Patti Brunner discusses the answer to “Ask for Healing OR Just Offer It Up?” The idea of ‘redemptive suffering’ cause some to “offer it up” instead of asking for healing. Patti Brunner has served the Lord in the healing ministry for over 20 years. For Audio, Video, and transcript please continue reading.
Many Catholics that I visit with that are ‘cradle Catholics’ understand the concept of “offering it up” or the call to “offer it up for the poor souls in Purgatory. Some even talk about redemptive suffering. Other Catholics, especially those who joined the Catholic Church as adults, find the concept a bit confusing.
Welcome to Truth of the Spirit. I’m your host Patti Brunner. Today’s episode is, “Ask for Healing OR Just Offer It Up?” Our transcript is available at PatriarchMinistries.com/269 and this episode is available on YouTube and on podcast networks.
The Lord called me to write a book about healing that I have been working on for several years. It started as workshop to provide information about the ministry of healing with the deacons of our local church, which I have done. Afterwards it was almost ready to publish when I heard a strong teaching about the benefit of suffering that caused me to step back until I had better clarity. The Lord called me directly into His healing ministry through gifts and charisms. Today we discuss how offering suffering and asking for healing can be for all of us.
Scripture makes it clear that sin brought suffering into the world. But it is not just the sinful who are affected by sin. The innocent also suffer. During the Presentation of the Infant Jesus, the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2:34-35, shares words the prophet Simeon told Our Lady: that she would be pierced by a sword. This was not prophesying a physical infliction, but of the sorrows she would bear. Her suffering lets us know that the sinless can suffer. The perfect human being suffered. Jesus, true God and true man suffered. The Rosary of the 7 Sorrows points out Mary’s sufferings to us: The Prophecy Of Simeon (Luke 2:22-35); The Flight Into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15); The Loss Of Jesus In The Temple (Luke 2:41-52); Mary Meeting Jesus On The Way To Calvary (Luke 23:27-31); Mary Stands At The Foot Of The Cross (John 19:25-27); Mary Receives The Dead Body Of Jesus In Her Arms (John 19:38-40); and when The Body Of Jesus Is Placed In The Tomb (John 19:41-42). The suffering of watching her son die was incredible. So why did God allow her to suffer? Wasn’t she highly favored by God? Also, are we to conclude that those who choose to suffer rather than ask for healing are following the example of the Holy Mother? Her suffering certainly brings recompense to the world. But I ask you to also consider this: scripture shows us that Our Blessed Mother interceded to her Son for the relief of suffering of her friends as she petitioned Jesus at the wedding feast of Cana to relieve the family from the suffering of embarrassment of running out of wine. Have I confused you more?
Listen to this clarity that I received from the Lord. The Lord said, “When should you just ‘offer it up’? The answer: always offer all suffering to my Sacred Heart.” The Lord said to me, “I take it and transform it. That does not preclude healing.” He said, “No, rather it allows peace in your heart and the Presence of God, thus healing can take place. Do you not see the healing ministry of Jesus?” the Lord asks. “Do you not see the healing and redemption after offering the suffering of the Passion of Christ? Divine Healing came upon the whole world to those who ask for it through Baptism and other sacraments.”
Let me repeat that. The Lord takes suffering and transforms it. That does not preclude healing. No, rather it allows peace in your heart and the Presence of God, thus healing can take place. Look at the healing ministry of Jesus and see the healing and redemption after offering the suffering of the Passion of Christ. Divine Healing came upon the whole world to those who ask for it through Baptism and other sacraments.
In exploring the healing ministry of Jesus to the crowds, we discover He heals them all. If we were to avoid healing to offer our suffering, don’t you think there would be a few passages where Jesus might have instructed the crowds to do that? As we explore the suffering of Jesus in His Passion that is inflicted upon him by those who reject Jesus, we identify Christ as the perfect Lamb of God whose blood sacrifice atones for all the sin of the world and establishes a new covenant between man and God. He willingly paid the price for us; Jesus conquered eternal death by his physical death and resurrection. The Church, in God’s Wisdom, encourages us toward repentance and penance. As we offer our suffering to Jesus—as we surrender it in trust of God—we imitate the obedience and trust of Jesus, and we can also seek resurrection power to redeem our bodies and our souls. Surrendering our issues to God in trust brings us peace. We can live in this peace that transcends understanding as we await healing—whether it takes place immediately or not; whether it takes place in this world or in the fullness of eternity.
Jesus showed us how a man, through the power of the Holy Spirit within him, could bring healing in this world. Jesus’ examples of healing individuals from infirmities, possession and even death lead the way to understanding the power of the Sacraments. As He gave the authority, to do as He did, to his apostles as He sent them out two by two, Jesus previewed the grace that mankind would be given as the Holy Spirit lived within us after our redemption.
The Lord taught me, He said: “Each of my Children are unique and thus each experience of following My lead can vary. I gave My Church to provide the narrow gate. Remember that it is a wide flow that enters the gate. Gathering the children may require the traveling among rocks and brambles. Yet if you nourish and point to the green grass, they will find the way.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church explains to us in Paragraph #164 “Now, however, “we walk by faith, not by sight”; 49[i] we perceive God as “in a mirror, dimly” and only “in part”. 50 Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in” the Catechism says, “often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.”
Through private revelation on multiple occasions, Our Lady calls us to prayer, repentance and penance. Through private revelation Blessed Luisa Piccarreta reflected[ii] on the importance of joining the Lord in his passion and suffering. Various saints went out of their way to accept physical suffering as recompense and reparation for the sinful acts of the world. The Church entreats us to acts of recompense to ask for indulgence and the relief of purgation for forgiven sins. As we look to the Acts of the Apostles, we see suffering of the disciples and that it came from persecution. Despite the suffering, they pressed on to share the truth which eventually overcame the persecution for a season. They pressed on to share healing and deliverance, too. In modern times persecution of Christians again calls us to share truth despite consequential suffering. Prayer, repentance and penance remain as important weapons against the evil in the world. Joining our suffering to that of Jesus during the Passion continues to show our trust in God’s redemption. In modern times, the Lord calls us to pray for healing of body, mind and soul.
Catechism Paragraph #1508 says, “The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing 119[iii] so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But,” the Catechism reminds us, “even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church.”120
The Lord has used me in healing ministry and healed me personally more times than I can track. It seems obvious there is no way we should abandon the idea of healing. Remember, there are no recorded examples in the Gospels of Jesus refusing to heal those who asked him for that favor. He healed them all the Gospel tells us several times. We do see failure of the apostles in the Gospel when they failed to cast out a demon of a boy. Matthew 17: 19 “Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. ‘Why were we unable to drive it out?’ they asked. 20 Jesus answered, ‘Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.’””
In the Gospel of Mark Chapter 9, a similar story is told, “17 A man answered him from the crowd, ‘Master, I have brought my son to you; there is a spirit of dumbness in him, 18 and when it takes hold of him it throws him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and goes rigid. And I asked your disciples to drive it out and they were unable to.’ 19 In reply Jesus said to them, ‘Faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ 20 They brought the boy to him, and at once the spirit of dumbness threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell to the ground and lay writhing there, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ ‘From childhood,’ he said, 22 ‘and it has often thrown him into fire and into water, in order to destroy him. 23 But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ 24 ‘If you can?’ retorted Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who has faith.’ At once the father of the boy cried out, ‘I have faith. Help my lack of faith!’ 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. ‘Deaf and dumb spirit,’ he said, ‘I command you: come out of him and never enter him again.’ 26 Then it threw the boy into violent convulsions and came out shouting, and the boy lay there so like a corpse that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he was able to stand. 28 When he had gone indoors, his disciples asked him when they were by themselves, ‘Why were we unable to drive it out?’ 29 He answered, ‘This is the kind that can be driven out only by prayer.’”
As I continued to review and revise my book on healing ministry, the Lord has asked me to be aware of those who are seeking healing vs. those who help others with healing through ministry. For those who reach out to Jesus through the Holy Spirit for others formation and a well-developed spiritual life, obedient and sacramental is important. For the hurting—encouragement is key![iv] The scriptures I shared from Mark reveals that sometimes even when the faith of the person asking for healing is strong, the failure of faith and prayer by the minister can hinder the healing. All healing comes from God yet the Lord draws us to better understanding by training and the building up of faith for those who heal in the Name of Jesus. In my book I also consider that sometimes there are layers of healing to take place. Each layer can build faith, each layer can allow a softening of the heart, each layer can prepare the mind and body for healing so that the infirmity does not return.
Although healing ministry addresses the immediate needs of people who are hurting in some way, it also has the purpose of revealing what transpires in the kingdom for those who finish the course[v]. I continue to work on the healing manual because the Lord told me, “My Children need to know these truths. As you revise it you will remember the joy of healing and the peace of offering your surrender to the delay to healing. Bring healing to my people by sharing the truth.”
I recently heard Fr. Chad Ripperger[vi] talk about particular exorcisms where all requirements were met but there was a significant delay in fulfillment of the eradication of the evil spirit until God’s perfect timing. I believe the same thing can happen with delays in healing. The Lord’s timing is always perfect.
The Lord has called me to “Reach out to those in need and to those who are called into the ministry of healing; tell them what you have learned. You might even tell of mistakes you have made.” We can learn from the mistakes of others and from our own mistakes.
One of my biggest mistakes in the healing ministry happened when the Lord asked me, 4/21/1998, if I would bring our deacon’s wife[vii] back to life if He asked me. My firm answer was “No!” During a spiritual experience[viii] 18 months earlier, I had been taken to heaven and could not comprehend ever removing anyone from that eternal bliss to return to the solid darkness of earth. The Lord continued to train me and I began to understand eternity. Our entire life on earth is like a blink of the eye in eternity. I also am learning to totally trust the Lord and that if the Lord asks us to do anything, we say, “Yes!”
We all continue to make mistakes, but we strive not to repeat them as we open ourselves to God’s wisdom and understanding. As for the confusion about suffering, the Lord told me, “Remember this: Redemptive suffering has the goal of bringing healing! It focuses on healing of the soul. Healing ministry does, too. But it takes a different course of action to bring about that healing by addressing healing of physical, mental and ultimately spiritual healing. Complete healing which will be complete in heaven in the state of glory will be physical, mental and spiritual. There will be no suffering in the union with the Most High God in heaven.” [ix]
Another question about suffering is: Why does a loving God allow the innocent to suffer?[x] My favorite illustration of why good people suffer happened when an entire office got food poisoning on September 10, 2001, the day before the Twin Tower bombing. They missed work and were not in their office, of the Twin Tower, on 9/11. Sometimes a ‘little’ suffering is a preventive measure from ‘greater’ suffering. For example – burning your tongue with hot pizza or hot cocoa helps you learn the benefit and the danger of ‘very’ hot things you might encounter. The ‘suffering’ of a sore muscle or a sore throat prevents overdoing activity or sharing germs. When people suffer the pangs of separation, when someone dies, it teaches that eternal separation from God is to be avoided at all costs in the present time. Certainly there is also deep suffering in this world that affects many, too. These times the joy can be found when suffering is identified with the passion of Jesus. Always there is hope of resurrection. Anything is bearable for a ‘season’ for as winter seems to show all is lost, dead and dreary the spring comes with new life, new emergence of transforming beauty. Sin is so horrible that it affects the just and the unjust. Think of the effect of the sin of Adam and Eve. Their one sin totally affected all of creation and mankind because it separated us from God. Jesus gave us salvation. In Jesus we have healing.
Like the pupil[xi] of Juan Diego in the pupil of Mary at Guadeloupe imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma, each person’s life is a reflection of the lives of others. At the end of time you shall know and understand the love and grace of your Father. Praise God! Praise God for all eternity! The Lamb is worthy! He brings the fullness of life back to mankind so that for all eternity you may know the Love of God! It is hidden only for a little while so that lives may play their role in the drama of life and become the vivid threads woven into one body in Christ. In his mercy, God allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. He also pours out his mercy and grace on all. And he equips his people to pray to share his love.
The Lord taught me recently: “The everlasting graces that are available to my Children of the Covenant provide all that is necessary for an abundant life. Certainly pain and suffering rises in this world yet they are overcome by peace and joy. The eternal light shines upon the darkness and dispels it to light a pathway towards the narrow way—a protected way guarded well by my loving servants and angels who guard each traveler.” The Lord says, “‘Come to Me. Follow the Way’—this is my message to the world. You lift up the banner to show those who see it and follow behind you on the Way.”
The Lord says, “Whenever the suffering of the world is offered to the Father, it is taken, blessed, and broken for the world, united with Jesus Christ.”[xii] Offering of suffering is good—Jesus himself suffered and died for our sins. Offering of suffering gives us peace that surpasses understanding. We can agree with St. Paul in Romans 8:28: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” When great saints suffered it was not that they could not be healed but that their suffering became a witness to others that their faith stood firm beyond whatever was placed upon them. Their yoke with Jesus was always a light one. Again, healing is of God.[xiii] And God’s timing is perfect! The rest of the story of the cross is the resurrection of the body in glory. Healing is a participation in the resurrection—a way that the kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven. This is important! In the Church we become a part of the one body of Christ. And in Christ is the power of Resurrection Healing.[xiv]
You have been listening to Truth of the Spirit and “Ask for Healing OR Just Offer It Up?” I am your host Patti Brunner. For more information you can go to our website PatriarchMinistries.com. We hope you will leave us a message. We invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel; it’s free. Click like and click the bell for notification of future episodes and then come back again because there’s more. With the Holy Spirit there is always more! Amen.
[i] 49 2 Cor 5:7. 50 l Cor 13:12.
[ii] Luisa Piccarreta in “The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, little daughter of the Divine Will”
[iii] 119 Cf. I Cor 12:9, 28, 30.; 120 2 Cor 12:9; Col 1:24.
[iv] OTL 10/31/2022
[v] OTL 11/11/2022
[vi] Fr. Chad Ripperger on the State of Evil in the World – YouTube
[vii] Death of Bea Cook 4/21/98
[viii] Heaven visitation 10/23/96
[ix] OTL 11-17-2022
[x] Excerpt from “The Lord Healed Them All” draft copy
[xi] OTL 12/23/2013
[xii] OTL 11/2/2009
[xiii] OTL 7/2/2013
[xiv] OTL 7/9/2013
