"For me Reiki is another form of prayer," says spiritual director Lauri Lumby Schmidt. But a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says this holistic healing practice is "not of God."

The vocation of healing is a central theme in the acclaimed novel "Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese, who writes that doctors "must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. But it can also deepen the wound."

"Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician," says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. "I'm convinced that when the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual."

A Maryland foundation has created more than 100 public spaces of hope and healing that “offer a temporary place of sanctuary, encourage reflection, provide solace, and engender peace.”

"For me Reiki is another form of prayer," says spiritual director Lauri Lumby Schmidt. But a member of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says this holistic healing practice is "not of God."

"Immigrant religion today is coming here to evangelize us and then to go back out to evangelize where they’re from," according to Dana Robert, professor of world Christianity and history of mission at the Boston University School of Theology.

"Once you have empowered a disabled person artistically, you have in fact empowered a disabled person,” says this Georgetown University chaplain who ministers to wounded combat veterans and amputees through the theater.

Those who feel lonely and sad at this time of year may also feel "that grief is permanent and hope is fleeting," says the University of Richmond's associate chaplain, Kate O'Dwyer-Randall, "but it’s actually the other way around."

In most of the world, the poor and sick are ignored. In Lourdes, they are number one, and people say they are drawn there because they believe it is a place of great faith.

Membership in the church has declined in recent decades, but some Christian Science practitioners, as they are known, still treat large numbers of people through spiritual healing.