Customer Reviews

Praying the Rosary for Inner Healing

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found the healing rosary insightful and provocative. It challenges one to take a good look at our lives and forgive our past hurts as well as own responsibility for the hurt we have caused others. I especially welcome the author's constant urgings to take our failings and hurts to the sacrament of confession.

This book is too important to leave on the shelf. I have purchased six, and have given them all away, including my own. I will certainly be purchasing more of them, as I really miss my copy; but, when someone is suffering, what can you do?

This book is one of the most beautiful rosary meditation books I have ever found. It takes a very difficult but necessary aspect of life: the need for inner healing, and it gives amazing yet profoundly simple ways to pray about it in your own life. I think that anyone will find this book an amazing way to deepen their experience of the rosary and find inner healing even if you don't think you need it.

This book is well-written and practical, but my favorite parts are the stories of healing.

Maybe it is where I am in life right now. But I find stories of answered prayers and healing inspirational. Often, we feel like God does not hear us because prayer "appears" to go unanswered. Really God is listening, but not giving the answer we want. Therefore, I find it heartening that so many people are healed through prayer. He does answer prayer. The book follows the mysteries of the rosary. Each chapter is broken up into sections. First, a scriptural reference to that mystery. Then a mediation on the mystery. This is followed by a meditation that applies the mystery to our life. The section I found most helpful was about someone who was healed related to the topic of that mystery. The next section is a meditation asking for healing in our own lives. The mystery closes with a prayer. For those who think God does not hear our prayers, this is a good book to inspire and seek healing in their own lives. For some readers, they might pick and choose the sections that are most helpful to them.

This is book is highly recommended by me. I regularly pray the Rosary, but this book has shown me ways to go deeper into the meditations on the mysteries.

I had first seen the author on television and I feel so fortunate to have purchased the book. I cannot place a value of the benefits that I received through this book.

I found this book troubling because it appears to contain very odd and false teachings about the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

For example, consider the following excerpt from p37 regarding prayerful reflection on the second Joyful Mystery: "If any negative emotions or experiences from your time in the womb are brought to mind, simply take them to confession. Don't go into detail. Just say, "I confess the pain and stresses of my early life and ask for the forgiveness and healing of Christ"". Or this, on p50 in relation to the fourth Joyful Mystery: "If others have harmed you in childhood, take it to confession". Turning to p58: "If you were abused or hurt by others during [your adolescence], bring that to confession too. Simply confess that you were abused, and ask for healing an for the power to forgive the abuser". On page 73: "...you may also bring the sins of which you are a victim".

Therefore, not only does the author tell the reader to confess sin where there simply is none (i.e. negative emotions or experiences from time in the womb), but he also tells the reader to confess the sins of others. He also encourages readers to bring to confession that which should be the subject of personal prayer, spiritual direction or professional counselling (i.e. trauma inflicted by others). This reduction of the sacrament to pseudo-psychotherapy is worrying, and could present a particular danger to those who are not well-catechised.

I suppose that, to be fair, the book's concept is very good and some of the comments about suffering are quite insightful. Nevertheless, the author blurs some important boundaries, and could end up doing more harm than good without the reader even realising as much.