Sister Betty Igo, SFP, M Ed, MS
Sister Betty Igo's Growth Process
I
welcome the opportunity to look back on my spiritual
journey to study how the Lord led me to a process of
growth in the spiritual gifts and healing prayer. These
Gifts I have used within the Healing Ministry as a
Franciscan Sister of the Poor as well in the Healing
services helping out as a member of ACT.
I
had a mother who showed me that prayer is not just
talking with God but listening as well. Early on my
favorite place was an apple tree on our property where I
lodged on a large branch in an effort to be alone to
talk with and listen to the sense of God that I found
when being alone and quiet with him. So with the Lord’s
guidance, as a child I began to try to figure out what
inclinations were from Him and which were avoiding His
will. When my family moved from that property I was 8
years old. I remember my mother saying that I cried for
days over leaving that old apple tree. In my child’s
mind, that tree had become a special place where I could
find and listen with God. I felt His Presence there. As
I grew older I realized that God didn't need the apple
tree to be present in my life.
My
parish school, St Therese in Southgate, KY was blessed
with excellent loving teachers, the Benedictine
Sisters. They taught us early on how to appreciate the
Liturgy encouraging us to Daily Mass and Communion. I
learned how to offer myself with Jesus as He offered
Himself on the altar to the Father. That liturgy became
an important part of my day in my call to be a
Eucharistic Christian. I learned how to enter into the
healing power of the Eucharist which I still share with
other Eucharistic Christians via my workshops.
When I was in the grade 4 (1941) I longed for the
presence an older sister would bring. I was talking to
the Lord about that one day when I felt inner
encouragement to turn to St Therese of Lisieux. Since
then I have felt her hand on my life deepening my desire
to help others who are in emotional pain, putting
emphasis on helping them to seek their own and other's
good.
When I was in the grade 6 (1943), I received the
Sacrament of Confirmation which for me was a deep
experience of the Holy Spirit. After Confirmation, I
began making up songs that I sang in funny syllables.
My mother noticing that I found joy doing this, did not
discourage me, but wisely counseled that I not do it
outside our home because other children may think me
strange. I learned to sing these inspired syllables
within my heart without moving my lips as time went on.
I still engage in doing this whenever I am listening to
others in pain as it seemed to release wisdom plus I
think Jesus likes it. It wasn't until I joined the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1970 that I learned that
form of praying was called “Tongues.” I also learned
from experience that the Gifts of the Spirit that I
received at Confirmation needed an understanding
supportive Community to mature and come forth.
While still in grade school I received an inner call to
dedicate my life to Jesus as a religious. The
Benedictine Sisters who taught me, sensing a potential
Benedictine vocation, offered me a scholarship to their
academically challenging High School Academy. They
taught me how to study and get the most out of
education. It was there in their Convent Chapel that I
discerned clearly that, though I was to be a Sister, it
was not a call to be a Benedictine Sister.
Looking back, I now understand how important it was to
follow that change in discernment. The Benedictines
have a strong call to Community and sharing the Liturgy
together. I realize that if I had not followed that
guidance to leave the Benedictines and join another
religious group, the fulfillment of my later call to
travel throughout the US and Canada witnessing to the
need for balance in the emerging field of inner healing
would not have happened. The Holy Spirit knew that
Charismatic Leaders would be asking me to present
Workshops, Retreats and Conferences throughout the US
and Canada. This could not have happened if I had
entered the Benedictine Sisters because extended travel
would not have been possible due to their strong call to
stability.
The
Benedictines, thinking that perhaps it was teaching that
wasn't of interest to me, introduced me to the hospital
ministry by helping me get a job in a hospital of their
Franciscan friends. Again in this kindness on their
part, I see God’s way of introducing me to the Community
I was eventually called to join, the Franciscan Sisters
of the Poor. It was in this community's St Clare's
chapel that I seemed to hear that same inner voice I had
heard in the Benedictine chapel, only this time it was
saying: “This is the Community I want you to join.”
In
light of this inner encouragement, I investigated the
charism of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor and found
that they were called to “Heal the Wounds of Christ” in
His people. I felt drawn to that ministry. I see the
inner leading of the Lord at work again, for it was this
very charism that moved my Community’s leaders in 1973
to grant me permission to work full time in the Inner
Healing Ministry.
How
did the Lord form me for my future ministry? Let’s
continue to look at His guidance at work.
I
entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor in 1948.
After initial religious formation, I was sent to college
to study for Social Work and while studying I was
assigned to work part time at Catholic Charities. Later
the Community decided they needed Medical Technologists
so I was sent to the University of Dayton, graduating in
1959 with a B. S. in Medical Technology. This was
followed by various positions as a Laboratory Supervisor
in several of our hospitals around the country. In our
larger hospitals, I began to sense my need to learn more
about the field of Education and Counseling in order to
better help people and so asked to work part time on a
Masters in Education with an emphasis on Counseling.
I
graduated with a Masters in this field from Xavier
University in 1968. By then, our Community needed help
in the Vocational Office so I was asked to leave the
Medical Lab and take on that role. I began a deeper
study of theology to do that job better and did lots of
work in religious education. In 1970 I found myself
being sent to Detroit to answer an urgent call from a
Bishop for a Catholic High School with a serious need
for religion teachers. Many of the students were
children of auto executive parents. They had many
psychological and religious needs; unfortunately many
were on drugs. This urgent need to reach these
resistant teens pulled me out of my head and sent me on
my knees beseeching the Lord for help. Everything we in
the religion department tried seemed to be failing to
meet the desperate needs of these students. It was then
that the Lord introduced me to the Detroit Catholic
Charismatic Renewal. I recognized within that renewal
much of the wisdom that the Lord had taught me in my
youth. I spent hours at night beseeching God for help
for those disturbed teens. During the day, I began
praying in tongues silently in my heart while teaching.
My students began responding more and more. I noticed
that the more I stepped back and let the Holy Spirit in,
even changing my lesson plans, the more powerfully the
Spirit was set free in our midst. There was more
response from the students and good fruits began to
follow. I relearned how to submit my professional skills
to the Holy Spirit and follow His lead.
While in Brooklyn attending a Committee meeting I was at
prayer in our Generalate Chapel one evening and there I
experienced another one of those inner calls to a change
of Ministry. Later I realized that at this time another
Sister at prayer in that same chapel heard what I
thought I alone was receiving from Blessed Frances
Schervier, the Foundress of our Community.
I
was hearing a call to ask my Superior if I could come to
New York and be released full time to work in the field
of Inner Healing. Blessed Frances pointed out that it
was important that I be obedient and work for balance in
that field. When the other Sister who was also in
prayer in that chapel came over to me and repeated word
for word what I had just heard, I realized it was not my
imagination. I knew then I had to ask to be released
from teaching at the High School in Detroit. The
other Sister offered to see the Superior General with me
and we both told her what was requested.
After the General Council prayed and discerned the
request, I was released from teaching and came to New
York in 1970 in order to continue in prayer to find out
what the Lord really wanted me to do. That was the
beginning of working in the field of Inner Healing and
presenting workshops, retreats, etc. The main emphasis
centered on training others to open to receive and
minister Inner Healing.
Perhaps, you would be interested in sampling something
of the way I open to God's healing presence for a
person.
When I sense the Lord is calling me to work with a
person, I wait for them to voice that need to me or in a
prayer service to appear in the ministry line. If they
are agreeable, I usually lead them in a simple prayer
that asks the Lord to open all the doors within them
and outside of them that He (the Lord) wants open. I
also lead them to ask that the doors within and without
that need to be closed remain closed and that they
remain in His perfect Will. Together we invite the Lord
in to be Master of our prayer time. I hope that they
will eventually learn that prayer and make it their own
because it continually invites Jesus to be Lord of their
life and healing.
As
I listen, I image what the person is saying going right
up into the Lord’s hands and stay focused intently for
His leads on what to do next. I find that He is
faithful and I can always count on the gifts I need in
the moment to be there whether I am working with one
person or hundreds of people. I feel that my main job
is to tune obediently to the manner, timing and
intensity in the event the Holy Spirit wants me to open
to whatever Word of Knowledge, Prophecy, inspired image,
etc. is appropriate. Since I believe that it is in
those three areas of manner, timing and intensity that
we are apt to make most of our mistakes in the use of
His inspired gifts, I stay in a listening mode. Take
timing, for instance. There are insights that are given
to be held before Him in prayer whereas there are other
insights that are meant to be shared with the person in
that moment. It can be tricky to discern which is which
at times. Again, it may be inappropriate at times to
open with a spoken prayer but to me it is never
inappropriate to engage in silent prayer as I listen.
This is where I have found my gift of imaging to be a
great help for I found that I can listen well and image
at the same time. In moments of silence between the
client and myself, I can silently pray in tongues in my
heart without moving my lips encouraging the Holy Spirit
to be free in our midst. Now that I am 78 years of age I
have had many years of experience in listening and
silent prayer. When I was younger, I think I sometimes
acted too quickly-- Lord, have mercy!
The
Lord was teaching me much about Generational Healing in
the early 70’s and I was teaching others through the
“Healing the Generations Workshops.” In the course of
this I met and worked with the Linn Brothers who in turn
told me about ACT and paid my way to my first Conference
in Milwaukee (1976). It was at ACT that I met Doug
Schoeninger and Bill Carr. At that Conference I shared
with them some of what I had learned in the area of
Generational Healing and we had some serious prayer.
The result of this was they invited me to come to the
Institute for Christian Healing in Narberth,
Pennsylvania, in order to share more. Thus began an
Amtrak ride down to Philadelphia from New York each
week. We had powerful prayer sessions with each other
and eventually I left the New York Charismatic Healing
Ministry to help out with the Institute for Christian
Healing’s ministry in the Philadelphia area.
The
Lord continued to lead me and calls kept coming in from
various parts of the US and Canada. In time, I saw that
I was meant to be part time at the Institute and the
rest of the time on the road spreading His message of
Healing. [1] I
felt a call to help raise up and encourage more leaders
in the areas in which I was called to minister.
Everywhere I visited, I spoke of ACT and how God wanted
to work through that organization.
After years of ministry, in 1993, I asked my Franciscan
Community if I could go back to school to update and
hopefully take courses more centered on the Healing
Prayer Therapy in which I was now engaged. In 1995 I
graduated from Neumann University with a Masters in
Pastoral Counseling. I think that the main thing I
quietly learned from that experience was that the
Healing Prayer Counseling the Lord had taught me was
much less painful and more effective for the clients,
who were open to Healing Prayer, than the methods
proposed professionally without prayer. During my
internship at Catholic Charities I had to promise to use
“only standard methods” with the clients and report if I
slipped into prayer. I tell you that internship did
wind up teaching me that things go better with
Jesus.
The
job I had with Catholic Charities disappeared when
Managed Care Government contracts changed to insist on
only recognizing a Masters in Social Work for financial
remuneration and not a Masters in Pastoral Counseling
(1996). On my part, I felt relieved for I was again set
free to freely follow the Holy Spirit wherever He led
while engaging in the Franciscan Healing
Ministry. Imperfect as I am, I hope to follow that call
to strive to be obedient to the call of the Holy Spirit
until the day I die and beyond.
Sister Betty Igo,
SFP, M Ed, MS
[1]If
interested in seeing my experience of Catholic
traditions in Inner Healing please see my article:
Sister Betty Igo, SFP, MS, M Ed, “Principles of Inner
Healing,” Journal of Christian Healing, vol. 23,
no. 2 (Fall/Winter, 2007), 7 pp. in
www.ACTheals.org.
Click here to
download this article.
For more information, please contact:
Clergy and
Religious Chair
Sister Betty Igo, SFP, M Ed, MS
