HEALING MASS

Masses are held on the first Thursday of the month for 2023. In 2024, the Masses will be the first Thursday in March, June, September and December.

Join us at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rock Island for a special Mass for healing intentions.

5:30 p.m. - Adoration and Confession
6:30 p.m. - Mass and Anointing

Your individual prayers are important to us. We will have a Prayer Box for you to write out your prayer intentions and we will bless and pray for those during Mass.

The sacraments of healing are Penance and Anointing of the Sick. They help Christian life by mediating God’s forgiveness and healing. They also reconcile the Christian with God and the Church, remit the punishment due to sin, restore the Christian in charity, and give spiritual strength, peace, and consolation.

Adoration renews the mind, confession cleans the soul, Mass feeds and nourishes the body and anointing gives strength to endure.

“The motto I give you is this: Frequent and sincere confession; frequent and devout Communion.” St. Don Bosco

• Psalm 103:2-3 “Bless the Lord, my soul; do not forget the gifts of God:

  Who pardons all your sins; who heals your ills,”

• Psalm 147:3 - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

• Psalm 41:4 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed, allays their malady when they are ill.

• Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones.

• James 5:13-15 “Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he’s forgiven.

God reveals Himself to us when we are close to Him and hold Him in reverence. When we adore God daily, we invite Him into our hearts, and He brings healing and restoration into our lives. Being in His presence renews our strength and helps us grow in our faith in Jesus Christ.

• Romans 12:2 Do not conform yourselves to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

• Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage.

• Romans 8:6 The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.

Knowledge of the soul helps us understand the repentance process described in the Bible. Many people do not understand how damaging sin is, and what kind of impact it has on the soul. Sin disconnects us from God, but we can re-connect to God through obedience by faith. When we ask for His help, through the merit of Jesus and through our obedience, He allows us to work the process of reconnecting to Him through repentance. When you truly live repentance out, your confession does heal your soul.

• John 20:22-23 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained,”

• Matthew 18:18 Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

• 1 John 1:9 If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.

• 1 Corinthians 2:10 Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ.

• 1 Corinthians 5:18 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and given us the ministry of reconciliation.

• Luke 5:24 But that you may know the son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

The comparison between bodily nourishment and the Eucharist gives us a clear illustration of the Eucharist’s healing effects. The provision of bodily nourishment is essential to the practice of health care. While food and water are not, properly speaking, medicine, they are necessary to the maintenance and restoration of bodily health. The Eucharist has a similar purpose. It nourishes, maintains and restores charity to a person’s soul.

The Eucharist brings about spiritual healing by cleansing us from sin and restoring us in charity. In the Catechism, this effect of the Eucharist is compared to the effect of natural food. “As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this living charity wipes away venial sins” (CCC 1394).

The Eucharist is needed to maintain the soul’s health, to strengthen its “immune system” to fend off minor ailments and to prevent serious illness in the first place. 

• Luke 22:19-20 Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body , which will be given up for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”

• 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break , is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

• John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

• John 6:51-58 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

Anointing with oil is a sacrament called the Anointing of the Sick. It is performed by a priest and involves anointing the forehead and hands of the sick with blessed oil in the form of a cross.  The purpose of this sacrament is to provide spiritual and physical healing to the person who is suffering from illness or infirmity.  The use of oil in this sacrament symbolizes the healing power of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is believed that through this sacrament, God gives grace and strength to bear illness or infirmity. 

• Luke 4:18 The spirit of the lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

• Mark 6:13 – They anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

• Exodus 30:32 – The Lord said, it shall not be used in any ordinary anointing of the body, nor may you make any other oil of a like mixture. It is sacred, and shall be treated as sacred by you.

• Hebrews 1:9 - Thou hast loved justice, and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.