Praying for the Sick -- the Principle and the Practice

Ernest Holmes wrote that if you see a sick person in a hospital room, you should turn around and walk out. It doesn't seem like a very compassionate and caring attitude for the founder of our organization to have, but its meaning is profound. If you see sickness, you can never perceive health.

It is the same idea as turning completely away from the issue.

When praying for someone to recover from an illness, you must learn to look with your spiritual eyes and see the perfection, wholeness, vitality and life in the person. As practitioners we train ourselves to see with God's eyes, then we can only see God or Good. Think of what happens when you love someone. You notice everything about them and you describe it as good.

A similar thing occurs when a practitioner visits someone in the hospital. We have taught ourselves to see the Divinity in the person, even though they may be struggling to catch their next breath. The principle states that we learn to see their wholeness, not their brokenness.

This is a relatively easy principle to grasp, but, when it comes to practicing the principle, it may prove a bit more difficult.

Recently, I have made several visits to the hospital and there have been times when I was challenged to see past the physical manifestation to the spiritual truth of the person. Eventually I get there. It helps me to remember that the physical body is an effect of consciousness. It helps me to remember that each one of us is eternal beings but that the physical body will wear out. Death is the Universal Way to slip out of the physical body. Death of the body is inevitable. As the Buddhists say, "Everything is impermanent."

Something that has helped me over the years is to see the beauty and truth of the person BEFORE they are making that last journey.

And when the loved one passes, it is more than acceptable to grieve, to feel sadness and all the possible feelings that accompany grief. It would be strange if you didn't feel sad when a friend leaves us.

When we did Wise Women weekend, we almost always did some processes for self-love. Until you love and accept yourself, you will have a hard time really loving and accepting others. We often did a process using the words of the song, "How Could Anyone" written in 1988 by Libby Roderick.  Each woman would sing the song to her partner, and then she would pick up a hand mirror and sing to herself. As I was searching for the perfect version to share with you, I found this one, the San Francisco Gay men's chorus. My hunch is that many of these gorgeous men were told hat they were anything but beautiful. I need a tissue to watch it.

Wholeness Revealed as Scars are Healed

Sister Kathy and I

In preparation for Altogether Day this coming Sunday, I have been watching the movie "Frozen." The movie explores many themes including the true love between sisters and how actions can be misinterpreted. I began thinking that our deep emotional scars may not have been incurred through a parent's angry words, or a teacher's frustrated statements, but through a siblings's inexplicable actions. When I was a little girl, and even today, my older sister was my role model. I wanted to be just like her. I especially wanted her approval for my activities.

When I was in kindergarten, our class was doing a version of the "The Hokey Pokey" for our annual Christmas concert. The auditorium was crowded with adults and children. Evidently my sister had been teasing me that I would forget the lyrics or more likely put the wrong foot in. When the rest of the children filed off, I when to the front of the stage and peered down at her and asked, "Wasn't I good Kathryn?" She was in 5th grade and was angry that all eyes were on her. She didn't speak to me on the drive home. Of course, I was heartbroken.

That incident held the seed to the biggest belief that I had to overcome on the way to being a platform minister. What I had to get to was the awareness that if I was pleased with what I said or did, then it didn't matter at all whether others approved or not.

Recently when I spent time with sister, she told me how much she regretted being embarrassed and angry. All these years later, those were words I wanted to hear. Wholeness was revealed and scars of the past were healed.

In "Frozen" Elsa, the older sister has magical powers that become uncontrolled when she is upset. Her parents teach her to "conceal, not feel." They did it for her good and the safety of her sister, but it is among the worst pieces of advice I have ever heard. From it, her sister thought that she was no longer loved; that they were no longer friends.

The movie has a beautiful ending in which the true love that sisters have for one another is the healing power of life itself. 

In a way, all of us have the power to heal or to hurt. Our "magic" is in the words we use and the actions we take.

I Love Myself The Way I Am

Louise Hay, international bestselling author, coaches people to do mirror work. She asks her clients to look into their own eyes and state, "I love and approve of myself just the way I am." She says do it three or four hundred times a day especially if you want to heal something in your life.

I discovered Louise Hay before I became a minister. I saw her and the singing trio Alliance at a convention somewhere in the 80's.

I bought her books and her tapes. Yes, they were tapes then. I loved her voice. It is so soothing, calming. It felt to me like pure love.

This month, we are paying tribute to Louise's work; our theme for the month is based on her best-seller, You Can Heal Your Life. My topic this week is Mental Equivalents, which means the thought or belief which caused the illness in the first place and more importantly, the new belief which will heal your life.

Back of everything is the idea, that we must love ourselves unconditionally. 

When you look in the mirror do you compliment yourself and praise yourself? Many metaphysicians do this. They are living happy, healthy, loving lives. But we have been trained to do the opposite. WE have learned to critique ourselves, to measure as not good enough.

One of the many techniques, Louise offers is to see yourself as a small child under six years old, unsure and yearning for love. Would you harshly criticize this beautiful soul for not getting it right. for making mistakes? I believe you would be compassionate and kind. That is exactly what we need to do for ourselves too. I did a great deal of work on myself and recognize that there is still more to do.


The group Alliance sang at the gatherings that she had for people dying of AIDS. (Many people lived despite the dire predictions.)  I believe that learning to love themselves was key to their healing. The lyrics of I Love Myself the Way I Am, written by Jai Josephs are:

I love myself the way I am, there's nothing I need to change. 

I'll always be the perfect me, there's nothing to rearrange. 

I'm beautiful and capable, of being the best me I can. 

And I love myself, just the way I am. 

I love you the way you are, there's nothing you need to do. 

When I feel the love inside, it's easy to love you. 

Behind your fears, your rage and tears, I see your shining star. 

And I love you, just the way your are. 

I love the world the way it is, cause I can clearly see. 

That all the things I judge are done, by people just like me. 

So 'til the birth of peace on earth, that only love can bring. 

I'll help it grow, by loving everything. 

I love myself the way I am, and I still want to grow. 

But change outside can only come, when deep inside I know. 

I'm beautiful and capable, of being the best me I can. 

And I love myself, just the way I am.

I am including a video of Louise Hay's powerful affirmations. You, too, can heal your life!

Balance is Natural To Those Who Know Their Perfect Wholeness

Our Natural State of Being

Our daily journal today is entitled Balance. In it the authors write on this day: 

"Spirituality is as strong as it is soft.There is a place for power and for surrender in your spirituality. Do not be fooled. Strength is required to say YES to our dreams and NO to our dysfunction.Unleash the power of Spirit as you!Let it flow through you and be the core of strength within you. "

Then they ask: "Where do you need to stand strong and firm in your life?Where do you need to practice flowing and yielding?" 

 Today I was gently reminded that it would be good for me to release some tasks so that Spirit could flow through me more easily. When I discussed this idea with my sounding board, Rev. Pattie Mercado, she suggested that I make a list of things I do in a week; then look  to see if there are tasks that don't need to be done by me. My first response was, "I don't have time for one more thing." 

Really? Even if that one more thing would not only help you but also would help our Center? What am I resisting? It could be that my day is filled with the urgent and unimportant rather than the important. 

The next question I ask myself is "Who arranges your day?" The answer is "I do!"

In that case, I likely have time to diarize my activities. I have time to evaluate each one to see if it essential and important or if it is reactionary and unimportant.

Synonyms for dysfunctional include flawed, broken, decayed, defective,unfit and sick. These words do NOT correspond favorably to someone who knows her oneness with Perfect Wholeness, Divine Mind and Perfect Love. I feel dysfunctional when I am reacting to situations rather than directing mt attention to Source.

So what practices could I embrace in order to have a greater experience of Wholeness in my life? I could relax with a perfect cup of tea and contemplate my unity with source. I could look lovingly at how I spend the precious moments and hours in my day. I could delegate tasks that do not need to be mine to someone else. 

When I put my attention on the Truth of my being such as Perfect Wholeness all pressures to "measure up" are released. To what could the Source of all Life, compare Itself ?