Recently I’ve had the great privilege of getting to know some ‘energy healers’ or ‘ complementary therapists’ or whatever other name we may know them as….psychics, mediums, Clairvoyants….weirdos, nut jobs, psychos ….children of God, human beings, people. God led me to one in particular and it’s been a great learning experience of respect and humility….thank you Aileen.

Coming from a very rigid Christian training, here are some of the things that I have observed…

I was very reluctant to have anything to do with people who practiced other forms of healing. I was very quick to condemn and judge them without getting to know them.

But as I pushed through this barrier I have learnt so much

1. These are beautiful people, many of whom have been through hell their own lives much like myself.

2. These people have a spiritual sensitivity that is not understood in the world….or the church

3. There is no place that I know of in the Catholic or wider Christian Church where these people would not be judged…..except one very small Church in Sydney Australia.

4. God would like us Christian’s to be equally open to His Holy Spirit and charisms…..indeed if we were, perhaps these people would find some of what they are looking for in Church….spirituality, training, mentoring and support in growing both spiritually and also in the use of spiritual gifts

5. Christians such as myself with similar giftings are no more welcome or understood in the institutional Church than other healers. The Holy Spirit and His charisms have been kicked out up at the top! Spiritually minded Christians are more tolerated than supported by the powers that be in the institutional Church.

So my prayer is

Dear Lord, help us open more and more to your Holy Spirit, forgive us for being so closed and fearful and narrowminded. Forgive us for not allowing your Holy Spirit to work through us and for not providing a safe place for spiritual seekers.

Holy Spirit, we have smothered and blocked you from working, by our control and pride we have shut the doors of the kingdom to the most sensitive ones. Forgive us for our arrogance. Bring us to our knees, open the doors. Teach us humility.

In more recent blogs I lamented the lack of knowledge regarding spiritual things in today’s Church. Today in his kindness, God gave me the reason through none other than an internationally renowned exorcist who is preaching in Ireland at the moment. …Fr Bing!!

Speaking about it as it is, Bing spoke of the terrible silence and lukewarmness of today’s Church.  He spoke especially about the corruption of many of our bishops and leaders.

He mentioned  4 c’s…
   Compromise which leads to
   Confusion which then leads to
   Corruption which causes
   Collapse of the faith

According to Bing, vast financial support for the Church comes from freemasons. Freemasons are not known for their love of Jesus or of their morality and so by accepting their help Bishops are comprised and silenced if they are not willing to forsake the financial gifts..

Money.. the root of all evil.

Might be a good moment to remind ourselves that Jesus was born in a manger and chose a life of poverty for a reason.

Further Bing went onto speak about the demonic realm and how God’s angels are ordered by God to follow commands from the faithful…..meaning that if a priest or person does not command it, the angels can’t act on their own. He then pointed out that many priests are forbidden to perform exorcisms by their corrupted bishops….basically giving evil spirits a free reign to do as they will.

It would appear that our compromises bishops are in desperate need of conversion and repentance, God will not tolerate their excuses.

My first experience at a Pentecostal Church was in Sydney. What hit me the most was the freedom of the Holy Spirit to move!  Everybody seemed to know about living by faith, prophesy, deliverance, angels, demons, the spirit world, inner healing…..I was able to share my testimony with this wonderful group of people and it was normal, the name of Jesus was praised and we had supper…

So why then in my home Church, the Catholic Church was I silenced ….why were my spiritual gifts treated like a mental illness? Why was I cast aside, ignored, disbelieved and mocked by my own? Why was I threatened to be thrown out if I spoke up…..All from my home Church who boast of having the full truth….

But tell me, what is more important… to have the truth or to live the truth? There is no point in writing a thesis on God and not understanding the basics of spirituality nor is there any point quoting the catechism or the Church magesterium at a poor person who is only hanging onto life and is in dire need of prayer. Nor will antidepressants heal inner wounds no more than anti-psychotics will remove demons; not to mention other charisms of the Holy Spirit which are often misjudged and thought to be an evil spirit…… and so instead of being trained in how to exercise their gifts people are sent into guilt and shame and confusion…..

I am still very much a part of the Catholic Church but when it comes to talking about spirituality and the things of the spirit I have no choice but to go to my Pentecostal friends. Besides a handful, most Catholics will either think that I’m some sort of mystic or that I’m a mental case to be avoided if I speak of my spiritual giftings. In reality I’m neither! I’m a normal person with some spiritual gifts and need love and support the same as anybody.

Sadly I meet so many Catholics in desperate need of healing…but helas, their unbelief means that I can’t help them.

Dear Lord, teach us Catholics humility, we don’t know everything, we have become very rational….rekindle our fire, open the eyes of our hearts to the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Restore my life, my dignity, my heart and my family from this ordeal. Amen

After looking at the ABC report last night, I think that the biggest question for the average person out there is who or what to believe nowadays?!

On one hand we have the professionals world and on the other we have the Church.

The professional world claim that they have all the answers, yet one need only visit a psychiatric hospital to see that this is not the case. The reality is that one of the highest rate of mental illness and suicide occurs with psychiatrists themselves. There are of course many people who have been helped by psychiatry also and this too can be seen as God’s blessing.

On the other hand, we need only visit a church and observe all the broken people there to see that the Church does not have all the answers either, and many church leaders suffer greatly from mental illness also. However within the Church we do find some people who have experienced the power of God in there own lives in a very personal way. Many of these people (including myself) have been transformed by God in a way that science cannot understand.

And so where is the middle ground? Well I believe that there is no magic solution to fix suffering either in the professional world or in the Church. In many cases the professional world cuts out the spiritual side to the human person and God’s power to heal while it could be argued that some churches cut out the professional input relying too much on direct intervention from God, the ‘pray it away’ mentality.

It appears that the solution is in coming to a deeper level of understanding of the human person, spirit, mind and body and all of us working and cooperating together.

There is no reason to be afraid of spirituality, in fact we should be more afraid of not understanding it because it affects us all! The more we understand our bodies the more we can look after them, similarly with our minds, and the same goes for our spirits. Then and only then can we become really ‘whole’!

I pray for the day that the professional world will integrate spirituality into their formation. I also pray for a greater formation within the Church in this area. In the meantime, be careful who you go to if you need help and whose advice you listen to.

Come Lord Jesus.

Michael