I do understand that this is a field that can lead away from the Catholic belief in many ways, although I feel that the principle of natural medicine is important. My uncle was diagnosed with cancer, and 3 unsuccessful surgeries later, he dived into finding natural ways to cure it, and has gladly shared his findings. As Catholics, we believe that God has provided us with everything we need to be healthy, as manmade foods and other products are usually underlying causes of severe health problems. The principle of naturopathic medicine is turning back to the basics, the raw material that God has provided us to heal ourselves. I can understand naturopathic doctors believing in stones for healing, as they are basic, raw material created by God, and some doctors my recommend them to patients, not realizing that it conflicts with their patients religion. I have no issue speaking with my doctor about why she recommended crystals.
One thing I feel is that I am being misunderstood in this post. Many of you are saying that crystals have no healing properties, and I am not disagreeing with that, I do not believe they can heal you. I do not believe they are magic. I am not worshipping them, praying to them, revering them, or thinking of them as powerful. However, as I stated above, God gave us everything we need to stay healthy and well. These stones are made by Him, and they are mentioned in the Bible. I have prayed over them, but I believe any healing comes from The Lord. As it is also mentioned in the Bible, God works in mysterious ways. Our sins are washed away at Baptism by blessed water. Blessed rosaries are powerful prayer tools. Blessed salt was given to me and I was told to spread it around my house to protect it. Holy water is powerful, as is The Sign of The Cross. As many of you mentioned, crosses and medals are used to help us focus our prayers. I have a Saint Michael medal that was blessed and given to me by a priest to, and I quote, “help protect you from evil”, attached to a crystal bracelet. When I pray, I feel the weight of the bracelet, and I can focus more and pray more intensly than I ever could when just holding the medal.
I don’t think you are off the wall at all. The Jewish High Priests wore a breastplate made of gold, blue purple and scartlet linen. In it were twelve precious stones in rows of four representing the twelve tribes of israel.
The veneration of sacred stones is one of the most ancient and enduring religious practices.
Mountains have always inspired awe; an arduous and dangerous climb up a mountain is a widespread religious metaphor of celestial ascent. Sacred rocks are small parts of these mountains; from the human temporal perspective they seem eternal. They are thus intended as everlasting memorials silently attesting to human encounters with the divine.
The Hebrew Bible also contains numerous examples of the use of sacred stones. In Hebrew, a raised freestanding sacred stone is called a “masseba,” often translated as “pillar.”
Jacob set up a masseba as Rachel’s tombstone (Genesis 35:20), and another as a memorial of the covenant he made with Laban (Genesis 31:45-46).
At Bethel, Jacob raised a stone to commemorate his vision of God (Genesis 28:10-22, 35:1-15) on which he poured oil and wine, declaring, “this stone, which I have set up as a pillar (masseba), shall be the house of God.”
Joshua raised a masseba as a memorial or “witness” of the covenant made by Israel at the shrine of the Lord by the oak of Shechem (Joshua 24:22-27).
Such massebot were sometimes placed in the temple of Jerusalem and other Israelite shrines and high places; surviving examples have been found by archaeologists at Arad, Lachish, Hazor and Dan. They are simply uncarved upraised stones, a few feet high. It is only a short step from raising such sacred memorial stones to carving that stone into an image of a god and using it as an idol. The Israelite altar at the temple was made of uncarved stones (Exodus 20:25), and was thus in a sense simply a cairn. Israelites also raised circles of standing stones, such as the 12 stones set up by Moses by the altar at Sinai (Exodus 24:3-8) and Joshua’s circle of 12 standing stones at Gilgal, the first Israelite shrine in Israel (Joshua 4:19-24).
The sacred stone also frequently appears as a metaphor in the Bible.
God himself is called “the Rock” (Deuteronomy 32:15-43); “for their rock (the god of the Canaanites) is not our rock (the God of Israel)” (Deuteronomy 32:31). God’s kingdom is a stone cut without hands (Daniel 2:34). Both Jesus and Peter are called the Rock (Matthew 16:18, 1 Corinthians 10:4), while Christ is the rejected cornerstone (Matthew 21:24).
The concept of the sacred stone thus survives as one of the most enduring metaphors of the holy.
