The Healing Prayer (Saint Ambrose) (Part 1/5)

Last updated on: March 18, 2020 at 9:07 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Healing Prayer (Saint Ambrose) (Part 1/5) 2020-03-18T21:07:01-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Thee alone I follow, Lord Jesus, Who heals my wounds. For what shall separate me from the love of God, which is in Thee? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine? I am held fast as though by nails, and fettered by the bonds of charity. Remove from me, O Lord Jesus, with Thy potent sword, the corruption of my sins. Secure me in the bonds of Thy love; cut away what is corrupt in me. Come quickly and make an end of my many, my hidden and secret afflictions. Open the wound lest the evil humor spread. With Thy new washing, cleanse in me all that is stained. Hear me, you earthly men, who in your sins bring forth drunken thoughts: I have found a Physician. He dwells in Heaven and distributes His healing on earth. He alone can heal my pains Who Himself has none. He alone Who knows what is hidden can take away the grief of my heart, the fear of my soul: Jesus Christ. Christ is grace! Christ is life! Christ is Resurrection! Amen.

So Saint Ambrose prayed and so we can pray as well. Ambrose was a poet and scholar who lived in difficult times. The world as he had known it would soon die, but Ambrose kept doing his duty and so gave us Saint Augustine. Augustine had the boldness to write a long book in Latin just as it looked likely nobody would be reading any books, especially in Latin.

Augustine was calm and he carried on.

What did such people pray in times far more perilous than any we will face?

They prayed to be better people and to be spared the ravages of the age if they could. Given the way of the world, people are allowed by the Good God to face the consequences of their decisions, they probably would not be spared every consequence of the bad decisions of the Western emperors. The East was different, better rulers doubled down on prudent decisions and Christianity as a unifying force.They would gain one thousand years of high culture, stand as a bulwark against barbarism, and be ready to seed a rebirth in the west of the Mediterranean world.

The prayer begins with the important reason for Jesus and prayer: healing our wounds. My wounds, God and people forgive me, are caused by bad behavior to other people. My lack of love is my real problem, not my death. I will die, that is God’s severe mercy. Who would continue forever, deathless, just as we are? Every fairy tale warns of this doom. We would grow bored, stale, ugly and small. Our own mistakes would accumulate until we were driven mad. Instead, Christianity gives us theosis, becoming like God, and so gives us life in eternity.

Hurrah!

Heal our wounds Lord, our real wounds. If we are united with you, then tribulation, distress, and famine may still come. The world is broken, Christians know this, and nothing can stop nature, wheeling out of control due to sin, from throwing up problems. Humans act with hubris and do what we should not. We treat animals as objects, not fellow created beings. We do all we do to each other and to creation and so make horrible outcomes. God has mercy, but God also allows us to reap what we sow. The good news is that eternity exists to bring justice with mercy. Now is the time to throw ourselves on the mercy of the eternal Judge.

Prayer works. I was once very sick, baffling my doctor, and my dad prayed for me and I was well. Thank God.

God heals when God can. Why doesn’t God always heal?

In the complex interaction of what is with what is best, God does what is best for us (even as individuals) in the light of eternity! That is not always what we ask, just now, but it is what is best, truest, and most beautiful. There is, as Jane Eyre puts it, “another world” and so we are not afraid. We can love our neighbor and even our enemies.

God save our Republic and God save each one of us.

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The Theme, Just Now, is Kindness

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March 19, 2020 The Healing Prayer (Saint Ambrose) (Part 2/5)

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