Becoming a Healing Presence

BECOMING A HEALING PRESENCE Albert S. Rossi, PhD

ancient faith publishing W chesterton, indiana

All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version, © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. Published by: Ancient Faith Publishing A Division of Ancient Faith Ministries P.O. Box 748 Chesterton, IN 46304 ISBN: 978-1-936270-16-3 Printed in the United States of America

Dr. Al Rossi is considered a treasure by seminarians and the many who have come to know him through retreats and podcasts. Now with Becoming a Healing Presence we have a written treasure as one more “gift from Al” that touches the soul and brings us ever closer to Christ our true physician and complete healer. —Very Rev. Dr. Chad Hatfield, Chancellor, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Al Rossi’s “little book” teaches you to go inward and find Jesus in the vast treasure house of your heart. Bits and pieces from family life interweave with sayings of the saints to take you on a journey that warms and equips your heart, sending you outward as a healing presence to others. —Rev. Sarah L. Fogg, PhD, BCC, Palliative Care Chaplain Dr. Rossi does here what most books on spirituality fail to do: he writes about how to live so as to be a healing presence in the messy world we inhabit today. He distills his decades of practical experience and thoughtful reflection living the Orthodox Christian way as a psychologist, university lecturer, seminary teacher, husband, father, and grandfather. His deceptively simple and accessible writing breathes with authenticity. —V. Rev. Fr. John A. Jillions, Chancellor, OCA Becoming a Healing Presence is a gift of calm to those caught up in the noise and busyness of our modern society. Through engaging personal stories, wisdom from the Church Fathers, and his professional experience as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Albert Rossi gently guides his readers toward prayerful stillness. His book is a peaceful and powerful reminder that to love is to foster healing in ourselves and in our neighbor through ceaseless communion with Christ. As one susceptible to becoming bound by earthly cares, I am very grateful for this curative dose of “the one thing needful.” —Molly Sabourin, author and podcaster, Close to Home

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TO GAY, my eternal wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;though physically dead for decades, her vibrant spirit lives on. She is my strength and my song. She coauthored the book, guiding and guarding me through the more difficult passages. She is a model for all of us, a healing presence from her heavenly abode.

Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/becoming-a-healing-presence/

Contents Foreword 9 Introduction

15

1: Inner Stillness 17 2: Breathing the Name Jesus

31

3: The Healing Heart

47

4: Vocation as a Way of Life

65

5: Gentleness as a Mindset

81

6: Surrender

97

7: The Sacrament of the Present Moment

109

8: Suffering and Death

125

9: Embracing Ambiguity

137

Conclusion

149

Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/becoming-a-healing-presence/

Introduction

W

e are all longing to become something noble, something elevated, something beyond our earthbound selves. We have been created to be “gods,” enfleshed with Christlikeness, in the full sense of the word, children of the living God. The abiding question is, “How?” How are we to become disposed to receive such nobility? One way is to take these words of Christ seriously: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . and your neighbor as yourself ’” (Luke 10:27). This little book will build on the assumption that the way we interact with our neighbors, both those close to us and those more remote, is the way we interact with Christ, with the living God. Christ is everything. Christ is our Physician, our complete healer. He wants us to be His humanity on earth, His healing presence to others. We are a healing presence to others when we give them strength and when we give them hope.

15 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/becoming-a-healing-presence/

becoming a healing pr esence Of course, the foundational truth of the Christian life is St. Athanasius a life of love. This little book the Great said tries to operationalize love in a of St. Anthony, concrete way. During our interactions with others, we know “Through him the when we give them strength and Lord heals man.” hope. That is, we know when The statement we empower them or when we diminish them. All we have to is made in the do is observe them as we interpresent tense and act and then watch the way they pertains not only walk afterward. The thesis of this book is to St. Anthony that we are all called to be a healbut also to us. ing presence to others, always. When we are a healing presence to others, we are, in some sense, a healing presence to Christ Himself, who resides in others. Better said, Christ is the healing presence in us who moves through us to heal others.

Chapter 1

Inner Stillness

O

n an airplane, as a flight prepares to depart, the flight attendant tells the passengers that, in case of an emergency, oxygen bags will drop from overhead. Those passengers with infants will receive two masks. The adult is to put his or her own oxygen mask on first, and only then put a mask on the infant. For me, as an Italian grandfather, those instructions are counterintuitive. I want to give my life for my grandchild, to care for her first, and then myself. But—and this is a big but—if I truly love my granddaughter, I will put my own oxygen mask on first, then hers. The sequence is vital to my granddaughter’s survival. If I don’t take care of myself first, both of us might be lost. The oxygen mask example is a model for becoming a healing presence to others. If I don’t take care of myself first, I have nothing to give to others. People seek me out as a counselor and expect that when they come into my office, I have time and energy for them. They don’t need a tired, grumpy, sleep-

17 Sample pages only. Purchase the full book at http://store.ancientfaith.com/becoming-a-healing-presence/

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