Intercessory Prayer: Differentiating the Source.

An Analysis Of The International House Of Prayer's Teaching And Practice On 'Intercessory Prayer'

The empirical results from recent randomised controlled studies on remote, intercessory prayer remain mixed. Several studies have, however, appeared in prestigious medical journals, and it is believed by many researchers,...

The therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (IP) to the Judeo-Christian God, one of the oldest forms of therapy, has had little attention in the medical literature. To evaluate the effects of IP in a coronary care unit (CCU) population, a prospective randomized double-blind protocol was followed. Over ten months, 393 patients admitted to the CCU were randomized, after signing informed consent, to an intercessory prayer group (192 patients) or to a control group (201 patients). While hospitalized, the first group received IP by participating Christians praying outside the hospital; the control group did not. At entry, chi-square and stepwise logistic analysis revealed no statistical difference between the groups. After entry, all patients had follow-up for the remainder of the admission. The IP group subsequently had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course after entry (P less than .01). Multivariant analysis separated the groups on the basis of the outcome variables (P less than .0001). The control patients required ventilatory assistance, antibiotics, and diuretics more frequently than patients in the IP group. These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU.

The present study aimed to examine the therapeutic effects of Islamic intercessory prayer on warts. Forty-five participants who are mostly Muslims and infected with warts were randomized into three groups: Group-1 (uncertain, with intercessory prayer), Group-2 (uncertain, no intercessory prayer), and control group (informed, no intervention). Stress symptoms were also measured before and after prayer sessions for these three groups. The results revealed that there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of healing. Although participants believed in the therapeutic effects of prayer, when participants did not trust the intercessor, prayer had no effect on warts.

The effects of distant, intercessory prayer on health outcomes have been studied in a range of randomised, blinded clinical trials. However, while seeking the evidentiary status accorded this 'gold standard' methodology, many prayer studies fall short of the requirements of the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki for the ethical conduct of trials involving human subjects. Within a sample of 15 such studies published in the medical literature, many were found to have ignored or waived key ethical precepts, including adequate standards of care, patient confidentiality and informed consent. Prayer was considered in most studies to pose negligible or no risk to subjects, despite the fact that no clear mechanism of action nor any safety monitoring procedures were described. As a result, many studies did not meet basic ethical standards required of clinical trials of biophysical interventions, making application of their results ethically problematic. If investigators wish their data to adequately inform the use or rejection of intercessory prayer to improve health, these shortcomings should be addressed in future studies.

The resurgence of interest in Paul as missionary has neglected the role of the Holy Spirit. It is argued that the Spirit’s character and role is intrinsically missional, justifying a study of the Missio Spiritus Sancti within a triad relationship with the Father and Son. Three texts are considered: in 1 Thessalonians, the missional Spirit was at work through Paul’s preaching as a saving and ‘experienced power’ (1:5), expressed visibly by the believers’ joy at conversion (1:6) with missional implications within and outside the church. In 4:8, and in Paul’s forced absence, God is still present as evidenced by his giving his Holy Spirit to the Thessalonian siblingship, instilling a missional lifestyle distinct from those on the periphery of the church (i.e., Gentiles, 4:5). In Romans, Paul reminds the believers how his preaching and the Holy Spirit purposefully combine to ‘set apart’ the Gentiles, a salvific moment when they first embraced the gospel (15:16). Paul goes on to rehearse the work of the Spirit in his previous missionary endeavours to the Gentiles as evidenced by the power of ‘signs’ and ‘wonders’ (15:19), aware that the same Spirit who galvanised his past work will be necessary as he relocates to Spain, a gentile region (15:24). In Philippians, and in light of Paul’s incarceration, the church engages in intercessory prayer—an instrument of the church’s mission—for God to supply Paul with the Spirit of Jesus Christ in preparation for his upcoming trial (1:19). And in 1:27a, and in light of adversity from outside, the church is to live united in the Spirit by showing the gospel while also actively contending together in proclaiming or sowing the good news (1:27b).

Does Religious Activity Improve Health Outcomes? A Critical Review of the Recent Literature

This chapter studies FOCUS missionaries’ daily Holy Hour and argues that this particular prayer discipline shapes how Catholic millennials become missionaries who are willing to evangelize college students every single day. Missionaries pray at the intersection of religious experience, religious practice, social context, bodily comportment, and interior processes. Daily Holy Hour involves Adoration, mental prayer, lectio divina, intercessory prayer, and spiritual reading. With each prayer form, millennials enact the mundane work of trying to become twenty-first century Catholic missionaries. These prayer practices—updated, remixed, and reclaimed for a new generation of Catholics—were the way these millennials articulated and embodied their Catholic identity.

Previous research suggests that written prayers have linguistic characteristics similar to written emotional self-disclosures, and may also confer their health benefits. This study’s aim was to test that hypothesis in a clinical setting; a secondary aim was analysis of prayer content. Written prayers in a pediatric hospital chapel were collected (N 800). Linguistic analysis provided the percentages of word types previously associated with health benefits. Prayers written in this clinical setting do not share linguistic characteristics of written emotional disclosures. These petitionary/ intercessory prayers have a significant amount of positive emotion words; more words of causality than insight; and are frequently specific about desired outcomes. The prayer language suggests that the writers expect some result from the Deity or other readers of the prayer book. Prayers written in pediatric and adult settings differ in some respects. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

A prospective longitudinal design was used to identify the feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of 12 weeks of intercessory prayer to reduce the disruptive behaviors of six late-stage dementia patients. One group of Catholic nuns offered the Lord's Prayer for assigned patients twice a day. Intercessory prayer for the entire subject group was also offered, by a second group of nuns, via a Latria (modality) called "Perpetual Adoration." Disruptions were documented from 3 weeks preintervention to 3 weeks postintervention. Consents were received for two thirds of invited patients. Retention was reduced by the death of two patients. Fidelity, assessed by retrospective report, was maintained throughout the study. Use of off-label antipsychotic medications was reduced or discontinued in four patients during the trial. The repeated measures analysis of variance, while indicative of a trend, did not reach a level of significance, likely due to small sample size. However, the average effect on behavior resulted in a reduction of disruptive incidents, for the group, in approximately 27 behavior categories/week. This study suggests that it is feasible to improve the life quality of patients in the terminal phase of their illness through prayer reducing their need to respond to life in a disturbed manner.

EPISTOLARY GREETINGS Linked with the eight principal wish-prayers are two further types of prayer passages in the Pauline epistles, namely the epistolary greetings or blessings at the beginning and end of each letter, together with a curse and a pronouncement blessing in Galatians (1: 8f. and 6: 16) and two curse passages in I Corinthians (5: 3–5 and 16: 22). We consider first the opening and closing epistolary greetings: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. What significance, if any, do these have as intercessory prayers? We are confronted initially by the problem that the verb is unexpressed; but as we have argued, it should be understood in the optative or imperative, and we should take the greetings as closer to wish-prayers than to declarations. Yet, even so, are these benedictions any more than pure formalities? The opening benedictions Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. At first sight the answer to our question would seem to be no. The blessings at the beginning of each letter are quite stylized – they remain unchanged in wording throughout the Pauline epistles, and are therefore thought by some to have been either conventional adaptations from general epistolaryusage, or borrowed from an early Christian benediction.

A unique fifteenth-century Middle English visionary account survives about a nun of Hampole Priory who saves the soul of her deceased brother. Scholars have long considered it an authentic narrative from Hampole Priory. Yet, near-identical texts in Dutch and German manuscripts suggest that it is a translation of a Continental source instead. My analysis shows that while the Continental versions were designed for female religious readers, the English version was adapted for a lay audience. I argue that Hampole Priory used the reworked narrative to promote its intercessory prayers among and attract donations from lay benefactors.

ObjectiveTo examine whether religious and spiritual interventions (RSIs) can promote physical health and quality of life in individuals.MethodsThe following databases were used to conduct a systematic review: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Scielo. Randomized controlled trials that evaluated RSIs regarding physical health outcomes and/or quality of life in English, Spanish or Portuguese were included. RSI protocols performed at a distance (i.e. intercessory prayer) or for psychiatric disorders were excluded. This study consisted of two phases: (a) reading titles and abstracts, and (b) assessing the full articles and their methodological quality using the Cochrane Back Review Group scale.ResultsIn total, 7,070 articles were identified in the search, but 6884 were excluded in phase 1 because they were off topic or repeated in databases. Among the 186 articles included in phase 2, 140 were excluded because they did not fit the inclusion criteria and 16 did not have adequate randomization process. Thus, a final selection of 30 articles remained. The participants of the selected studies were classified in three groups: chronic patients (e.g., cancer, obesity, pain), healthy individuals and healthcare professionals. The outcomes assessed included quality of life, physical activity, pain, cardiac outcomes, promotion of health behaviors, clinical practice of healthcare professionals and satisfaction with protocols. The divergence concerning scales and protocols proposed did not allow a meta-analysis. RSIs as a psychotherapy approach were performed in 40% of the studies, and the control group was more likely to use an educational intervention (56.7%). The results revealed small effect sizes favoring RSIs in quality of life and pain outcomes and very small effects sizes in physical activity, promotion of health behaviors and clinical practice of health professionals compared with other complementary strategies. Other outcomes, such as cardiac measures and satisfaction with the protocols, revealed no evidence for RSIs. Regarding the quality of the selected articles according to the Cochrane Back Review Group Scale, the average score was 6.83 (SD = 9.08) on a scale of 11, demonstrating robustness in the studies.ConclusionClinical trials on RSIs demonstrated that they had small benefits compared with other complementary health therapies by reducing pain and weight, improving quality of life and promoting health behaviors. The lack of clinical trials that included biological outcomes and the diversity of approaches indicate a need for more studies to understand the possible mechanisms of action of RSIs and their roles in health care.

Nonlocality, Intention, and Observer Effects in Healing Studies: Laying a Foundation for the Future

Background: Biofield Therapies, with a historical lineage spanning millennia and continuing relevance in contemporary practices, have been used to address various health conditions and promote wellbeing. The scientific study and adoption of these therapies have been hindered by cultural challenges and institutional barriers. In addition, the current research landscape for Biofield Therapies is insufficiently documented. Objectives: This scoping review aims to comprehensively document the peer-reviewed research landscape of Biofield Therapies. Furthermore, an online searchable and dynamic Evidence Map was created to serve as a publicly accessible tool for querying the evidence base, pinpointing research gaps, and identifying areas requiring further exploration. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycInfo databases was conducted from inception through January 2024. Peer-reviewed interventional studies in English involving human participants receiving Biofield Therapy were included. Data on study design, population, intervention, comparator, outcomes, citation details, and direction of results reported were extracted and synthesized into two summary tables and three data tables. Results: In total, 353 studies in 352 published reports were included: 255 randomized controlled trials, 36 controlled clinical trials, and 62 pre-post study designs. Named biofield interventions included Reiki (n = 88), Therapeutic Touch (n = 71), Healing Touch (n = 31), intercessory prayer (n = 21), External Qigong (n = 16), Spiritual Healing/Spiritual Passé/Laying-on-of-hands (n = 14), "distant or remote healing" (n = 10), and Gentle Human Touch/Yakson Therapeutic Touch (n = 9). Also included were 56 studies in 55 reports involving bespoke, unknown, or other interventions, 20 studies involving multimodal interventions, and 17 studies involving multiple biofield interventions. Studies encompassed a wide variety of populations, most commonly healthy volunteers (n = 67), pain (n = 55), and cancer (n = 46). As reported in the Abstracts, nearly half of the studies (n = 172) reported positive results in favor of the Biofield Therapy for all outcomes being investigated, 95 reported mixed results, 71 reported nonsignificant results, 3 reported negative results, and 12 studies did not report the direction of results. Conclusions: Despite rising interest in Biofield Therapies among researchers, practitioners, and patients, the integration of these interventions into allopathic medical systems is hindered by challenges in researching these therapies and inconsistent reporting. These issues contribute to inconclusive findings, which limit our understanding of the efficacy of Biofield Therapies for specific conditions. The resulting scoping review and interactive Evidence Map aim to empower stakeholders to overcome these obstacles, thereby strengthening the evidence for the potential adoption of Biofield Therapies as future integrative care options in allopathic medicine.