“…Church is a hospital. The model of a courtroom or a business or even a social club is misguided and lacks the heart and the purpose of why Jesus Christ has founded His Church, His beloved bride. It exists to be a place of healing and life for every one that enters through the doors, because assuredly, everyone that enters through those doors is sick.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
“The Holy Fathers say that the Church is a hospital for both the spirit and the soul, and healing both your body and soul requires time and effort. One pill cannot cure a chronic physical disease. The soul is the same in principle.” (Priest Alexei Taakh)
“When we are tempted to such fearful despair, we must remember that the man in today’s gospel reading [John 5:1-15] would never have been able to walk had he insisted on remaining as he had been for thirty-eight years out fear, habit, or any other motivation. Lying still for a long time inevitably makes us weak and unable to move. The same will remain true of us spiritually if we do not undertake the struggle to receive the healing of the Lord by serving Him as faithfully as we presently have the strength to do. The more accustomed we become to any sin, and especially the more we accept the lie that embracing that sin is somehow part of freely becoming our true selves, the weaker we will become before it. The longer we insist on remaining enslaved to our passions, the less inclination we will have to offer the deepest desires of our hearts for purification through the Savior Who died and rose again. As the God-Man, Christ Himself is the healing, restoration, and fulfillment of the human person. Entrusting ourselves to Him requires that we refuse to remain paralyzed before our sins and instead take the tiny steps that we can today to open ourselves to the holy strength that has overcome even death itself.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Within my experience, in the many cases of the treatment of addictions, there was always a point (indeed, often many points) of crisis – a point where moving forward required pain (on many levels). Health and wholeness cannot be found in an endless pursuit of pleasure and in the avoidance of pain. Because all of this is true, great care must be taken in the therapeutic work of the Church. We do not pursue pain for the sake of pain. Kindness, gentleness, empathy – co-suffering – are all required in the fearful work of a soul’s journey through the Cross. But there remains no path to wholeness that is not a path through the Cross.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Was your heart broken in the last year by a death, a lost friendship, lost income, a crippling illness, or perhaps by your own moral failure or that of someone close to you? Christ can heal us and strengthen us. We need only enter our hearts to find Him and ask that He touch us (Is 61:1). Christ our Savior liberates (vs. 1). There are many forms of bondage: fear; addictions to drugs, alcohol, food, and lust; cravings for success, popularity, and good looks. Give your passion over to Him, whatever it may be. Confess it, and He will release you from chains on your soul.” (Dynamis 9/1/2022)
“ ‘Jesus answered them, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.’ (Luke 5:31). Jesus’ point is that He associates with those who are sick because they have the need and will respond to the offer of help. A person who is well (or who thinks mistakenly that he is) will not seek treatment.” (NET Bible, Luke 5:31)
“True Christianity is not a system of beliefs, rituals, and morals through which we seek to gain spiritual or temporal benefits. It is not a form of legalism by which we hope to receive what we have earned from God, whether in this life or in the life of the world to come. A faith the chief symbol of which is the Cross is not about achieving anything merely by our own power. It provides, instead, a calling to become so receptive to the healing presence of the Holy Spirit that we behold the glory of the Lord and see all the joys and struggles of this life as they truly are before Him.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Can I tell you the secret to receiving this great gift of immortality and healing and all of the treasures of Christ through the Church? You receive them by identifying with the paralytic. When you read or hear the gospels you have to identify with the one who is sick and needs healing. You have to not only agree with his condition. You have to agree with the cause. The cause of most of your problems isn’t economic or political. If you want to see the cause you have to look at your sins and your own lack of love. There is great power in the admission that we are the ones that are sick. There is great power in admitting that we need others to help carry us to Christ. There is great power in being vulnerable in our hearts.” (Fr. James Guirguis)
“…‘healing’ is removing any obstacles to God being the Lord of our lives. We need to remove anything in our hearts that prevents the Holy Spirit from working in us. ‘Repentance’ is the first healing we need to allow God access to our hearts and minds. This is how each of us prepares the way of the Lord: by removing every obstacle in our hearts which prevents God from uniting Himself to us. Our hearts, minds and souls are full of all kinds of spiritual detritus and debris that we have picked up along our way in life.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“I recently read an article that contrasted modernity’s “therapeutic” model with a pursuit of the “truth.” Modernity’s therapy is often devoid of truth, being focused on the temporary and its immediate pleasure. This does not deserve the term “therapeutic.” It is malpractice…What is truly “therapeutic” cannot be divorced from the truth. Indeed, what is truly therapeutic is our reconciliation with the truth of our being. Christ does not make us to be other than who we truly are – but he reveals to us and in us the reality which we are created to be. The loss of our delusions (and all of their dragon suits) comes at the Cross and in the depths of the healing waters of the font.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The Christian life is not easy, but it actually is simple. When we clearly understand what sin and holiness are, then our choice to turn away from sin and be holy becomes clear, too. As we are tempted to sin, we should remember the words of Jesus, that our sin will bring us into paralysis and worse, because sin is participation with the alien demonic power that destroys human nature. And as we see opportunities to be faithful to the holiness of God, then we see that this faithfulness becomes for us the conduit of the healing grace of God. Through faithfulness, we participate in the energies of God, and the human person is restored and elevated.” (Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick)
“Pursuing the path to the healing of our souls requires uniting ourselves personally to our Lord’s Cross as we embrace the restoration and fulfillment that He worked by offering Himself upon it. Because we fall short of doing so time and time again, we must all make regular use of the Holy Mystery of Confession as we name and repent of the ways in which we have not denied ourselves, taken up our crosses, and followed the Savior. In order to acquire the spiritual health to receive His Body and Blood for our salvation, and not for judgment or condemnation, we need the forgiveness and strength that the great High Priest shares with us through the ministries of His Body, the Church. Confession is not optional…but a necessity.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“More than ever, it has become clear to me that our healing (and thus our salvation on the most practical level) flows from our face-to-face encounter with Christ. This is primarily something that happens within the heart, within the deepest levels of the soul. At the same time, it has been ever more clear to me that the deepest levels of the soul are frequently clouded and distorted. As St. Paul notes, “we see as through a mirror, dimly” (1 Cor. 13:12). “Cleaning the mirror” is an image used by St. Gregory of Nyssa in a description of the spiritual life. It is the fruit of repentance.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Sometimes we have to be patient with ourselves before we are able to approach Christ in prayer, seeking His mercy. We have to remove all obstacles in our life which prevent God from healing us before we will experience God’s life-giving power…In seeking healing of soul and body, when our bodies and lives are beat up to the point where the soul can’t take another step because the air is thin and is not going to get any better, this is where we must reach out to God…for the strength to take that one more step.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh, Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis)
“To meet God is both arresting and healing. Why is this so? Because when we meet the One who is everything we are not, He draws us to become what we were created to be.” (Dynamis 11/1/2020)
“True healing penetrates beyond the bone to the soul and heals the deepest wounds of our hearts—those wounds where a pill can’t help and a scalpel can’t cut. Our spiritual wounds keep us enslaved to our fear and delusion, make us selfish and stingy, and divide and isolate us from others.” (Father Barnabas Powell)
"Few of us would ignore a doctor’s medical advice in the face of a terrible disease, and yet too many of us are less concerned with the sickness of our souls. In reality a diseased body has a limited effect whereas the soul’s ill health has eternal ramifications. Once we recognize that we are sick we must run to the Physician." (Father Spyridon Baily)
“In sickness and, in general, during bodily infirmity, as well as in affliction, a man cannot in the beginning burn with faith and love for God, because in affliction and sickness the heart aches, whilst faith and love require a sound heart, a calm heart. This is why we must not very much grieve if during sickness and affliction we cannot believe in God, love Him, and pray to Him fervently as we ought to everything has its proper time.” (St. John of Krondstat)
“It’s not wrong to ask God to heal your disease. In this context, there’s only a problem if you desire an attribute of God, and don’t desire God Himself. In plain speech: If you don’t want to know or serve God, yet you want Him to heal you, there’s a problem. The problem is that God’s heart burns with a passion for you to know Him. He wants your knowledge of Him to create a love for Him so great in your heart, that it becomes nearly impossible for you to not serve Him.” (Eric M. Hill)
“Our greatest need goes beyond mere physical healing. We must believe in Jesus as Lord, and commit ourselves to Him. Our need for salvation outweighs any need for relief from physical ills.” (Dynamis 5/2/2018)
“Christ, through prayer, scripture, worship, and charity, becomes the daily vitamin that keeps us healthy, that keeps us from falling spiritually sick. At those times when we are spiritually sick, Christ becomes the medicine that heals us from our spiritual sickness…Christ gives us life and delivers us from the many tombs in which we find ourselves stuck.” (Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis, Dynamis 4/13/2018)
“For a man to be truly healed he must allow something entirely different from himself to enter into his consciousness and change him…healing occurs according to one’s faith…Faith itself does not heal—it is the proper object of that faith, Jesus, who heals.” (Robert A. Johnson, Orthodox Study Bible, Mark 8:22-26, Foundation Study Bible, Mark 5:34)
“Jesus is still able to heal people who are suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and we can be the ones who bring suffering people to Him... You can bring them to Jesus through prayer or through explaining to them the reason for the hope that you have...Then let Christ do the healing.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 29-31)
“As God is Life, and diseases and maladies are a deviation from life, therefore the touch alone of the first Source of Life cures us of them. This is why the Saviour, Who is the Life of all, cured and still cures men by His touch alone.” (St. John of Krondstadt)
“As we seek Christ and grow in Him, healing, or restoration of our condition from sin and its effects, is simply a natural consequence of this growth. The restoration Christ did in the Gospels to those He healed from sin and/or sickness is a glimpse of the final restoration God promises in the Bible when creation is restored as it should be to include our bodies, minds and souls.” (Sacramental Living)
“God essentially wills that human beings should grow in divine being and life forever. In this sense, God does not will sickness, suffering, or death for His human creatures. He wills them only the life, health, and happiness that come with their being in communion with Him.” (Father Thomas Hopko)
“Our greatest need goes beyond mere physical healing…Our need for salvation outweighs any need for relief from physical ills.” (Dynamis 5/6/2015)
“When we are a healing presence to others, we are, in some sense, a healing presence to Christ Himself, who resides in others. Better said, Christ is the healing presence in us who moves through us to heal others...every person is called to be a healing presence—that is, to love others.” (Albert S. Rossi)
"We are created with spiritual, psychological, and physical dimensions, and sin ravages all three. The Lord Jesus affirms the importance of physical means for ministering to those who are ill, no matter the type of illness.” (Dynamis 8/28/2014)
“A few years ago, after a hip replacement, I decided I needed to strengthen my body to give support to the other hip and to fight off the arthritis that was starting to weaken my knee joints. I was surprised at how quickly my muscle tone returned, and I remembered the truism that muscles have memory. The soul is like that. Just as muscles rebuild themselves when we make the effort to exercise, so too the soul is quickly restored to health when we avail ourselves of the healing grace that abounds within the Church.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“Jesus told the people to keep quiet about his healings because He did not want to be known only as a miracle worker. He healed because He had compassion on people, but He also wanted to bring spiritual healing to a sin-sick world.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 9:30)
"Although some extraordinary men and women have attained marvelous degrees of sanctity in this life, total spiritual healing for human beings is rarely, if ever, completed on earth. This is even more the case in regard to physical, psychological, and emotional healing, though some people have attained remarkable measures of healing before their deaths.” (Father Thomas Hopko)
"We must strengthen ourselves by truly realizing that the God of the Universe is the God who dwells within us. When we begin to enter into our interior universe, we will find how close we are to our healing. God has given us all things; we need only remove from our inner selves what is not of God." (Metropolitan Joseph)
“…divine grace opens hearts and minds to life and healing... disbelief will obscure God’s healing presence.” (Dynamis 7/18/2014)
“Christ can make a difference when it seems too late for anyone else to help. He can bring healing to broken relationships, release from addicting habits, and forgiveness and healing to emotional scars..." (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 9:23-26)
"All healing, whether physical or spiritual, finds its source in Christ.” (Dynamis 3/16/2014)
"When we declare ourselves to be disciples of Christ, we claim that we want Him to cure our spiritual and moral disease. Yet in truth we want Him to relieve the symptoms, such as misery, discontent, despair, and so on. Jesus, by contrast, knows that He cannot relieve these symptoms unless He overcomes their deep, inner cause. And this is where the problems arise. While we would like to be rid of the symptoms, we stubbornly resist the efforts of Jesus to penetrate our souls. We do not want our deep-set feelings and attitudes to be changed. But only when we truly open our souls to the transforming grace of God will the symptoms of spiritual disease begin to disappear." (St. John Chrysostom)
"In terms of our faith and how it relates to healing, we have to be discerning too. Often physical healing is not the healing that takes place in our life or circumstance. St. Paul, for all of his greatness, did not receive physical healing from the"thorn in his flesh” (2 Corinthians 12). But what he did receive was grace that enabled him to have a powerful spirit for God, grow in Christ, and complete his mission according to God’s will. Physical healing is not the full measure of God’s power and love.” (Sacramental Living)
“...people recognized Jesus as a great healer....They came to Jesus for physical healing, but did they come for spiritual healing? They came to prolong their lives on earth, not to seek eternal life. People may follow Jesus to learn valuable lessons from His life or in hopes of finding relief from pain. But we miss Jesus’ whole message if we seek Him only to heal our bodies but not our souls, if we look to Him for help only in this life, rather than for His eternal plan for us.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 14:35,36)
“The Church...has given us the methods of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, etc. as a means of helping to restore our spiritual health. These are not attempts to earn merit or reward before God, but rather therapeutic exercises.” (Clark Carlton)
“Healing requires the faith of the Church even more than individuals alone. We see how infants depend, through their godparents, on the faith of the Church. The sacrament of holy unction requires the reading of seven gospels by seven priests, for the number seven expresses the need for the wholeness of the Church gathered to her Lord.” (Dynamis 3/16/2014)
“The generosity of God exceeds every human notion of unselfishness, for He enters into the worst of the human condition with His healing love.” (Dynamis 4/16/2014)
“God is love and He created man to live in an eternal communion of love with Him. However, love cannot be compelled. It must be free. Therefore, if man is to be healed of his spiritual sickness – his pride and egoism – then he must cooperate with God.” (Clark Carlton)
"When we recognize that the world does not revolve around our own desires and needs, we discover that we can be a healing presence to others.” (Christine Valters Paintner)
"We must be careful not to concentrate more on God’s power to heal physical sickness than on his power to forgive spiritual sickness in the form of sin.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 9:2)
“…life in Christ is a healing process. Our healing, however, begins only after we obey His commands…to embrace healing demands courage…Paradoxically, our commitment to the Lord Jesus in order to gain healing often begins with pain [and the need for repentance]….The healing which follows from repentance comes through communion with God.” (Dynamis 7/12/2014)
“The Lord Jesus connects faith with health…When our Lord sends out the disciples and commands them to preach the kingdom of heaven, He pays special attention to healing…God knows how sick we are in body, soul, and spirit. It is primarily for this reason that He joins Himself to our race irrevocably for our salvation.” (Dynamis 7/19/2014)
“…we humans are at the same time physical, psychological, and spiritual beings. As a result, our healing often involves all three aspects of our nature. From the Lord Jesus’ healing of the paralytic, we learn that the spirit is the most significant dimension of our nature. Within the heart our relationship with God either flourishes or withers. For this reason, our Lord Jesus’ first act is to forgive the paralytic’s sins.” (Dynamis 7/20/2014)
"...anybody in any tragic condition can be salvaged and brought to wholeness and health today…By faith in Christ, we can break addictions, heal memories, and restore broken relationships. If we ask Christ to take control of our lives, He will answer us. His love reaches even those who have rebelled against Him.” (Donald M. Joy, Life Application Study Bible, Psalms 107:17-29)
"If God does not heal us or someone we love, we need to remember that physical healing is not Christ’s only concern.” (Life Application Study Bible, Matthew 9:2)
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