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Faith1960
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I agree.
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Faith1960
Guest
I sent him an email about this but haven’t heard back from him yet.Since the writers freely admit that they use occult practices (automatic writing) to receive these “inspirations”, I could never seriously consider using them for any kind of Christian meditation. Inspirations received through the occult, most likely do not come from God. That makes them potentially dangerous to the souls of Christians. They could lead us away from God, instead of drawing us closer to Him.
I might suggest the “He and I” books, by Gabrielle Bossis, instead. At least she was Catholic, and the messages she received through direct locution are clearly more in keeping with the practice of the Catholic Faith, since they often came to her before, or after, receiving the Holy Eucharist. While she was living a very busy and seemingly ‘worldly’ life, on the outside, she was clearly being drawn to remain focused, inwardly, on the love of Jesus, at all times. I’ve often found that just popping open one of the books and reading whichever verse caught my eye, was usually what I needed to hear at the time.
I’m not sure I could put my trust in the source of those other meditations, but that’s your own choice to make. If you believe they are helping you, then who am I to say they aren’t? It might be something you should talk to your Priest about, and see what he says.
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Faith1960
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He just emailed me back and said he knows nothing about the book and does not watch EWTN, so he “can’t offer any advice.”
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Saber_Mom
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I have this book and did the devotions for about six months and then got bored with it. It really did open up my prayer life and led me to daily reading of the Bible and eventually to the Living Faith series and the Laudate app on my phone. I was craving more substance.
Now that I’ve read this thread, I probably wouldn’t read that book again, but it opened doors for me to expand my faith. When I questioned anything (can’t think of any examples because I did it about three years ago), I just would hop online for a Catholic interpretation.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but what is “automatic writing”? Thank you.
Now that I’ve read this thread, I probably wouldn’t read that book again, but it opened doors for me to expand my faith. When I questioned anything (can’t think of any examples because I did it about three years ago), I just would hop online for a Catholic interpretation.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread, but what is “automatic writing”? Thank you.
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Faith1960
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I also read Uplifting Thoughts for Every Day by Fr. John Catoir. That one is Catholic.
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Telstar
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From Wikipedia: "Automatic writing or psychography is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. The words are claimed to arise from a subconscious, spiritual or supernatural source.
Automatic writing as a spiritual practice was reported by Hyppolyte Taine in the preface to the third edition of his “De l’intelligence”, published in 1878. Besides “etherial visions” or “magnetic auras”, Fernando Pessoa claimed to have experienced automatic writing. He said he felt “owned by something else”, sometimes feeling a sensation in the right arm which he claimed was lifted into the air without his will.[2] George Hyde-Lees, the wife of William Butler Yeats, also claimed that she could write automatically.[3] In 1975, Wendy Hart of Maidenhead claimed that she wrote automatically about Nicholas Moore, a sea captain who died in 1642.[4]
Hélène Smith claimed to have experienced automatic writing, which was included in Théodore Flouroy’s From India to the Planet Mars. She alleged that the writing was “Martian” in origin.
William Fletcher Barrett wrote that “Automatic messages may take place either by the writer passively holding a pencil on a sheet of paper, or by the planchette, or by a ‘ouija board’.”[5] In spiritualism, spirits are claimed to take control of the hand of a medium to write messages, letters, and even entire books. Automatic writing can happen in a trance or waking state.[6] Arthur Conan Doyle in his book The New Revelation (1918) wrote that automatic writing occurs either by the writer’s subconscious or by external spirits operating through the writer.[7] The Surrealist poet Robert Desnos claimed he was among the most gifted in automatic writing. Some psychical researchers such as Thomson Jay Hudson have claimed that no spirits are involved in automatic writing and that the subconscious mind is the explanation.[8]
Alleged cases of automatic writing have included Jane Roberts,[9] Helen Schucman [10] and Neale Donald Walsch. [11][1"
This kind of thing falls under the category of the practices of “spiritism”, which is in the same category as Ouija boards (which are often use for automatic writing).
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Telstar
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That’s really sad. I hope he decides to do a little research on it, especially since it seems to be so popular among some Catholics.
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Faith1960
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Now the book is being likened to using a Ouija board. Sigh. Did it ever occur to you that what EWTN said isn’t right? This reminds me of all the threads where posters think that anyone who does yoga is of the devil.
One of the women who reads God Calling for YEARS and gave at least one copy as,a gift, is one of the most Christ centered women I know, who is in no danger.
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Telstar
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The practice of spirit writing is in the same category as using Ouija boards. Women of Grace is a show that’s been on EWTN for a lot of years and is firmly based in Catholic traditions and teachings. The same episode of the show that I saw, which mentioned these books, also mentioned yoga, because they are all practices that are based in ‘new age’ and other spiritual philosophies, that have absolutely no connection to Christianity. In fact, many of those beliefs and practices are directly contrary to the beliefs of Christianity.
Like I said, it’s your choice to make. If you think it’s OK, then use it. I’m just offering my own personal opinion, based on what I’ve learned about where it comes from, and I would not feel comfortable using it. I went through a period in my life, when I was much younger (early 20s), that I stopped going to Church and did a lot of ‘spiritual’ reading, that wasn’t all Catholic. I also used a Ouija board, and was foolish enough to dabble in all kinds of other weird stuff, like fortune telling with playing cards and tea leaves. I know what they can do. They all worked very easily for me, but it scared the daylights out of me, because it was so accurate. I just didn’t feel right about it, deep down inside, so I stopped doing all of it and went back to Church. That’s why this book makes me so nervous.
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Faith1960
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I dabbled in New Age years ago too, and disagree that these books are of the same caliber.
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Saber_Mom
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Thank you Telstar for the definition. Much appreciated.
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Telstar
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You’re welcome, Saber Mom. Glad I could help.
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CB_Catholic
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No. One can never be separated from the LOVE of God. One can separate themselves from God by sin, but not from His love. See Romans 8:38. While we were still sinners, Christ Jesus loved us enough to suffer and die for us on the Cross. God IS LOVE. He cannot go against His nature. However, we can choose to separate ourselves from God, but He will always love us. There is a difference that must be understood.I have also seen this spoken about on the TV show, Women of Grace, and it was clearly something they said should be avoided.
Just looking at the segment you posted, it seems to be fairly innocent at first glance. But, it doesn’t strike me as sounding quite right, especially when I get to the last line. I’m sure, as Catholics, we all know that we actually can separate ourselves from the love of God, through sin. So, this seemingly innocent ‘meditation’ is actually teaching serious error. I suggest deleting this app and never using it, again. There must be something out there from St. Faustina, St. Therese or some other Catholic Saint that you could use, if you really want to use some kind of an app. I would not trust using this one for meditation.
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