Cura

“ The next day the poor curate coming to know his destiny, my lord told him, That he had used his endeavours to serve him as to the curacy, but with no success, the reverend gentleman having disposed of it before. The curate, with a deep sigh, returned his lordship thanks for his goodness, and was going to withdraw, when my lord calling him back, said with a smile, Well, my friend, ’tis true, I have it not in my power to give you the curacy; but if you will accept of the living ’tis at your service. ”

“ If there be any man wicked because his curate teacheth him not, his blood shall be required at the curate’s hands.—Latimer, Sermons, p. 525.
Henry the Second of England commanded all prelates and curates to reside upon their dioceses and charges.—Bishop Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, b. iii. c. 1.
Curate, a parson or vicar, one that serves a cure, or has the charge of souls in a parish.—Phillips, New World of Words. ”

“ Observe what an emphasis is laid upon the extent of their power to all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease, without the exception even of those that are reckoned incurable, and the reproach of physicians. Note, In the grace of the gospel there is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady. There is no spiritual disease so malignant, so inveterate, but there is a sufficiency of power in Christ, for the cure of it. ”

“ The Curate informed me that he has conversed with a few who have recently felt the gospel to be the power of God to their salvation; and, to aid their spiritual progress, a weekly prayer-meeting is established, where I heard two laymen pray with great simplicity and earnestness; and after the devotional part of the service was concluded, the Curate delivered a short and an appropriate address, which appeared to make a deep impression on this select audience. He and my brother are very active, labouring in season and out of season ”

“ Is any one sick among you, let him bring in the Priests of the Church, and let him pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man; and the Lord will lift him up, and if he be in sin, his sins shall be forgiven him." (St. James, v.)
By Thy infinite goodness, Jesus, through which Thou hast established this Holy Sacrament, I beseech Thee to purify me from my sins, defend me from the enemy, strengthen me in temptation, and give me a happy end; or, if it be profitable for my soul's salvation, restore me to my former health. ”

“ For by thee does our Saviour say to him who is discouraged under the sense of his sins, “Thy sins are forgiven thee: thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” [68] But this peace and haven of tranquillity is the Church of Christ, into which do thou, when thou hast loosed them from their sins, restore them, as being now sound and unblameable, of good hope, diligent, laborious in good works. As a skilful and compassionate physician, heal all such as have wandered in the ways of sin; for “they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. ”

“ He loves thy priests and sends them his gifts.' I also prayed for him in church before the altar of the Lord, at the Liturgy, during the prayer: 'Thou who hast given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplication unto thee,' and before the Holy Mysteries themselves. I prayed in the following words: 'Lord, our life! It is as easy for thee to cure every malady as it is for me to think of healing. It is as easy for thee to raise every man from the dead as it is for me to think of the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. ”

“ XLIII. A Place of Healing for Souls
1.THERE is a wondrous fountain of health — a marvelous place of healing for souls, which derives its efficacy from the precious blood of Jesus Christ; it is the sacrament of Penance. May you ever be filled in an increasing degree with veneration, and, I had almost said, with holy enthusiasm, for this place of healing for souls.
Picture to yourself a man who, having committed a grievous sin, knows nothing of the sacrament of Penance. He looks into himself, is conscious of the magnitude of his transgression, and the wretched state into which he has fallen. ”

“ In his Epistle to the Ephesians, exhorting Christians to united prayer, he says, "For if the prayer of one or two possesses such strength, how much more shall the prayer both of the bishop and of the whole Church?" [Page 13. § 5-7.] "For there is one physician of a corporeal and a spiritual nature, begotten and not begotten; become God in the flesh, true life in death, both from Mary and from God; first liable to suffering, and then incapable of suffering." ”

“ O Jesus, my all powerful physician! not only dost thou restore health, but thou canst even raise to life. Having, as I trust, in thy infinite mercy, been cleansed from my sins in the tribunal of penance, and been restored to the life of grace by the application of thy most sacred blood to my soul, grant that having received thyself as a pledge of thy forgiveness, I may say with thy Apostle: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.” ”

“ In the early days of the Church, religious were called by a name which signifies healers. Oh! my daughter, be truly your own healer, and pay no heed to what self-love may whisper to the contrary. Say to yourself, since I do not wish to die spiritually, I will be healed, and in order to be healed I will submit to treatment and correction, and I will entreat the doctors to spare me nothing which may be required to effect my cure. ”

“ I rejoice in knowing that I myself stand here today a living witness to the healing power of Almighty God, that is in the Church of Christ. Given up by eight doctors to die, yet under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the man who is now the prophet of God, on the earth, said as he blessed me that I should live, and I do live, notwithstanding the doctors said that blood poisoning in the third and last stage had set in, in my case. ”

“ The grace of the Father, the mercy of the Son, and the hovering of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person, be our help every day. Our help is in Thee. In Thee, our true Physician, is our hope. Put the medicine of Thy mercy on our wounds, and bind up our bruises that we be not lost. Without Thy help we are powerless to keep Thy commandments. ”

“ Thou hast given thy grace through thine apostles, O good physician, lover of mankind, to heal the wounds and sicknesses of all men through thy holy oil. Therefore, as being loving-kind, him that now faithfully to thy mercy hieth sanctify, have mercy upon him, and cleanse him from all sickness, and count him worthy of thy corruptless sweetness, Lord. ”

“ Most sacred Heart of Jesus, pour down Thy blessings abundantly on Thy holy Church, on the Supreme Pontiff, and on all the clergy; grant perseverance to the just, convert sinners, enlighten infidels, bless our parents, friends, and benefactors, assist the dying, free the souls in purgatory, and extend over all hearts the sweet empire of Thy love. ”

“ For thou hast frequently bestowed, and still oftentimes dost bestow, many good things in this sacrament on thy beloved who communicate devoutly, O my God, the support of my soul, who art the repairer of human infirmity, and the giver of all interior comfort. For thou impartest unto them much consolation, to support them in their many troubles ”

“ In these and similar phenomena, a strong conviction of the possession of the power on the part of the healer seems to be necessary for the excitement of the faith of those operated on; and the healer recognizes, by a kind of intuition, the existence of that faith on the part of the patient. Do not several phrases in the gospel narratives point to the same relations as existing between Jesus and the sufferers who sought his aid? The cure is constantly attributed to the "faith" of the patient ”

“ Do you suppose it will suffice to think of these things when the doctor tells you you cannot recover; to send for the clergyman to teach and move you when the faculty of heeding is well nigh gone, to pray for you, if you are unable to pray for yourself, to sigh over your body, if, alas! the soul has fled? Or are you now more or less possessed with religious thought and feeling, sitting loose to this world, weaning yourselves more and more from it, nerving yourselves for the last hour, sighing over and confessing your sins, trusting to Christ’s mercy, aspiring to heaven, praying for acceptance? ”

“ Almighty and Everlasting God, the eternal salvation of them that believe in Thee, hear us in behalf of Thy servants who are sick; for whom we humbly crave the help of Thy mercy; that, their health being restored to them, they may render thanks to Thee in Thy Church ”

“ Is rather shine than shade.”
The doctor’s hand is on his pulse, sustaining stimulants are steadily given, and once more a fitful gleam of life appears; he rallies for the moment. We hear the low voice of the chaplain, kneeling at his side, “You would not object to a prayer?” The wandering eyes say more than the languid lips, which can but frame, in a tone of surprise, the word, “object?” The same bright smile, the same far-off gaze as the words of prayer ascend. ”

“ Whatever end we have in view in communicating, we must cleanse and purify our soul, in the sacrament of Repentance, if defiled with the guilt of mortal sin. After this we must offer ourselves with our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our whole strength, and our whole powers, without reserve, to Jesus Christ and to His good pleasure, since in this most holy Sacrament He gives us His Blood and His Flesh, with His Soul, His Divinity, and His Merits. ”

“ In this matter of healing, then, as in all the miracles, we find Jesus doing the works of the Father. God is our Saviour: the Son of God comes healing the sick—doing that, I repeat, before our eyes, which the Father, for his own reasons, some of which I think I can see well enough, does from behind the veil of his creation and its laws. The cure comes by law, comes by the physician who brings the law to bear upon us ”

“ Faith healing still played a large part in the cure of Middle Age maladies, and so deeply-rooted was the idea that prayer and intercession, combined with a concoction of herbs from the monastery gardens, would heal the sick, that it was deemed a want of faith to employ other remedies. "It is better," they said, "to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men," a beneficial reflection, when one considers for a moment what the "hands of men" meant. ”

“ As, in the natural order, man is born, grows to manhood, is nourished, and if sick needs proper food and remedies: so, in the supernatural order, there is a birth, it is Baptism; there is a manly growth, it is Confirmation; there is a nourishing food, it is the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Life; there is a medicinal remedy against death, it is Penance; and there is a balm to heal the wounds, the scars of sin, it is Extreme Unction. These are some of the channels through which God's grace flows into our souls to assist us to keep the commandments. ”

“ If prayers to the Virgin won't cure them, or a visit to some holy well or other, why nothing will. If I do cure them, I don't get the credit—they simply believe they've got on the good side of one of their saints. ”

“ Some of them preach the laws and canons of heathen doctors and poets which are of small help to salvation, or they air their own opinions, and, where Scripture and Holy Church or the witness of the olden Doctors is not enough, reinforce them by incredible miracles, whereas, with the aid of Holy Scripture, they ought to endeavour to establish in men’s hearts the fear of God, faith, hope and charity, mildness and pity and such like. ”

“ How are we to heal others? First, by keeping in good spiritual health ourselves, lest we be told: ^Physician, heal thyself! ' By lives of regularity, by regular prayer, and regular sacraments; by lives that keep ever in touch with God, that look to God, that are spent in His presence, and are filled with work done for His cause. Thus shall we spread the light of truth, and make the force of good example felt: thus shall we make a protest against the disease of sin, and reparation to the Sacred Heart. ”

“ Let us pray for our brethren exercised with sickness, that the Lord may deliver them from every sickness and every disease, and restore them sound into His holy Church. Let us pray for those that travel by water or by land. ”

“ Then, like blind Bartimeus, the doubting heart looks up through faith, and your patient rejoices in the gospel of health.
Thus, you see, it is easier to heal the physical than the moral ailment. When divine Truth and Love heal, of sin, the sinner who is at ease in sin, how much more should these heal, of sickness, the sick who are dis-eased, dis-comforted, and who long for relief! ”

“ Then they be suddenly delivered from sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high saints.
By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say, that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the soul be healed, his wounds are seen afore God,—not as wounds but as worships. ”

“ I go to thee in the person of thy minister, and placing myself in spirit at the foot of the cross, I shall hope that the merits of the all-atoning blood which was shed upon it to take away the sins of the world, will be applied to my poor soul, by the absolution 1 shall fervently hope to receive. To supply for my want of contrition, I offer thee all the sorrow which thy divine heart felt for my sins in the Garden of Olives, begging through the merits of that sacred heart, that thou wilt cleanse me from them, and grant me the grace to avoid them in future. ”

“ O Christ our Lord, who art the Physician of salvation, grant unto all who are sick the aid of heavenly healing. Look upon all faithful people who are sick and who love to call upon Thy name, and take their souls into Thy keeping, and vouchsafe to deliver them from all sickness and infirmity; through Jesus Christ. ”