We have been talking about deepening our personal prayer life. When we pray our simple vocal prayers well, we begin to feel a tug towards something deeper, a more heartfelt conversation with God. We desire to address him in our own words, in a more personal and particular way. Traditionally, this prayer from the heart …
On September 6, Spain’s Congregation for the Faith published a controversial, but very needed, document on authentic Christian prayer. Echoing the CDF’s On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation — which will be 30 years old in October — they called methods of meditation that stem from Buddhism “incompatible with the faith.” A footnote specifically mentions …
Several months ago I wrote some controversial posts regarding mindfulness. Many of you have been waiting to hear my opinion of Dr. Gregory Bottaro’s course Catholic Mindfulness, which he graciously gave me free access to. I do not want to do an in-depth, point-by-point critique of the course. I did not finish taking the …
Recently I wrote a two-part series on Yoga, mindfulness, and Centering Prayer. If you haven’t read that, I suggest you do so now. I will try not to repeat myself here. Why am I addressing mindfulness again so soon? “Catholic mindfulness” is currently being marketed vigorously all over the internet. Readers have forwarded unsolicited emails …
In Part I, we established the difference between being scrupulous or rigid and simply urging caution in areas in which the Church Herself urges caution. Today, we’re going into more detail on Yoga, Centering Prayer, and mindfulness. We’ll see how similar they are to one another in origin, technique, and purpose. We’ll also discuss whether …
Yoga, Centering Prayer, and Mindfulness (Part 2) Read More »
I recently decided to dig deeper into understanding Centering Prayer, so I could advise readers on it. I bought Fr. Thomas Keating’s book Open Mind, Open Heart and wrote a review that will appear at SpiritualDirection.com in September. But one blog post was not enough. The errors in this book were so many and …