First, stem cells are immature cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division.

Also, under certain  conditions, they can be “tricked” chemically to become cells that do special things, like become the beating cells of the heart muscle or the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

Doctors around the world are already using stem cells to treat diseases. No one is really sure if the treatments are safe and effective (by scientific standards). But many desperately ill and disabled patients travel many miles and spend many thousands of dollars to obtain these treatments.

This book of prayers is for those patients. But it is also for all patients now and in the future who seek relief from their diseases and disabilities through stem cell-based therapeutics.

Each day, people all over the world are moved to worship and adore God, and to acknowledge that they are dependent upon God.

The Gospels mention many times that Jesus himself often withdrew to quiet, desolate places to pray.

As St. Augustine once wrote, “He wishes our desires to be expressed in prayers so that we may be able to receive what he is ready to give.”

This Treasury of Prayers has four inspiring sections:

● Prayers Before Stem Cell Treatment (Contemplation and Decision);

● Prayers While at the Hospital or Clinic;

● Prayers for Patients with Specific Diseases, Conditions and Disabilities

● Scriptural Readings for the Spiritual Comfort of Stem Cell Patients.

To purchase at Amazon.com, click here.

For more information about “And I Shall Be Healed,” click here.

SANTIAGO, July 17 — A middle-aged leukemia patient has became Chile’s first patient to receive stem cells from an umbilical cord in a radical procedure that could cure the disease, health officials here said Thursday.

The 48-year-old man received the transplanted cells on Monday from samples stored in the so-called “Bank of Life” institute, said doctors at Santiago’s Catholic University Hospital, where the operation was performed.

“Beforehand the patient received chemotherapy and radiation for seven weeks, and after a day of rest the stem cells were injected as if he were having a transfusion, through a vein,” Francisco Barriga, coordinator of the hospital’s Hematology and Oncology Clinic, told AFP.

It could take up to a year for the new cells to take effect, after the traditional therapy destroyed the diseased cells, so the operation’s success will not be immediately known, officials said.

If the leukemia has not reappeared in about two to three years, the patient would be considered healed, said Barriga.

The Bank of Life has operated in Chile for two years, and holds some 200 samples of stem cells.

Barriga said the bank has the long-term goal of being able to provide cells for “whoever needs them around the world.”

To reach this goal, the institute hopes to negotiate agreements with more local clinics to store the valuable stem cells from umbilical cords that are removed after births.

For its blood processing procedures, scientists separate stem cells from white blood cells, freeze them at -40 degrees Celsius (-40 Fahrenheit) and immerse them in liquid nitrogen at -190 degrees Celsius (-310 Fahrenheit).

The samples are then stored in the bank awaiting a compatible patient.

More information on stem cell treatments and therapies around the world can be found here.