Summary
Spending time listening to the Word of God in the Scriptures is a necessary part of growing in intimacy with Christ. In this session, speaker Rhyan Ramirez will lead you through Lectio Divina with the Gospel story of the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage, allowing you to hear the message of healing He has for you.
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Reflective Study Guide Questions
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years…She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.’
Mark 5:25;27-28
1. What is happening in this reading? What do you visualize when you hear this reading?
2. What words or phrases stick out to you most during this reading of the passage?
3. What do you think God is saying to you through this passage?
4. What will you take away from this time of prayer?
Text: Growing in Prayer & Intimacy with Jesus:
A Prayer Session through Mark 5:25
Hello there. Welcome back, bro Rhy here and welcome to today’s session, growing in Prayer and Intimacy with Jesus.
Opening Prayer
Let us go ahead and start as we always do in prayer, the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, as we are entering into today’s session, thinking of the theme of healing and this movement to pray more. I ask Lord, that as we dive into your word and spend time with you today in a special way, that not only do we feel more connected with you, but it becomes more and more clear how important it is that we need you, that we rely on you, that it is with your grace.
It is with your guidance that we can truly become whole. We thank you for all of the participants for this online retreat, and we are praying for the seeds that are being planted. That are being nurtured, that it bears much fruit in your honor and your glory In this we pray, amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Get Into The Scriptures
Amen. All right, faith, family. This is, definitely. one of my favorite sessions, uh, because of this idea that we get to spend time with Jesus through the scriptures. So when we think of this concept of growing in prayer and intimacy with Jesus, there is no better way to do that. Then to spend time with him right here.
As I said in previous videos, um, I have a challenge with the concept WWJD, what would Jesus do? And I said, it should be WDJD. What did Jesus do? And one of the best ways to know what he did was, of course, is to get into the scriptures, start with those gospels, and really spend time praying with the scriptures.
So the title of the session, growing in Prayer. And intimacy with Jesus growing in prayer and intimacy with Jesus. So if you were like me growing up, when I used to read the Bible, they were, it was just that. It was words on a page. Some of the words made sense, some of them didn’t. And I remember always having lots of questions, and I still do till this day.
But I remember my approach. My approach to the Bible was a lot different. So I think of this, uh, phrase or this acronym that was shared with me, brief instructions before leaving Earth brief instructions before leaving Earth. And so when I heard that and it was, uh, shared with me to approach the Bible as these are number one, it’s God’s word.
And everything in here is here to guide us, guide us in our everyday lives, no matter what time period you’re reading from all of the lessons and all of the words here, everything in, uh, the scriptures is meant to be a guide for us. And I was always taught, and it’s our job to take the words off the page, but I do remember just kind of growing up, listening to certain readings and of course, and the masses as we have cycles.
Pray Your Prayer
Here are the readings, you know, um, every other year or just in, based on the cycle? You know, I would, you know, some readings were more familiar than others, but when I was taught that what we should be doing is praying with the scriptures, praying before we open up the Bible, praying for God to guide us to where he wants us to read his instruction, to read his word, praying.
With each word in here so that we can truly become closer to God, we can truly become closer to Jesus because we’re taking the time to read about his life is when things started to shift. So my invitation to you is as you go through your scriptures and you’re reading them, like I say, don’t say a prayer, pray your prayer.
And my invitation to you is as you’re looking at the word of God, whether you are by yourself reading it on your own, whether you’re listening to it at mass or maybe you’re in a Bible study, let us regard this word of God with the utmost reverence. And have a prayer mindset when going into it. Now, one of my favorite types of prayer is the Lectio Divina.
Yes, the Lectio Divina. So for today’s session, we’re going to take a little time. We’re going to pick a scripture that I have set aside for us today. And we’re going to approach it a little differently. We’re going to approach it a little differently. So you’re going to have, uh, time to pause the video until you’re ready. Because the whole idea of spending time with Jesus and growing and prayer and intimacy with him is just that is to take. Your time. So throughout this session, when you feel the need or when you get the prompting to pause, take as much time as you need to come back. Um, but more importantly, let’s really think about how can we pray our prayers, pray with scripture in, in a different way.
Lectio Divina
In a different way. So couple things you might need. Of course, if you want to follow along, you can get your Bible as well. Uh, and if you have a journal or something to write on and something to write with, that can also be really helpful. I am a firm believer that, you know, uh, people forget. Paper, remember? So write it down. So, uh, just a couple things before we start our session today.
So let’s hear Lectio Divina. Ideally what happens in this form of prayer is you’re going to hear a scripture passage three different times. So what’s going to happen is I’m going to read the same passage three times, but before each reading I’m going to ask you, I’m going to give you a specific prompt.
A specific focus. So as I’m reading the word of God, if you need to close your eyes or you know, make sure that you’re in a place, in a space where you can really focus in, um, please feel free to do so. I encourage you to listen first and if you want to reference, uh, the scripture during your reflection time, during your prayer time, uh, you can do that as well.
Mark 5:25-34
Okay, so, all right. So today, today the scripture that I am choosing comes from the book of Mark, comes from the book of Mark, and it is the woman with the hemorrhage. Yes, the woman with the he hemorrhage. So this is Mark chapter five, verses 25 through 34. 25 through 34. So for this first round, for this first round.
What I’d like you to focus on is what’s happening if you want to write on your journal or in your notebook, visualize. Okay? I like to keep this real simple. Just visualize what is happening in this reading. That’s all I want you to do for this first round. Just visualize what’s happening. All right. Here we go.
First Part: Visualize What’s Happening
There was a woman afflicted with a hemorrhage for 12 years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped, but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, she said. If I touch his clothes, I shall be cured immediately.
Her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked Who has touched my clothes? But his disciples said to him. You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask who touched me, and he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling, she fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction, the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
So here you can go ahead and pause the video and when you pause the video, write down what is happening in this reading. With what do you visualize happening in this reading?
Welcome back. Welcome back. Now, uh, we’re going to share, I’m going to share a little bit about what I visualized as I was reading it, I was visualizing Jesus coming back and, you know, I’m imagining all the visualizing, all of the people coming in because they’ve, I’ve have already heard all of the healings, all of the miracles.
That he’s done. And then I visualize this woman who is sick and who has done everything she could. She spent every penny, she’s seen, multiple doctors, and it only got worse. Her condition only got worse, and as she was in the crowd, she said to herself that if I touch this cloak that I will be healed then.
She touches him, she feels the healing happening instantaneously. And then Jesus feels that power come out of him, pauses and says, wait, who touched me? You know who touched my cloak? And then disciple is like, Jesus, look, all the people are here pressing it upon you. You want to ask that. But he asks it anyways and realizing that she was healed.
She, you know, takes accountability and she says it was her. And what does Jesus do in return? He heals her and says, your faith has cured you. So that was the visual of what was happening. That was the context. Jesus is doing his healing. He’s on his, he’s doing, he’s like in the, in full stride of his ministry and someone who has pretty much.
Gave everything she’s had to try to get cured to try to get help. I’m not saying it’s the last resort, but it was kind of like that last resort effort. But she knows and hears of this healing power of Jesus and she goes to him.
Second Part: What Words or Phrases Stick Out To You
Alright, so for this second round, the second time hearing this scripture, what I’d like you to think about are what words or phrases, what words or phrases stick out to you? Okay. Again, if it helps you to close your eyes to focus, please do so. Um, but what words or phrases, um, stick out to you during this second round of hearing the scripture? A reading from the book of Mark.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for 12 years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped, but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, she said. If I but touch his closed, I shall be cured immediately.
Her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus aware at once that power had gone from out of him, turned around in the crowd and asked Who has touched my clothes, but his disciple said to him. You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask who touched me?
And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling, she fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And be cured of your affliction, the gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, so go ahead and take a few moments. You can pause the video here and you can journal or just reflect and think about what are some of the words and phrases that stuck out to you for hearing it the second time.
Welcome back. Welcome back. Um, again, I’m praying that your prayer with scripture in this, in this way and in this style is. As a is bearing fruit. Now, if you, you know, had one word or multiple words, or one phrase or multiple phrases, again, there’s no right or wrong way to do this as long as you are doing it with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole spirit, and just really allowing God to speak to you in his scripture.
Again, we’re talking about our session is growing in prayer and intimacy. With Jesus. So we are just reading about what he’s done, how he’s helped people, and more importantly just, you know, really putting ourselves there as much as possible.
So, I’m just going to share one of the phrases that stuck out to me. Again, the remaining, but the one that really, um, has been resonating with me is the line that says “she fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.” “She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.”
See, one thing that you know has been resonating with me during this, this retreat is how important it is to come to Jesus, to come to God with our whole selves. Everything that we’re proud of, everything we’re not proud of. And so this line really just as a reminder to us, especially on our healing journey, is that we have to come to Jesus and tell him the whole truth. And the other piece right before that, when it says, um, she fell down before him, she fell down before him.
So it’s a posturing. Right. Whether it’s getting on your knees, going prostrate and showing the reverence, especially to the one who just healed you. So let’s think about that in our lives. When, you know, when we’re praying, what is our posture? Even when we pray there’s such a beauty in the mass, when we’re standing, when we’re sitting, when we’re kneeling, right?
Every part. Of the mass in itself, our posture makes so much of a difference. Now, of course, I think what’s most important is your heart posture. Like where is your heart posture when it comes to your prayers, when it comes to, you know, your reverence. But I think what’s what this, what this reading or what that line reminds me of is, do we fall down before our God, do we give him the utmost of reverence?
And that’s going to look different for everyone. Is our heart in the right posture or are we just up here and not in here? So as we think about what it is, you know how we come to Jesus, number one. And then number two, do we tell him the whole truth?
Third Part: What Is God’s Message For You?
So for this third and final listening of the scripture passage, what I’d like you to focus on and reflect on is what is God’s message for me in this moment?
What is God’s message for me? And again, if you have to close your eyes to help you focus a little bit more on the word of God, please do so. Um, and here we are from the Gospel of Mark. There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for 12 years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped, but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, if I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured. Immediately, her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of affliction. Jesus aware at once that the power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and asked, who has touched my clothes?
But his disciples said to him, you see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He had said to her daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction. The Gospel of the Lord.
So go ahead and take a few moments to reflect on what is God’s message for you in this moment.
Welcome back. I again pray that your reflection time, your journaling time, um, is fruitful. And, uh, one quick message and note I wanted to share with you as I was, you know, reflecting as well, was this message that I feel God has for me in this moment is to keep going. Just to keep going. The woman was sick for 12 years and she got all this help, this outside help used all of her resources and nothing happened.
Matter of fact, her situation got worse. And so I think many of us could relate to that. We’re waiting for that next breakthrough. We’re waiting for that next, you know, thing to happen for us. Maybe we’ve been, you know, going in circles and in circles, and we feel like we’re never going to get a chance, never going to get ahead, never going to catch our break, whatever that might look like.
And Jesus reminds us just to keep going. And I think there’s another message for me is that sometimes we look for help in all the wrong places and we still come up empty. So she was seeing medical professionals, you’re seeing doctors, and she was getting all this help and still came up empty. So for me it was like, okay, where in my life am I looking for answers outside of Jesus?
Where am I looking for help and support that are, that I know are not of God, or that I know are not God? And then the other part about how he was hard to, you know, access. I think a lot of times for me, again, in this moment, the messages. We make it hard for us to access Jesus. He’s always there. He’s always available in the scriptures at mass, in the Eucharist, in our prayers.
But what we do in our lives, we put the barriers actually on our access to Jesus. So it was a, a reminder to me to take off all. You know, the boundaries, the everything, all the barriers. Stop making excuses to not spend more time here or not spend more time praying, not make it to mass, whatever that might be, because when.
People knew what Jesus was doing. Yes, the crowds came. Yes, there was a lot of people there, but the woman with the hemorrhage is a reminder that just because there was all those people around, just because it might’ve felt impossible for her to reach Jesus, she still encountered him. And that resonated with me.
Because there are many times I feel it’s hard to encounter Jesus. For whatever reasons I have my makeup in my own mind. Remember the, the talk we talked about overcoming the lies of the devil? The devil is a lie, but it’s just a reminder that he is there. He is accessible in many ways, and so if we want to grow in prayer and intimacy with Jesus, we have to start accessing all of the different ways and encountering, more importantly, encountering Jesus, not just in here, but especially in here.
Healing Is With Jesus
So that the healing can truly begin, and that that was the last part of the message that God had for me in this reading was, it’s not happening without Jesus. My healing, my growth is not happening without him. The phrase, the phrase Christian comes to mind, if you write down the words Christian, if you spell out the word Christian and you take out the word Christ.
You have the letters IAN, which stand for I am nothing. I am nothing without Christ. So it’s important for me to continue to keep going no matter how hard it might seem at times, to keep doing everything I can to access Jesus in the scriptures, in my prayers, in the sacraments. So that I can continuously be healed and be whole.
So brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that your Lectio Divina experience, with me during this retreat, um, has bore fruit or has bear fruit, and that you continue to spend time with Jesus in prayer and in the scriptures so that you can grow closer to him. So let us pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Lord, as we are in this retreat, continuing to learn why it is so important to be connected and yoked to you. We know, Lord, that you are the ultimate healer and that no matter how much we do in search for healing and help outside of you, that it’s never going to be complete. Allow us to remember that the access that we have to you is really there if we want it.
Whether it’s the sacraments, it’s the scriptures, adoration. Lord, we know that you are accessible. However, it’s up to us to take the first steps. I pray that our. Retreat participants continue to take those steps forward, drawing closer to you, so that they can be healed in all the areas in their lives, so that they can truly be the light of the world that you created us to be.
We thank you for your grace and your mercy, and your unconditional love, and for all of the ways that you continue to inspire us. To be who you created us to be made in your image and likeness. And we’re going to close our session today with a, with honor to our blessed mother as we pray.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou monks woman, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now in the hour of our death. Amen. The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I pray that you continue to grow in all the ways that God is calling you. And it has been my pleasure to serve you at this pray on this online Pray more healing retreat. God bless and as always, pray for me because I’ll always be praying for you.
About Rhyan Ramirez
Rhyan Ramirez also known to many as “Bro Rhy” is a Catholic speaker, retreat leader, coach and emotional intelligence educator with a deep passion for healing the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. With over 11 years of experience in adult mental health, 11 years and counting of facilitating Social Emotional Learning workshops and more than 20+ years in ministry, Bro Rhy creates safe and sacred spaces where people can encounter God’s healing love and rediscover their true identity in Christ.
Through his signature message, “Realize With Your Real Eyes,” he invites others to see themselves as God sees them — beloved, worthy, and created with purpose for a purpose. His sessions weave together the power of Scripture, the strength of prayer, and the growth of emotional intelligence to lead hearts from mere survival into the fullness of restoration and wholeness.
Bro Rhy currently serves as an accompaniment project coach for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). He is a dynamic speaker and retreat leader, serving parishes, diocesan events, national conferences, and also ministering as an emotional intelligence educator.
Whether in person or virtually, Bro Rhy’s heart is to help people heal, find hope, and walk freely in the truth of who they are — created in the image and likeness of God.