over the person, and it is always
private and confidential,” he said.

At the end of their prayers, ministers anoint the sick
person, or the ill person’s proxy, with blessed olive oil
(not the oil of the infirm, which is blessed by the bishop
and used sacramentally).

Although not publicized, many healings have been attributed
to the ministry. Two individuals said it helped cure their
cancer.

The cures people seek don’t always happen, but sometimes
individuals are healed of deep wounds they didn’t even know
they had, said Father Grinnell.

“People tell me, ‘I’d always been praying for this, but then
I realized I need to be reconciled with someone, that that
was the healing I needed.’

“God heals, yes,” said Father Grinnell. “But this is about
the strength of faith, about openness to God.”

For Sarah and her family, having someone pray over Isaac
“makes us feel closer to God, and it releases a lot of weight
and pressure knowing our son has more angel guides and the
ministry praying for him.”

Walking up the side aisle of St. Anthony, holding her son’s
hand, Sarah said she prays that his body can be healed. But
no matter what, she said, “I’m grateful for this ministry
… and we leave here tonight with peace.”

Find out more

The next Arlington Healing Ministry service is Nov. 19 at St.
John Neumann Church, 11900 Lawyers Road, Reston, at 7:30 p.m.

For more information on the ministry, go here

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