Laying on of hands
19 May 2001 19:48
Following Vassula’s recent message to prayer groups about ‘laying on of hands’, Fr. John Abberton, the priest asked by Vassula to be the spiritual guide for the English TLIG group, has written the following note giving further advice.
Vassula’s original message of May 10th is copied again at the end of Fr. John’s letter.
I would like to reinforce Vassula’s message to prayer groups. It is such wise and sound advice and I hope everyone will pay attention to it. If we focus too much on the “sensational” or the “extraordinary” we place ourselves in a position of weakness because it means that satan has only to “put on a show” for us to distract us from true prayer – and, of course, this is one way that the spirit of anti-Christ makes ground, by attracting people to what are actually false signs, so that they do not move towards mystical prayer.
I completely agree that we should stop this business of everybody laying hands on each other. Certain people are called to do this, but the usual rules apply – that is, there must be a proper discernment within the group as they pray, and all must ask protection from the Father, asking the intercession of the Queen of Angels and praying to St. Michael.
Priests may pray over people by virtue of their orders. Every priest is empowered to bless, and God is blessing his priests in wonderful ways today, but even priests know that they must be careful when they pray over people.
Sometimes the priest may be exercising his ministry in a valid way, but not an opportune way – there are some people we should not pray over at certain times. For this we also need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Priests as well as laity need to pray for guidance before they do these things.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to make some “rules” for new prayer groups.
- That they should not think about anything like “praying over people” until they have become truly familiar with the prayers and have got to know each other quite well in the group.
- That they should not begin this practice without the guidance of a priest (and the priest concerned should know something about TLIG).
- If a priest is present and is a member of the group he should be the one to pray over people unless and until the Holy Spirit makes it abundantly clear that he is calling someone else to assist with this.
- To avoid distractions from the messages and prayers, the use of relics in prayer groups should be limited. If there is a relic to be venerated, this should be done after the prayer group has ended so that people are free to stay or leave. There should be no false dramatics introduced at any point.
The recent instruction from the Vatican on Healing Prayer is a useful reference. I commend it to anyone who thinks he or she has a ministry of healing prayer.
Fr. John Abberton
Here is Vassula’s message of May 10th:
I have recently heard that in certain prayer groups, the “laying on of hands” on people has produced some unpleasant occurences. I do not believe that everyone has the gift to pray over people unless the person is spiritually purified. My advice is that praying over people is not really necessary to do every time and therefore, for those groups who have had unpleasant occurences, I would ask them to stop this kind of prayer.
I also heard that in other groups, there are manifestations, e.g, crucifixions and the sort. I do not believe that this comes from God in these times when we are celebrating the Resurrection of Christ and I am convinced that these people are in total illusion risking to deviate the whole prayer group. In the case of such manifestations in a group, my advice is the same as St Teresa of Avila, which had happenend in her convent, and this is the following: “If anyone has any sort of manifestation which most probably takes you away from your prayer, my advice is that all the group moves into another room, closing the door and leaving this person who has the manifestation alone, while they will be able to continue with their prayer. Usually if this is done 2-3 times in a row, the person who believed had a grace, will realise that (s)he was in illusion and the result is that (s)he will stop, once finding himself alone.
Vassula