Recipe For Healing Our Families Found In Forgiveness, Perseverance, Holy Water

By Michael H. Brown

The majority of times that people ask for prayer, priests will tell you, it is prayer for their families. All of us have concerns about spouses, children, parents, siblings, and grandparents. "When praying with people, I have found that 60 percent of them request prayer for their families," notes Father Robert DeGrandis, an American priest who recently held a retreat in Bolivia that was attended by 42,000.

Father DeGrandis, who is our bestselling author when it comes to inspirational booklets, has written another in which he addresses the issue of intercession for families and advises that "the first way of healing the family is by intense, personal prayer." We have all heard about the "prayers of a mother." They are often miraculous. Why? Because they are intense, notes the priest.

When we want results, we have to pray likewise. In fact Father DeGrandis has found that "the prayers of parents are always answered in some beautiful way" -- even if it is after the praying parent has passed on, which often happens!

The first major step, then: praying from the heart, praying with real focus and energy.

Then there is the issue of tenacity. "We must persevere in prayer," notes Father DeGrandis. We can not just flip off one Our Father. We have to pray with our hearts and keep at it. And we pray best, he adds, after receiving Communion. "A novel but effective way of interceding for family members is through imagery. To do this we hold our hands out and imagine that the person is in our hand, and we hold this person up to the Lord and pray for him. We just pray as best we can, any way we are led to pray. The result may be surprising."

If we want our prayers to be heard, or desire healings for ourselves, we also have to make sure the way has been cleared with forgiveness. Intercession can be blocked if we have not forgiven someone of whatever he or she did to hurt us. He offers what he calls the forgiveness prayer. This is very important, notes the world-traveled priest. "Health is partly the result of recurrent forgiveness," says Father DeGrandis. "Conversely, illness can come from unforgiveness. It's like a bulldozer paving through the jungle of our emotions."

If we feel that lack of forgiveness is holding back someone we love, we can pray the forgiveness prayer for them, says Father DeGandius, and this may effect the healing. Lack of forgiveness causes negative energies "and those negative energies can surface as mental, psychological, or physical illnesses," notes the priest.

If someone in our family is involved in drugs, an obsession, homosexuality, a crime, or a perversion of any sort, then we should seek out prayers of spiritual warfare, says Father DeGrandis, author of more than thirty booklets. Send the Holy Spirit into the rooms of loved ones when they are sleeping, he advises. Let the Spirit fill the chasm between the love they have received and the love they need. This too heals. Lay on hands while in prayer, if the family member is amenable. Invite Jesus right into the room. Go back in time and pray about the mother's situation at the time she gave birth to whatever child may be having problems. Negativity during birth and pregnancy can have long-ranging effects, claims the priest.

Go back with the timeless Spirit of God and ask for healing. Get television sets out of bedrooms. This can very negatively influence a child.

Other tips? Envision the person you are praying for as happy.

Hold that person as a picture of health.

This bolsters our faith.

And pray prayers of prevention. Seal your family against infiltration of evil and the "spirit of infirmity" at this time when there is so much disease. "In the Name of Jesus, I seal myself, my relatives and friends, my home, my workplace, my automobile and all sources of supply in the Precious Blood of Jesus," is a prayer Father DeGrandis recommends in his book -- adding that it should be repeated three times in honor of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And, says Father DeGrandis, don't forget the sacramentals, especially at this time of year.

"We can never use too much Holy Water," says the priest. "We should sprinkle it in our homes as often as we can, at least once a month. We will be amazed at the peace that comes into our homes. Let's sprinkle it on our cars too, for protection against accidents. When I travel, I take my Holy Water bottle with me. I bless my room in the hotel. One woman said her husband was using bad language, so she started using blessed salt and his language got cleaned up. Other people go into the rooms of their children and anoint the doors with holy oil, asking the Lord to protect against anything evil going into the room."

In this age when our children are exposed to so much evil, when they have the music and computers and televisions whirring -- when those and rock posters can allow entry for demonic elements -- it is critical to counteract it with the precious sacramentals our Church has so wisely bequeathed.

Most of all, let us love. This is the highest release of God's power and it is this power and none other that heals, purifies, and washes evil from our midst, and protects us, in one flow of the Spirit -- Who is Love Itself.

When we have love, which is God, how can anything come against us?