Studies Showing Links Between Prayer and Healing

A Modern Day Miracle – Paralyzed Priest Can Walk Again Through the Power of Prayer

It appears that a modern day miracle has taken place and one Catholic priest is crediting his amazing experience to prayer. After a fall more than four years ago he was wheelchair bound and after the power of prayer he is now able to walk again.

Father John Murray of Brooklyn, New York was told by doctors that there was no possibility of him walking again. Small bone chips from his neck had sliced a part of his spinal cord and he was told that there was no medical solution to fix the problem.

One and a half years after his fall on the boardwalk that changed his life forever, the priest was able to miraculously stand up from his wheelchair and walk.

Murray has been quoted as saying “I think it’s a a result of prayer, other people’s prayers and my own, without a doubt.”

More than half of all Americans, like Murray, believe that prayer has the power to heal. The medical director who runs Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health says that more medical studies are actually showing this same thing to be true.

Dr Harold Koenig said, “People who are more religious just live longer; that’s kind of the bottom line.”

There have been more than 4000 studies that have been done on the connection between spirituality and medical healing. These studies are becoming increasingly popular as well. In the last ten years there have been three times as many studies as there were before that.

Koenig went on to talk about the connection between mental health and religious people. People who have faith in God are less likely to battle depression and when they do it is not as severe. Research has also shown that with prayer you are 40% less likely to have blood pressure issues.

“They have greater well-being in general. People who have faith in God who are part of a faith community and have a relationship with God, so to speak, just have higher levels of well-being. They’re happier. And that’s been shown – hundreds of studies have shown that,” he said.

He continued, “We think that the research shows and will show that people whose faith is supported by their medical team, they’re just going to do better.”

While there are those who are skeptical and those who have been taught to question and be a skeptic in medical school, some doctors are setting aside what they have been taught to practice what they want to believe in. Koenig believes that keeping spirituality and medicine separate is a mistake that the medical community should rethink.

He stated, “They go together. But they have to go together sensibly. And the patient has to be in control. That’s the key.”

Father Murray still suffers from pain and is aided by the use of a walker. He still believes his recovery is a miracle and he says he now has stronger faith.

He said, “I’m certainly better off than most paraplegics.”

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