Family Healing

with the Apostolic Blessing of Pope Francis

Indeed "because of the bond which unites us to one another in the Mystical Body, all of us, though not personally responsible and without encroaching on the judgement of God who alone knows every heart, bear the burden of the errors and faults of those who have gone before us"

Pope Saint John Paul II, (Incarnationis mysterium n. 11), Homily of the Holy Father in the “Day of Pardon”, 12 March, 2000.

Why the need for Family Healing?

The Mystery of Identity & Human Suffering

Everything we say and do affects the other and vice-versa, this is true in both the positive ways as well as in the negative ways.

Human anthropology is relational since the beginning of existence. That is, we are born of a mother and father in a family, despite the circumstances. Our human identity is in relation to the other. In the beginning of our lives we are bonded as daughters, sons , sisters or brothers of… in a family, and overtime our relationships expand.

No one reasonable denies that our human nature is made of body-mind and a soul. These integrated parts are related within us (intrinsically), and with other persons (extrinsically), from the moment of conception to the moment of death and beyond. This relational nature should not be altered, ignored or discarded, but well understood.

For a theist person a paramount relationship, hence attached to her or his identity, is not only in relation to bonds in a family system, but also with the giver of life, the creator; with God.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

This Creator-creature relationship is reciprocated:

Psalm 139:13-14 “For it was you that formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works that I know very well.

Ephesians 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

Therefore in a mysterious way, there is no identity without bonds and vice-versa.

The Identity Problem

In Scripture the identity problem seems to be the central temptation of Satan. Let us reverse in time starting with the New Testament in order to understand better:

God the Father spoke Jesus’ identity in the river Jordan - Lk 3:22 “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” - thereafter Jesus went to the desert and was tempted by Satan.

Two out of the three temptations of Jesus were precisely on his identity. An additional time was on the Cross, that is, in his most vulnerable moments:

Luke 4 – [3] “…If you are [the identity] the Son of God [the relationship], command this stone to become bread.” 

[9]“…If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; [10] for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’

Matthew 27:40 … “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

As we can see, Satan’s tactic was to tempt Jesus to doubt his true human-divine identity (in relation to God), purposely to damage the relationship with the Father, but he failed.

By contrast, in the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament, Satan tempts Eve with a different tactic:

Genesis 3:5 - "for God knows [a lie] that when you eat of it [the fruit] your eyes [Adam and Eve’s] will be opened, and you will be like God [a lie], knowing good and evil.”

Satan tempts Eve with a lie, a belief of what they are not, a false identity. Once Adam and Eve make their choice (free will) to believe this (and sever from listening to God), they eat the forbidden fruit, bonding with spiritual evils in a mysterious way, causing in all human family not only to experience death, but also human suffering in several areas of our lives (‘little deaths’ or bondages). Severing the relationship with God though, is related to death and human suffering. Satan has taken advantage of our ignorance.

In an imperfect World as ours, relationships can certainly go wrong, hence as we have learned, our identity is affected. In contemporary society we see for example, broken families everywhere, and how it manifests human suffering as bondages: behaviours, diseases and circumstances of life.

We also see for example, exacerbated individualism: I can be and do whatever I like with my freedom. I don’t affect the other ‘(the lie); de-emphasising the effects of our private actions in our relationships. Bishop Robert Barron calls it the ego-drama: “I’m writing, I’m producing, I’m directing, and above all , I’m staring”. This mindset produces a false identity mostly endogamic, that is, in relationship to our imperfect selves, but not according to our human nature that is in relation to others; our family and God.

Our enemy knows that once our relationship with God is severed (we call that sin); our other relational axes become dysfunctional, affecting our true identity, stealing life and joy (the positives) that God has for us, and producing human suffering expressed in bondages (the negatives). In our most vulnerable times we fall into these lies and traps.

We have to bear the ripple effects of the burden of sin, which affects the relationship with ourselves, a false identity that unsettles us; the relationships with our family (and others) become dysfunctional in certain areas; as well as a disordered engagement with the created realities of the World (environment, food, drink, animals, money, etc.). That’s why satan goes for them, to cause fundamental damage in all axes of our relational life; in our identity, the identity of others, and the identity of God.

In our most vulnerable situations, Satan has worked out silently against us and our families through generations (a family system), and has unfortunately succeeded, and we suffer the consequences.

We desperately need to learn how to deal with these entanglements and prevent unnecessary suffering that takes the life in us.

Jesus, not only teaches us these lessons of unnecessary suffering in families related to distorted identities, but also he teaches us the way out. Do you want to listen?

The Way Out

For the past two hundred years, the present secular and paradoxically theist generations in the industrialised and ‘advanced’ world have been trying to mitigate human suffering (distortions) fundamentally with human effort: education, science and high technology . For example: medical advancements, healthy food production and consumption, high income, meditation, psychotherapy, internet and communication, nanotechnology, the Human Genome Project, smartphone apps to health monitoring, artificial intelligence (AI), etc.

Some of these remarkable solutions’ attempts have definitely succeeded in tangible ways in the body-mind (the material world bounded by time-space), but are incomplete, not enough, given our immaterial nature, the invisible world, the soul. We have left aside the soul, the spiritual eternal nature of the human family.

Despite scientific truths, educated individuals and progress, we still fall into distortions, embracing ideologies that are opposed to science, reason, morals, and human rights. For example: gender ideology vs. science & reason; women’s rights to abortion vs. science, human rights & morals; human trafficking and euthanasia vs. human rights & morals; etc. We experience the negative effects of these distortions in our families and society today.

Given we live in this relational order where everything that happens to the other affects us and vice-versa, on the positives or negatives ways, whether we are conscious or not, the Healing of Families Webinar comes to address these distortions. It dives into several critical themes that are indispensable to understand how to heal families, that is, a collective approach. We will deal with the mystery of lost or disordered identities that sin affects in humankind, and how they relate with personal, family, Church, nations, and even with the whole creation’s suffering, and when addressed effectively; healing.

  • Old and New Creations – a crucial view of the ‘Three Great Acts of Mercy’ in the Plan of God – one of them that we call the ‘Bigger Bang’– and how baptised Christians ought to understand and to be involved with.

  • Mystery of Evil, Sin and Suffering – presents a more in-depth view on the source of human suffering and the importance to distinguish ‘unnecessary’ suffering to heal it as an unavoidable way to pursue our sanctification, as Christ taught us in his earthly ministry.

  • Gods’ identity – the distorted image of God’s system, that prevent us to relate appropriately with our Triune God, with Mary Immaculate (New Eve), and with the angels and saints; keeping us away from healing graces.

  • Man’s identity – the distorted self-image of man that prevent us to relate adequately with essential life questions such as who we are (our identity), our mission on Earth, our moral decisions, and our destiny. We learn from scripture how the family system works (family lineage) in relation to blessings, and curses derived from sin, and how a distorted relationship with our family members, friends, colleagues, body of Christ, etc., prevent us to convey in love and joy with each other. We also deal with the distorted relationship of man with the created realities, that prevents us a healthy interaction to our world, environment, nature, etc., that manifest as bondages, attachments, addictions, and destructive patterns that interfere embracing the Kingdom of God.

  • Satan’s identity – mechanisms of how the evil one access our lives through the family system, causing bondages through temptations, sins, agreements, errors, vices, fears, negligence, lies, vows, some enticed by evil spirits and others by our wrong choices, that blocks healing and prevent us to relate adequately with the true images of God, ourselves, family, and the created realities of the World, causing unnecessary suffering, and in the worst case, damnation.

  • Prayer for Family Healing – based on Scripture and Tradition of the Church we finally execute the way out to free families from personal and ancestral bondages in the family life and system, and to actively engage in the daily Spiritual Battle to prevent further bondage.

In sum, in the Family Healing Webinar you will dive into a fascinating journey of answering through the word of God, the question “Why the need for family healing?”. At the beginning you will learn how to see, listen, and identify the causes of your family pains, dysfunctions, and struggles (negatives) that constitute unnecessary sufferings for every member, that also relate to your’s. We will continue by confronting the distortions we have created through life in relation to the mystery of your’s, your family’s (others), and especially God’s identity. You will learn the extent into which these distorted relationships are preventing you from receiving God’s healing, and how to turn them into bonds of love. With all these mysterious elements that contribute blocking the healing graces, by being bit-by bit reconstructed, you will finally be enabled to learn how to pray effectively for those stubborn personal and familial problems, and receive the love and healing of God. You and your family will experience not only the healing power of Jesus over your body, mind or soul’s struggles, but also the beginning in your lives of a truly, heavenly and unfailing new joy (novum gaudium).

  • They know not, nor do they discern; for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their minds, so that they cannot understand”.

    Isaiah 44:18