Faith in prayer for healing

[eschator83]

This poll seeks to understand the relative faith of Catholic respondents in prayer for healing, compared to the faith of others. Agnostics are welcome to respond in the other category, atheists are encouraged not to respond.
In recent years I’ve been given a nice library on prayer and healing. Many writers seem convinced that in most religions there has been an increase in faith in Divine healing, in part because of testimony from the medical and scientific community, perhaps also because more of us are praying more frequently.
Surely it seems logical that God is unlikely to intervene unless we ask Him to. I’d be grateful for your comments and any statistics you’ve found.
Also, I wonder if some of you would participate in a group for discussion of healing prayer practices and results.

 

[steymard]

I couldn’t really indicate any of the poll responses because the reliability of supernatural healing in response to any given prayer does not constitute a proximate object of my Catholic faith. Another way to put this is that I certainly believe God responds to every prayer, but the nature of that response is not a given - therefore I can’t “believe in” the certainty of a particular response out of many that God may give. But I certainly do believe that in some cases God responds to prayers for healing by supernaturally intervening.

Another factor is the “any given prayer” bit. I believe that for those among us who are especially close with God - think of miracle-working living saints like St. Anthony, for example - their prayers will be more efficacious, both because of the greater charity with which they are offered to God, but also because the content of their prayers will better align with God’s own desires due to their deep spiritual communion with God. In their case, I would trust that a prayer for healing for them would be much more likely to be answered in the affirmative. As to our own prayer? We pray, hope, and don’t worry - and when God heals supernaturally, we marvel and give thanks.

 

[grasscutter]

I chose Catholic - moderate because, while I believe in the power of prayer for healing, it also depends on what God’s Will is. Sometimes the answer to prayer is no.

 

[tawny]

Catholic-strong. I have seen the power of prayer work.

 

[Dorothy]

Sometimes we forget that although God can physically heal us when we pray, it is better to be healed spiritually.

And many times being healed spiritually (of unforgiveness towards someone) it results in a physical healing!

Also God doesn’t usually heal immediately, but first He wants to impart wisdom and grace to a person who is suffering in union with the Lord.