By Gretchen Keiser

Hundreds of people were drawn together Saturday in the archdiocese in the oneness of their need for the healing love of Jesus Christ.

Two services held at the gymnasium of the Marist School by Father Edward McDonough brought together people who were seeking physical, emotional and spiritual healing. A Redemptorist priest from Boston, Father McDonough has a particular gift and ministry in healing and has conducted healing services throughout the United States and in his home church, Mission Church in Boston, over the last eight years.

His visit to Atlanta, sponsored by the Archdiocesan Servants Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, was his first trip to the southern United States with his healing ministry, Father McDonough said. He had served as a pastor of a Redemptorist parish in Virginia before becoming involved in the charismatic renewal in 1974.

Some 600 to 650 people came to a 2 p.m. Catholic liturgy celebrated by Father McDonough on Saturday and concelebrated by seven priests from the archdiocese and the monastery in Conyers. Within the liturgy, Father McDonough spoke about healing and particularly invited those suffering from crippling physical ailments to come forward to receive prayers for healing.

The invitation drew a cluster of people to the front of the gymnasium around Father McDonough, including young mothers with babies and children in their arms, and elderly people moving hesitantly with the aid of canes or the stronger arm of ushers assisting them. Father McDonough prayed individually with a number of people and blessed groups of people with holy water. Afterward a number of people came forward saying they had experienced relief from pain and healing of ailments. Three women who had been walking with canes lifted them and said that they no longer had need for them.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday night, approximately 1,000 people gathered again at the gymnasium for an ecumenical “healing and restoration service” conducted by Father McDonough. The service included simple music focusing upon Jesus’ healing love, prayers led by Father McDonough and talks given by him and by his sister, Sister Priscilla McDonough, who assists him in his ministry. During the evening service, Father McDonough prayed individually with many people and also walked throughout the gymnasium and into the bleachers, again blessing those gathered with holy water.

In his talks and in an interview, Father McDonough emphasized that it is the Lord Jesus who heals through His people, the mystical Body of Christ, in the same way that He healed when He walked the earth 2,000 years ago. Father McDonough believes that the healing ministry is a form or structure through which the healing love of God flows and that he and those who work with him are simply instruments of God. He also emphasized that all who came needed to place their particular needs before God and to be open to the healing that He had in mind for them. While people may seek a particular healing, such as a physical healing, he said, God knows what the deepest need is, which could be a need to be healed spiritually or emotionally.

“If you focus on the good things that come from Jesus (such as physical healing) you could ignore Jesus,” he said. He emphasized that Jesus wants to take care of all needs, including daily problems, family difficulties, broken relationships and heartache. While people see physical needs for healing, God sees more, he said. “Maybe arthritis is the least thing you need to be healed of,” he said.

After the service, people expressed a wide variety of reactions. Some had experienced immediate physical relief from suffering and illness and others said that they had gained deep spiritual insights into their suffering and that of others as well as spiritual consolations. Several people said they had experienced a share in the sorrow and suffering of those around them. Dozens of people touched by Father McDonough or by the blessed holy water fell briefly into a restful state in the arms of ushers or on the floor.

Those who had organized the visit were deeply moved also. Coordinator Paul Grutsch, who with many others had been planning the day for about a year, said, “It was well worth a year’s preparation for this. It was well worth it.”

Noting that God “cannot be outdone in generosity,” he said, “God certainly blessed us with a lot more than we put into it.”

(Next week: An interview with Father Edward McDonough on the charism of healing.)