By Connie McKinney
Contributing writer
People with cancer, back problems, and other illnesses have seen improvements and even complete cures after attending a healing Mass with Father Amedeo G. Guida.
But Father, affectionately known as Padre, doesn’t take credit for any healing that occurs.
“I’m not really the healer. Jesus does the healing,” he said.
Fr. Guida is heading to the Southern Tier on Thursday, Feb. 26, to celebrate a charismatic Mass followed by a healing service at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Endicott. A charismatic Mass allows for extra praise and worship during the Mass, rather than simply following the regular Mass routine, said Deacon Paul Heiland, a deacon at Our Lady of Good Counsel.
“We would love it to be packed,” Heiland said of the Mass and healing service. “The more, the merrier. It’s very joy-filled. It’s meant to be uplifting.”
Heiland will be assisting Father during the Mass along with Deacon Ken Money, who serves at St. Mary’s of the Lake in Skaneateles and as the diocesan charismatic renewal liaison.
“My role as a deacon is to assist Father and to pray with people for the gift of healing in their lives,” Money said.
The special Masses are inspiring to those who attend, he said.
“We’re helping people to open up to the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” Money said. “It’s amazing to feel the power of the Holy Spirit working. It’s very, very powerful.”
This is the first charismatic Mass and healing service that Our Lady of Good Counsel has held in a long time, Heiland said. But Fr. Guida is no stranger to the Southern Tier and has held other healing Masses at other Broome County churches in the past. He said he’s looking forward to visiting Our Lady of Good Counsel and conducting the Mass and healing service.
“I’m hoping people will come and experience God’s healing in whatever capacity God wants them to have,” Father said.
A history of healing
Fr. Guida’s first assignment as a priest after being ordained in 1985 was at St. Mary of the Assumption in Binghamton, he said.
“What really opened my heart to it was people started asking me after the Mass, ‘Oh, Father, can you pray for me?’” he shared. “God was using me. Word got out.”
Fr. Guida said he’s been offering healing Masses since the 1980s. In 2007, he started St. Raphael Ministries, where he does healing Masses, pilgrimages, missions, and retreats.
Father serves as a priest at St. Daniel’s Church in Syracuse, where he celebrates a healing Mass on the first Thursday of the month. He celebrates another healing Mass on the third Thursday of the month at St. Mary, Our Lady of Czestochowa in New York Mills, Oneida County.
The healing services he leads are meant to help people with physical, emotional, and spiritual illnesses, he said. People can tell him what their issue is if they want to, but they don’t have to.
“The Lord knows what’s in your heart,” Father said.
Over the years, he’s seen many people healed, he said. A woman with a brain tumor came to one of his healing services. When she saw her doctor a few weeks after the service, the tumor was gone.
People with back pain have had their pain disappear and their ability to walk straighter restored after attending healing Masses, Father said. Depressed people have felt their depression lift after attending a healing Mass.
Several years ago, he prayed over a woman who was having difficulty becoming pregnant. Years later, he met the woman and her husband, who couldn’t wait to share their healing story with him.
“You know, Father, we did have a son,” the couple told him. “He’s in the seminary now.”
If you go
A charismatic Mass followed by a healing service will be held on Feb. 26 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, 701 West Main St., Endicott. A holy hour with confessions is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by the Mass at 6 p.m. A healing service will be held after the Mass.
For more information, visit straphaelministries.net.
