Vincentian Healing Mass

The Vincentian Healing Mass is a healing service held on Friday, the 9th of April 2021, at the Centre’s Retreat grounds at Karrakup in Perth. At intervals, healing and inner healing retreats are held there.

The spirit of the Centre and its congregation is drawn from the life and teachings of St. Vincent de Paul. During his life, St. Vincent organised retreats for the Catholic people to help them reform their Christian lives. The retreats are scheduled for both local and intentional retreatants who are healed by the love of God.

Fr Varghese Parackal V.C. led the healing mass of the 9th of April. It kicked off at 7:30 ASWP with worship, and the retreatants were led in worship songs for twenty minutes. At the end of the worship session, Fr Varghese Parackal V.C took to the podium and led the retreatants to pray. After the prayers came the first reading of the scriptures.

The reading was taken from the books of Acts of the Apostles 4:1-12. The text was an account of Peter and John being questioned about in whose name they carried out their miracles. They confirmed that it was the name of Jesus. The underlying message was, 'There is no other name by which we shall be saved.

Fr Varghese Parackal V.C returned to the altar for an exhortation. He spoke extensively about the love of God for all humanity and how our sins and weaknesses violate that love. He led the retreatants in a prayer for forgiveness. He led a prayer for the Holy Spirit to fill every attendee with divine virtues worthy of the love of God.

At various points during the exhortation, the retreatants were led to sing hymns in worship to God. The Father went on to talk about panicking. He illustrated attempting to get a key out of your pocket and fumbling to insert it into the keyhole. He likened this to life. In the moments when we feel panicky, we realise that we need God. He is the only one who can help us.

All the retreatants filed out to accept a touch from the Father on their palms. The Father then raised a sacrifice on behalf of himself and the attendees. They prayed for the sacrifice to be acceptable, after which the Father carried out the necessary acts of sacrifice.

It was a spiritual and solemn atmosphere where the retreatants were able to meet with God and learn from the word of God under the ministry of the highly respected Vincentian priest. The amazing service lasted for a little over two hours. The retreatants were encouraged to continue to pray ahead of the following meetings.

In Australia, there are Vincentian Fathers stationed in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney who regularly conduct healing and inner healing retreats for the people of Australia. Currently, the Vincentian Congregation has set up fifty-one retreat centres all around the globe. They are open to all interested parties.