An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

to his collection, postulates that in seeking forgiveness the sufferer may have beenwronged in reality or perception and this may add to the pain of the illness. Lucas believesthat we are instructed to forgive one another partly to release the offender but also forhealing of the offended. In the URC, the minister enables members of the congregation toseek this level of forgiveness by directly inviting them to ask individually and collectivelyfor forgiveness, in the spirit of Jesus who was unjustly tried, suffered and put to death, yetbefore he died he said „Father forgive them for they do notwhat they are doing‟(Luke 23).It is sometimes difficult to overcome bitterness, guilt and to forgive oneself for causingsuffering to another person and even more difficult to forgive others for causing sufferingto oneself. Planting the seed of forgiveness starts with blessing the person to be forgiven,and therefore gives space for the process of grace and faith in the power of forgiveness tostart working on oneself. Through suffering, the Christian church demonstrates the powerof the powerless to the world in the face of its oppressors. Christian faith is not just aproclamation of faith; it is active moral striving in a hostile world.The healing effect of positive emotions may have the potential to reduce stress on thecardiovascular system (Banner 2001,Witvleit et al. 2001). In contrast, a pattern ofinfrequent negative emotional arousal or one that rapidly return to a calm baselinefollowing negative arousal could have a beneficial effect on health.It may therefore be true to say that prayer produces positive emotions, a positive approachto any situation reduces stress on the cardiovascular system, allows the body space to dealwith physical internal stress thus relieving suffering and contribute to the process of219