St. Peter Parish, Point Pleasant Beach, will host a healing prayer service Aug. 18 at 2 p.m. in the church at 406 Forman Ave. The service is designated for those suffering from all types of addictions, as well as their family members and loved ones.
Conventual Franciscan Father Brennan Joseph Farleo, parochial vicar, along with the lay members of the Secular Franciscans of St. Maximilian Kolbe Fraternity at St. Peter’s, will be present for the healing service. Dorothy O’Reilly, fraternity minister/president, said that as St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of addicts as well as a Conventual Franciscan, it made sense to honor his memory and ask for his intercession this month; his feast day is Aug. 14.
“Addictions are a serious epidemic in our country. We want to give people hope through the power of prayer,” O’Reilly said. “We wanted to address every addiction possible, and ask for [St. Kolbe’s] intercession for healing.”
Participants may also have the opportunity to pray with or be blessed by a relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe. An invitation was also extended to members of the Partnership for a Drug Free America. This is the first time for a healing service of this type at St. Peter Parish, she noted, but the fraternity is already quite involved in reaching out to those struggling with addiction, as a part of their charism.
The Secular Franciscan community was part of the founding membership of St. Peter Parish, and has met there nearly 90 years. They draw their inspiration from St. Maximilian Kolbe’s life and martyrdom. A Franciscan friar known as the Martyr of Charity, he offered his life in place of a prisoner with a family in Auschwitz concentration camp. After surviving two weeks in a starvation bunker, he died from injection of carbolic acid.
“Many miracles have been attributed to St. Maximilian Kolbe … [Care for the addicted] is part of his spirit, as our patron saint, and we’re all concerned about what’s going on in our society,” O’Reilly explained. “St. Francis heard the voice of Jesus [in the church of] San Damiano, ‘Rebuild my Church, it is falling into ruin.’ That whole spirit [of rebuilding] … we look for ways to rebuild, and this is one of them.”
O’Reilly knows personally the difficulties that addictions cause; two family members suffered from addiction, one who recovered and one who did not.
“That was something that meant a lot to me, to reach out,” she said. “Even if we help one person, it’s worth it.”