Connie Rossini's Blog, page 3

Appearance on EWTN

This past Monday, Dan Burke and I appeared live on At Home with Jim and Joy on EWTN. We discussed our book The Contemplative Rosary, what contemplation is, and how you can pray the Rosary better. If you missed the show, please enjoy the replay.

We also taped a week’s worth of appearances with Johnette Benkovic on Women of Grace. They will air later this spring. As soon as I know the exact dates, I will pass the information on to you.

I hope you are having a blessed Lent!

All glory and honor to God.

Connie Rossini

 

Normal and Extraordinary Means of Holiness

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The Agony in the Garden by Trevisani. Complete surrender to God follows Jesus’ example.

 

In my Facebook Group Authentic Contemplative Prayer some discussions recycle every few weeks. One is whether we need a spiritual director. Another is whether contemplation is necessary for holiness. Misunderstandings on these topics have the same root. They rest on a misunderstanding of norms versus extraordinary workings of grace.

St. Therese and spiritual direction

For example, when I teach that everyone should look for a spiritual director, I inevitably receive this objection: St. Therese did not have a spiritual director, and she reached the heights of holiness at age 24. The statement is true, but people draw false conclusions from it.

Here are some things that are missing from the argument:

St. Therese was a Carmelite nun with a regular confessor.
She opened her heart to many confessors, but only one understood her.
He was unable to direct her permanently, because he was sent to Canada as a missionary.
You are not St. Therese.

On the last point, I am not (just) being cheeky. You may be as holy as St. Therese for all I know (though you’ll forgive me if I doubt it, because you must be very humble if you are that advanced).  But your life circumstances are different from hers. As one example, how many of us were raised by saints?

As Therese’s parents, Saints Louis and Zelie Martin were her first spiritual directors. They taught her to love Jesus. They taught her obedience to authority. They taught her to love, to embrace suffering, to put God before all else. However wonderful our parents, few of them would match Therese’s.

In other words, God did not leave her to figure everything out on her own. Neither does He with most of us.

Is it necessary?

In a recent Facebook exchange, a friend argued that spiritual directors are not “required,” because no Church document says we “must” have them. So, it’s perfectly fine not to.

This misunderstanding goes beyond the one above to include a second: conflating what is required for salvation with what is the norm for attaining holiness. The Church does not insist that we become saints, so She does not require the means. She only requires what is necessary for our entrance into Heaven. Yet, she urges us to embrace those “extra” things that are normally required for holiness.

When Pope John Paul II addressed the question of how lay people should discern their vocation, he wrote:

“To be able to discover the actual will of the Lord in our lives always involves the following: a receptive listening to the Word of God and the Church, fervent and constant prayer, recourse to a wise and loving spiritual guide, and a faithful discernment of the gifts and talents given by God, as well as the diverse social and historic situations in which one lives.” (Christifidelis laici, no. 58)

In other words, we cannot discern God’s will about the big questions in life without some kind of spiritual direction. We might be able to go to Heaven without such a guide, but we also might err in some fundamental areas. Why would you want to take that chance?

Not the Norm

To say that one does not need to have a spiritual director because St. Therese did not have one, is like saying one is called to be a Carmelite nun because she was called to be one. Very few people (and only single women) are called to be Carmelite nuns. Likewise, very few people reach the heights of sanctity (or even grow beyond beginning stages) without some sort of spiritual direction.

Therese only lived to age 24. Most of us will live 50 years longer than that. Should we give up looking for a spiritual director and go decades without one?

Most saints have had spiritual directors at some point in their lives. Sometimes they had bad or mediocre ones, but most who persevered in seeking a good director were eventually rewarded with one. This is true of priests, religious, and lay people.

We should follow the norm, not assume ourselves to be the exception.

What about contemplation?

Let’s look briefly then at the other topic. Is contemplation the normal means to sanctity?

Every few weeks someone will post on Facebook that “there are many saints who were not contemplatives.” I don’t know where people get this idea. I suspect they misunderstand what a contemplative is. Sometimes they think that I am insisting a person must share my personal spirituality in order to be holy, and see me as being proud and judgmental when I insist on the need for contemplation. If contemplation is the normal means to sanctity, however, then most saints have been contemplatives. (We can exclude some martyrs and perhaps a few isolated others.)

I can think of one saint who was neither a contemplative nor a martyr. St. Dismas, otherwise known as the good thief, was saved and sanctified through his belief in Jesus. Dismas did not live a good life prior to meeting Jesus and he died before he could develop a life of prayer. He is not the norm. Deathbed conversions are not the norm for saints. They are very rare exceptions. Even many martyrs lived holy lives before giving them up for the Gospel.

How to be a saint

How does one become holy? By growing up spiritually. How does one grow spiritually? Through increasing intimacy with Christ. How does one become more intimate with Christ? Through the sacraments and personal prayer.

Contemplation is the way we experience intimacy with Christ. As He draws us closer to Himself, the increasing union transforms us. It is this transformation, initiated by God’s action, that enables us to act with heroic virtue. It makes us saints, if we submit to it.

In the purgative way (the beginning stage of the spiritual life), we try to align our wills as much as we can with God’s will. The problem is that we are so broken from Original Sin and personal sin, that we cannot even conceive the depth of that brokenness. We think ourselves almost perfect when we have barely begun to live for God. God Himself must enlighten us. When He does so, He also, because of our surrender to Him, heals us. We cannot see our need of this healing, let alone gain the healing itself, with common actual grace. God comes to our aid. This aid is contemplation.

Sometimes we mistakenly think that saints are saints because they are strong human beings. Not so! St. Therese spoke so often of her natural weakness. People of all temperaments and natural gifts (or the lack of them) have become and can become saints. Saints are saints because they surrendered completely to God, letting Him take over their sanctification. Realizing their inability to sanctify themselves, saints throw themselves on God’s mercy. They abandon themselves to Him. Then God begins the deep work they could never do. This is contemplation. This is the normal means to sanctity.

Don’t try to be extraordinary

In the spiritual life, we should not view ourselves as someone special. That is a trap. It has led many down the road to perdition through pride.

Similarly, we should not view ourselves as the exception to the norm. If you perseveringly seek a spiritual director and can’t find one, you entrust your spiritual life to God and keep looking. It’s up to God to decide if He wants to do extraordinary things for us. Maybe He wants us to persevere for just one more day, and we give up!

Do not fool yourself into thinking that being a contemplative is something extraordinary. It is normal (or, better, normative). Contemplation is only extraordinary in the sense that few give themselves to God so completely as to receive it, and that it requires a deeper infusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Do not despair if you think you have given all and you are still not experiencing contemplation. Perhaps the “all” you are lacking is trusting for one more day. Perhaps letting go of the “when” is the abandonment you still require.

But why am I telling you this? Go ask your spiritual director about it.

Connie Rossini

 

Mixing Catholic and Eastern Spirituality

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St. Peter in Prayer by Matthias Stomer (Wikimedia Commons).

 

Can we legitimately mix Buddhist or Hindu practices with our Catholicism? Many people claim we can. Buddhist themselves believe anyone can practice meditation. Some Catholics take the same viewpoint. Centering Prayer, mindfulness, Yoga, and more have been introduced at parishes as either harmless for Catholics, a good preparation for Catholic prayer and spirituality, or equivalent to Catholic prayer.

In this post, we’ll examine the two authoritative texts that speak most clearly to this issue: Nostra Aetate and On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation.

Respect, Dialog, or Syncretism?

Those who promote the incorporation of Eastern spirituality into Catholic practice often quote this sentence from Nostra Aetate, which specifically refers to Buddhism and Hinduism:

“The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions” (no. 2).

They tend to ignore, however, the larger context of the sentence:

“She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.

“The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.”

Note that this section is about how Christians should dialog and collaborate with non-Christians in Asian lands, not whether Christians in the West should voluntarily take up Eastern practices. In the United States, our socio-cultural values are (or at least at one time were) founded on a Judeo-Christian outlook. A Catholic in the US deciding to go to Yoga class is not preserving cultural values. In some sense, she is rejecting her culture’s values for those of a foreign land and religion. Surely the Fathers of Vatican II intended no such thing!

True and Holy?

When Nostra Aetate speaks of what is “true and holy in these religions,” what is this referring to? How are we to determine what elements of a foreign religion are true and holy? The document gives us some clues. Just before this section, it reads:

“From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father…

“Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing ‘ways,’ comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites.”

First we recognize that some Hindus and Buddhists may believe in a Supreme Being. They seek to be freed from suffering, use myths and philosophy to discover truth, recognize that this life is passing, and try to find an answer for “the restlessness of the human heart.” These are good and even holy things.

The specific means they use to attain union with God or to be freed from suffering are not necessarily compatible with the Catholic faith, however. They “differ in many respects from the ones [the Church] holds and sets forth.” They “often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men,” but the Catholic Church has been given the fullness of truth from God Himself. This truth is Christ. Thus, any practice or belief that tends to minimize the role of Christ, overemphasize man’s role in his own salvation, propose other saviors, or otherwise contradict the Gospel, can and should be rejected.

If any Catholic wants to assert that Buddhist or Hindu meditation practices can be incorporated into the life of a Catholic, the burden of proof is on him. Nostra Aetate does not support this notion. In fact, it does not speak to the issue of Catholics adopting any practice from another religion.

St. Paul is our model. In Athens, he saw a monument “to an unknown god.” He used that as a starting place to teach the Athenians about Christ. We can find common ground with other religions and work from there. But Christ is the Sun. The goodness in Eastern religions is only the reflection of one ray from that sun. Why would someone who had the sun try to warm himself with a single ray that was reflected in a pool?

The CDF on Eastern Meditation

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation in 1989 to combat current errors regarding prayer. Although it is almost entirely concerned with explaining what Christian prayer is, and voicing cautions regarding incorporating non-Christian practices into one’s prayer life, promoters of Centering Prayer, mindfulness, Yoga, and the like tend to home in on one sentence that speaks positively:

“That does not mean that genuine practices of meditation which come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions, which prove attractive to the man of today who is divided and disoriented, cannot constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God with an interior peace, even in the midst of external pressures.” (No. 28)

Like the sentence from Nostra Aetate, this is often stated alone to support the idea that Catholics can practice Eastern techniques without harm. There are several problems with this conclusion.

1. If non-Christian practices can be adopted indiscriminately, there was no need for this document.

Most of what the CDF has already said regarding prayer would be rendered meaningless by this interpretation. Why caution Catholics about practices that are perfectly harmless for them?

2. This is a negative statement, but is being interpreted as a positive one.

As I have noted before, the CDF does not say, “Genuine practices of meditation which come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions… constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God…” It says, “That does not mean that [they] cannot constitute [such a means].” In other words, some of them may constitute a suitable means, but one must at least apply the principles of the rest of the document to discern which do and which do not. The CDF does not address each practice individually.

3. The immediate context of the quote is limited.

No. 27 stated:

“Eastern Christian meditation has valued psychophysical symbolism, often absent in western forms of prayer. It can range from a specific bodily posture to the basic life functions, such as breathing or the beating of the heart. The exercise of the ‘Jesus Prayer,’ for example, which adapts itself to the natural rhythm of breathing can, at least for a certain time, be of real help to many people. On the other hand, the eastern masters themselves have also noted that not everyone is equally suited to making use of this symbolism, since not everybody is able to pass from the material sign to the spiritual reality that is being sought. Understood in an inadequate and incorrect way, the symbolism can even become an idol and thus an obstacle to the raising up of the spirit to God. To live out in one’s prayer the full awareness of one’s body as a symbol is even more difficult: it can degenerate into a cult of the body and can lead surreptitiously to considering all bodily sensations as spiritual experiences.”

Then the first part of number 28 goes on to address practices like Yoga:

“Some physical exercises automatically produce a feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations, perhaps even phenomena of light and of warmth, which resemble spiritual well-being. To take such feelings for the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit would be a totally erroneous way of conceiving the spiritual life. Giving them a symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience, when the moral condition of the person concerned does not correspond to such an experience, would represent a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations.”

Our quote immediately follows this caution.

In other words, Eastern Christians have used the body in prayer in a way Western Christians generally have not. Some of these practices are similar to psychophysical practices found in Eastern non-Christian meditation. The CDF notes specifically using the breath and body postures. But it cautions that going all the way to practice something like Yoga can be problematic to the point of causing “mental schizophrenia,” “psychic disturbance,” or “moral deviations.” These are not small dangers!

Even when speaking of Eastern Christian practices, the CDF cautions us. The Jesus Prayer is a beautiful and powerful prayer, but “masters” of this method teach that it is not suitable for everyone. Incorrectly understood, the rhythmic breathing that often accompanies the Jesus Prayer “can even become an idol and thus an obstacle to the raising up of the spirit to God,” or “degenerate into a cult of the body.” This is why masters of hesychasm often insist that one needs a knowledgeable and experienced spiritual guide when taking up these practices.

That leads to the next point.

4. What is suitable for one person may be dangerous for another.

If even the Jesus Prayer, used incorrectly, can pose serious dangers, how much more so practices that come from outside Christianity! In Centering Prayer, and now with “Catholic Mindfulness,” we see non-Christian practices being offered indiscriminately to all. Centering Prayer also takes instruction (such as that in The Cloud of Unknowing) given to those who are already practiced in prayer and virtue and teaches absolute beginners, or those who might not even have faith in Jesus, to follow them. True Christian teaching on prayer recognizes that there are different stages, when different practices are appropriate.

With “Catholic Mindfulness,” we see an online course that anyone can take without any screening as to their psychological or spiritual state. I encountered no cautions within the course itself that the practice was only for the mature, or for those under spiritual direction, or that one should consult his own therapist, or other limitations. On the contrary, “Catholic Mindfulness” is offered as the answer to several psychological, personal, and even spiritual ills, making it more likely that those who take the course (or read the book that is soon to be published), will be somehow struggling.

I have witnessed Catholics who began practicing Yoga, experienced the “feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations,” et cetera, and interpreted them as “authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit.” Yoga has become for these individual a favorite “prayer” practice, a means by which they think they grow in intimacy with Christ. Similarly, I have encountered numerous practitioners of Centering Prayer who think they are spiritually mature because they experience a peace which makes them more tolerant of others.

This danger is also inherent in mindfulness.

Rediscovering our heritage

If we really want to grow in prayer and virtue, and receive true Christian peace, “the peace that passes understanding,” we should rediscover our Western heritage. We began by noting that Nostra Aetate urges us to respect the socio-cultural values of others. Christians in the West are in grave danger of losing their own social-cultural values.

Eastern practices, even truly Christian ones, pose dangers for those of a different heritage. What we need in order to follow God more fully is a renewal of the contemplative heritage of the West. This heritage reached its peak in the Carmelite saints and doctors of the Church, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. Few Christians today have even begun to plum the richness of these saints’ teachings.

Wouldn’t we be better off as a Church if parishes gave seminars and retreats on the teaching of the saints, instead of on non-Christian practices?

Connie Rossini

For more on mindfulness, I highly recommend Susan Brinkmann’s new book, A Catholic Guide to Mindfulness.

Facts, faith, and contemplative knowledge

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Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, author of The Three Ages of the Interior Life.

What is the relationship between knowledge and contemplation? How much should we concern ourselves with news events? How can we trust God when bad things happen? I have been meditating on all these questions and more lately, and would like to share my musings with you.

Growing in knowledge

Centering Prayer advocates such as Fr. Thomas Keating tend to downplay the knowledge of God. Fr. Keating calls receptivity “an attitude of waiting for the Ultimate Mystery. You don’t know what that is. But as your faith is purified, you don’t want to know” (Open Mind, Open Heart, 20th Anniversary Edition, p. 66). This is false. It’s like saying the more a man loves a woman, the less he desires to know about her. How absurd!

What actually happens when a man falls in love is this. He sees a woman and notes something attractive about her. She is beautiful, she is smart, et cetera. He wants to get to know her better. The two spend time together. As their intimacy grows, they share their life stories, their memories, their hopes, their fears. The man moves beyond desiring more facts about his beloved to desiring her self. He desires to know her intimately, literally to know her from the inside.

Facts now take second place. But they are not lost. If he ceases to care about the details of his wife’s life, in some sense he ceases loving her. Facts still matter, but different facts than struck him at first. Perhaps it was her gorgeous hair that first attracted him. Now they are old and her hair is gray and thinning. He loves her still. She was young and robust. Now her health is compromised. That does not change his love. He cares for her person, which is so much deeper than her appearance, her likes and dislikes, her talents. He has a deeper knowledge, a knowledge from experience, a knowledge of her essence. He knows and understands her much better, not less. He still cherishes everything about her, but the physical becomes less important to him.

This is akin to the knowledge of God that comes by faith.

The knowledge of faith

Contemplative knowledge is knowledge that comes by faith. It is true knowledge of God, deeper than the knowledge of facts about Him. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange summarizes the teaching of John of the Cross in this way:

“St. John of the Cross tells us that obscure faith enlightens us. It is obscure because it makes us adhere to mysteries we do not see; but these mysteries, which are those of the inner life of God, greatly illumine our intellect, since they do not cease to express to us the goodness of God, who created us, raised us to the life of grace, sent His only Son to redeem us…” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life, Ch. 26).

He goes on to say about the knowledge of faith:

“It is very superior to the senses and to reason; it is the proximate means of union with God, whom it makes us know infallibly and supernaturally in obscurity.”

Fr. Thomas Keating implies that as we become contemplatives we know longer care whether God is a Trinity, whether Jesus came to save us, whether He is Love personified. That’s like saying the man at the height of his love no longer cares about his beloved’s hopes, fears, and desires, or the memories they share.

In contemplative knowledge, we know God Himself. We know Him from the inside, because we have been drawn up into His life. We know Him as a whole. Articles of Faith are part of that whole, but the whole is beyond them. The Articles of Faith can never express the fullness of the God we have come to know. Yet, those facts are still true, and we love them more than ever, because we love Him more than ever.

Vain curiosity

We need to distinguish between the Articles of Faith, however, and theology, especially theological speculation. Some of us are tempted toward inordinate curiosity. We want to learn all there is to know about God. So we read the Summa, and so on. Here is something we need to understand: Unless God calls you to be a theologian or teacher of theology, seeking intellectual knowledge about God can become a hindrance to spiritual growth.

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange criticizes “heavy and stupid intellectual curiosity” (again paraphrasing John of the Cross). He calls it “a mania of collecting” that St. Thomas Aquinas attributed to spiritual sloth. It can lead to pride and folly. He writes:

“This type of work, instead of training the mind, smothers it, as too much wood smothers a fire. Under this jumble of accumulated knowledge, they can no longer see the light of the first principles, which alone could bring order out of all this material and lift up their souls even to God…”

All this knowledge can lead to blindness through pride. Do we really desire to know God better, or just to know facts about Him, facts with which we can correct others or pride ourselves in understanding?

St. Paul was one of the most learned men of his time, but his learning did not help him to recognize the Messiah. Later, he wrote, “When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:1-2).

It’s not that this knowledge of facts or speculation about God is bad. It’s that as far as union with Him is concerned, it’s useless. And to reach that union, we must let go of every useless thing. We need to come to the point where it no longer matters to us whether there will be animals in Heaven, for example. Or what happened to the lost tribes of Israel. Or even how God’s Providence and man’s free will interact.

How much more do we need to let go of current events or politics or scientific theories or history (unless, of course, God specifically calls us to such knowledge)!

Trust and tragedy

How can we trust God amid the daily suffering we bear, the tragedies in our families and friends or nation? How can we avoid being anxious or distraught when we choose to sin? The answer is the same: let go of focusing on the parts and focus on the whole.

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange says:

“If we followed this rule, the consideration of details would no longer make us lose sight of the whole, as so often happens, just as trees seen too near hinder one from seeing the forest. Those who say that the problem of evil cannot be solved and find in it an occasion of sin, are absorbed in the woeful verification of certain painful details and lose the general view of the providential plan in which everything is ordained to the good of those who love the Lord.

“The excessively meticulous study of details makes us depreciate the first global view of things; when the latter is pure, however, it is already elevated and salutary. Thus when a Christian child sees the starry sky, he finds in it a splendid sign of the infinite grandeur of God. Later on, if he becomes absorbed in the scientific study of the different constellations, he may forget the view of the whole, to which the intellect must finally return the better to comprehend its loftiness and profundity. It has been said that if a little learning withdraws a person from religion, great learning brings him back to it.”

And when he comes back to it, he must then let his great learning go.

Every event of our lives, every event of history, is only one tree in the forest of God’s plan, which has been working itself out since the dawn of creation. We cannot hang on to the trees. If we dare to let go, dare to know nothing except Christ, He will raise us up to where we can see the whole forest. For the forest is within God, and in contemplation we come to know Him from the inside.

Connie Rossini

Is Mindfulness Catholic?

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I highly recommend Susan Brinkmann’s book A Catholic Guide to Mindfulness.

 

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 course, partly because the long videos (about 90 minutes each) for each chapter were too time-consuming. Partly because Dr. Bottaro and I disagree strongly on some fundamentals that overshadow the smaller elements, good or bad, that may become clear in further study. But also, perhaps especially, because I want to address mindfulness in general, not make this what some people call “an attack” on Dr. Bottaro or his work.

I hope to write several short posts on the problems with mindfulness from a Catholic perspective. When relevant, I will mention points from Dr. Bottaro’s course.

At the outset, I will say this: Dr. Bottaro strives to infuse his course with a Catholic worldview. He encourages students to read some spiritual classics and to learn to trust in God. So if you are set on practicing mindfulness, his course is probably the best way for a Catholic to do so. However, I would urge you, for the sake of your spiritual health, to avoid any and all mindfulness courses, including Dr. Bottaro’s Catholic Mindfulness. His course, by his own public admission, hues closely to the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) of Jon Kabat-Zinn. The MBSR, which is the basis of most secular mindfulness courses, is full of pitfalls for Catholics.

A series on the problems with mindfulness

Here, briefly, are the points I hope to address in more detail in this series of posts, which given my current circumstances will probably take several months to complete.

The origins of the MBSR should be a red flag to every Catholic interested in mindfulness.
Mindfulness is different from Christian recollection and does not help you practice it.
While some Buddhists do not consider Buddhism a religion, Buddhist practices are widely considered spiritual practices.
Mindfulness is intimately connected with Buddhist meditation practices.
Buddhist detachment is different from Christian detachment.
We must let go of the peace that comes from techniques if we wish to become contemplatives.
There is good in other religions, but that does not mean Christians should take up their practices.
Mindfulness practice takes time and energy that should be devoted to prayer and recollection.
The sketchy science of mindfulness.

I will not necessarily address these points in order, and some posts may cover more than one point.

A Catholic Guide to Mindfulness

Now, some of you are probably wondering if I’ll be writing a book on mindfulness, similar to my book Is Centering Prayer Catholic?  Thankfully, I don’t have to! Susan Brinkmann of Women of Grace has just published A Catholic Guide to Mindfulness.  Her book is excellently written and meticulously researched. She covers the problems with the science behind mindfulness and the origins of the MBSR in great detail. She also explains Buddhist thought and how it differs from Christian thought. Dr. Anthony E. Clarke, an associate professor of Chinese History and expert in the relationship between Eastern religions and Christianity, wrote the forward to the book.

If I do write a book on the subject, I hope to focus on Christian recollection, accenting the positive alternative to mindfulness, rather than talking about the problems of mindfulness. And I hope to write many posts on this positive and vital practice in the meantime.

If you have a question about one of the 9 points above, I ask you to wait for the post on the subject. I will not have the time to answer questions in great detail right now. However, I welcome your comments on the points this post covers. I also welcome your suggestions for exploring other aspects of the problem that I did not mention.

Connie Rossini

Older post on Mindfulness:

Mindfulness is the New Centering Prayer

Yoga, Centering Prayer, and Mindfulness, Part I

Yoga, Centering Prayer, and Mindfulness, Part II

 

 

Praying The Contemplative Rosary

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A couple of years ago I mentioned that I was co-writing a book with Dan Burke of the National Catholic Register, the Avila Institute, and SpiritualDirection. com. It is finally published! The Contemplative Rosary just became available. You can find it in paperback and ebook formats at Sophia Institute Press. It is also available at online retailers and should be at your local bookstore soon. If you don’t see it there, ask the owner to order it.

Contemplation explained to beginners and children

I am really excited about this book, because it brings teaching about contemplation to everyone: those who are absolute beginners in prayer and those who have only ever prayed vocal prayer, as well as those who are practiced in mental prayer. My new column in The Catholic Voice, “Conversation with God,” has the same aim. You can read the first two articles here and here.

Even your teenagers can benefit from this simple way of speaking about the deep things of God. My two oldest sons will be reading my columns and The Contemplative Rosary as part of their education. My 11-year-old son has already made use of some of the meditations during our family Rosary. My youngest, who is 6, can use the beautiful paintings to help him think about Jesus and Mary while we pray.

If you don’t already pray the family Rosary daily, this year, the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, is a great time to start. We used to pray the Rosary as a family just on Sundays (although my husband and I prayed it together the other six days). At the start of this year, we began praying it all together nightly. My kids know how much the world needs their prayers and Mary’s intercession.

A preparation for contemplation

The Contemplative Rosary combines Pope St. John Paull II’s teaching on the Rosary with St. Teresa of Avila’s teaching on vocal prayer. Yes, vocal prayer. In The Way of Perfection St. Teresa spends several chapters teaching her nuns how to pray the Our Father well. She writes:

“I know there are many people who practise vocal prayer in the manner already described and are raised by God to the higher kind of contemplation without having had any hand in this themselves or even knowing how it has happened” (The Way of Perfection, Ch. 30).

In The Interior Castle,  she says:

“As far as I can understand, the gate by which to enter this castle is prayer and meditation. I do not allude more to mental than to vocal prayer, for if it is prayer at all, the mind must take part in it. If a person neither considers to Whom he is addressing himself, what he asks, nor what he is who ventures to speak to God, although his lips may utter many words, I do not call it prayer. Sometimes, indeed, one may pray devoutly without making all these considerations through having practised them at other times. The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave–caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition–cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner” (The Interior Castle 1,9).

Some of you may remember when I returned to “spiritual kindergarten” a while back, practicing saying just one Hail Mary with attention. Sometimes when we have formed bad habits in prayer, we need to go back to something very simple. Saying even the simplest prayer with loving attention is an invaluable preparation for infused contemplation.

The school of Mary

Pope John Paul II wrote an encyclical On the Most Holy Rosary (Rosarium Virginis Mariae) 15 years ago on October 16 to celebrate the opening of the Year of the Rosary. So for those who love the Rosary, next month marks a double anniversary. If you haven’t read the encyclical, or haven’t done so for many years, I encourage you to read and ponder it. It will move your heart to love Mary and her Son more than ever.

One of my favorite quotes from the encyclical is this:

“With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love. Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer” (RVM 1).

That images goes straight to my heart as a homeschool mom. Imagine Mary sitting in a rocking chair with a flock of children (us) surrounding her. She tells her children stories. What stories? The ones she “pondered in her heart,” the ones she shared with St. Luke when he was writing his Gospel. She invites us into her meditations on the “great things” the Lord has done for her and for all of us through her divine Son.

Helps for praying the Rosary  [image error]

I love beauty. I love beautiful art. I was blessed to be able to search for 20 sacred paintings to include in the book, one for each mystery. I chose paintings that draw you to adore Jesus in the mysteries, rather than just admire the artist. Many of them I can hardly look at without being moved at once to pray. Almost all are by Spanish Baroque artists, particularly Murillo. The Crucifixion by Velazquez is unparalleled, in my opinion.

Each mystery also has 7 meditations that you can use to keep your mind fixed on Christ. We use the clausular method that Dan Burke has written about elsewhere.

Those of you who have used the National Catholic Register’s Rosary booklet (published shortly after the encyclical) will recognize the method and perhaps a few of the meditations. We updated, refined, and added to them.

I really believe this book will bless you and your families. And if you buy the ebook, you can easily carry it with you everywhere.

Discounts, in-person talks, radio, and TV

Dan Burke and I recorded an episode of Divine Intimacy Radio with hostess Melissa Elson discussing The Contemplative Rosary. It will air next Tuesday, October 3. You can listen at SpiritualDirection.com or on iTunes.

On Sunday, October 22, I will speak and sign books after the 9:30 AM Mass at St. Peter Church in Omaha during coffee and donuts.

On October 29, Dan will appear on Bookmark with Doug Keck.

If you are close to Omaha or the Twin Cities, I’d love to come and speak at you parish, prayer group, or bookstore. Email me at crossini4774 at comcast dot net

Finally, since the Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux is coming up on Sunday (October 1), I’m offering the ebook of Trusting God with St. Therese for $.99 at Barnes and Noble and iTunes from September 29 through October 6. You may also find a discount at other online retailers, including those catering to customers in other countries. This sale only runs once a year, so if you haven’t read it yet, now is the time.

Please note that I can no longer run the $.99 sale at Amazon. If you tell Amazon you saw my book for $.99 elsewhere, they may drop the price of their own accord.

May the Lord bless you and your family as we move into the Marian (and very Carmelite) month of October.

Connie Rossini

Here is the link to The Contemplative Rosary again.

No lasting city

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Our new home in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14).

Some of my readers must be wondering where I have gone. I’ll tell you: to Omaha. Let me explain…

Just before Lent, my husband lost his job and we were left without an income (except a bit coming in from my books). We knew we would likely have to move, because New Ulm had few employment opportunities (although we did seriously consider an opportunity in nearby Mankato). Our hope was to return to the Twin Cities to be nearer our parents as they age. But God’s plan was otherwise. Dan was unemployed for two months. Others were surprised that he found a job “so quickly.” It did not seem quick when we were living it!

The Diocese of Omaha was seeking an Editor and General Manager for The Catholic Voice. Diocesan communications has been Dan’s field almost our entire marriage. He applied for the job, traveling to meet Archbishop Lucas and others, while the kids and I put school on hold to start packing. When he was offered the job with a start date of June 1, we began house hunting online. We did not want to be separated while he worked.

The Lord was good. (He always is!) We visited Omaha for one weekend. In that time we viewed four houses, put an offer on one, and it was accepted. Since the owners had already moved out, we were able to move in on June 5.

Since our marriage in 2001, we have lived in Minneapolis; West St. Paul; Lacrosse, Wisconsin; New Ulm in southern Minnesota; and now Omaha. We are settling in. Our new school year started this week.

Omaha is a very Catholic city. My new doctor (whom I picked at random) goes to weekly Adoration. I have been seeing a lot of doctors this year. My health has been somewhat… troublesome.

Nothing but Your will

God has been teaching me something. A lot, actually.

He has been teaching me to say, “Not my will, but thine be done.” And mean it.

A Facebook friend said something striking the other day. I had commented about detachment growing when God “takes things away from you.” She replied that if you embrace God’s will, He has not taken anything from you. You have given it up willingly. Our Lord said:

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17 – 18)

He lay it down, because His Father’s will came first.

God’s will is often at odds with what we think is best. But His will is better. We are in this for eternity, not just for today, or this year, or until retirement. When we keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on Him, everything else pales. When He leads us a direction we find distasteful, but we follow anyway because we love Him, we realize more and more how trivial everything is besides love and obedience.

We are Abraham’s children

My health concerns are not serious, but they are chronic and make daily life interesting. I have had to reduce my diet to mostly fruits, vegetables, eggs, nuts, and cheese. Cooking for my family is more of a service now than something I do because I love to try exotic foods. Most of the things I cook I cannot even sample. But, then, I have always wanted to be thin. And God knows best.

He knows that food does not matter, as long as it keeps us alive. That if we cling to Him, we always have our Father with us. That neither health nor the lack of it means anything on its own.

As time goes on, I feel more of an affinity with Abraham, just as my dad has, and for the same reasons:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Heb 11:8 – 10)

The Rossini family is not living in tents. In fact, our house is huge and much nicer than anything we have owned before. We could not have afforded it elsewhere. I try to remind myself constantly that it is only a temporary dwelling. God may ask us to move again. He may ask other things I do not particularly like. No doubt, He will.

I lay it down, Lord. Your will be done.

Connie Rossini

Mindfulness is the new Centering Prayer

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St. Francis of Assisi, Meditator statue in Brazil. (Photo by Eugenio Hansen, OFS, Wikimedia Commons.) Is Catholicism compatible with Eastern meditation?

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 from Catholic sites promoting mindfulness. Easter Tuesday, I received an email from Ascension Press about a podcast on the subject. The podcast was from a two-part interview with Dr. Gregory Bottaro, who has created an online “Catholic mindfulness” program.

It is very concerning to see this from Ascension Press. They are (up until now) one of the most reliably sound Catholic publishers in the U.S. Others have voiced their concerns about “Catholic mindfulness” with the publisher. I have been told Ascension received the criticism well. But I have been unable to find any public retraction. When I just checked Ascension’s Facebook page, I found their post on mindfulness still there, with 25 likes and some shares. How many of Ascension’s subscribers, Facebook friends, and other followers saw them promoting this course? Without a public correction, many of these people may be led astray.

My purpose is not to slam Ascension Press, nor to make a personal attack against Dr. Bottaro. I do think a response is needed, however.

Parallels with Centering Prayer

My earlier series highlighted some of the similarities between mindfulness and other types of Eastern meditation. Here is Part 2.

I am concerned that the “Catholic mindfulness” movement is today where the Centering Prayer movement was thirty years ago.  Centering Prayer is now practiced at parishes throughout the nation and the world. So many people have been led astray! I am too young to have spoken up about the practice in the 1980s. Today I have an opportunity to stop history from repeating itself with another New Age meditation form being “married” to Catholic spirituality. I must speak.

The Trappist monks who created Centering Prayer were no doubt well-meaning. I believe Dr. Bottaro is as well. Being well-meaning does not guarantee that one will not be led astray or lead others astray.

Fr. Thomas Keating and the other promoters of Centering Prayer claim that it is part of the Christian tradition of contemplation. They essentially took an Eastern meditation form and sold it as identical with, or in the same vein as, the teaching of the Fathers and saints. They were wrong. All the good intentions and use of Christian terms cannot change the fact that Centering Prayer is not prayer. It should never be taught at Catholic parishes.

Dr. Bottaro is now doing something similar with mindfulness. He has taken an Eastern meditation technique and made claims that “mindfulness is Catholic.” Let’s look briefly at some of the errors in his work. Please note that I have not taken Dr. Bottaro’s course, although I am in dialog with others who have (some of whom have had an extended conversation with Bottaro about their concerns). I have read a preview of the course, plus his free download, 10 Things You Need to Know About Catholic Mindfulness, and various other articles online, as well as listening to the podcast. I will restrict my comments to the material I have encountered myself.

Mindfulness and Yoga

Bottaro is aware that mindfulness is usually associated with Eastern religions. One of his “10 Things” is titled “It is not Eastern or Buddhist.” His arguments fail to convince me.

He contrasts mindfulness with Yoga, saying:

“Yoga is a part of Eastern practice that is also connected to a Buddhist philosophy. Essentially, Yoga is a series of movements of the body with the purpose of bringing the mind to a certain place. That place is indicated by the word ‘Yoga’ because Yoga in Sanskrit means ‘Union.’ The Buddhist philosophy is that all being is unified, and the sense of division within being is an illusion.”

Yoga originated as a Hindu practice, long before Buddhism appeared (although some Buddhists may practice Yoga). Botarro does not seem to recognize that there is a distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism. It is difficult to place confidence in his statement that “mindfulness is not Eastern” when his grasp of Eastern religions appears shallow.

He continues:

“Obviously this is directly contrary to a Christian philosophy. We believe each one of us is made with unique dignity, in the image of God. Our individuality is not an illusion but an objective reality. We will exist for eternity as individual persons. Since the word ‘Yoga’ directly translates to the Buddhist philosophy, it cannot be presented in a Catholic way. Though there are many who try, ‘Catholic Yoga’ simply can’t exist. It is a contradiction in terms.”

He goes on to say that the term “body movement” is not essentially Eastern, and concludes, “Mindfulness, then, would be more like the word ‘body movement’ and not like using the word ‘Yoga.’”

I see several problems here:

Bottaro provides a conclusion without giving any evidence why the term “mindfulness” is more like “body movement” than “Yoga.”
Would the term “Yoga” be okay if it were translated to English? After all, “union” is a Christian concept too.
What if the popular term for “mindfulness” was a non-English word?
“Mindfulness” is one of the steps towards enlightenment in Buddhism.
Are we primarily concerned with terms or with the substance of the practice?

This point constitutes his whole argument (in the ebook) as to why mindfulness “is not Eastern or Buddhist.”

Illusions and empty minds

His next point is that “There are some forms of Mindfulness to avoid.” He writes in part:

“The ultimate danger to Buddhist Mindfulness for a Christian [sic] is moving towards the belief that the self and God are illusions. This may be subtle or overt. In one of the trainings I have attended for Mindfulness lead by a well-known practitioner, there was a specific module titled, ‘The Self Is An Illusion.’ I was grateful for the clarity of his teaching as he labeled exactly where his philosophy was coming from. Unfortunately, not every mindfulness exercise you look up on YouTube is going to be as clear. Many are very good at leaving out any reference to this question, but some do not.”

Again, I see some problems here:

Seeing the self and God as illusions is only one of many concerns about Eastern meditation. Here’s a document by the CDF on the subject, and another by other Vatican dicasteries.
Bottaro’s promotion of “Catholic mindfulness” may embolden Catholics to attend a training like the one he mentions, and thus fall into serious theological errors.
On one Catholic site on which Bottaro was interviewed, a resource link under the post led to a site promoting Eastern meditation. It’s unclear whether Bottaro provided the link himself.
Mindfulness, like all Buddhist meditation, is ordered to seeing the self as an illusion. It promotes a Buddhist de-personalized detachment. This is true with or without a module on the self as an illusion.

Bottaro’s next point is that “Mindfulness is Not Mind-emptiness.” I agree, but the point is irrelevant. Many Catholics associate “emptying the mind” with giving room to demons. They thus tend to focus their criticism of Eastern meditation on mind-emptying. Neither Vatican document on the New Age mentions “mind-emptying,” so it is not my primary concern.  Besides, even Buddhists themselves would deny that meditation involves making the mind blank. Rather, they would say that it involves letting go of or eliminating certain types of thoughts.

Centering Prayer advocates often argue the same thing: Centering Prayer doesn’t empty the mind; however, the practice involves setting aside all thoughts, which should result in what the average person would term an empty mind.

An altered consciousness

One of the Vatican documents does mention “mind expansion,” “consciousness,” and “awareness.” Here is where the real problem lies. As Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life states:

“The New Age offers a huge variety of techniques to help people reach a higher level of perceiving reality, a way of overcoming the separation between subjects and between subjects and objects in the knowing process, concluding in total fusion of what normal, inferior, awareness sees as separate or distinct realities.”

Mindfulness is a Buddhist technique designed to help accomplish these very ends. The Center for Mindfulness says:

“Mindfulness is a practice of present moment awareness. Mindfulness increases ability to see things as they arise clearly without judgment. Mindfulness facilitates both focusing and widening our attention as we become aware of ourselves and the world around us. The ‘goal’ is to be more fully present in our lives.”

Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with being “more fully present.” But mindfulness, as defined by the very people who first introduced it to the West as of possible medicinal benefit, is about changing one’s awareness, which plays a principle part in all forms of New Age meditation. Again, changing one’s awareness is not necessarily a problem in itself. It depends on what one’s awareness is changed from and to, and how. Does the mindfulness technique really make one more fully present? If so, more fully present to what? And why is that a good goal for Catholics?

Dr. Bottaro writes:

“Mindfulness does involve consciousness, so it is invisible, but it is not spiritual.” (The Present Moment: a Christian Approach to Mindfulness)

Eastern meditation techniques involve various means of altering one’s consciousness. In Centering Prayer, for example, one is supposed to become “aware” that one is already in union with God. This awareness comes about through operating at a subconscious rather than a conscious level during one’s centering time.

The “ultimate goal of all Buddhist teaching,” according to Buddhism for Dummies, is “waking up to the truth of your authentic being, your innermost nature.” This awakening is enlightenment. Enlightenment requires a change of consciousness.

Mindfulness focuses on details of life that the subconscious mind usually notes, but that the conscious mind often considers beneath its notice. Now, some of what we don’t normally notice, we should be noticing. For example, if you usually tune people out when they are talking to you, you should work on changing that. On the other hand, some things should normally remain beneath our conscious notice. We should not always be aware of our heart beating, blood pulsing through our veins, blinking, and other involuntary bodily functions, for example. The human mind was made for greater things.

We should also ask, is it helpful or healthy from a Catholic spiritual standpoint to always be aware of the sights and sounds around us? What about during personal prayer, for example? What if the Holy Spirit inspires us with a thought or feeling and we turn away from it in an effort to practice mindfulness?

In Christianity, our transformation is not primarily one of consciousness but of sanctification. Being more aware of the present moment does not make one holier. If mindfulness has truly been secularized, as Bottaro insists, associating it with the writings of the saints does not make it Catholic unless the practice itself is changed. And then, why cling to a term with Buddhist associations?

God versus the senses

Bottaro defines mindfulness this way:

“The practice of mindfulness is simply learning how to control our focus so that instead of paying attention to the fantasies we create in our imagination, we pay attention to the reality that is occurring outside of the space between our two ears. Mindfulness means ‘coming to our senses.’ It is a way of plugging ourselves into reality instead of letting the creations of our minds dictate what we pay attention to.” (Ibid., emphasis in the original.)

What if God wants us to spend some time in reflection, rather than paying attention to our (external) senses? What about the internal senses? They involve much more than the disparaging phrase “the fantasies we create in our imagination” implies. Both our external and internal senses are meant to lead us to God. He created both. Is Bottaro scorning the higher faculties of the soul?

This turning our focus away from our thoughts to our senses again reminds me of Centering Prayer. Of course, in Centering Prayer, one turns away from exterior and interior senses. But both it and mindfulness as presented by Bottaro, seem to sweep away too much. As I have said many times in speaking of Centering Prayer, thoughts are not the problem for Christians. Thoughts are actually a good and necessary means of growing closer to God. Beasts share with us the external senses. It is the rational soul that raises us above the beasts.

The means or the end?

Speaking of the Christian classics, Abandonment to Divine Providence and The Practice of the Presence of God,  Bottaro says:

“These two books teach us that trustful surrender to God, who is ever-present, actually leads to mindfulness. Christianity holds the key to true mindfulness.” (The Present Moment)

By saying trustful surrender leads to mindfulness, it seems as though he is making mindfulness the goal. We surrender to God in order to enter into greater intimacy with Him, in order to love Him more perfectly. We don’t make this surrender a means to the end of practicing mindfulness or reaping the physical or psychological benefits of mindfulness.

This mistake appears to be repeated a few lines later:

“Practically speaking, instead of just saying, ‘I trust God,’ we can put our minds behind our words. When we ruminate about the past or future, churning worries or regrets over and over in our minds, we are acting as if we are in control and we need to figure everything out. If we want to make an act of trust in God, we can try to let go of that false control, and focus our minds on the realities of the present moment instead. This is how we practically ‘let go and let God.’ Integrated with a Christian understanding of the path to holiness, this is how we can experience true peace.” (Ibid.)

Are we seeking peace, or are we seeking God?

Once again I see the parallel with Centering Prayer. Fr. Thomas Keating regularly speaks of Catholic dogma and spirituality as though they are only the means to personal fulfillment or enlightenment.

We do need to relinquish control to God, but mindfulness is neither the needed means nor the end. How do these Christian classics, and the writings of the saints, tell us to make acts of trust in God? Not by “focus[ing] our minds on the realities of the present moment,” but by focusing our minds on Christ.

For example, Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes in Abandonment to Divine Providence that for perfect union with God’s will two things are needed:

“firstly, the profound conviction that nothing happens in this world, in our souls or outside them, without the design or permission of God… secondly, the firm belief that through the all-powerful and paternal Providence of God, all that He wills or permits invariably turns to the advantage of those who practice this submission to His orders.”

There is nothing here about purposely (mindfully) paying attention to the world of the senses or discounting rumination.

I am glad that Bottaro recommends these books. But the practice of mindfulness that he attaches to them is at best laying an added burden of mental exercises on those who are seeking God. For the average, healthy person, putting one’s trust fully in God brings an abiding peace, “the peace that passes understanding” (Phil. 4:7) — though that peace is never the goal. If Bottaro’s readers and clients read Fr. de Caussade’s work  through the perspective of mindfulness, they risk distorting his meaning, stripping the book of its power to transform their lives.

Something similar has already happened in the case of Centering Prayer. Fr. Keating claims that Centering Prayer is in the tradition of the Desert Fathers, saints, and especially The Cloud of Unknowing. Practitioners, most of whom never read the classic works of Catholic spirituality before their introduction to Centering Prayer, consistently misinterpret them in a New Age manner. They are unable to understand the true tradition and so benefit from the teaching of the saints.

This is one of my main concerns with the “Catholic mindfulness” course.

Does everybody need it?

And that brings me to the final criticism of Bottaro’s work. I could say much more if I had the time, but this will have to be it for now.

Bottaro’s first “Thing You Need to know About Mindfulness” is “You need it.” He is not promoting mindfulness just to the anxious or depressed or those with chronic pain, but to every Catholic, prescribing it for:

“anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addictions, insomnia, scrupulosity, anger, marital difficulties, parenting difficulties, spiritual difficulties, and a host of other problems. Mindfulness will help you to overcome normal stress, anxiety, exhaustion, and even depression.”

Parenting difficulties? Really? “A host of other problems?” And spiritual difficulties? Mind exercises to make me holier? I wish it were that simple. With Bottaro, mindfulness has evolved from a central practice of Buddhism, to a (supposedly) secular aid to dealing with chronic pain, to a secular stress reliever and booster of corporate productivity, to a Catholic cure for virtually everything, including spiritual difficulties.

Catholics for the first twenty-one centuries of Christianity did not practice mindfulness. They did not need to. They had the teachings of the saints and other holy men and women. We still do. Why do we need mindfulness now?

Real Catholic alternatives to mindfulness

If you are looking for real Catholic aid to stop whirling, anxious, or harmful thoughts, here are a few suggestions.

When you are suffering, imagine yourself embracing a life-size cross, kissing it, and saying words of submission to God’s will.

To remember God throughout the day, practice saying a short prayer whenever you consult your watch or a clock.

To calm your fears, imagine the Divine Mercy image as you pray, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

When you find yourself thinking about meaningless things, picture the Eucharist in the monstrance and mentally bow before the Lord.

If you find your mind wandering when someone is talking to you, remind yourself that the speaker is made in God’s image and beloved of Him, and treat that person as you would treat Jesus Himself.

When your senses encounter anything beautiful, immediately thank God for it, then praise Him for His greatness, which is far beyond any beauty found in creation.

Practices like these will bring you closer to God. They will sancitfy your whole day. As your intimacy with God grows, He will relieve your fear and anxiety (but I am not discounting the need for help with diagnosed psychological problems).

In conclusion, let me repeat that I have no doubt of Dr. Bottaro’s sincerity and good will. I mean no disparagement of him. I have been praying for him regularly. I am trying to prevent another infiltration of New Age spirituality into the Church that could lead countless Catholics toward Eastern meditation.

You may also enjoy this video on mindfulness by Dan Burke.

Connie Rossini

 

Yoga, Centering Prayer, and Mindfulness (Part II)

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School girls in Thailand meditating (Wikimedia Commons). Is Eastern meditation safe for Catholics?

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 any of the three can ever be safely practiced by Catholics, and if so, when and how.

Please note that I can’t go into as much detail as I would like without spending several weeks on this, which my schedule does not allow for at this time. I will have to be brief and just give you a taste of the arguments.

Church Teaching

Yoga is mentioned twice in Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life,  and once in a footnote to On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation. For example:

“Psychology is used to explain mind expansion as ‘mystical’ experiences. Yoga, zen, transcendental meditation and tantric exercises lead to an experience of self-fulfilment or enlightenment.” (Bearer of the Water of Life, 2.3.4.1)

“The expression ‘eastern methods’ is used to refer to methods which are inspired by Hinduism and Buddhism, such as ‘Zen,’ ‘Transcendental Meditation’ or ‘Yoga.'” (On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation,  note 1)

Yoga holds a special place, since it alone is mentioned by name in two Church documents. But as we saw last week, the CDF caution also applies to some practices that were not specifically mentioned. To discern whether Centering Prayer and mindfulness fall under the purview of this caution, we need to examine some of the general problems these documents see with New Age practices, then compare them to Centering Prayer and mindfulness.

On my other blog, I have been examining Centering Prayer in light of On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation. I will not repeat all those posts here. I will sum them up. Interested readers can view the original posts for more details.

On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation mentions all of the following problematic beliefs and practices. Each one applies to Centering Prayer:

a non-dualist view of God and the soul
prayer as awareness rather than dialog
pseudognosticism, especially as manifested in  —
using a method to try to set aside everything perceptible by the senses
leaving aside the humanity of Christ for something more “spiritual”

My series on Centering Prayer and the CDF is ongoing, but this should give you enough to see that Centering Prayer is definitely a New Age practice, not Christian Prayer, according to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (i.e., this is not just my opinion).

Altered states of consciousness

On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation does not speak in detail about “altered states of consciousness.” However, Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life does.

“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. … It is often an ‘ascent’ on the level of consciousness to what is understood to be a liberating awareness of ‘the god within’.” (3.4)

What exactly is an “altered state of consciousness?” Here is my explanation, from the Quick Questions page of my other blog:

“An altered state of consciousness refers to a condition of being awake, yet having a different level of brain wave activity than in one’s normal wake state. Besides meditation techniques such as Zen, TM, or Centering Prayer, an altered state of consciousness can arise from hypnosis, drug use, psychosis, sleep deprivation, fasting, or various illnesses or accidents. Buddhists use altered states of consciousness to achieve enlightenment and peace. Hindus use altered states of consciousness to realize their non-dual union with the Ultimate Reality. Occultists believe that in altered states one can tap into special psychic powers that are not evident during one’s normal waking state.

“In an altered state, a person is less aware of sensory perception and his own body. One’s past hurts and emotional wounds come to the fore…”

Eastern meditation has been faddish for some decades now, the latest addition to the fad being mindfulness. Some see meditation techniques as a cure-all for stress, depression, ADHD, or just normal everyday distractedness. But there is a growing body of evidence that for some people, Eastern meditation can actually be harmful.

Those who are interested in the health and wellness aspect of meditation techniques would do well do read this summary of “meditation myths” by one of the scientist-authors of The Buddha Pill,  if not that book itself. The authors basically see therapeutic uses of meditation as similar to prescribing medication. Some people benefit, some do not, and many have side effects that range from annoying to serious.

An article in Psychology Today states:

“The most profound interaction you experience in meditation is the interaction with yourself. As part of that, you would get in touch with buried and suppressed emotions. Meditation could trigger waves of anger, fear or jealousy, which had been sitting deep within you, and that would make you feel uncomfortable…”

Are Yoga instructors, Catechists who teach mindfulness, or classroom teachers who lead their students in Centering Prayer equipped to deal with this phenomena? Dare we let non-medical professionals indiscriminately teach young people these practices, when we don’t know what kind of trauma it may bring to the surface?

Here are some other articles that speak about the potential problems on a psychological level:

Is Mindfulness Making Us Ill?
The 11 ‘Dangers’ of Mindfulness Meditation
The Cult of Mindfulness
Potential Psychological Dangers of Meditation – Especially Relevant for Those with PTSD

Now let’s take a look at the three practices individually.

Yoga

The CDF cautions:

“Some physical exercises automatically produce a feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations, perhaps even phenomena of light and of warmth, which resemble spiritual well-being. To take such feelings for the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit would be a totally erroneous way of conceiving the spiritual life. Giving them a symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience, when the moral condition of the person concerned does not correspond to such an experience, would represent a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations.” (On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, 28)

Nevertheless, I have come across at least one Catholic writer who promotes Yoga as a spiritual practice. This is highly dangerous! We should never link the euphoria that Yoga gives to closeness to God.

Is Yoga okay just as exercise?

But what about using Yoga as mere exercise? Until researching these posts, I told people that exercise in itself is neutral, but that some Yoga classes incorporate Hindu elements into the class. That is still true, but I would now go further. My research has made me wonder if Yoga classes, even on a “secular” level, are designed to lead one into an altered state of consciousness.

Here is an explanation of Hatha Yoga from the Yoga and Consciousness Studies website:

“When most people think of Yoga, they think of exercises for the physical body. These ‘exercises’ are only one small aspect of traditional Yoga. The branch of Yoga that deals with the physical body is known as Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga begins the process of returning to one’s original state of balance through the physcial [sic] body. The end goal of Hatha Yoga, like all branches of Yoga, is to achieve a state of lasting peace and equanimity. … The practice of Hatha Yoga results in the body feel[ing] light and balanced as well as bestowing the gifts of increased vitality and longevity. However, these are considered side benefits. The real goal is to know one’s self.”

And, I might add, the self-knowledge it is supposed to bring is that one is united with or part of the Ultimate Reality.

Here is the definition of Hatha Yoga from The Self-Realization Fellowship:

“Hatha Yoga — a system of physical postures, or asanas, whose higher purpose is to purify the body, giving one awareness and control over its internal states and rendering it fit for meditation.”

Yoga is meant to help you reach a certain spiritual state, then, a certain “enlightenment,” not just make you more flexible.

“Depending on where you take yoga, there might be some Sanskrit chanting at the start or at the end of class…” (Popsugar.com)

Why would there be chanting at a “secular” exercise class? The chants are meant to help lead you into Eastern meditation. Some classes use Sanskrit chants that are blatantly pagan. Others may use only the “Om” chant:

“Om is a mantra, or vibration, that is traditionally chanted at the beginning and end of Yoga sessions. Coming from Hinduism and Yoga, the mantra is considered to have high spiritual and creative power but despite this, it is a mantra that can be recited by anyone. It’s both a sound and a symbol rich in meaning and depth and when pronounced correctly it is actually AUM…

“As such AUM is the basic sound of the universe; so by chanting it we are symbolically and physically tuning in to that sound and acknowledging our connection to all other living beings, nature and the universe.

“In addition the vibrations and rhythmic pronunciation also have a physical effect on the body by slowing down the nervous system and calming the mind similar to meditation. When the mind is relaxed, your blood pressure decreases and ultimately the health of your heart improves.” (From mindbodygreen.com, my emphasis)

Others might employ only breathing exercises, which have the same purpose. Concentrating on one’s breath plays a role in nearly every type of Eastern meditation.

Every Yoga class is supposed to end the same way, with a “corpse pose,” the Shavasana. It is said to be a “final relaxation for self contemplation and meditation.” This final feeling is the true aim of Yoga. It reminds me of the need to transition from TM or Centering Prayer back to one’s regular level of consciousness.

So, chants or breathing exercises at the beginning, a meditative pose at the end — what is in the middle, besides an altered state of consciousness? (Note: I have never intended, nor do I ever intend, to take a Yoga class, so I cannot say for certain how universal some of these elements are.)

Suggestions regarding Yoga

Given all that, can a Catholic ever attend a Yoga class? Might you be able to find a class which has no orientation towards an altered state of consciousness and nondualist “self-knowledge?” Possibly, though I can’t say how likely that is. Even if you do find one, you should consider whether your attending the class could give other Catholics the wrong impression that there are no problems surrounding Yoga. Is an exercise class worth the potential harm to yourself and others?

Why not try some alternatives, such as:

individual stretches at home, without calling them Yoga
Pilates
Christian stretching alternatives, such as Soul Core or Praise Moves

Centering Prayer

I have written a whole book on the problems with Centering Prayer, Is Centering Prayer Catholic? I won’t repeat all the findings here. I do want to say a bit about altered states of consciousness, though.

Fr. Thomas Keating, one of the creators of the Centering Prayer method has said:

“I saw psychotherapy right away as what God has been secretly doing for centuries by other names; that is, He searches through our personal history and heals what needs to be healed—the wounds of childhood or our own self-inflicted wounds. He preserves whatever was good in each stage of life and brings it to full flowering through the graces of spiritual progress and divine union. If you want to call this higher states of consciousness or if you want to call it advanced stages of faith, hope, and charity, that is up to you.”

Of course God can use psychotherapy. However, neither psychological processes nor higher states of consciousness has anything to do with Christian perfection. Fr. Keating equates all three. No one who has ever experienced infused contemplation would mistake meditation-induced altered states or psychological processes for the same thing.

Fr. Keating even incorporates the negative effects of altered states into his teaching, falsely equating them with the Dark Night of the Soul. He also says:

“So beyond spiritual marriage, there is the Night of Self, the total surrender of personal identity. Expressions of this by Meister Eckhart, the 13th century mystic, sound something like Zen, Mahayana, or Vajrayana Buddhism.”

This is in direct conflict with the CDF:

“In order to draw near to that mystery of union with God, which the Greek Fathers called the divinization of man, and to grasp accurately the manner in which this is realized, it is necessary in the first place to bear in mind that man is essentially a creature, and remains such for eternity, so that an absorbing of the human self into the divine self is never possible, not even in the highest states of grace.”(On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, 14.)

Unlike Yoga and mindfulness, Centering Prayer has no therapeutic use. There is thus no reason to ever practice it. My experience in speaking with Centering Prayer practitioners is that even good Catholics who practice it unknowingly allow errors to seep into their thinking. Some lose all sense of the truth of the Gospel and see Christianity as just one of many paths to the Divine. I strongly urge you not to practice Centering Prayer under any circumstances!

Mindfulness

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness. org (publisher of Mindful magazine) defines the practice this way:

“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”

Now, there is nothing problematic in being fully present and “not overly reactive.” However, the page on which this definition is given quickly morphs into recommending mindfulness meditation. The writer recommends relaxing in a typical pose used in eastern meditation and then focusing on one’s breath. This is a New Age meditation technique.

Mrsmindfulness.com says:

“There are two forms of mindfulness practice. The first is the formal practice of mindfulness, which is commonly referred to as meditation… The informal practice is the rest of your life!”

So, when people speak about “Catholic mindfulness,” or mindfulness in a corporate setting, are they talking about being aware of the present moment (informal mindfulness), or setting aside time for Buddhist meditation (formal mindfulness)? The latter is not ultimately compatible with being a Christian.

Like Centering Prayer, mindfulness is essentially about awareness. In fact, the meditation techniques that are recommended on mindfulness sites are almost the same as Centering Prayer, except that one focuses on one’s breath instead of a “sacred word.”

When asked what the relationship is between Centering Prayer and mindfulness, Fr. Carl Arico of Contemplative Outreach (the official Centering Prayer organization) identified Centering Prayer with daily meditation, and mindfulness with practicing the same attitude throughout the day.

Is mindfulness Buddhist?

Another Catholic proponent of Centering Prayer, writes about the man who has popularized mindfulness in the west:

“[Jon] Kabat-Zinn is a student of Buddhism, but it’s my understanding that MBSR [Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction] explicitly intends to be a non-religious practice, aimed at mental and physical well-being. I’ve only taken one MBSR class, and was taught several practices, including a generic type of meditation, some gentle yoga postures, meditative walking, and ‘body scanning’ (a relaxation technique involving paying attention in a gentle way to each part of the body while sitting or lying down).”

So, a “non-religious practice,” taught and promoted by “a student of Buddhism,” which incorporates not only “a generic type of meditation,” but also Yoga and other practices? Hmm. Sounds pretty religious to me. As in Buddhist, Hindu, or New Age religion.

Few western practitioners of mindfulness know that it is one component of the eight-fold path of Buddhism. It is one of the foundations for Buddhist meditation. In other words, it is central to Buddhist thought and practice. Does that mean a Christian can’t practice it? Not necessarily. We need to look further.

Is mindfulness Christian?

Many Catholics who teach or practice mindfulness equate it with ancient Christian practices such as (acquired) recollection. I have seen claims that mindfulness is inherently Christian. But there is a gulf between the Buddhist mindfulness (which consists in being “non-judgmentally” aware of sensory stimuli, thoughts, and emotions) and Christian recollection. St. Teresa of Avila, who gives us the term recollection, said

“by its means the soul collects together all the faculties and enters within itself to be with God. … Those who are able thus to enclose themselves within the little heaven of their soul where dwells the Creator of both heaven and earth, and who can accustom themselves not to look at anything nor to remain in any place which would preoccupy their exterior senses, may feel sure that they are traveling by an excellent way, and that they will certainly attain to drink of the water from the fountain, for they will journey far in a short time.” (The Way of Perfection, ch. 28)

Far from focusing on its senses, the recollected soul turns aside from the senses to focus solely on God. There are other Christian practices that have some similarities to Buddhist mindfulness: the Practice of the Presence of God and the Examen Prayer, for instance. But these practices likewise are seeking God in the events of the day, not just “non-judgmentally” being aware of what is happening.

I can think of two instances in which it is important for a Christian to be aware of the present moment in a special way: when one is in conversation with another, including with God in prayer, one should listen lovingly and not let the mind wander all over the place. And when one has a duty to fulfill, one should give the mind to that duty to the extent necessary for fulfilling it well. In these instances, being fully present is a virtue.

But is being fully present to my meal, for example, inherently virtuous? Here is a typical mindfulness recommendation:

“Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in to the texture of the pasta, the flavor of the cheese, the bright color of the sauce in the bowl, the aroma of the rising steam. Continue this way throughout the course of a meal, and you’ll experience the third-eye-opening pleasures and frustrations of a practice known as mindful eating.”

Frankly, I am reminded of Sebastian Flyte and Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisted, wine-tasting to the point of drunkenness. A bit of this sort of thing can be appropriate, especially at special times, but every bite at every meal? What virtue is there in noticing how delectable a food or drink is, beyond an initial thanks to God (and perhaps the cook)?

In contrast to the mindfulness attitude, St. Ignatius of Loyola counsels in Spiritual Exercises:

“While the person is eating, let him consider as if he saw Christ our Lord eating with His Apostles, and how He drinks and how He looks and how He speaks; and let him see to imitating Him. So that the principal part of the intellect shall occupy itself in the consideration of Christ our Lord, and the lesser part in the support of the body; because in this way he will get greater system and order as to how he ought to behave and manage himself…

“Above all, let him guard against all his soul being intent on what he is eating, and in eating let him not go hurriedly, through appetite, but be master of himself, as well in the manner of eating as in the quantity which he eats.”

When we eat together with other family members, we should also engage them in conversation, rather than being focused on the food.

Mindfulness is not a safe practice to mix with Catholicism. I have heard from more than one credible source of Catholics requiring exorcism after dabbling in mindfulness.

Authentic Catholic spirituality does not need Buddhist-inspired mindfulness tacked onto it. Such syncretism is actually fraught with dangers:

“With the present diffusion of eastern methods of meditation in the Christian world and in ecclesial communities, we find ourselves faced with a pointed renewal of an attempt, which is not free from dangers and errors, to fuse Christian meditation with that which is non-Christian. … These and similar proposals to harmonize Christian meditation with eastern techniques need to have their contents and methods ever subjected to a thorough-going examination so as to avoid the danger of falling into syncretism.” (On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, 12)

Nor is it prudent to present authentic Catholic spirituality as “Catholic mindfulness,” which can easily confuse the average Catholic who is woefully ignorant in spiritual matters.

What about relieving stress?

Many people use mindfulness to reduce stress or to help regulate depression or other psychological problems. Articles on the benefits of mindfulness and other meditation techniques abound. Yet, as we have seen, meditation practices can be harmful, even seriously harmful, to some.

I cannot see any benefit in teaching a classroom full of kids mindfulness and question its real value in a corporate setting. For the average, healthy person, it opens the door to Eastern meditation and its potential for psychological and spiritual harm, without giving any meaningful benefit.

If you are of average mental health, but sometimes have whirling thoughts (and who doesn’t?), why not:

imagine the Eucharist in a monstrance and mentally genuflect before Christ
pray a Hail Mary, slowly and reverently
gaze at an icon
say a favorite short prayer, such as “Jesus, I trust in You.”
Breathe deeply while praying to the Holy Spirit

Such practices can actually sanctify you and your activities.

For those struggling with anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues, do not stop practicing mindfulness without consulting your doctor. Your doctor should know best if there are other options. I am not a medical professional and I am not intending to give medical advice. It is possible that for some, the potential gain in psychological health may be great enough to outweigh the potential harm.

If you have been considering taking up mindfulness for mental health reasons, explore all options with your doctor first, just as you would if you were considering a new drug.

Conclusion

New Age fads change with the times. The Catholic life of prayer remains the same. The problem we face is not that more people need Eastern meditation methods, but that few Catholics know about the rich spiritual heritage of their own faith.

Traditional Catholic prayer methods can relieve stress as surely as Eastern meditation. Perhaps even better. (See this article as well.)

Here are a few books that can help you be more aware of God during your day:

The Examen Prayer by Fr. Tim Gallagher
The Practice of the Presence of God by Br. Lawrence
Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade

If you are struggling with fear or doubt, you may also find my book Trusting God with St. Therese helpful. (Please note: these and the links to my book Is Centering Prayer Catholic? are affiliate links. That means you help support this blog when you purchase a book using these links. My husband lost his job earlier this week, so we appreciate every penny!)

The Church has never completely forbidden her children to practice Eastern meditation techniques, but she has seen fit to caution us on their dangers:

“From the point of view of Christian faith, it is not possible to isolate some elements of New Age religiosity as acceptable to Christians while rejecting others. Since the New Age movement makes much of a communication with nature, of cosmic knowledge of a universal good — thereby negating the revealed contents of Christian faith — it cannot be viewed as positive or innocuous. In a cultural environment marked by religious relativism it is necessary to signal a warning against the attempt to place New Age religiosity on the same level as Christian faith, making the difference between faith and belief seem relative, thus creating greater confusion for the unwary. In this regard, it is useful to remember the exhortation of St. Paul, ‘to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to concern themselves with myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the plan of God that is to be received by faith’ (1 Tim. 1:3-4).” (Bearer of the Water of Life, 4)

Connie Rossini

Note 1: I have refrained from naming some Catholics who are promoting Yoga, Centering Prayer, and mindfulness, because I have not conversed with them privately before writing this. I do not want these posts to become a discussion of personalities, but remain focused on the issues.

Note 2: Many of the links in this post lead to sites that promote Eastern meditation. Use caution in your reading.

 

Yoga, Centering Prayer, and Mindfulness (Part I)

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Yoga practitioners salute the sun (photo by Diamond Mountain, Wikimedia Commons).

 

In the last few weeks I’ve had several interesting discussions on Facebook regarding different aspects of the New Age Movement and how Catholics should respond to it. Confusion abounds, as does frustration. In this 2-part series, I want to discuss the three most popular New Age practices in contemporary America: Yoga, Centering Prayer, and mindfulness.

In Part I, let’s establish four principles.

1. The Church has cautioned us not to flirt with the New Age.

In 1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation. This authoritative document, as its name indicates, was primarily focused on distinguishing between authentic Christian prayer and New Age prayer methods. The first footnote mentions Zen, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation. It continues:

“The orientation of the principles and methods contained in this present document is intended to serve as a reference point not just for this problem, but also, in a more general way, for the different forms of prayer practiced nowadays in ecclesial organizations, particularly in associations, movements and groups.”

In other words, the principles of Christian prayer laid out in the CDF document can and should be applied to other practices not specifically mentioned. Neither Centering Prayer nor mindfulness is mentioned by name in either document, but as we shall see, they both fall under some of the New Age errors outlined by the CDF.

In 2003 the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Interreligious Dialogue created a working document on the New Age called Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life. Its purpose was to put New Age challenges in context, and to help teachers of the faith in particular to dialog with those in the New Age movement while teaching the truth without compromise.

“Even if it can be admitted that New Age religiosity in some way responds to the legitimate spiritual longing of human nature, it must be acknowledged that its attempts to do so run counter to Christian revelation.” (1.4)

In other words, we should be cautious.

2. Caution is not scrupulosity or rigidity.

Pope Francis often criticizes rigidity. Some Catholics take offence at this criticism, and it does seem (note that word, please) that in some instances he is calling people rigid who only intend to protect the deposit of the Faith or the beauty of tradition. However, I have seen and continue to see lots of rigidity among my fellow Catholics, especially on social media.

How is caution different from rigidity or scrupulosity?

Fr. John Hardon defines scrupulosity as:

“The habit of imagining sin where none exists, or grave sin where the matter is venial.” (Modern Catholic Dictionary)

Rigidity has a more mundane meaning:

“A moral trait characterized by an unwillingness, or inability, to change one’s attitudes or way of acting. Great difficulty in adjusting to socially justifiable change.” (Ibid.)

So, here is a real-life example that many of us have encountered. Some traditionalist Catholics argue that women should always wear skirts or dresses, never pants. This seems to be an instance of both scrupulosity and rigidity.

The scrupulous person feels guilty even when he has not sinned. On the other hand, when the Church feels the need to caution us at length about New Age practices, it is not scrupulous for individual Catholics to caution others. It is prudent and shows a care for others’ souls. It is not remotely akin to an individual requiring other Catholics to live up to a higher standard than the Church requires.

3. Lack of complete condemnation does not mean “anything goes.”

On researching this post, I found that Catholic proponents of mindfulness argue that what the Church has not specifically condemned is fine for Catholics to practice. I meet this same argument often when debating the permissibility of Centering Prayer or Yoga. The argument goes:

Nostra Aetate said we should accept whatever is good in non-Christian religions. [Insert New Age practice] is good or neutral, so it does not matter that it originated in Eastern religions. Besides, in On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, the CDF said even non-Christian meditation techniques can help us prepare for prayer. Therefore, if you condemn these techniques, you are being scrupulous and rigid.

What does the CDF actually say?

“That [which the CDF has been outlining] does not mean that genuine practices of meditation which come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions, which prove attractive to the man of today who is divided and disoriented, cannot constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God with an interior peace, even in the midst of external pressures.” (No. 28)

Note, the CDF does not say that all meditation practices indiscriminately are suitable. It simply says we cannot dismiss all of them as unsuitable.

Eastern meditation techniques can help us slow down and calm a racing mind. That does not mean the CDF is recommending that we use them or even giving a blanket green light to them (excuse my mixing of metaphors!).

4. New Age meditation techniques are not prayer.

This is the most important of the four points, one both Vatican documents emphasize. Christian prayer is dialog with God, even if that dialog is sometimes beyond human understanding.

Meditation techniques originating with Hinduism or Buddhism are not and can never be prayer. Neither Hindus nor Buddhists believe in a personal God. There is no one to engage the soul in dialog. It follows that they can never take the place of Christian prayer. A generally healthy person who does not spend time in daily mental prayer should never be encouraged to spend time in daily meditation of an Eastern type, as though one is just as good as the other. (We will talk about the therapeutic uses of each practice in the next post.)

Now, many Catholic proponents of Yoga and mindfulness would protest that they are not proposing these activities as a kind of prayer. There are some Catholics who recommend Yoga, as a spiritual practice. Centering Prayer advocates, of course, are always promoting their practice as prayer, but it is really just eastern meditation with a few Catholic terms patched onto it. Catholics who promote mindfulness generally claim it is only psychological, not religious/spiritual, or that they have baptized it and made it Christian. We will discuss these points in detail next time.

So, that sums up the foundational principles. Next week we’ll look at the three practices in light of these principles.

Connie Rossini