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Healing and the Spiritual Daily Dozen

I have always been struck by the number of healing stories in the Gospels (not to mention the companion accounts of casting out demons). The Gospel narrative also tells us that Jesus made plenty of time for preaching and teaching as he wandered among the people, but those who captured Jesus’ life on paper clearly wanted us to see him as a Healer.

However, the healing ministry was not limited to Jesus alone but was also given to the church in the expectation that the church, like its Lord, would use its own extraordinary powers to bring wholeness to all manner of brokenness (James 5.13-20, for example).

From the press of St. Luke the Physician comes an exercise that may help us organize our healing energy. It is called the “Spiritual Daily Dozen” and it begins with the instruction to repeat each of the twelve one or more times the first thing in the morning, breathing deeply and thereby inhaling large quantities of the “Breath of Life” (Gen. 2.7; for fun, Ezekiel 37.1-14).

These are the steps:

  1. Thou art God, in Whom I have put my trust.
  2. Thy Presence is everywhere.
  3. Thy Presence surrounds me; in Thee I live and move and have my being.
  4. Thy Presence is within me, strengthening, inspiring, healing, and perfecting me.
  5. Thy Presence banishes fear and worry and anxiety.
  6. Thy Presence gives me strength for all my needs.
  7. Thy Presence gives me confidence and courage in every situation.
  8. Thy Presence drives out resentment and hatred and subdues anger.
  9. The inspiration of Thy Presence gives me understanding, that I may have clearness of vision, steadfastness of thought, and trueness of speech.
  10. Thy Presence enables me to overcome evil and disease in all forms.
  11. Nothing can separate me from Thy Presence.
  12. Praise be to Thee, O Lord, Who giveth me the Victory; through Jesus Christ, my Savior.

 

So healed and made whole, we begin the day, and along the way, we carry the power to heal with us. It may not be as dramatic as what we see in the Gospels, or even apparent to us, but it will be just as real. Like ripples in a pond, healing energy will eventually reach into the most tortured and broken of peoples and places.