Prayer’s Power to Heal

I am thinking now of a dear friend who is a doctor. He is a successful practitioner, steeped in the science of medicine. But he also acknowledges that in his practice there is often a lot of healing that occurs that his science cannot account for. Several times he has told me that he is stumped by his poor patients, who because they cannot afford would buy and take only half of the medicine he prescribes them and yet they would get healed. This has deepened his faith and he believes God is helping him take care of his patients. Often, before a consultation session with his patients, he would pray with them first.

One day, he was himself diagnosed with cancer. Being a doctor, he knew the prognosis of his disease and he knew the survival rates for his condition. He went into deep prayer and his cancer went into remission. I have lost track of him over the years. How I would want to get together with him once more. But he has taught me something about prayer and its power to heal. Today, I say a special prayer for my friend Manny Canlas, MD.

Jesus said to him, “‘If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith.”
Then the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!”
Jesus, on seeing a crowd rapidly gathering,rebuked the unclean spirit and said to it,
“Mute and deaf spirit, I command you:come out of him and never enter him again!”
Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. He became like a corpse, which caused many to say, “He is dead!”But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. When he entered the house, his disciples asked him in private, “Why could we not drive the spirit out?” He said to them, “This kind can only come out through prayer.”
Mk 9:14-29