American Jesuit Fr Bruce Morrill conducted a two-day colloquium on healing and liturgy at Jesuit Theological College last month.
The Associate Professor and graduate program director in the theology department at Boston College facilitated the colloquium, entitled Divine Worship and Human Healing, on 24 and 25 July.
While contemporary Catholics often do not associate liturgy with healing, Fr Morrill noted that from the earliest
centuries believers have experienced and described sacramental rites as acts which glorify God by healing people.
The two days began with an overview of current biblical and historical scholarship in the phenomenon of healing. It then turned to the anointing of the sick, viaticum for the dying, and the Order of Christian Funerals to explore how these renewed rites can grace us with treasures from the tradition that meet genuine human needs today.
‘The colloquium was experienced by participants as very valuable initial and ongoing formation', said Jesuit Theological College Rector Fr Michael Smith.
Meanwhile, young religious have begun the Year of the Priest with a seminar exploring what it means to be called to a ministerial priesthood.
Jesuit scholastics joined 70 seminarians and formators for the Yarra Theological Union seminar, entitled ‘Vowed and Ordained'. Questions addressed included: What difference does it make to priesthood that a priest is also a member of a religious order or congregation? And what difference does it make to life as a religious that a man lives it, in response to God's call, as an ordained minister in the Church?
The speakers were Bruce Morrill SJ, Associate Professor in Liturgy and Sacramental Theology at Boston College, Bishop Tim Costelloe SDB, Auxiliary Bishop in the Northern Region of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, and Tony McSweeny SSS, former Fr General of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.
‘At a time in the Church when priestly identity can be confusing, this was a very helpful three days', said Fr Smith.