'As many as touch Me are made perfectly whole' (Matthew 14:36)

Nothing is more potent than love and going directly to Christ. This we get during Mass. It comes at Adoration. It arrives when you offer praise to Him from the core of your being.

He must be standing right beside you.

"The Eucharistic celebration is also a time when you can ask Jesus to heal you emotionally of past hurts," points out evangelist healer Francis MacNutt in a book, taking us back to the link between illness and inner wounds. "You simply break down your life into several natural divisions of time, such as year by year, or by childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and so forth. At home, before Mass, spend some time writing down the blessings that you remember during that year, and then in another column, write down the painful things that wounded you, especially if they were connected with broken relationships, such as with parents or authority figures like teachers. When you are at Mass, make your special intention first of all a thanksgiving for all the good things that happened during that year. Then take the harmful things you listed and ask the Lord, especially as you receive Him in Communion, to bring inner healing to each one."

The laying-on-of-hands helps, when done while praying for the Holy Spirit, reciting the Rosary, speaking in tongues, or simply talking to God.

(Take precautions, however, to pray and fast before any laying-on-of-the-hands; discern whether to do it, and whether to allow others.)

The perfect prayer is simply to have Jesus -- God -- in mind without ceasing.

You too -- by your own prayer -- can be healed.

That's not so say there aren't folks who have the special gift of healing but rather to emphasize that with faith and persistence (underscore persistence) remarkable improvements are possible. "For example," wrote MacNutt, "we have seen instances in which the longer we prayed over a cancerous tumor, the more the growth seemed to grow smaller and softer while we prayed until, at last, the tumor was totally gone. How can it be that in the early Church (the first three hundred and fifty years), everyone prayed for the sick, but today most of us can't remember even our mothers or fathers praying with us when we were sick as children? Pope Benedict XVI actively encouraged Catholics to be baptized in the Spirit and to rediscover and experience the charisms, including healing. With over forty years of experience, I've seen thousands of sick people at least get better when we prayed, and some are totally healed. The most extraordinary thing of all is how much healing takes place. Once you actually see what happens to bless your family and friends when you pray, your life (and your family's life) will never be the same."

Jesus said, "Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin diseases, drive out devils" (Matthew 10:1, 7-8).

That was to the twelve apostles, but right after it came the same directive to the seventy-two disciples, who basically represent the rest of us.

Heal others. Heal thyself.

"All the marks characteristic of a true apostle have been at work among you: complete perseverance, signs, marvels, demonstrations of power," says 2 Corinthians 12:12.