Yesterday I wrote about praying for the dead. Some people think this practice is truly bizarre, but those of Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox Christian or Jewish background understand completely why this is necessary.
But we can go still further. Besides praying for the well being of those who have passed away, we can actually bring healing to living family members - including ourselves - through prayers for the dead.
How? It's all explained in an excellent book, "Healing Your Family Tree", by Dr. Kenneth McAll.
And by a truly extraordinary piece of synchronicity that very book arrived at my house just as soon as I'd finished writing yesterday's post!
I'd ordered it weeks ago and had despaired of its ever arriving. I thought it would give some clues as to the origins of various familial problems which are clearly connected to both genetics (our faulty DNA) and family environments.
To my great delight, however, this book not only answers many questions in connection with how family problems may be passed down through the generations, it gives explicit guidance on how these problems may be healed. It shows how spiritual illnesses, as well as physical diseases, may be passed down and cause problems in the present. And it shows the way that all such diseases, whether of the body, mind or spirit, may be healed.
In previous posts I've looked at how our DNA carries the seeds of serious problems in our own lives and those of our families. It is becoming ever more apparent that here lie many of the physical origins of problems such as alcoholism, addictions of all kinds, mental illnesses and so on. We know now that various genetic flaws predispose some of us to addictive diseases and mental problems. There are known genes for opiate addiction, alcoholism, mood swings, and a sort of catch-all mental problem gene - the so-called "Warrior Gene" - which seems to compound many such addictions.
We also know that healing of all kinds comes ultimately from God, and His help is being sought quite openly by those who accept the Twelve Step programs.
Counselling, medication, family therapy and all sorts of interventions can work wonders in dealing with the symptoms of these deep-seated illnesses. But, as Jung said, no true healing is possible unless it takes place in the spirit, because all addictions - and many other mental problems, too - are actually spiritual problems manifesting in the physical sphere.
Those who've traced their family trees can often see these problems going back for many generations. Sometimes they seem to skip a generation, but generally, in every family, there are living members and ancestors who are known as the black sheep of the family, the ones that nobody talks about.
As an alcoholic who, thank God, has not had a drink for more than 25 years, I was especially interested in tracing the origins of this problem in my own family. True enough, in each generation I found someone who seemed especially problematic. He or she was known for a drinking problem, sometimes compounded with other physical and mental problems.
An alcoholic parent will not only pass on the alcoholic gene to some or all his children, he will also raise them in an unhealthy atmosphere. Until the actual genes were discovered, we could not be sure whether it was nurture or nature that caused the alcoholism. Today, we see it is a combination of both.
To me, this is a clear indication of what is meant by "original sin". There are faults in our DNA, in our very Essence, which must be healed before true spiritual progress may be made. It could well be that it is for that very purpose that each alcoholic, each addict has chosen to become incarnated today, when so much help is available to heal these diseases. And our own healing efforts can stretch backwards and forwards, into the past and into the future, affecting all those related to us who may have suffered spiritual sickness and passing on a cleansed, renewed heritage to our children.
Dr McAll's book points out that as well as healing those now living, who suffer from inherited addictions and other illnesses, we also need to heal the dead. It may be those deceased ancestors, unhealed and so unable or unwilling to pass further into the afterlife, and who could have attracted evil spirits, who could be causing many of the problems of living family members.
He gives numerous examples of how this can happen. He points out that God can allow unhealed souls to linger, dogging the following generations, waiting until someone, usually one of their descendants, eventually realizes the true nature of the problem and prays for and with them.
Many of these ancestors will have rejected the Christian faith of their families, or else were raised with no faith at all. Many were never baptised, and others have turned their backs on God. The Bible speaks of "generational curses", and it could well be that in many families today this is what is happening, and why so many people are still unhealed despite the best efforts of their friends and families.
Perhaps our ancestors dabbled in the occult and attracted evil spirits, which are now attached to living family members. Maybe they took part in magical rituals, read the tarot or sold horoscopes for financial gain rather than knowledge and understanding, or tried to contact the dead through a medium or a ouija board. Any of these activities, however innocently entered into, creates a psychic "leak" and issues an invitation for an evil spiritual entity to come in, which can then obsess a family tree for many generations.
Dr McAll emphasizes the need to pray for these ancestors by name, if we know it; if we don't, we must pray to be given a name under which they may be interceded for. We can then baptise them into the Christian faith and hold a Eucharistic service for them, in which the healing powers of Jesus's body and blood are applied to the sick and suffering ancestor, and that ancestor is released from whatever is holding them and us in bondage.
Releasing them brings healing and peace to the living family members. And in this way, an entire family tree may be healed.
Dr McAll is an Anglican psychiatrist, and his book approaches the question of family curses in a thoroughly Biblical, Christian way. If you don't accept this approach, you will gain nothing from reading this book.
But for anyone with an open mind who has noted recurring patterns of physical illness, addictions, mental illness and other problems in their own family, this book could be the way to ending all such suffering.
Readers already in recovery and following the Twelve Steps, and especially if they are also in the Work, will have seen great healing result from the influx of divine energies into their life. Dr McAll is suggesting that we may extend this healing to everyone in our family tree who has ever suffered from such problems, and thus put a complete end to any and all curses that may have attached themselves to our family.
As he says, "In all cases of bondage the best efforts of psychiatry should be utilized to integrate the personality, but it is essential that they are used in conjunction with prayer and the Eucharist service, which has the power both to break the destructive bondage and to form life-giving bonds with Jesus Christ".
Amen.
Note: I'm indebted to Phil Rickman, author of the very successful Merrily Watkins deliverance ministry series of thrillers, for mentioning this book.
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