The Healing Chapel:
Each of us has a role in shaping our parish community, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the many opportunities and ministries of our parish in order to become involved.
The Healing Chapel
The chapel is open from 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. 7 days a week.
Access is available through the rotunda doors during these hours.
All are welcome to use this space as a place to reflect and pray for those in our lives that are in need of healing as well as for their caregivers.
Spotlight On Joy O’Bryan
Holy Spirit Church Has Set Aside This Intimate Space...
for prayer in time of illness. Those who are sick and those who care for them should be the subject of the prayer offered here. Whether you yourself are ill, you are a caregiver, or you love someone in these situations, please feel welcome in this space. May your mediation here and the holy images surrounding you provide assurance of the many ways God reaches out to those in need.
Open: 7:30 a.m.—7:30 p.m.
Located at the end of the Colonnade just outside the Church.
The Crucifixion Scene
CHRIST OUR SAVIOR
Took all things on him- self so that the entire human experience would be redeemed.
MARY, HEALTH OF THE SICK
As she is some- times venerated, experienced personally that perfect healing is not always possible in this world. Still, as Mother of Our Lord and as Mother of all the Faithful, the sick flock to her seeking her motherly love and intercession.
ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE
Received on Calvary the charge of caring for Jesus’ mother as she entered old age. For this reason, St. John is seen as the patron of caregivers.
ST. MARY MAGDALENE
Devoted friend of the Lord even unto death, can be seen as a symbol of constancy, and constancy in friendship can be very important to those suffering from sickness or pain.
Images Within
The Healing Chapel
ST. AGATHA OF SICILY
Born in Palermo, St. Agatha was martyred in AD 251 during the persecution of Decius. A high-ranking Roman official demanded that St. Agatha marry him. The brave fifteen-year-old refused to abandon her faith and her vow of virginity. He ordered her to be thrown into a brothel where she was brutally tortured and repeatedly raped. Among the tortures she endured was the removal of her breasts with pincers. St. Agatha eventually died due to the cruel attacks inflicted on her.
ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA MISCARRIAGES
During an outbreak of the plague, St. Catherine was born in Siena, Italy, on March 25, 1347. She was the twenty-fifth child born to her mother. Half of her siblings did not survive childhood, including her twin who died in infancy. St. Catherine was extremely devoted to her family and refused to marry. Although she preferred a quiet, secluded life in her family home, St. Catherine experienced a mystical vision at age 21. In that vision, Christ directed her to go out into the world and care for the poor and sick. She cared for both the physically and spiritually inflicted, and she called all Christians, especially the Church hierarchy, to repent of their sins and dedicate their lives to God. In addition to her acts of charity, St. Catherine was instrumental in restoring the papacy to Rome from Avignon.
ST. DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI – LEPROSY & SKIN DISEASES
St. Damien was a 19th century Belgian religious who was ordered to Hawaii by his superior. He arrived in Hawaii in 1864. Two years later, Hawaii established a leper colony. At that time, those with leprosy were considered highly contagious and were left to fend for themselves in the lawless colony. St. Damien began to serve the colony in 1873, living among the lepers and providing medical and spiritual care. His was supposed to be a temporary assignment, but St. Damien became so attached to the people and his work that he requested to stay. Although leprosy is not highly contagious, some people are susceptible to it. In 1885, St. Damien himself was diagnosed with the disease, but he continued his work at the colony, deriving his strength from devotion to the Rosary and the Eucharist. St. Damien succumbed to the disease in April 1889
ST. DYMPHNA – MENTAL ILLNESS, NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS & INCEST
St. Dymphna was a 7th century Irish princess. After the death of her mother, Dymphna’s father suffered severe mental illness. Dymphna had to flee to Belgium in order to avoid her father’s inappropriate intentions. However, due to her charitable works in Belgium, her father discovered her hiding place and demanded she return to Ireland. When she refused, he himself beheaded her. Dymphna is said to have been only fifteen when she died.
ST. JAMES THE GREATER, APOSTLE – ARTHRITIS & JOINT DISEASES
St. James the Greater was one of the first disciples and the brother of St. John. Along with his brother and Peter, James witnessed the Transfiguration. After the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, James spread the Gospel across the Roman Empire, especially in Spain. Eventually returning to Jerusalem, he suffered decapitation and thus became the first apostle to suffer martyrdom. It is said that on the way to his execution, James came upon man crippled by arthritis. In compassion, the apostle cured the man even as he made the journey to his own death.
ST. LUCY OF SYRACUSE – EYE DISEASES AND VISION LOSS
St. Lucy was martyred during the Diocletian persecu- tions of the 4th century. Accounts of her life say the young saint preferred devoting her life to Christ to marrying her suitor. Lucy even convinced her mother to donate her dowry money to the poor. In anger, the rejected suitor reported Lucy to the authorities for her Christian faith. Lucy then warned the suitor that he would be punished by God. This warning further in- flamed the Roman authorities who ordered her guards to gouge out her eyes. Lucy endured this and other brutal tortures until she finally succumbed to death. When her friends were preparing her body for burial, they discovered her missing eyes had been restored.
ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE – DRUG ADDICTION
During an outbreak of the plague, St. Catherine was born in Siena, Italy, on March 25, 1347. She was the twenty-fifth child born to her mother. Half of her siblings did not survive childhood, including her twin who died in infancy. St. Catherine was extremely devoted to her family and refused to marry. Although she preferred a quiet, secluded life in her family home, St. Catherine experienced a mystical vision at age 21. In that vision, Christ directed her to go out into the world and care for the poor and sick. She cared for both the physically and spiritually inflicted, and she called all Christians, especially the Church hierarchy, to repent of their sins and dedicate their lives to God. In addition to her acts of charity, St. Catherine was instrumental in restoring the papacy to Rome from Avignon.
ST. PEREGRINE LAZIOSI – CANCER & AIDS
St. Peregrine was a 13th century mendicant friar who founded a monastery of the Order of Servites in his native Forli, Italy. At the age of sixty, he developed cancer in his leg. Doctors determined Peregrine’s life could only be saved by amputating the leg. The night before the surgery, St. Peregrine spent time in prayer before a fresco of the crucifixion and resolved to put the matter totally into God’s hands. That very night he received a vision of Jesus descending from the cross and touching his cancerous leg. The following morning doctors discovered that the leg had been miraculously healed.
ST. RAPHAEL THE ARCHANGEL ALL HEALING
The archangel Raphael plays a central role in the Old Testament Book of Tobit. He serves as a guide for Tobias, the son of Tobit, and leads Tobias to meet Sarah, the woman who would become his wife. Before the wedding, Raphael, using the heart and liver of a fish, drives a demon from Sarah that would have doomed the union. Later, using a poultice made of fish gall, Raphael heals the eyes of Tobit from blinding cataracts. While not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, Raphael is often considered the unnamed angel of the Lord who, in some translations of John 5: 1-9, stirs the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda. Because of these stories, Raphael is called on as patron of apothecaries, the blind, bodily ills, all healing, druggists, eye problems, mental illness, nurses, pharmacists, and physicians. The name “Raphael” means “health of God” in Hebrew.