Vatican on the New Age

[beckycmarie]

I’ve seen quite a few threads recently in which some are confusing Catholic mysticism and contemplation with New Age practices.

Unfortunately, some spiritual directors and retreat centers have fallen hard for the New Age and are leading their directees into it.

Rather than continue to argue in various threads about what’s wrong with New Age, I give you what the Vatican has to say about it:

JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
A Christian reflection on the “New Age”

 

[MarieVeronica]

I’ve seen quite a few threads recently in which some are confusing Catholic mysticism and contemplation with New Age practices.

Unfortunately, some spiritual directors and retreat centers have fallen hard for the New Age and are leading their directees into it.

Rather than continue to argue in various threads about what’s wrong with New Age, I give you what the Vatican has to say about it:

JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
A Christian reflection on the “New Age”

Thank you, Beckymarie. This is the truth… because it is what the teaching Magisterium of the Holy Catholic Church (which is prevented from error, by the grace of the Holy Spirit) says. God bless you, for posting it.

I am reading a book right now, by Father Jonathan Morris (Catholic Priest and Fox News Analyst), called “The Promise”; Fr. Morris talks about the New Age Movement… and underlines the fact that New Age thinking is nothing more than RELATIVISM. New Age “thinkers” sort of create the “God” that they are most comfortable with. This is a very dangerous way to think.

I can’t remember who it was who said it… or even if I have the quotation correct… but it goes something like this… “Truth is truth. Whether a person believes the truth or not, doesn’t change that it’s truth”.

 

[InLight247]

Becky, thank you for posting the link.

For those who do not have time to read the whole document, I summarized (copy / paste from Vatican) a few key points so you can read it briefly and gain a better understanding of New Age focus to see how they are not consistant with our Catholic faith:

One of the most common elements in New Age “spirituality” is a fascination with extraordinary manifestations, and in particular with paranormal entities. People recognised as “mediums” claim that their personality is taken over by another entity during trances in a New Age phenomenon known as “channeling”, during which the medium may lose control over his or her body and faculties.

Phenomena as diverse as the Findhorn garden and Feng Shui (23) represent a variety of ways which illustrate the importance of being in tune with nature or the cosmos. **In New Age there is no distinction between good and evil. **Human actions are the fruit of either illumination or ignorance. Hence we cannot condemn anyone, and nobody needs forgiveness.

In a New Age perspective, illness and suffering come from working against nature; when one is in tune with nature, one can expect a much healthier life, and even material prosperity; for some New Age healers, there should actually be no need for us to die. Developing our human potential will put us in touch with our inner divinity, and with those parts of our selves which have been alienated and suppressed. This is revealed above all in Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs), which are induced either by drugs or** by various mind-expanding techniques**, particularly in the context of “transpersonal psychology”. The shaman is often seen as the specialist of altered states of consciousness, one who is able to mediate between the transpersonal realms of spirits and gods and the world of humans.

One of the central concerns of the New Age movement is the search for “wholeness”. There is encouragement to overcome all forms of “dualism”, as such divisions are an unhealthy product of a less enlightened past. Divisions which New Age proponents claim need to be overcome include the real difference between Creator and creation, the real distinction between man and nature, or spirit and matter, which are all considered wrongly as forms of dualism.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

InLight,

thanks for posting that!

The New Age accusation gets thrown around a lot in this website, and I think there’s a misunderstanding of what it exactly is.

Jim

 

[beckycmarie]

I think one of the most helpful sections is the one on Christian Mysticism and New Age Mysticism, because there seems to be much confusion over the differences between the two.

So many of us want that close and deep relationship with God, and it is so easy to get caught up in the New Age while trying to do so, which is why I tend to be adamant about sticking to sources loyal to the Church and Magisterium. It is so easy to be misled, and unfortunately some spiritual directors, just based on some things I’ve read around here, are doing just that by mixing Eastern techniques in a pursuit of contemplation.

People seem to forget the infused contemplation is a gift, not something that one can force God to provide through “techniques.”

3.4. Christian mysticism and New Age mysticism

For Christians, the spiritual life is a relationship with God which gradually through his grace becomes deeper, and in the process also sheds light on our relationship with our fellow men and women, and with the universe. Spirituality in New Age terms means experiencing states of consciousness dominated by a sense of harmony and fusion with the Whole. So “mysticism” refers not to meeting the transcendent God in the fullness of love, but to the experience engendered by turning in on oneself, an exhilarating sense of being at one with the universe, a sense of letting one’s individuality sink into the great ocean of Being.(59)

This fundamental distinction is evident at all levels of comparison between Christian mysticism and New Age mysticism. The New Age way of purification is based on awareness of unease or alienation, which is to be overcome by immersion into the Whole. In order to be converted, a person needs to make use of techniques which lead to the experience of illumination. This transforms a person’s consciousness and opens him or her to contact with the divinity, which is understood as the deepest essence of reality.

The techniques and methods offered in this immanentist religious system, which has no concept of God as person, proceed ‘from below’. Although they involve a descent into the depths of one’s own heart or soul, they constitute an essentially human enterprise on the part of a person who seeks to rise towards divinity by his or her own efforts. It is often an “ascent” on the level of consciousness to what is understood to be a liberating awareness of “the god within”. Not everyone has access to these techniques, whose benefits are restricted to a privileged spiritual ‘aristocracy’.

The essential element in Christian faith, however, is God’s descent towards his creatures, particularly towards the humblest, those who are weakest and least gifted according to the values of the “world”. There are spiritual techniques which it is useful to learn, but God is able to by-pass them or do without them. A Christian’s “method of getting closer to God is not based on any technique in the strict sense of the word. That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the Gospel. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefits from it knows himself to be unworthy”.(60)

For Christians, conversion is turning back to the Father, through the Son, in docility to the power of the Holy Spirit. The more people progress in their relationship with God – which is always and in every way a free gift – the more acute is the need to be converted from sin, spiritual myopia and self-infatuation, all of which obstruct a trusting self-abandonment to God and openness to other men and women.

All meditation techniques need to be purged of presumption and pretentiousness. Christian prayer is not an exercise in self-contemplation, stillness and self-emptying, but a dialogue of love, one which “implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from ‘self’ to the ‘You’ of God”.(61) It leads to an increasingly complete surrender to God’s will, whereby we are invited to a deep, genuine solidarity with our brothers and sisters.

 

[InLight247]

Becky, thanks for the quote. The difference is very clear if we read it carefully.

God centered v.s. self centered
God initiated v.s. self initiated
Infused v.s. obtained through techniques
Working toward holiness v.s. no one needs forgiveness
Striving for virtues v.s. sense of harmony

etc…

 

[thistle]

I recommend a good book called Catholics and the New Age by Father Micth Pacwa where he explains all the dangers of new age.

 

[beckycmarie]

I recommend a good book called Catholics and the New Age by Father Mitch Pacwa where he explains all the dangers of new age.

I’m reading that one right now; that is a good informational book.

 

[BroIgnatius]

Hi Folks:

I am not on this BBS very often, but I have noticed a disturbing trend of people who are interested in the beautiful gift of contemplation flirting and uncritically accepting a lot of Eastern-Oriental (New Age) ideas. From the dangerous Centering Prayer to other careless contaminations of “new age” ideas some people seem to have a real problem with discernment.

Genuine contemplation should increase one’s discernment.

As a person who has to clean up the spiritual messes when people indulge in non-Christian spiritualities and philosophies and techniques, I find this trend disturbing.

I have had many clients in my deliverance ministry whose demonization began with flirtations with New age notions.

We need to stay close to the Church, and interpret these things strictly. Otherwise we risk becoming fools.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

BroIgnatius

From the dangerous Centering Prayer

I read this and had to didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, for being so misleading and inappropriate.

I’ve been doing Centering Prayer for over 30 years. It is an enriching method of prayer which opens us up to contemplation and is routed in Catholicism going back to the Desert Fathers.

You’re derogatory statement here only says that you have a misinterpretation of Centering Prayer, that was probably given to you by those who hi-jacked it into the New Age Movement, but this is not Centering Prayer, as it was taught by Father’s Basil Pennington, Father Keating or Father Merton, who were the actually one’s responsible for teaching it.

I would recommend that youself and others who attack this method of prayer, to read the history behind Centering Prayer, as taught by the original teachers, Fr Pennington, rather than what critics have written, who neither interviewed any of the three men, and present information that is totally opposite what the three men actually teach about Centering Prayer.

You can begin here;

Centering Prayer - A Gift From the Desert
From Centering Prayer by Basil Pennington, pp.25-37

kyrie.com/cp/a_gift_from_the_desert.htm

Until you have read what Fr Pennington actually teaches on it, I would advise yourself and other critics of Centering Prayer, to remain silent, for you’ll only be perpetuating misinformation on a wonderful method of prayer, which many people have successfully used to grow closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

God Bless
Jim

 

[BroIgnatius]

Dear Jim:

Well, I am very familiar with Centering Prayer my friend and have read Keating, Pennington, and Merton’s work. I use to practice and teach a form of this in my stupid years. I also received training in Hindu and Buddhist meditation, which has many similarities with Keating/Pennington/Merton’s ideas, of course.

Anyway, I suggest those of good faith who are interested in this read The Dangers of Centering Prayer by Fr. John D. Dreher .

In summary Centering prayer is essentially a form of self-hypnosis. It makes use of a “mantra,” a word repeated over and over to focus the mind while striving by one’s will to go deep within oneself. The effects are a hypnotic-like state: concentration upon one thing, disengagement from other stimuli, a high degree of openness to suggestion, a psychological and physiological condition that externally resembles sleep but in which consciousness is interiorized and the mind subject to suggestion.

But enough said. I will not argue this since arguing with error is fruitless and unproductive argumentation is a sin. The good Catholics here have the information they need

Bottomline: I suggest that people stay close to the Church and the historic wisdom of the people who are experts in contemplation such as the monks of old, such as the Hesychists, and saints like St. Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, etc. Their prayer forms have been vetted by centuries and centuries to ensure their Catholicity, not a few decades of modern innovation in controversy.

Our Guidelines come from the Church:
Christian Reflection on the New Age
On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation

You can have the last word. I am sure you will take it anyway

 

[JimR-OCDS]

BroIgnatius

In summary Centering prayer is essentially a form of self-hypnosis. It makes use of a “mantra,” a word repeated over and over to focus the mind while striving by one’s will to go deep within oneself. The effects are a hypnotic-like state: concentration upon one thing, disengagement from other stimuli, a high degree of openness to suggestion, a psychological and physiological condition that externally resembles sleep but in which consciousness is interiorized and the mind subject to suggestion

.

By saying this, you only show that you really don’t know what Centering Prayer is.

Centering Prayer is merely using a sacred prayer word, call it mantra if you must, in order to quiet oneself down, so that you can turn to God who dwells within and rest in his presence. The prayer word is only used as a means of settling down our senses, in order to focus on prayer and is returned to, when we become aware that we’ve been distracted and have turned away from our focus, the presense of Jesus Christ. In Centering Prayer, we come to the center of our being, to rest in Christ, who dwells within. We expect nothing other than what Christ gives to us.

It is not a shutting off of the mind, or a dwelling on oneself. It has no hypnotic effect and a person doesn’t not loose consciousness of where he is or who he is.

Thats all it is, all it ever was. Anything else is a distortion of what Centering Prayer is, as taught by the three men responsible for bringing it to the laity, Fr Keating, Fr. Pennington and Father Thomas Merton.

The roots of this method of prayer go back to the Desert Fathers and the book the Cloud of Unknowing. Also, is in accord with the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.

As Father Pennington couldn’t explaint the difference between TM and Centering Prayer, more clearer;

At this point let me inject an important aside. It concerns a semantic difficulty. In our recent Western tradition, when we have spoken of “meditation,” we have been understood to refer to a discursive type of prayer in which we consciously reflected on some facet of life, particularly some point of the Scriptures, and sought by this means to arouse in ourselves affective responses and resolutions to guide our conduct. At the same time, “contemplation” has signified for us that moment when our response to the revealed truth or reality was simply being present to it - having passed beyond thinking to simple presence.

For our brothers and sisters in the Hindu tradition, the terms have almost the exact inverse meaning: contemplation is a discursive exercise, and meditation usually means a non-conceptual approach. Perhaps one of the most significant indications of the failure of the Western Christian churches to bring their life-giving tradition even to their own is the fact that the terminology that prevails today in the West is not that of the Western tradition (except perhaps among religious and priests, and those mostly of earlier training) but, rather, the terminology brought to us in recent years by the wise men coming from the Asiatic countries. So there is a difficulty today when we speak of these matters. That is one of the reasons why I prefer to use the term “Centering Prayer” rather than “meditation” or “contemplation.” “Prayer” emphasizes what is the essential and oftentimes distinctive element: that of an inter-personal response, a relationship flowing out of love, with another Person or Persons. However, I think it might at times be advantageous, when presenting this form of prayer in a popular context, such as a college campus, to speak of it as “Christian meditation”-meditation being understood in the prevailing, Eastern sense.

But let us return to our monastic tradition. In this tradition, when the monks wished to speak in a reflective way of their experience, they employed four words: lectio, rneditatio, oratio, and contemplatio. Lectio, or more commonly the fuller expression Lectio Divina, cannot be adequately expressed in the simple translation of the word as "reading.3’ We are in fact speaking of a time when perhaps most of the monks and most of the Christian community could not read. Others, of course, could and did read to their illiterate brothers. The choice source for this lectio always was and always will be the Sacred Texts. Oftentimes, a simple Christian who could not read would manage to memorize extensive portions of Scriptures, especially the Gospels and the Psalter, so that he could constantly hear it, now recited, as it were, by his own memory. kyrie.com/cp/a_gift_from_the_desert.htm

Jim

 

[BroIgnatius]

Hi Folks:

There are so many great passages in this great Vatican document it is hard to choose which ones to focus upon.

One of the sections I think has particular relevance to signs of our times:

3.2. Spiritual narcissism?
Several authors see *New Age spirituality as a kind of spiritual narcissism or pseudo-mysticism. It is interesting to note that this criticism was put forward even by an important exponent of New Age, *David Spangler, who, in his later works, distanced himself from the more esoteric aspects of this current of thought.

He wrote that, in the more popular forms of* New Age,* “individuals and groups are living out their own fantasies of adventure and power, usually of an occult or millenarian form… The principal characteristic of this level is attachment to a private world of ego-fulfilment and a consequent (though not always apparent) withdrawal from the world. On this level, the* New Age* has become populated with strange and exotic beings, masters, adepts, extraterrestrials; it is a place of psychic powers and occult mysteries, of conspiracies and hidden teachings”.

In a later work, David Spangler lists what he sees as the negative elements or “shadows” of the* New Age:* “alienation from the past in the name of the future; attachment to novelty for its own sake…; indiscriminateness and lack of discernment in the name of wholeness and communion, hence the failure to understand or respect the role of boundaries…; confusion of psychic phenomena with wisdom, of channeling with spirituality, of the New Age perspective with ultimate truth”. But, in the end, Spangler is convinced that selfish, irrational narcissism is limited to just a few new-agers. The positive aspects he stresses are the function of New Age as an image of change and as an incarnation of the sacred, a movement in which most people are “very serious seekers after truth”, working in the interest of life and inner growth.

The commercial aspect of many products and therapies which bear the* New Age label is brought out by David Toolan, an American Jesuit who spent several years in the New Age* milieu. He observes that new-agers have discovered the inner life and are fascinated by the prospect of being responsible for the world, but that they are also easily overcome by a tendency to individualism and to viewing everything as an object of consumption. In this sense, while it is not Christian,* New Age* spirituality is not Buddhist either, inasmuch as it does not involve self-denial. The dream of mystical union seems to lead, in practice, to a merely virtual union, which, in the end, leaves people more alone and unsatisfied.

We see this **Spiritual narcissism **not only in “new age” circles, but also within Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular. Narcissism seems to be a common symptom among movements and groups who tend to focus on emotional and subjective experiences.

Then Cardinal Ratzinger warned about this [bracketed comments are mine to clarify some difficult phrases]:

What is the relation between personal experience and the common faith of the Church? Both factors are important: a dogmatic faith unsupported by personal experience remains empty; mere personal experience unrelated to the faith of the Church remains blind.

The isolation of experience constitutes a serious threat to true Christianity… Even if this isolation has a “pneumatic” spiritual] origin, it is the price that has to be paid for [it is the result that comes from] the empiricism [the notion that experience and the senses are the only, or the primary, source of knowledge] that dominates our time.

Such an isolation of experience is closely linked with the Fundamentalism that separates the Bible from the whole of salvation history and reduces it to an experience of self with no mediation whatsoever. It does justice neither to historical reality, nor to the breadth of the mystery of God. Here, too, the true answer lies in a comprehension of the Bible, in union with the whole Church, and not merely in an isolated historicist reading.

All this shows once again that charism and institution overlap, and that what matters is not the “we” of the group but the great “we” of the Church of all times, which alone can provide the adequate and necessary framework, enabling us both to “hold on to what is good” and to “discern spirits.”

(Léon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens, Renewal and the Powers of Darkness, with a foreword by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1983), ix.)

The “new age” as well as new age thinking in any form is inherently subjective. It appears to that part of man that is occult (that is unknown) and thus it seeks to discover this hidden self.

Christianity, however, teaches us that the enlightenment of our minds and souls and the discovery of our self is not within some hidden interior, but is with Christ. Even forms that use Christ language and borrow from Catholic mystics still fall short. They look within in a way that misses the only true “within” that exists and that is the Holy Spirit. All mediation and contemplation forms that are legitimate for Catholics avoid this “search within” direction. The direction is ultimately to heaven in any legitimate spirituality.

 

[fhansen]

I think one of the most helpful sections is the one on Christian Mysticism and New Age Mysticism, because there seems to be much confusion over the differences between the two.

Thanks, Becky, I had never read this document before and the section you quoted, especially the paragraph below, says reams to me about the Catholic experience of and position on this issue.

The essential element in Christian faith, however, is God’s descent towards his creatures, particularly towards the humblest, those who are weakest and least gifted according to the values of the “world”. There are spiritual techniques which it is useful to learn, but God is able to by-pass them or do without them. A Christian’s “method of getting closer to God is not based on any technique in the strict sense of the word. That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the Gospel. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefits from it knows himself to be unworthy”.(60)

 

[thistle]

BroIgnatius

I read this and had to didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, for being so misleading and inappropriate.

I’ve been doing Centering Prayer for over 30 years. It is an enriching method of prayer which opens us up to contemplation and is routed in Catholicism going back to the Desert Fathers.

You’re derogatory statement here only says that you have a misinterpretation of Centering Prayer, that was probably given to you by those who hi-jacked it into the New Age Movement, but this is not Centering Prayer, as it was taught by Father’s Basil Pennington, Father Keating or Father Merton, who were the actually one’s responsible for teaching it.

I would recommend that youself and others who attack this method of prayer, to read the history behind Centering Prayer, as taught by the original teachers, Fr Pennington, rather than what critics have written, who neither interviewed any of the three men, and present information that is totally opposite what the three men actually teach about Centering Prayer.

You can begin here;

Until you have read what Fr Pennington actually teaches on it, I would advise yourself and other critics of Centering Prayer, to remain silent, for you’ll only be perpetuating misinformation on a wonderful method of prayer, which many people have successfully used to grow closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

God Bless
Jim

Read this Catholic Answers article on the dangers of centering prayer.
catholic.com/thisrock/1997/9711fea1.asp

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Read this Catholic Answers article on the dangers of centering prayer.
catholic.com/thisrock/1997/9711fea1.asp

I did read it, its highly inaccurate especially the origin of Centering Prayer. Also, the article does’t corrispond to the teachings of Fr Basil Pennington and Fr Keating, who were responsible for bringing the method of Centering Prayer to the laity in the first place. Why would you listen to anyone else except the one responsible for teaching it in the first place?

Read what Fr Pennington says about the origins of Centering Prayer, then read the article in CAF and see the difference.

kyrie.com/cp/a_gift_from_the_desert.htm

In Christ
Jim

 

[BroIgnatius]

Dear Thistle:

Yes, that is a great article. I posted that in a previous post as linked on our website.

Don’t worry about the distraction. I have read and studied the original works of the creators of Centering Prayer and Fr. Dreher has it perfectly correct.

I might add one thing. As a general truism when something like this causes such great controversy, it is usually a sign that something is deeply wrong with it. There is no controversy like this over The Cloud of Unknowing, The Desert Fathers, the Hesychasts, Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross. But there is nothing but controversy over these contemporary manifestations. But, I understand why. Arrogance always wants to re-invent the wheel and usually ends up making it square.

I think I will stay with what has been proven to be Catholic over centuries and is settled teaching, than go with new innovation with questionable aspects that are untested by the centuries.

The Catholic Church already has all that we need. She has already co-opted anything from the East that was true and consistent with Christianity and vetted it over a thousand years. There is no need to develop a new system.

I recommend that you and everyone pass around the Father Dreher article widely. It is the best single document I have found that tells the truth about this.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

It only becomes a controversy, when the information being presented is flagrantly inaccurate.

If you want the accurate information, when possible, you should go to the person who generated the information in the first place, not the critics who have an agenda of their own.

That being said, if anyone wants to learn Centering Prayer, as it actually is, and of its historical origins, go to the sources, Fr Pennington and Fr Thomas Keating.

kyrie.com/cp/

Jim

 

[BroIgnatius]

Thank you Jim for that beautiful example of obfuscation technique #236. I’ll use that in my book on the subject.

Anyway… back to reason…

Another great passage in this document (for which this thread is suppose to be about) is the one on Christ Consciousness. I don’t remember what thread it was but someone made mention of a website that was talking about Christ Consciousness and correctly identified it as a new age idea. Then other people supposedly Catholic protested that it was just another way to contemplate God.

Here is what the Church says about that:

3.3. The Cosmic Christ

In the early days of Christianity, believers in Jesus Christ were forced to face up to the gnostic religions. They did not ignore them, but took the challenge positively and applied the terms used of cosmic deities to Christ himself. The clearest example of this is in the famous hymn to Christ in Saint Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae:“He is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers–
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body, he is its head.
As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace by his death on the cross” (Col 1: 15-20).
For these early Christians, there was no new cosmic age to come; what they were celebrating with this hymn was the Fulfilment of all things which had begun in Christ. “Time is indeed fulfilled by the very fact that God, in the Incarnation, came down into human history. Eternity entered into time: what ‘fulfilment’ could be greater than this? What other ‘fulfilment’ would be possible?” Gnostic belief in cosmic powers and some obscure kind of destiny withdraws the possibility of a relationship to a personal God revealed in Christ. For Christians, the real cosmic Christ is the one who is present actively in the various members of his body, which is the Church. They do not look to impersonal cosmic powers, but to the loving care of a personal God; for them cosmic bio-centrism has to be transposed into a set of social relationships (in the Church); and they are not locked into a cyclical pattern of cosmic events, but focus on the historical Jesus, in particular on his crucifixion and resurrection. We find in the Letter to the Colossians and in the New Testament a doctrine of God different from that implicit in New Age thought: the Christian conception of God is one of a Trinity of Persons who has created the human race out of a desire to share the communion of Trinitarian life with creaturely persons. Properly understood, this means that authentic spirituality is not so much our search for God but God’s search for us.

Another, completely different, view of the cosmic significance of Christ has become current in* New Age circles. “The Cosmic Christ is the divine* pattern that connects in the person of Jesus Christ (but by no means is limited to that person). The divine pattern of connectivity* was made flesh and set up its tent among us (John 1:14)… The Cosmic Christ… leads a new exodus from the bondage and pessimistic views of a Newtonian, mechanistic universe so ripe with competition, winners and losers, dualisms, anthropocentrism, and the boredom that comes when our exciting universe is pictured as a machine bereft of mystery and mysticism. The Cosmic Christ is local and historical, indeed intimate to human history. The Cosmic Christ might be living next door or even inside one’s deepest and truest self”. Although this statement may not satisfy everyone involved in New Age, it does catch the tone very well, and it shows with absolute clarity where the differences between these two views of Christ lie. For New Age *the Cosmic Christ is seen as a pattern which can be repeated in many people, places and times; it is the bearer of an enormous paradigm shift; it is ultimately a potential within us.

According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ is not a pattern, but a divine person whose human-divine figure reveals the mystery of the Father’s love for every person throughout history (*Jn *3:16); he lives in us because he shares his life with us, but it is neither imposed nor automatic. All men and women are invited to share his life, to live “in Christ”.

If Catholics would study this document and inform themselves, plus study those who have been there like Father Pacwa and his book, “Catholic and the New Age”, and many others who have warned the faithful time and again, we would not have such a contamination of new age ideas in our parishes, retreat centers, among spiritual directors and teachers, and prayer centers.

We need to return to that which we KNOW to be solid, that which has been vetted by history, and that which has been approved by the Magisterium.

As we navigate these current waters of false spiritualities that flood our world today we need to stay close to the Church, keep her close to the chest, enter the Ark of Christ, for that is the only way to survive the flood.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Couldn’t there be a place for the true and authentic centering prayer as practiced by Catholic mystics such as St. John of the Cross? In fact, couldn’t there be a need even for this precisely because the truth has been taken and twisted by some of the New Age persuasion?

There is so much in Catholicism that is under attack as ‘pagan’ in origin, etc. Well, we aren’t going to stop having Christmas Mass just because somebody claims it was ‘started’ to stop or to co-opt Sol Invictus, are we? We aren’t going to stop celebrating Easter because there supposedly once existed those who worshipped a Saxon goddess named Eostre and the name of “Easter” is used for the Paschal Sunday in English-speaking countries, right?

Maybe Jim will one day be St. James, the 21st century Catholic mystic whose defense of the mysticism of St. John of the Cross will be one of the glories of the reawakening, glorious Renaissance of Catholicism for which we pray. Everything I’ve read Jim say in other threads on this subject seems pretty clearly to indicate that even if there are ‘questionable’ practitioners of a new agey’ Centering Prayer’ out there, HE is very clearly, very solidly Catholic in the deepest sense, and his practice of centering prayer is as far from New Age as you can get.