Father Jim Livingston, pastor of St. Paul in Ham Lake, has been offering healing Masses for nearly 30 years. He invites people to “come and see, come and see.”
“We celebrate Mass as people who are Catholic would be very much used to,” Father Livingston told “Practicing Catholic” co-hosts Leah Heselton and Father Tom Margevicius for the program that debuts at 9 p.m. June 5 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
“And then after the final blessing, those who would like (stay) and we will administer hands-on prayers for people after Mass,” Father Livingston said.
Often those praying with people are deacons or concelebrating priests, he said.
“Sometimes, if we have enough resources, we’ll have prayer teams in different corners or different rooms,” Father Livingston said. “We’ll just simply lay hands over people if they permit us to do so and say a silent prayer and then move on. It’s really an encounter, where a person comes up, comes forward with the intention of receiving some kind of prayer for healing, and the person who’s ministering it is responding to that implied request.”
A firm believer that the ministry or charism of healing is not limited to clergy, Father Livingston said, “I would imagine that over time people have received and experienced gifts such as this.”
Congregation of Holy Cross Brother St. André Bessette in Montreal was known for his healing ministry, Father Livingston said. “I heard that Pope Pius X had a healing gift as well,” he said.
“You hear stories about the lives of the saints, but honestly, I think the lives of saints is a very rarefied subsection of the whole history of the body of the Church, where people simply receive the charism of Christ, and a big part of that charism is healing,” Father Livingston said.
To hear more about the charism of healing, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. June 6 and 2 p.m. June 7.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest episode also features former “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley as he prepared for his June 6 ordination to the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
