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Communion and Healing the Generations
By Rev. Marsh Hudson-Knapp
One of the great joys of communion is the opportunity to bring people into Jesus’ presence for healing and blessing. We regularly mention friends or family in prayer, and sometimes we image bringing them to Jesus. Using our prayer imagination is a powerful way to focus the power of prayer. We may envision Jesus laying on hands touching our friend, and we may sense his love and light pouring through them. Sometimes at communion we ask Jesus to heal our relationships with people, envisioning Jesus bringing us together with people, and helping us to talk out hurts. Sometimes we need to confess and ask forgiveness. Sometimes we need to offer forgiveness. Going through this in prayer before we do it in flesh and blood can help to prepare our inner self to truly embrace the other.
Some hurts in our lives go back generations. Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, there have been jealousies, resentments, mutual anger or hatred that has taken a life of its own. In communion we have the opportunity to go with Jesus in prayer to these people and claim Jesus’ power to forgive, to love, and embrace. Bringing your family’s enemies or alienated friends – both those in the present and and others through the generations – into the presence of Jesus, and finding his strength to love them, releases tremendous power in the life of a family and in the soul of the person praying.
Unresolved family situations often leave a scar in your family life or in your heart. If someone dies in upsetting circumstances, at communion we can bring them into Jesus presence to make things better. You see Jesus can reach across time and space. He is not stuck in one place or in one time like we are. So he can go back to times past and bring healing. One friend of mine learned that his father had died in terrible poverty and his body had been thrown on a garbage pile. It always left my friend feeling so horribly upset. So we celebrated communion and included time to commit his father into God’s care, as should have happened long ago. We imaged Jesus welcoming him home to heaven, and it was a gift of profound peace to my friend who had been unsettled for many years.
Many times families are so upset at a still birth, miscarriage or abortion that they fail to care for the child who has died. This often leaves the family with a deep wound. As with my friend, at communion, where Jesus bonds us with the saints, we can commit the little ones to Jesus, picture them with the Lord, and ask Jesus if he will allow us to see our loved one. Sometimes a name will be given to us if the child was never named. I was once in a meditation and Jesus took me to see someone. It was my brother who had been born dead. We talked and played and had such a delightful time. Then I came back home into the present. The experience brought the most profound healing to my life – healing my fears of death and doubts about eternal life, and giving me the opportunity to grieve my brother, which I had never done.
In similar ways, people who have undergone abortions have often been told, "It is nothing." Years later, the post-traumatic stress brings back the painful reality of the loss, the guilt, the hurt. In communion Jesus gives us opportunities to find healing with those who have gone before us – to send them our love and to receive back theirs. We are able to release love and healing on earth and, I believe, in heaven.
Dr. Kenneth McAll of England has written of many medical cases where people have suffered from incurable physical and psychiatric illnesses. McAll and family members have celebrated communion, bringing to Jesus people in the family’s past, folks who have suffered a violent death, abortions, or conflicts within or between families. As these family relationships are healed sometimes the sick person will undergo a dramatic healing themselves, even if they are unaware of the communion and other prayers. (See Healing the Family Tree.)
We can celebrate a communion to intentionally bring troubled family members to Jesus. McAll suggests somewhat different prayers for parts of communion. For example, the confession brings our sins and those of our family members. If we know their sins we can confess with and for them. We also give forgiveness to our family members and ask it from them. At intercession time we take substantial times of silence to allow each person to pray asking Jesus who in their family may need healing. Sometimes one or many people will come to mind.
When it comes time to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we invite each person to come up to Christ’s table and spend as long as they need bringing their family to Jesus. Sometimes we make several spaces at the table so that several people can be there in prayer at once. We invite people to stay as long as they need. Some people will prepare in advance of communion, talking with family members, exploring their genealogy and family tree, some making a genogram to map the strengths and wounds within their family. Just bringing these people and stories to light starts healing families. The secrets start to dissipate along with their power when the truth and light of Jesus starts shining within your family history. All of these preparations can empower us to identify and bless our family members and in communion to release health and wholeness through the generations. (See McAll’s book for the other elements in a special communion order for healing the generations.)
One need not wait for a special generational communion service, however. Every time you celebrate communion you may invite the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind members of your family past and present who need forgiveness or whom you need to forgive, and those who need healing of the spirit, body or mind. Then as you sit in your pew or go forward to Jesus’ table, bring those people to Jesus in your prayer imagination. Let yourself be a channel of Christ’s healing love into the heart of your family!
-Marsh Hudson-Knapp, October 5, 1999
Resources on healing the generations:
House blessing service with generational communion and readings & 24 Biblical References to Generational Healing. Healing Prayer of Light - Free, free to duplicate with credit.
Armor of God - Free, free to duplicate with credit.
Prayer with the Sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) to cut us free.
There is power in the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT to cut us free from all kinds of entanglements and unhealthy bonds.
Steps: 1. Get permission to pray this prayer with the person who is entangled.
2. Name the bonds that are to be severed.
3. Take your hand like a sword and cut all around the person declaring boldly:
In the Name of Jesus Christ and with the Sword of the Spirit
I cut all the bonds of (name them) and set you completely free.
4. Seal the person in Jesus' blood.
I now seal you body mind and soul in the blood of Jesus and enfold you in the strong protections of his love. No longer can any bonds attach to you!
5. The person gives thanks and praise to Jesus in faith!
Often people feel a physical sensation of lightness or freedom after this prayer is prayed for them.
Scriptures about Healing the Family Tree
A. Sin and Problems pass through generations.
Exodus 20: 5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
punishing children for the iniquity of parents,
to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,
Exodus 34:7
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children
and the children's children,
to the third and the fourth generation."
and parallel reading:
Deuteronomy 5:9
You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I the LORD your God am a jealous God,
punishing children for the iniquity of parents,
to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,
Sin can skip a generation:
Genesis 31:19, 34; 35:2
As Jacob prepared to leave his uncle Laban and return home, Jacob's wife feared losing their inherited riches.
19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep,
and Rachel stole her father's household gods.
34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods
and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them.
Laban felt all about in the tent, but did not find them.
35:2 So Jacob said to his household
and to all who were with him,
"Put away the foreign gods that are among you,
and purify yourselves, and change your clothes;
The next generation was free from worshipping false gods.
The sin skipped Joseph's generation, but returned with his son Ephraim as we hear from the prophet Hosea.
Hosea 4:17
Ephraim is joined to idols--let him alone.
Sin can travel through generations within religious or political groups as well as families.
Matthew 23:29-36
29 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you build the tombs of the prophets
and decorate the graves of the righteous,
30 and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have taken part with them
in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31 Thus you testify against yourselves
that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32 Fill up, then, the measure of your ancestors.
33 You snakes, you brood of vipers!
How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
34 Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes,
some of whom you will kill and crucify,
and some you will flog in your synagogues
and pursue from town to town,
35 so that upon you may come all the righteous blood
shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel
to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah,
whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
36 Truly I tell you, all this will come upon this generation.
Our connections with the dead are truly deep:
Lamentations 3:6
he has made me sit in darkness with the dead of long ago. JBT
B. Human faithfulness & God's blessings also pass down:
Psalm 103:17-18
But the steadfast love of the LORD
is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
Isaac passes down the family blessing to Jacob
Genesis 27:28-29
27 So he came near and kissed him;
and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him,
and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.
28 May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.
29 Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.
Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be everyone who blesses you!"
Israel (Jacob) blesses Joseph's sons:
Genesis 48:15-16
15 He blessed Joseph, and said,
"The God before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
16 the angel who has redeemed me from all harm,
bless the boys; and in them let my name be perpetuated,
and the name of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude on the earth."
C. If we face and confess the sins of our ancestors we can be reconciled with God:
Leviticus 26:39-40
And those of you who survive shall languish
in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities;
also they shall languish
because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
40 But if they confess their iniquity
and the iniquity of their ancestors,
in that they committed treachery against me
and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me--
41 so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them
and brought them into the land of their enemies;
if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled
and they make amends for their iniquity,
42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob;
I will remember also my covenant with Isaac
and also my covenant with Abraham,
and I will remember the land.
Jesus Christ can heal the living and the dead:
John 5:25-28
25 "Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
26 For just as the Father has life in himself,
so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself;
27 and he has given him authority to execute judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
28 Do not be astonished at this;
for the hour is coming when
all who are in their graves
will hear his voice
Jesus defeated death:
Matthew 27:51-54
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple
was torn in two, from top to bottom.
The earth shook, and the rocks were split.
52 The tombs also were opened,
and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs
and entered the holy city and appeared to many.
54 Now when the centurion and those with him,
who were keeping watch over Jesus,
saw the earthquake and what took place,
they were terrified and said, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Jesus overcame death's power:
1Corinthians 15:6
Then he [the risen Christ] appeared
to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time,
most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
Death cannot stop Jesus from ministering to a person:
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus has authority over the dead:
Romans 14:7-10
7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.
8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again,
so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?
Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
Jesus went to hell after his death to minister to the dead:
1Peter 3:18-19
18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,
19 in which also he went and made a proclamation
to the spirits in prison, [that is the dead]
1Peter 4:6
For this is the reason
the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead,
so that, though they had been judged in the flesh
as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.
D. God Promises Generational Healing
Prophets promise to break generational bondage:
Jeremiah 31:29-30
God will send the people exiled in Babylon back to their land.
29 In those days they shall no longer say:
"The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge."
30 But all shall die for their own sins;
the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.
Ezekiel 18:1-3, 14, 17
1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 What do you mean by repeating this proverb
concerning the land of Israel,
"The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge"?
3 As I live, says the Lord GOD,
this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.
14 But if this man has a son who sees all the sins that his father has done, considers, and does not do likewise...
17 withholds his hand from iniquity... and follows my statutes;
he shall not die for his father's iniquity;
he shall surely live.
God promises the healing of many generations:
Isaiah 61:4
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
If we move in the direction of the Holy Spirit, we do not need to fear
1Corinthians 15:32a
If with merely human hopes
I fought with wild animals at Ephesus,
what would I have gained by it?
The dead will come back to life.
1Corinthians 15:35
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body do they come?"
A faithful person brings their sins
and the sins of others to God:
Daniel 9:20
While I was speaking,
and was praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel,
and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God
on behalf of the holy mountain of my God--
A prayer of confession for one's dead parents' sins and for sins of the living:
Baruch 3:1-4
1 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel,
the soul in anguish and the wearied spirit cry out to you.
2 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned before you.
3 For you are enthroned forever, and we are perishing forever.
4 O Lord Almighty, God of Israel,
hear now the prayer of the people of Israel,
the children of those who sinned before you,
who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God,
so that calamities have clung to us.
E. Prayer for our family tree
can make a difference to them and to us
Paul accepts as a fact
that the dead receive benefit from baptisms
1 Corinthians 15:29
29 Otherwise, what will those people do
who receive baptism on behalf of the dead?
If the dead are not raised at all,
why are people baptized on their behalf?
Faithful people prayed for the dead
and made atonement for their sins.
2 Macabees 12:38-45
38 Then Judas assembled his army
and went to the city of Adullam.
As the seventh day was coming on,
they purified themselves according to the custom,
and kept the sabbath there.
39 On the next day, as had now become necessary,
Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen
and to bring them back to lie with their kindred
in the sepulchres of their ancestors.
40 Then under the tunic of each one of the dead
they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia,
which the law forbids the Jews to wear.
And it became clear to all
that this was the reason these men had fallen.
41 So they all blessed the ways of the Lord,
the righteous judge, who reveals the things that are hidden;
42 and they turned to supplication,
praying that the sin that had been committed
might be wholly blotted out.
The noble Judas exhorted the people
to keep themselves free from sin,
for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened
as the result of the sin of those who had fallen.
43 He also took up a collection, man by man,
to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver,
and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering.
In doing this he acted very well and honorably,
taking account of the resurrection.
44 For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen
would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish
to pray for the dead.
45 But if he was looking to the splendid reward
that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness,
it was a holy and pious thought.
Therefore he made atonement for the dead,
so that they might be delivered from their sin.
We are to proceed with care, keeping Jesus,
not the dead themselves, at the center of our focus:
Deuteronomy 18:10-11
10 No one shall be found among you
who makes a son or daughter pass through fire,
or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer,
or an augur, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts spells,
or who consults ghosts or spirits,
or who seeks oracles from the dead.
Our forebearers continue to bless us as well:
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight
and the sin that clings so closely,
and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
God wants to unite all of us in this world and in heaven through Jesus
Ephesians 1:9-10
9 he [God] has made known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,
10 as a plan for the fullness of time,
to gather up all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.
All translations are the New Revised Standard Version
except those marked JBT: Jerusalem Bible Translation.
Printed Resources:
Linn, Dennis, Matt & Sheila. Healing the Greatest Hurt. (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) A very understandable introduction to healing the generations with biblical background, a history of the practices, and particular focus on healing for miscarried and other children.
McAll, Kenneth, M.D. Healing the Family Tree. (London: Sheldon Press, 1982) Amazing true stories of physical and emotional healings, relief for haunted houses, and the elements of communion for generational healing.
A number of resources on Family Systems Therapy explore generational bonds in our family emotional systems and ways to free them. Rabbi Ed Friedman's Generation to Generation (Guilford Press) offers a wide overview of generational potentials and problems in families churches and synagogues. Completing genograms of your family can be a great help in identifying people and events that would benefit by prayer.
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