By Anita Goruling
BINTULU — On 19 July 2024, some 220 Catholics from Bintulu, Miri, Sebauh, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur gathered in Bintulu for a 3-day conference with Dr Carol Razza, with the theme, “Restoring Hope to Instil Hope” organised by the Charis Team of Miri Diocese.
Dr Carol Razza is a full-time faculty member and formation advisor at St Vincent de Paul Seminary, Florida. Dr Carol has presented at numerous seminars, conferences and retreats all over the world. She was accompanied by Ms Patricia Eddy, a counsellor.
Day 1 began with a spiritually uplifting praise and worship session. The first talk and prayer session was titled, “Deep Scrub with the precious Blood and the Fire of the Holy Spirit prayer, adapted from St Basil The Great”. This was a session of spiritual cleansing from the power of the evil one for the participants. Confession and counselling followed. Four priests were there to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation. They were Fr Michael Sia (Spiritual Director of CHARIS Miri), Fr Andy Lee (St Anthony Bintulu), Fr Peter Hwang and Fr Glenn (St George, Sebauh).
Day 2 began with a praise and worship session, followed by Holy Mass. The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Simon Poh of Kuching Archdiocese. By the grace of God, Archbishop Simon was coincidentally present in Bintulu for a meeting. Upon learning of this event, he offered to celebrate the morning Mass with the participants.
A number of topics were presented on Day 2. The focus was on bringing home to all, that we are precious children of God. Dr Carol expressed that many of us do not realise this special identity that we possess. Instead, we are obsessed with the lies of the evil one, which over time stripped us of the abundant hope that is ours given by God. We should not “put God in a box” and create boundaries and conditions for God’s grace to be poured into our lives, as this will only limit the endless possibilities that He has in store for us. We need to be open and be prepared to receive anything that comes from God because He always wants to give us more than what we asked for.
Ms Patricia Eddy shared about Repentance and Forgiveness. The specific sin should be named and we ask God to deliver us from the effects of sin through daily reflection and prayer. She shared a deliverance prayer based on “Unbound” by Neal Lozano, which consists of the following sequence: Begin with repentance and forgiveness, followed by renouncing and commanding the evil spirit to leave us; then we ask for the Father’s blessing. We also ask the Holy Spirit for its gifts and we end the prayer with thanksgiving. She also shared the testimony of the changes in her family’s daily life when she prioritised family prayer time.
On the third day, Dr Carol Razza focussed on healing. Many participants gave testimonies of healing after the healing session. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, some were healed of deeply buried emotional wounds; some experienced physical healing. Many were touched to witness the boundless mercy of God. An elderly man came to the conference in crutches and went home dancing. An elderly lady was healed from the emotional hurt of being rejected by her parents because she was born a female. A young woman felt the power of the Holy Spirit removing her fear of speaking up and she was filled with joyful courage to give testimony in front of over 200 people. Another felt real inner peace for the first time when she felt all her burdens being lifted.
The conference ended with Sunday Mass celebrated by Fr Michael Sia. In his homily, he reminded the participants about the two situations that we Christians often encountered. Guided by the Sunday Gospel, Fr Michael invites us to always prioritise daily prayer time with the Lord, because God always wants to give us MORE, while the world often wants MORE from us. Through daily prayer time spent consistently with God, we can receive MORE from Him.
