When to have a communion
ceremony? Whenever a healing needs to take place; a healing of the body
or the mind. Some are fraught
with feelings of rejection, depression, unworthiness, etc.
All these can be helped by
the prayers of others and the communion ceremony adds great power and effectiveness
for good for the one prayed about.
Dr. McAll states that."sometimes
more than one and in one case seven ceremonies were needed to bring a release.
In my experience only one is usually required to release a lost baby. Repeated
services may be necessary to release an adult in more need of love and
forgiveness. It depends on how much love the dead person needs and how
much the living are willing to give. The deeper the wound, the more love
is needed.
"This can be given in one
Eucharist
prayed with deep love or a hundred Eucharists prayed routinely.
"As our love grows we shall
come to the Eucharist asking Emmanuel the Christ 'How do you want to love
through me today?' Often He will not wish us to focus on the dead but will
lead us to pray for someone who is sick and burdened, to forgive an insensitive
friend, to ask for guidance on how to reach out to a poor neighbor or
simply to praise and thank the Father for His generosity.
"During the time of the offering
of the gifts.(of
the wine and bread).in
communion. sometimes we can picture the person whom God is healing.
"Seven of us had gathered
for a Eucharist service for Dorothy who had suffered from anorexia
nervosa for six years. Unknown to Dorothy, we intended to pray for
her aborted baby sister and for her father and grandfather, both of whom
had committed suicide.
"Quite suddenly, it seemed
me that a carved black wooden figure of our Lord on the cross appeared
on the vast red brick wall behind the altar.
"I said I thought you Lord
were above; how is it you are not alive? There was no answer. Then I heard
someone striding noisily up the church aisle and I assumed it was a tourist.
"Unceremoniously, this person,
a girl in her twenties with long fair hair and an ankle length dress, pushed
between our group and the communion table a few inches away. She went up
to the cross and the Lord stepped down and drew her into his arms. She
remained there, weeping through the priest's prayers of consecration
until near the end of communion. Then the whole scene disappeared.
"After the service I asked
the priest why he had centered his prayers so much on children while omitting
to bring in the two
suicides. He responded that
as the service progressed he had felt that the father and grandfather had
sufficient love so he changed the focus to the aborted baby. Dorothy's
mother added abruptly, 'Yes, it was for her I was praying. I had a picture
of the Lord and heard that my baby's name was June, so I knew it had been
a girl. She would have been born in June'. Then I told them about my picture
of the girl coming to the cross and Dorothy's mother said 'That's right,
she sounds just like my other children, noisy, clumsy and fair haired.
My abortion was exactly 21 years ago.
"That evening she traveled
to the town where Dorothy was ill in bed. When the girl explained what
had happened at the service, she said 'I know her'. She has been calling
me by name, asking me for help for years, but I never dared to tell anyone
because I thought I would have been locked up for hearing voices. Dorothy
and her mother were now at peace. A week later Dorothy, who was eating
normally, made a five hundred mile round trip by train to say 'thank you'
to us all.
"Each of us came away from
the service for Dorothy with a deep love for one another and for Dorothy
herself, even though we did not then know that she had been cured. Such
an abundance of love could only have come from God:.Galatians
5:22."
"Understanding how love emanates
from Christ both for the dead and for the living and sensing who is present
at our services can help us to focus our prayers properly.
