Are healing prayer groups Catholic?

[yessisan]

I don’t know if I’m posting this in the correct forums. But my SIL told me she’s going to join a group that is designed for healing. She calls it a “Healing Group”, and tells me that it’s a group of Catholics who go to someone’s house and pray to be healed, and believe that because they go there to pray for healing, that they actually heal (I do believe faith works miracles, but am not too sure about the validity this group claims to have).

She’s new to this Catholic thing. She recently reverted back from being a JW for 11 yrs and not being a Catholic since she was a child. I really don’t think this group will help her heal, she’s a bit supertitious, she believes in people who can put a curse on you, or that evil spirits can harm you… .

Can she join this group? I’m afraid she’s getting into the fanatism that some Latino Catholics get into. I am Mexican and have never believed in things like this, but always worry about how fanatics Mexicans can be when it comes to religion.

 

[Chesapeake]

Evil spirits can hurt you… they’re called demons. Satan is one after all!

As to your main point… with the information you provided, the group seems completely fine to me.

 

[yessisan]

Just a quick note on the evil spirits… she believes they can physically harm her, especially at night or at a “haunted” house…

 

[Deborah]

Yessisan,
I think it depends on the group.
I understand your concern. After participating in a healing mass a couple years back, I had concerns. Recently I reluctantly attended a retreat that included a healing mass (as the un hired help). I dreaded the people’s excited and desperate imploring for a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the uninterpretable talking in tongues, the self-doubt of the ordinary. Thankfully it didn’t happen. There was no consecration-yodeling; no groupies clinging to their healer. There were people coming together; praying for each other and a mass (with an exceptionally long sermon) that included an invitation to turn to God Our Father with our requests and fears. He knows the number of hairs on our head and He still wants to hear us: our praise, our repentance, our thanksgiving, our requests.
I’m not Mexican but I believe people can be cursed and evil things can harm us. There is holy in this world; there is evil in this world. Now there’s a good reason to repent and stay close to the sacraments!
I’ll pray that your SIL has discernment.
Deborah

 

[Dorothy]

I don’t know if I’m posting this in the correct forums. But my SIL told me she’s going to join a group that is designed for healing. She calls it a “Healing Group”, and tells me that it’s a group of Catholics who go to someone’s house and pray to be healed, and believe that because they go there to pray for healing, that they actually heal (I do believe faith works miracles, but am not too sure about the validity this group claims to have).

She’s new to this Catholic thing. She recently reverted back from being a JW for 11 yrs and not being a Catholic since she was a child. I really don’t think this group will help her heal, she’s a bit supertitious, she believes in people who can put a curse on you, or that evil spirits can harm you… .

Can she join this group? I’m afraid she’s getting into the fanatism that some Latino Catholics get into. I am Mexican and have never believed in things like this, but always worry about how fanatics Mexicans can be when it comes to religion.

If the group’s focus is just on healing, then it sounds like it may be unbalanced.

It is fine to pray for healing, but the best reason to get together and pray is for the praise and worship of the Lord. This can be done very well in a Rosary group meditating on a Scriptural Rosary together. Petitions (for healing, or other needs) can be stated before the Rosary is prayed. And then the prayers and meditations should be focussed totally on the Lord, in order to get to know and love Him better.

 

[water]

If the group’s focus is just on healing, then it sounds like it may be unbalanced.

I agreed. We can certainly pray for healing of others, but we need to know healing or not is by God’s will.

Here is a real situation. The wife of the person whom I knew passed away, and a gentleman from Charismatic group who usually prays for healing believed that the reason his wife died and did not get healed because of her part - being sinful and doubtful. He insisted that his group has prayed for her and she got healed but because of her sinfulness, she got sicked again and died.

The husband told this gentleman that she had been always sicked and had health records.

In conclusion, focusing on healing alone is not a good idea at all.
Blaming on someone’s die because of their sin is very judgmental and prideful.

My advice for yessisan’s sister is that the group should have a very good and experienced leadership whose needs to do everything according to the Church’s teaching. Lack of loving and understanding can drive people to a wrong path even though they seem to do good things for God such as praying for others.

 

[yessisan]

So, I guess I’m not the only one who is a bit concerned about these type of groups. The sole reason for their meetings are to pray to be healed, but not to worship God. I know my SIL means well, but it’s sad she’s going in the wrong direction already. I told her to be careful because many times those groups could be mere superstition, but she believes those people have the gift of healing, just as she believes her mother has the gift of vision…

Those are things I cannot agree with, I don’t believe people can “see” things in dreams. By things I mean get messages from God. Even though I wish that was true because my MIL believes God told her in a dream all her kids would come back to the CC… don’t I wish DH would leave the JWs…

 

[TantumErgo90]

I don’t think that these groups should be trying to heal people as if they possess the authority and power to heal. I think these groups should be prayer groups that pray for the health and wellbeing of others. They can pray to God or the saints for the healing of a person, but only if it’s God’s will that person is to be healed. I would be skeptical of such groups and Healing Masses. If someone wishes to be comforted in their illness, if it is serious, they should ask a priest for Extreme Unction.