DG asks: "There are so many alternative medicine practices out there. Some of them sound very suspicious to me and refer to 'life force energy' and 'spirit guides' but some sound okay. I even know of a Catholic chiropractor who prays before treating people but he's a Reiki Master! How does a Catholic know which ones are compatible with our faith and which ones are not?"
BW would like to know more about the peace symbol. "Often claimed to have been invented at the dawn of the nuclear age, I have dug a bit deeper and found it to be a broken-armed cross, favored by Nero. Also, it apparently decorates graves of Nazis (heavily into the occult). I suspect there is much more. . . "
MI writes: “I don’t feel comfortable with this type of prayer request [that I received today]. ‘We are doing an Intercession of 1000 prayers for those people with cancer. Say the prayer and pass it to 10 people, Let me know if you cannot, so that we do not break this Intercession.’ Am I wrong? Isn’t it basically a chain letter. Would you participate? Looking forward to your thoughts!”
Photo courtesy of Tourtefouille on WikiCommons, license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.enA woman wrote to our ministry recently to ask for advice about a young family member who was very much into the game, Magic: The Gathering.
Photo by Antonika Chanel on UnsplashCC asks: "Can you tell me if 'dry needling' is a New Age practice? I have heard a couple of people mention having had it done by their physicians in recent months and had never heard of it."
Photo courtesy of Ben White on UnsplashIn Part I of this series, we discussed the curse - what it is and how it is typically imposed upon people. In this article, we will look at what to do if we suspect that we are the recipient of a curse.
We recently received a heartbreaking letter from a woman whose 35 year-old son has been struggling with alcoholism. She recently learned that his addiction was not a recent problem, but dates back to his teenage years and a time when he was in contact with a very dangerous woman.
Photo by Darío Méndez on UnsplashHL writes: “A parishioner at our parish has been noticing rice being scattered at our shrine of the Holy Innocents, in front of the statue of our patron saint, and on the hand rail leading to the rectory. I’m wondering if there’s any foul play involving occultic practices. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.”
GD asks: "I didn't see anything on your new age blog, about handwriting analysis. My son will be taking a forensics class and handwriting analysis is something they will be covering. If it is new age do you have any resources that I could show her to explain why it is not appropriate?"
Photo by Nguyen Thu Hoai on UnsplashMany of our blogs come about as a result of readers who give us "tips" about a fad or personality that warrant more research. This is what happened with the popular books, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Thanks to that reader's tip, we unearthed a goldmine of vital information about these "warm and fuzzy" books that we all need to know about!
