Since the close of the Second Vatican Council over 40 years ago there has been a continual renewal in the areas of liturgy, sacraments, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, renewing methods and disciplines of personal and communal prayer, and a growing awareness of our need for deep personal spiritual renewal.

It is common for all levels of leadership and membership to reflect on their growth in holiness in the Trinity and all that implies for ministry flowing out of personal spiritual integration.  The need for evangelization becomes the basic structure to witness to one’s faith; re-examine a call to deeper charity emphasizing our outreach to the needs of the poor and marginalized; and radiating hope in a world riddled with hatred, violence and war.

In the renewal of the Church one of the major concerns that is surfacing among Christians is the influence of evil and its impact on individual lives, as well as the political and corporate world.  Evidence is mounting that the need to integrate the process of discernment both cognitively and affectively is of utter importance to use as a rule how we live among the communities in which we find ourselves.

Discernment needs to be understood and become the deep spiritual value out of which we make all the decisions of our lives. Discernment, properly understood throughout Church history is to make us deeply conscious of the process of how we think and how we make choices and whether they are based on the message of the Gospel or not. 

The call to holiness through personal prayer can only reach depths when we become aware of how evil (Satan and his fallen angels) tempt us in the various aspects of our lives. There are good spirits and evil spirits. This conference will examine the mystery of evil, its impact on our personal prayer and daily decisions. The need for deliverance is often discussed as a common ministry where spirits become experiences of oppression, obsession and in rare cases possessions.

The focus of this conference will be based on the theology and spirituality of the Eight  Beatitudes as described in the Gospel of Matthew. Reviewing the beauty of these passages the conference will focus on the need for healing, often beginning where there has been trauma from conception, early years of growth, and any painful memories from lived experiences that have resided deeply in our being.

In the ministry of deliverance it becomes evident that in some individuals there is generational pain in one’s family history that needs healing. Learning simple interventions to relieve pain many have carried through the brokenness in much of their lives is crucial in this century to free God’s children that He loves unconditionally and desires their wholeness.

For the first three centuries of the Church the ministries of physical, psychological, spiritual healing and deliverance (and exorcism) were the ministries of evangelization that brought Christians to the faith by the thousands. It is time we reclaim those gifts for the present day Church and society. Healing prayer is meant to be a common ordinary ministry and healings are meant to be commonplace when Christians pray in intercession for someone who is ill and/or in bondage.