2015 Indiana Catholic Women's Conference: ‘You were made for heaven’

Excerpts from Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Father James Blount’s talk on the gift of spiritual healing.

“St. John Paul the Great said that mankind is living in the greatest battle between light and darkness since the very flood of Noah” [reference to a talk given by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla at the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia in 1976].

“We’re living in very special times. Just look at what’s happening in the Middle East. It’s a time of intense darkness and spiritual warfare. But you know we win—you know the end of the Book, right?

“The Bible says Jesus has won for us every spiritual blessing in the heavens. His sons and daughters don’t often know about or make use of the many gifts he has won for us. Even our mistakes can be used by God for glory.

“You were made for heaven. We can easily lose that message because we get so busy doing different things. Realize this: the reason God made you was to live with him in love forever in heaven. That’s our purpose of living. That’s the purpose of our Catholic faith.

“Remember what the Baltimore Catechism said about why we’re made? ‘To know God, to love him and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in the next.’

“The more you work conscientiously trying to get to heaven and trying to get others to heaven, the more God will manifest spiritual gifts in your life. The more you depend on Jesus and try to get others to heaven—the more you need Jesus, because you can’t do that without him—then he comes.

“In an interview before he retired [Pope Benedict] said that ‘It is time now for the therapeutic gifts of Christ the King to come to the very forefront of the Holy Catholic Church’ [a reference to a statement made by Pope Benedict in Light of the World, a published interview of the former pope by Peter Seewald].

“I believe that every woman of God can be a gift of divine healing to her family members and to others. The Holy Spirit will work through any woman who is open.

“At the heart of Catholicism is a relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s not a set of laws. He reveals his Father to us, and you need to know that his Father is utterly, tenderly loving. Reach out in love to Jesus. Tell him you want to know him and his father as your best friend, that you need him. He desires our love and friendship. Give Jesus your love, your heart. He will come to you.”

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