Jon preached on healing today in his sermon and suggested to Bill (his supervisor) that we have healing services after all the normal church services. Bill OK’ed it and there were probably 10-20 people that stayed after each service and went to the chapel for the healing service. I went to the one after the 10:45 service, since I’d really like healing from my depression and from this nasty virus that is refusing to leave my body. I managed not to cry when they were laying hands on me and anointing me with the olive oil and I was very thankful that it was just straight olive oil. (The dean of the chapel at Trinity usually mixes in a ton of lavender or rosemary oil and you smell like an herb garden for the rest of the day. Those were the days I showered immediately after chapel.) I think that we’ll start doing it a lot more frequently, especially since a good portion of the congregation is senior citizens and many people are dealing with flus and colds right now.

The reason I would probably have cried is that having hands laid upon you is a really humbling experience as it opens you up to a power that is beyond your comprehension. I remember praying for people in college and being prayed over and you start crying, regardless of how calm you were going in. At the seminary, we do healing services quarterly, if not monthly, and grown men and women will break down in tears in the line to be prayed over and anointed. I thought it was one of the better attended days in chapel because a lot of people would stay after for this experience. It’s something that I would love to do when I am a parish pastor someday because the Christian faith deals with the body as well as the soul. The healing effect of this is usually just psychological, but then again, many illnesses have some psycho-somatic causes.