ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way to understand the potentiality that Jesus carried in life a healing power, which was carried beyond his death within the capacity of collective human experience. Some perspectives offer a holistic approach, mindful of the potential dangers of promising too much in the context of prayer healing. Within Roman Catholic tradition, there is similarly developed and highly powerful prayer to Mary for such healing and divine grace. Thomas Merton was a key catalyst in the emerging rediscovery of mystical Christianity. Merton's book, Contemplative Prayer published in 1969, was one of the most important statements in the twentieth century for recovering Christian prayer. Merton reintroduced many of the Christian mystics and also interpreted the religions of the East to Christians in the Western world. The language of physical symptoms is often symbolic in nature. This particular arena of the psyche is opened through the types of meditation with imagination in Scripture stories that have been described.
