DANBURY—Shortly after Father Lawrence Carew was ordained and assigned to St. Peter Church in Danbury in 1967, he learned that an 8-year-old altar server was sick with no hope of recovery.
“After I heard the news, it stayed with me that I had to pray for his healing,” he recalls. “I went to my room and spent a lot of time praying for him, and then at lunch I prayed for another hour.”
At 2 pm he went to see the boy in the hospital.
“He looked like a living skeleton,” Father said. “He had been diagnosed with diabetes and had such severe dehydration that by the time they discovered it, too much damage had been done, and they gave him no hope to live.”
He asked the boy’s mother if he could anoint him, but she said that a priest friend would give the boy the sacrament at the time of death. Nevertheless, Father walked over to the boy, prayed for his healing and anointed him.
When he returned to the hospital at 7 p.m., the boy was totally restored. The doctor, a non-Christian, said there was no explanation for his recovery and that it had to be a miracle.
The encounter taught Father an enduring lesson. The Sacrament of the Sick should be administered not just as a last rite or for those in danger of dying, but for anyone afflicted with illness.
The Second Vatican Council had recently concluded, and there was a new emphasis on the Sacrament of the Sick and healing prayer. In three different documents, the Council said the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today and should be used not just by clergy but also laypeople.
“That became a whole new lens through which I viewed my priesthood,” he said. “Simply by being a priest, I have gifts that I’m supposed to use. I prayed to receive the gifts that Jesus wanted to give me for healing. All priests have them, especially connected to the Sacrament of the Sick.”
Healing prayer has undergone a real change since the Second Vatican Council, Father said: “It has become more popular in the Catholic Church and beyond. It is a powerful adventure to bring people into a relationship with our Lord and give them healings and freedom from past hurts.”
Several years later, when he came into the Charismatic Renewal, Father found a movement where people were already praying for each other.
“The healing ministry of Jesus, which he exercised during his three years of ministry and also in the early Church with the apostles and missionaries, was always meant to be a central part of the mission of the Church,” Father Carew said. “From time to time, healing prayer gets lost in Church tradition, but then it gets renewed and revived. We live in a period when it is getting renewed and revived.”
This means that Jesus continues to heal people of what are considered hopeless illnesses and spiritual wounds.
Father Carew, who has a healing ministry in the prison system, has been active in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal since 1971 and was named spiritual adviser to the renewal in 1997. He has also served in several leadership positions in the national Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He is the author of several books and healing workshops, including “Six Simple Steps Into Healing Prayer.”
“Through healing prayer, we invite Christ to the places inside of us that are in pain, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Father says. “It is based on a trust that the Lord cares about those things and that there can be a solution through our relationship with him. I wrote ‘Six Simple Steps’ for use in parishes to bring people to authentic conversions. The purpose of the retreat is to bring evangelization to parishioners and get Catholics into a personal encounter with the Lord as Savior.”
Even though he wrote it as a Catholic priest, other Christians can use the retreat.
“I discovered after years of healing Masses that a lot of people come into powerful experiences, and even if they don’t get the physical healing, they know Jesus is there, touching them and giving them comfort.”
“Six Simple Steps” is based on Father’s 53-year ministry in healing prayer. The program includes teachings that help Christians reach healing of body, mind and spirit.
“There still remains widespread ignorance among many Christians, from a variety of backgrounds, of the availability and fruitfulness of this kind of prayer,” Father says. “Skeptical Christian believers and even non-believers have opened themselves to healing surprises when they have taken the risk of giving healing prayer a try. Christ, the source of such healing, is so often experienced as being truly close and really present. Such good news invites folks to take up the journey and be further evangelized.”
Father tells the story of a man who was suffering from severe lung cancer and came to a healing Mass at St. Joseph Church in Danbury 23 years ago at the suggestion of his niece. He had no religious formation, but told Father, “I’ll try anything.”
“Although he was agnostic, he knew from that Mass that the Lord was real,” Father recalled. “We prayed with him, and he had an awareness that Christ was there, loving him and forgiving him.”
Several months later, the man returned and even though his physical condition had not improved, he wanted to receive more blessings. After Mass, he told Father, “I probably won’t be living much longer, but would you baptize me and bring me into the Church?”
After several weeks, Father baptized and confirmed him and gave him his first Communion.
A year later, Father learned that the man had been healed of his cancer. Twenty-three years later, he discovered that not only had the man been healed but that he lived out the rest of his life giving witness to Christ.
“I was stunned to learn from his niece that there was so much more to his story,” Father said. “She overflowed with joy and shared examples of how his conversion to Christ had not only blessed him with many more years of healthy life, but also with many more years of his giving bold and unashamed witness of what Our Lord had done for him.”
The man’s message was simple and yet profound: “I didn’t know whether God was real or not. Loaded with lung cancer, I saw no reason why I shouldn’t give healing prayer a try. Jesus then not only let me know that he loved me, he also wanted to fill me with his love. He then went on to completely heal my lung cancer. He’s not just up there in Heaven. I now know, as well, that he’s really down here too, ready to bless us with blessings beyond imagination. Don’t miss out on it!”
Father said, “When people of faith and compassion cry out to Jesus on behalf of brothers and sisters who are in real need or in deep pain, Jesus shows up. Broken hearts get mended. Sinful hearts get cleansed. Tormented souls know peace. Wounds that seemed so permanent and unhealable just shrink and even disappear.”
“Six Simple Steps Into Healing Prayer” can be done individually or with a group. It offers presentations that discuss healing prayer through biblical wisdom and testimonies of Christ’s healing activity in lives today. At the end of each talk, there are prayers that people are encouraged to say.
“The deepest healing of all,” Father says, “is spiritual healing and coming to know we are loved by God and are children of God … and knowing this in a deep spiritual sense.”
To obtain copies of the “Six Simple Steps Into Healing Prayer” retreat, on DVD or the printed version, visit www.communityofthecross.com.
Father Carew is available to give healing retreats and Masses at parishes, and he will do follow-up with people to offer counseling and prayer at the Community of the Cross chapel in Danbury. For more information, call the Catholic Charismatic Renewal office at 203.456.5610.
