Problems with Zen combined with Christianity

Zen is coming to a Dallas Catholic parish Barbara Kralis

The expression *eastern methods* is used to refer to methods which are inspired by

Hinduism and Buddhism, Zen, Transcendental Meditation or Yoga.

 

 

 

 

Barbara Kralis

 February 6, 2006

 

 

What is going on again in the Dallas diocese, again?

 

 Jesuit speaker Fr. Robert E. Kennedy, S.J. has been invited to be the speaker and the leader of a Zen retreat at St. Joseph's Parish, Richardson, TX. The talk is scheduled as follows: February 10, 2006, at 7-9 p.m. in the Main Sanctuary, and for February 11th and 12th, in the St. Joseph Room. Poor St. Joseph is rolling over in his grave.

 

 The following is a bio and a photograph of Fr. Kennedy in his Zen kimono on the front page of 'Morning Star Zendo,' a center where Kennedy is affiliated:

 

 

"Robert Kennedy, S.J., Roshi, is a Jesuit priest and Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage. He studied with Yamada Roshi in Kamakura, Japan, with Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles, and with Glassman Roshi in New York. Glassman Roshi installed Kennedy as sensei in 1991 and conferred Inka (his final seal of approval) in 1997, making him a roshi (master). Kennedy Roshi is the author of Zen Gifts to Christians and Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit.... To date, Kennedy Roshi has installed six dharma successors...and Kevin Hunt Sensei, a Trappist monk from St. Joseph's Abbey at Spencer, Mass.

 

 "For the occasion of Fr. Hunt's installation, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., wrote:

 

"'Because of the long preparation and training required to become a master of the demanding Zen training, Fr. Hunt's achievement is one that we can all celebrate in thanksgiving to God ... Jesuits and other Christians have found Zen to be a valuable instrument for progressing in the spiritual life. ... By coming to focus on the present moment through the practice of the techniques of Zen meditation, the Christian can become aware of God's immediate loving presence.'"

 

 

 Cardinal Josef Ratzinger [now Pope Benedict XVI] addresses the problems with Zen combined with Christianity in the following [ document at the bottom of this page ] , "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation."

 

 

 Here we clearly see Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on October 15, 1989, teaching the dangers of Zen, Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation, as well as some other forms of prayer. See excerpt from Section 3, n.12; also see Endnote n.1 below:

 

 

12. 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." Proposals in this direction are numerous and radical to a greater or lesser extent. Some use eastern methods solely as a psycho-physical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation; others go further and, using different techniques, try to generate spiritual experiences similar to those described in the writings of certain Catholic mystics. Still others do not hesitate to place that absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory, on the same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which towers above finite reality. To this end, they make use of a "negative theology," which transcends every affirmation seeking to express what God is, and denies that the things of this world can offer traces of the infinity of God. Thus they propose abandoning not only meditation on the salvific works accomplished in history by the God of the Old and New Covenant, but also the very idea of the One and Triune God, who is Love, in favor of an immersion "in the indeterminate abyss of the divinity." 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.

 

 

 Why is Bishop Grahmann allowing another questionable speaker priest to come into our diocese? There are excellent books giving wonderful examples of learning 'contemplative' Christian prayer, many written by Canonized Saints of the Church.

 

 This is the same pastor, Fr. Fischer of St. Joseph's Parish in Richardson, TX, who very recently hosted a two days retreat given by dissenter priest, Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M. Despite the enormous evidence that Rohr is an unfaithful priest who openly dissents against Humanae vitae, and who promotes homosexuality, the Bishop of Dallas, Bp. Charles V. Grahmann, and the pastor, Fr. Fischer, affirmed their support for this bumfuzzler preacher as well.

 

 Nota Bene: Do not ask this writer what all of this Zen terminology means. This writer does not know and does not care to know.

 

Endnotes

 

 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." Thus, it indicates methods of meditation of the non-Christian Far East which today are not infrequently adopted by some Christians also in their meditation. 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.

 

 

Barbara Kralis, the article's author, writes for various Christian and conservative publications. She is a regular columnist at RenewAmerica.us, Catholic Online.com, The Wanderer newspaper, New Oxford Review Magazine, Washington Dispatch, MichNews, Catholic Citizens of Illinois, Phil Brennan's WOW, ChronWatch, etc. Her first journalism position was with Boston Herald Traveler, 1964. Barbara published/edited 'Semper Fidelis' Catholic print newsletter. She and her husband, Mitch, live in the great State of Texas, and co-direct the Jesus Through Mary Catholic Foundation. She can be reached at: Avemaria@earthlink.net.

 

 © Copyright 2006 by Barbara Kralis

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/kralis/060206

 

 

LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC  CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION

 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

 

I.  Introduction

 

1. Many Christians today have a keen desire to learn how to  experience a deeper and authentic prayer life despite the not  inconsiderable difficulties which modern culture places in the way of  the need for silence, recollection and meditation. The interest which in  recent years has been awakened also among some Christians by forms of meditation associated with some eastern religions and their particular  methods of prayer is a significant sign of this need for spiritual  recollection and a deep contact with the divine mystery. Nevertheless,  faced with this phenomenon, many feel the need for sure criteria of a  doctrinal and pastoral character which might allow them to instruct  others in prayer, in its numerous manifestations, while remaining  faithful to the truth revealed in Jesus, by means of the genuine  Tradition of the Church. This present letter seeks to reply to this  urgent need, so that in the various particular Churches the many  different forms of prayer, including new ones, may never lose their  correct personal and communitarian nature.

 

These indications are addressed in the first place to the Bishops, to  be considered in that spirit of pastoral solicitude for the Churches  entrusted to them, so that the entire people of God‹priests, religious  and laity‹may again be called to pray, with renewed vigor, to the  Father through the Spirit of Christ our Lord.

 

2. The ever more frequent contact with other religions and with their  different styles and methods of prayer has, in recent decades, led many  of the faithful to ask themselves what value non-Christian forms of  meditation might have for Christians. Above all, the question concerns  eastern methods.1 Some people today turn to these methods for  therapeutic reasons. The spiritual restlessness arising from a life  subjected to the driving pace of a technologically advanced society also  brings a certain number of Christians to seek in these methods of prayer  a path to interior peace and psychic balance. This psychological aspect  is not dealt with in the present letter, which instead emphasizes the  theological and spiritual implications of the question. Other  Christians, caught up in the movement towards openness and exchanges  between various religions and cultures, are of the opinion that their  prayer has much to gain from these methods. Observing that in recent  times many traditional methods of meditation, especially Christian ones,  have fallen into disuse, they wonder whether it might not now be  possible, by a new training in prayer, to enrich our heritage by  incorporating what has until now been foreign to it.

 

3. To answer this question7 one must first of all consider, even if  only in a general way, in what does the intimate nature of Christian  prayer consist. Then one can see if and how it might be enriched by  meditation methods which have been developed in other religions and  cultures. However, in order to achieve this, one needs to start with a  certain clear premise. Christian prayer is always determined by the  structure of the Christian faith, in which the very truth of God and  creature shines forth. For this reason, it is defined, properly  speaking, as a personal, intimate and profound dialogue between man and  God. It expresses therefore the communion of redeemed creatures with the  intimate life of the Persons of the Trinity. This communion, based on  Baptism and the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of the Church,  implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from "self" to the  "You" of God. Thus Christian prayer is at the same time always  authentically personal and communitarian. It flees from impersonal techniques or from concentrating on oneself, which can create a kind of  rut, imprisoning the person praying in a spiritual privatism which is  incapable of a free openness to the transcendental God. Within the  Church, in the legitimate search for new methods of meditation it must  always be borne in mind that the essential element of authentic  Christian prayer is the meeting of two freedoms, the infinite freedom of God with the finite freedom of man.

 

 

II. Christian Prayer In The Light Of Revelation

 

 

4. The Bible itself teaches how the man who welcomes biblical  revelation should pray. In the Old Testament there is a marvelous  collection of prayers which have continued to live through the  centuries, even within the Church of Jesus Christ, where they have  become the basis of its official prayer: The Book of Praises or of  Psalms.2 Prayers similar to the Psalms may also be found in earlier Old  Testament texts or re-echoed in later ones.3 The prayers of the book of  Psalms tell in the first place of God's great works on behalf of the  Chosen People. Israel meditates, contemplates and makes the marvels of  God present again, recalling them in prayer.

 

In biblical revelation Israel came to acknowledge and praise God  present in all creation and in the destiny of every man. Thus he is  invoked, for example, as rescuer in time of danger, in sickness, in  persecution, in tribulation. Finally, and always in the light of his  salvific works, he is exalted in his divine power and goodness, in his justice and mercy, in his royal grandeur.

 

5. Thanks to the words, deeds, passion and resurrection of Jesus  Christ, in the "New Testament" the faith acknowledges in him  the definitive self-revelation of God, the Incarnate Word who reveals  the most intimate depth of his love. It is the Holy Spirit, he who was  sent into the hearts of the faithful, he who "searches everything,  even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10), who makes it possible to  enter into these divine depths. According to the promise Jesus made to  the disciples, the Spirit will explain all that he had not yet been able  to tell them. However, this Spirit "will not speak on his own authority," but "he will glorify me, for he will take what is  mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:13f.). What Jesus calls  "his" is, as he explains immediately, also God the Father's  because "all that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he  will take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:15).

 

The authors of the New Testament, with full cognizance, always spoke  of the revelation of God in Christ within the context of a vision  illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The Synoptic Gospels narrate Jesus'  deeds and words on the basis of a deeper understanding, acquired after  Easter, of what the disciples had seen and heard. The entire Gospel of  St. John is taken up with the contemplation of him who from the beginning is the Word of God made flesh. Paul, to whom Jesus appeared in  his divine majesty on the road to Damascus, instructs the faithful so  that they "may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is  the breadth and length and height and depth [of the mystery of Christ],  and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge, that you  may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:18 ff.). For Paul the mystery of God is Christ, "in whom are hidden all the  treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3) and, the Apostle  clarifies, "I say this in order that no one may delude you with  beguiling speech" (v. 4).

 

6. There exists, then, a strict relationship between revelation and  prayer. The Dogmatic Constitution "Dei Verbum" teaches that by  means of his revelation the invisible God, "from the fullness of  his love, addresses men as his friends (cf. Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15), and  moves among them (cf. Bar 3:38), in order to invite and receive them  into his own company."4 This revelation takes place through words  and actions which have a constant mutual reference, one to the other;  from the beginning everything proceeds to converge on Christ, the  fullness of revelation and of grace, and on the gift of the Holy Spirit.  These make man capable of welcoming and contemplating the words and  works of God and of thanking him and adoring him, both in the assembly  of the faithful and in the intimacy of his own heart illuminated by grace.

 

This is why the Church recommends the reading of the Word of God as a  source of Christian prayer, and at the same time exhorts all to discover  the deep meaning of Sacred Scripture through prayer "so that a  dialogue takes place between God and man. For, 'we speak to him when we  pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.'"5

 

7. Some consequences derive immediately from what has been called to  mind. If the prayer of a Christian has to be inserted in the Trinitarian  movement of God, then its essential content must also necessarily be  determined by the twofold direction of such movement. It is in the Holy  Spirit that the Son comes into the world to reconcile it to the Father  through his works and sufferings. On the other hand, in this same movement and in the very same Spirit, the Son Incarnate returns to the  Father, fulfilling his will through his passion and resurrection. The  "Our Father," Jesus' own prayer, clearly indicates the unity  of this movement: the will of the Father must be done on earth as it is  in heaven (the petitions for bread, forgiveness and protection make  explicit the fundamental dimensions of God's will for us), so that there  may be a new earth in the heavenly Jerusalem.

 

The prayer of Jesus6 has been entrusted to the Church ("Pray  then like this"‹Lk 11:2). This is why when a Christian prays,  even if he is alone, his prayer is in fact always within the framework  of the "communion of saints" in which and with which he prays,  whether in a public and liturgical way or in a private manner.  Consequently, it must always be offered within the authentic spirit of  the Church at prayer, and therefore under its guidance, which can  sometimes take a concrete form in terms of a proven spiritual direction.  The Christian, even when he is alone and prays in secret, is conscious  that he always prays for the good of the Church in union with Christ, in  the Holy Spirit and together with all the saints.7

 

 

III. Erroneous Ways Of Praying

 

 

8. Even in the first centuries of the Church some incorrect forms of  prayer crept in. Some New Testament texts (cf. 1 Jn 4:3; 1 Tim 1:3-7 and  4:3-4) already give hints of their existence. Subsequently, two  fundamental deviations came to be identified: Pseudognosticism and  Messalianism, both of concern to the Fathers of the Church. There is  much to be learned from that experience of primitive Christianity and  the reaction of the Fathers which can help in tackling the current  problem.

 

In combating the errors of "pseudognosticism"8 the Fathers  affirmed that matter is created by God and as such is not evil.  Moreover, they maintained that grace, which always has the Holy Spirit  as its source is not a good proper to the soul, but must be sought from  God as a gift. Consequently, the illumination or superior knowledge of the Spirit ("gnosis") does not make Christian faith something  superfluous. Finally, for the Fathers, the authentic sign of a superior  knowledge, the fruit of prayer, is always Christian love.

 

9. If the perfection of Christian prayer cannot be evaluated using  the sublimity of gnostic knowledge as a basis, neither can it be judged  by referring to the experience of the divine, as "Messalianism"  proposed.9 These false fourth-century charismatics identified the grace  of the Holy Spirit with the psychological experience of his presence in  the soul. In opposing them, the Fathers insisted on the fact that the  soul's union with God in prayer is realized in a mysterious way, and in  particular through the sacraments of the Church. Moreover, it can even  be achieved through experiences of affliction or desolation. Contrary to  the view of the Messalians, these are not necessarily a sign that the  Spirit has abandoned a soul. Rather, as masters of spirituality have  always clearly acknowledged, they may be an authentic participation in  the state of abandonment experienced on the cross by our Lord, who  always remains the model and mediator of prayer.10. Both of these forms  of error continue to be a "temptation for man the sinner."  They incite him to try and overcome the distance separating creature  from Creator, as though there ought not to be such a distance; to consider the way of Christ on earth, by which he wishes to lead us to  the Father, as something now surpassed; to bring down to the level of  natural psychology what has been regarded as pure grace, considering it  instead as "superior knowledge" or as "experience."

 

Such erroneous forms, having reappeared in history from time to time  on the fringes of the Church's prayer, seem once more to impress many  Christians, appealing to them as a kind of remedy, be it psychological  or spiritual, or as a quick way of finding God.11

 

11. However, these forms of error, wherever they arise, "can be  diagnosed" very simply. The meditation of the Christian in prayer  seeks to grasp the depths of the divine in the salvific works of God in  Christ, the Incarnate Word, and in the gift of his Spirit. These divine  depths are always revealed to him through the human-earthly dimension.  Similar methods of meditation, on the other hand, including those which have their starting-point in the words and deeds of Jesus, try as far as  possible to put aside everything that is worldly, sense perceptible or  conceptually limited. It is thus an attempt to ascend to or immerse  oneself in the sphere of the divine, which, as such, is neither  terrestrial, sense-perceptible nor capable of conceptualization.12 This tendency, already present in the religious sentiments of the later Greek  period (especially in "Neoplatonism"), is found deep in the  religious inspiration of many peoples, no sooner than they become aware  of the precarious character of their representations of the divine and  of their attempts to draw close to it.

 

12. 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." Proposals in this direction are numerous and  radical to a greater or lesser extent. Some use eastern methods solely  as a psycho-physical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation;  others go further and, using different techniques, try to generate  spiritual experiences similar to those described in the writings of  certain Catholic mystics.13 Still others do not hesitate to place that  absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory,  14 on the same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which  towers above finite reality. To this end, they make use of a  "negative theology," which transcends every affirmation seeking to express what God is, and denies that the things of this world  can offer traces of the infinity of God. Thus they propose abandoning  not only meditation on the salvific works accomplished in history by the  God of the Old and New Covenant, but also the very idea of the One and  Triune God, who is Love, in favor of an immersion "in the  indeterminate abyss of the divinity."15 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.

 

 

IV. The Christian Way To Union With God

 

 

13. To find the right "way" of prayer, the Christian should  consider what has been said earlier regarding the prominent features of  the "way of Christ," whose "food is to do the will of him  who sent [him], and to accomplish his work" (Jn 4:34). Jesus lives no more intimate or closer a union with the Father than this, which for  him is continually translated into deep prayer. By the will of the  Father he is sent to mankind, to sinners. to his very executioners, and  he could not be more intimately united to the Father than by obeying his  will. This did not in any way prevent him, however, from also retiring  to a solitary place during his earthly sojourn to unite himself to the  Father and receive from him new strength for his mission in this world.  On Mount Tabor, where his union with the Father was manifest, there was  called to mind his passion (cf. Lk 9:31), and there was not even a  consideration of the possibility of remaining in "three  booths" on the Mount of the Transfiguration. Contemplative  Christian prayer always leads to love of neighbor, to action and to the  acceptance of trials, and precisely because of this it draws one close  to God.

 

14. 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,16  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. However, one must recognize that the human person is created  in the "image and likeness" of God, and that the archetype of  this image is the Son of God, in whom and through whom we have been  created (cf. Col 1:16). This archetype reveals the greatest and most beautiful Christian mystery: from eternity the Son is "other"  with respect to the Father and yet, in the Holy Spirit, he is "of  the same substance." Consequently this otherness, far from being an  ill, is rather the greatest of goods. There is otherness in God himself, who is one single nature in three Persons, and there is also otherness  between God and creatures, who are by nature different. Finally, in the  Holy Eucharist, as in the rest of the sacraments‹and analogically in  his works and in his words‹Christ gives himself to us and makes us  participate in his divine nature,17 without nevertheless suppressing our  created nature, in which he himself shares through his Incarnation.

 

15. A consideration of these truths together brings the wonderful  discovery that all the aspirations which the prayer of other religions  expresses are fulfilled in the reality of Christianity beyond all  measure, without the personal self or the nature of a creature being  dissolved or disappearing into the sea of the Absolute. "God is  love" (1 Jn 4:8). This profoundly Christian affirmation can  reconcile perfect "union" with the "otherness"  existing between lover and loved, with eternal exchange and eternal dialogue. God is himself this eternal exchange and we can truly become  sharers of Christ, as "adoptive sons" who cry out with the Son  in the Holy Spirit, Abba, Father." In this sense, the Fathers are  perfectly correct in speaking of the divinization of man who, having  been incorporated into Christ, the Son of God by nature, may by his grace share in the divine nature and become a "son in the  Son." Receiving the Holy Spirit, the Christian glorifies the Father  and really shares in the Trinitarian life of God.

 

 

V. Questions Of Method

 

 

16. The majority of the "great religions" which have sought  union with God in prayer have also pointed out ways to achieve it. Just  as "the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in  these religions,"18 neither should these ways be rejected out of  hand simply because they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can  take from them what is useful so long as the Christian conception of  prayer, its logic and requirements are never obscured. It is within the  context of all of this that these bits and pieces should be taken up and  expressed anew. Among these one might mention first of all that of the  humble acceptance of a master who is an expert in the life of prayer,  and of the counsels he gives. Christian experience has known of this  practice from earliest times, from the epoch of the desert Fathers. Such  a master, being an expert in "sentire cum ecclesia," must not  only direct and warn of certain dangers; as a "spiritual  father," he has to also lead his pupil in a dynamic way, heart to  heart, into the life of prayer, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 

17. In the later non-Christian classical period, there was a  convenient distinction made between three stages in the life of  perfection: the purgative way, the illuminative way and the unitive way.  This teaching has served as a model for many schools of Christian  spirituality. While in itself valid, this analysis nevertheless requires  several clarifications so as to be interpreted in a correct Christian  manner which avoids dangerous misunderstandings.

 

18. The seeking of God through prayer has to be preceded and  accompanied by an ascetical struggle and a purification from one's own  sins and errors, since Jesus has said that only "the pure of heart  shall see God" (Mt 5:8). The Gospel aims above all at a moral  purification from the lack of truth and love and, on a deeper level,  from all the selfish instincts which impede man from recognizing and  accepting the will of God in its purity. The passions are not negative  in themselves (as the Stoics and Neoplatonists thought), but their  tendency is to selfishness. It is from this that the Christian has to free himself in order to arrive at that state of positive freedom which  in classical Christian times was called "apatheia," in the  Middle Ages "Impassibilitas" and in the Ignatian Spiritual  Exercises "indiferencia."19

 

This is impossible without a radical self-denial, as can also be seen  in St. Paul who openly uses the word "mortification" (of  sinful tendencies).20 Only this self-denial renders man free to carry  out the will of God and to share in the freedom of the Holy Spirit.

 

19. Therefore, one has to interpret correctly the teaching of those  masters who recommend "emptying" the spirit of all sensible  representations and of every concept, while remaining lovingly attentive  to God. In this way, the person praying creates an empty space which can  then be filled by the richness of God. However, the emptiness which God  requires is that of the renunciation of personal selfishness, not  necessarily that of the renunciation of those created things which he  has given us and among which he has placed us. There is no doubt that in  prayer one should concentrate entirely on God and as far as possible  exclude the things of this world which bind us to our selfishness. On  this topic St. Augustine is an excellent teacher: if you want to find  God, he says, abandon the exterior world and re-enter into yourself.  However, he continues, do not remain in yourself, but go beyond yourself  because you are not God; he is deeper and greater than you. "I look  for his substance in my soul and I do not find it; I have however  meditated on the search for God and, reaching out to him, through  created things, I have sought to know 'the invisible perfections of God'  (Rom 1:20)."2 "To remain in oneself": this is the real  danger. The great Doctor of the Church recommends concentrating on  oneself, but also transcending the self which is not God, but only a  creature. God is "deeper than my inmost being and higher than my  greatest height."22 In fact God is in us and with us, but he  transcends us in his mystery.23

 

20. "From the dogmatic point of view," it is impossible to  arrive at a perfect love of God if one ignores his giving of himself to  us through his Incarnate Son, who was crucified and rose from the dead.  In him, under the action of the Holy Spirit, we participate, through  pure grace, in the interior life of God. When Jesus says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), he does not mean just  the sight and exterior knowledge of his human figure (in the flesh is of  no avail"‹Jn 6:63). What he means is rather a vision made  possible by the grace of faith: to see, through the manifestation of  Jesus perceptible by the senses, just what he, as the Word of the Father, truly wants to reveal to us of God ("It is the Spirit that  gives life [...]; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and  life"‹ibid.). This "seeing" is not a matter of a purely  human abstraction ("abstractio") from the figure in which God  has revealed himself; it is rather the grasping of the divine reality in  the human figure of Jesus, his eternal divine dimension in its temporal  form. As St. Ignatius says in the "Spiritual Exercises," we  should try to capture "the infinite perfume and the infinite  sweetness of the divinity" (n. 124), going forward from that finite  revealed truth from which we have begun. While he raises us up, God is  free to "empty" us of all that holds us back in this world, to  draw us completely into the Trinitarian life of his eternal love. However, this gift can only be granted "in Christ through the Holy  Spirit," and not through our own efforts, withdrawing ourselves  from his revelation .

 

21. On the path of the Christian life, illumination follows on from  purification, through the love which the Father bestows on us in the Son  and the anointing which we receive from him in the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Jn  2:20). Ever since the early Christian period, writers have referred to  the "illumination" received in Baptism. After their initiation  into the divine mysteries, this illumination brings the faithful to know  Christ by means of the faith which works through love. Some  ecclesiastical writers even speak explicitly of the illumination  received in Baptism as the basis of that sublime knowledge of Christ  Jesus (cf. Phil 3:8), which is defined as "theoria" or contemplation.24 The faithful, with the grace of Baptism, are called to  progress in the knowledge and witness of the mysteries of the faith by  "the intimate sense of spiritual realities which they  experience."25 No light from God can render the truths of the faith  redundant. Any subsequent graces of illumination which God may grant  rather help to make clearer the depth of the mysteries confessed and  celebrated by the Church, as we wait for the day when the Christian can  contemplate God as he is in glory (cf. 1 Jn 3:2).

 

22. Finally, the Christian who prays can, if God so wishes, come to a  particular experience of "union." The Sacraments, especially  Baptism and the Eucharist,26 are the objective beginning of the union of  the Christian with God. Upon this foundation, the person who prays can  be called, by a special grace of the Spirit, to that specific type of  union with God which in Christian terms is called "mystical."

 

23. Without doubt, a Christian needs certain periods of retreat into  solitude to be recollected and, in God's presence, rediscover his path.  Nevertheless, given his character as a creature, and as a creature who  knows that only in grace is he secure, his method of getting closer to  God is not based on any "technique" in the strict sense of the  word. That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the  Gospel. Genuine Christian mysticism has nothing to do with technique: it  is always a gift of God, and the one who benefits from it knows himself  to be unworthy.27

 

24. There are certain "mystical graces," conferred on the  founders of ecclesial institutes to benefit their foundation, and on  other saints, too, which characterize their personal experience of  prayer and which cannot, as such, be the object of imitation and  aspiration for other members of the faithful, even those who belong to  the same institutes and those who seek an ever more perfect way of  prayer.28 There can be different levels and different ways of sharing in  a founder's experience of prayer, without everything having to be  exactly the same. Besides, the prayer experience that is given a  privileged position in all genuinely ecclesial institutes, ancient and  modern, is always in the last analysis something personal. And it is to  the individual person that God gives his graces for prayer.

 

25. With regard to mysticism, one has to distinguish between  "the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the charisms" granted by God  in a totally gratuitous way. The former are something which every  Christian can quicken in himself by his zeal for the life of faith, hope  and charity; and thus, by means of a serious ascetical struggle, he can  reach a certain experience of God and of the contents of the faith. As  for charisms, St. Paul says that these are, above all, for the benefit  of the Church, of the other members of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf.  1 Cor 12:17). With this in mind, it should be remembered that charisms  are not the same things as extraordinary ("mystical") gifts (cf. Rom 12:3-21), and that the distinction between the "gifts of  the Holy Spirit" and "charisms" can be flexible. It is  certain that a charism which bears fruit for the Church, cannot, in the  context of the New Testament, be exercised without a certain degree of personal perfection, and that, on the other hand, every  "living" Christian has a specific task (and in this sense a  "charism") "for the building up of the body of  Christ" (cf. Eph 4:15-16),29 in communion with the hierarchy whose  job it is "not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all  things and hold fast to what is good" (LG, n. 12).

 

 

VI. Psychological-Corporal Methods

 

 

26. Human experience shows that the "position and demeanor of  the body" also have their influence on the recollection and  dispositions of the spirit. This is a fact to which some eastern and  western Christian spiritual writers have directed their attention.

 

Their reflections, while presenting points in common with eastern  non-Christian methods of meditation, avoid the exaggerations and  partiality of the latter, which, however, are often recommended to  people today who are not sufficiently prepared.

 

The spiritual authors have adopted those elements which make  recollection in prayer easier, at the same time recognizing their  relative value: they are useful if reformulated in accordance with the  aim of Christian prayer.30 For example, the Christian fast signifies,  above all, an exercise of penitence and sacrifice; but, already for the  Fathers, it also had the aim of rendering man more open to the encounter  with God and making a Christian more capable of self-dominion and at the  same time more attentive to those in need.

 

In prayer it is the whole man who must enter into relation with God,  and so his body should also take up the position most suited to  recollection.31 Such a position can in a symbolic way express the prayer  itself, depending on cultures and personal sensibilities. In some  aspects, Christians are today becoming more conscious of how one's  bodily posture can aid prayer.

 

27. Eastern Christian meditation32 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.33 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.

 

28. 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.

 

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.

 

It should, however, be remembered that habitual union with God,  namely that attitude of interior vigilance and appeal to the divine  assistance which in the New Testament is called "continuous  prayer,"34 is not necessarily interrupted when one devotes oneself also, according to the will of God, to work and to the care of one's  neighbor. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all  to the glory of God," the Apostle tells us (1 Cor 10:31). In fact,  genuine prayer, as the great spiritual masters teach, stirs up in the  person who prays an ardent charity which moves him to collaborate in the mission of the Church and to serve his brothers for the greater glory of  God.35

 

 

VII. "I Am The Way"

 

 

29. From the rich variety of Christian prayer as proposed by the  Church, each member of the faithful should seek and find his own way,  his own form of prayer. But all of these personal ways, in the end, flow  into the way to the Father, which is how Jesus Christ has described  himself. In the search for his own way, each person will, therefore, let  himself be led not so much by his personal tastes as by the Holy Spirit, who guides him, through Christ, to the Father.

 

30. For the person who makes a serious effort there will, however, be  moments in which he seems to be wandering in a desert and, in spite of  all his efforts, he "feels" nothing of God. He should know  that these trials are not spared anyone who takes prayer seriously.  However, he should not immediately see this experience, common to all  Christians who pray, as the "dark night" in the mystical  sense. In any case in these moments, his prayer, which he will  resolutely strive to keep to, could give him the impression of a certain  "artificiality," although really it is something totally  different: in fact it is at that very moment an expression of his  fidelity to God, in whose presence he wishes to remain even when he  receives no subjective consolation in return.

 

In these apparently negative moments, it becomes clear what the  person who is praying really seeks: is he indeed looking for God who, in  his infinite freedom. always surpasses him; or is he only seeking  himself, without managing to go beyond his own "experiences,"  whether they be positive "experiences" of union with God or  negative "experiences" of mystical "emptiness ."

 

31. The love of God, the sole object of Christian contemplation, is a  reality which cannot be "mastered" by any method or technique.  On the contrary, we must always have our sights fixed on Jesus Christ,  in whom God's love went to the cross for us and there assumed even the  condition of estrangement from the Father (cf. Mk 13:34). We therefore  should allow God to decide the way he wishes to have us participate in  his love. But we can never, in any way, seek to place ourselves on the  same level as the object of our contemplation. the free love of God; not  even when, through the mercy of God the Father and the Holy Spirit sent  into our hearts, we receive in Christ the gracious gift of a sensible  reflection of that divine love and we feel drawn by the truth and beauty  and goodness of the Lord.

 

The more a creature is permitted to draw near to God, the greater his  reverence before the thrice-holy God. One then understands those words  of St. Augustine: "You can call me friend; I recognize myself a  servant."36 Or the words which are even more familiar to us, spoken  by her who was rewarded with the highest degree of intimacy with God:  "He has looked upon his servant in her lowliness" (Lk 1:48).

 

The Supreme Pontiff, John Paul II, in an audience granted to the  undersigned Cardinal Prefect, gave his approval to this letter, drawn up  in a plenary session of this Congregation, and ordered its publication.

 

At Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the  Faith, October 15, 1989, the Feast of Saint Teresa of Jesus.

 

Joseph Card. Ratzinger Prefect

 

Alberto Bovone Titular Archbishop of Caesarea in Numidia

 Secretary

 

 

Endnotes

 

 

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." Thus it indicates methods of meditation of the  non-Christian Far East which today are not infrequently adopted by some  Christians also in their meditation. 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.

 

2. Regarding the Book of Psalms in the prayer of the Church, cf.  "Institutio generalis de Liturgia Horarum," nn. 100-109.

 

3. Cf. for example, Ex 15, Deut 32, 1 Sam 2, 2 Sam 22 and some  prophetic texts, 1 Chron 16.

 

4. Dogmatic Constitution "Dei Verbum," n. 2. This document  offers other substantial indications for a theological and spiritual  understanding of Christian prayer; see also, for example, nn. 3, 5, 8,  21.

 

5. Dogmatic Constitution "Dei Verbum," n. 25.

 

6. Regarding the prayer of Jesus, see "Institutio generalis de  Liturgia Horarum," nn. 3-4.

 

7. Cf. "Institutio generalis de Liturgia Horarum," n. 9.

 

8. Pseudognosticism considered matter as something impure and  degraded which enveloped the soul in an ignorance from which prayer had  to free it, thereby raising it to true superior knowledge and so to a  pure state. Of course not everyone was capable of this, only those who  were truly spiritual; for simple believers, faith and observance of the  commandments of Christ were sufficient.

 

9. The Messalians were already denounced by Saint Ephraim Syrus  ("Hymni contra Haereses" 22, 4, ed. E. Beck, CSCO 169, 1957,  p. 79) and later, among others, by Epiphanius of Salamina  ("Panarion," also called "Adversus Haereses": PG 41,  156-1200; PG 42, 9-832), and Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium  ("Contra haereticos": G. Ficker, "Amphilochiana" I,  Leipzig 1906, 21-77).

 

10. Cf., for example, St. John of the Cross. "Subida del Monte  Carmelo," II, chap. 7. 11.

 

11. In the Middle Ages there existed extreme trends on the fringe of  the Church. These were described not without irony, by one of the great  Christian contemplatives, the Flemish Jan van Ruysbroek. He  distinguished three types of deviations in the mystical life ("Die  gheestelike Brulocht" 228. 12-230, 17: 230. 18- 32. 22: 232.  23-236. 6) and made a general critique of these forms (236, 7-237, 29).  Similar techniques were subsequently identified and dismissed by St.  Teresa of Avila who perceptively observed that "the very care taken  not to think about anything will arouse the mind to think a great  deal," and that the separation of the mystery of Christ from Christian meditation is always a form of "betrayal" (see: St.  Teresa of Jesus. Vida 12, 5 and 22, 1-5).

 

12. Pope John Paul II has pointed out to the whole Church the example  and the doctrine of St. Teresa of Avila who in her life had to reject  the temptation of certain methods which proposed a leaving aside of the  humanity of Christ in favor of a vague self-immersion in the abyss of  the divinity. In a homily given on November 1, 1982, he said that the  call of Teresa of Jesus advocating a prayer completely centered on Christ "is valid, even in our day, against some methods of prayer  which are not inspired by the Gospel and which in practice tend to set  Christ aside in preference for a mental void which makes no sense in  Christianity. Any method of prayer is valid insofar as it is inspired by  Christ and leads to Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf.  Jn 14:6)." See: "Homilia Abulae habita in honorem Sanctae  Teresiae:" AAS 75 (1983), 256-257.

 

13. See, for example. "The Cloud of Unknowing," a spiritual  work by an anonymous English writer of the fourteenth century.

 

14. In Buddhist religious texts, the concept of "Nirvana"  is understood as a state of quiet consisting in the extinction of every  tangible reality insofar as it is transient, and as such delusive and  sorrowful.

 

15. Meister Eckhart speaks of an immersion "in the indeterminate  abyss of the divinity" which is a "darkness in which the light  of the Trinity never shines." Cf. "Sermo 'Ave Gratia Plena'"  in fine (J. Quint, "Deutsche Predigten und Traktate" Hanser  1955, 261).

 

16. Cf. Pastoral Constitution "Gaudium et spes" n. 19, 1:  "The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called  to communion with God. The invitation to converse with God is addressed  to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because  God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him  in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator."

 

17. As St. Thomas writes of the Eucharist: ". . . proprius  effectus huius sacramenti est conversio) hominis in Christum ut dicat  cum Apostolo: Vivo ego iam non ego; vivit vero in me Christus" (Gal  2:20)" (In IV Sent: d. 12, q. 2, a. 1).

 

18. Declaration "Nostra aetate" n. 2.

 

19. St. Ignatius of Loyola, "Ejercicios espirituales n. 23 et  passim.

 

20. Cf. Col 3:5: Rom 6:11ff.: Gal 5:24.

 

21. St. Augustine. "Enarrationes in Psalmos" XLI, 8: PL 36.  469.

 

22. St. Augustine, "Confessions" 3. 6. 11: PL 32, 688. Cf.  "De vera Religione" 39. 72: PL 34, 154.

 

23. The positive Christian sense of the "emptying" of  creatures stands out in an exemplary way in St. Francis of Assisi.  Precisely because he renounced creatures for love of God, he saw all  things as being filled with his presence and resplendent in their  dignity as God's creatures, and the secret hymn of their being is  intoned by him in his "Cantico delle Creature." Cf. C. Esser,  "Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assisiensis" Ed. Ad Claras  Aquas, Grottaferrata (Roma) 1978, pp. 83-86. In the same way he writes  in the "Lettera a Tutti i Fedeli:" "Let every creature in  heaven and on earth and in the sea and in the depth of the abyss (Rev 5:  13) give praise, glory and honor and blessing to God, for he is our life  and our strength. He who alone is good (Lk 18: 19), who alone is the  most high, who alone is omnipotent and admirable, glorious and holy,  worthy of praise and blessed for infinite ages of ages. Amen"  ("ibid Opuscula" 124). St. Bonaventure shows how in every  creature Francis perceived the call of God and poured out his soul in  the great hymn of thanksgiving and praise (cf. "Legenda S Francisci"  chap. 9, n. 1, in "Opera Omnia" ed. Quaracchi 1898, Vol. VIII p 530).

 

24. See, for example, St. Justin, "Apologia" I 61, 12-13:  PG 6 420- 421: Clement of Alexandria, "Paedagogus" I, 6,  25-31: PG 8, 281- 284; St. Basil of Caesarea, "Homiliae diversae"  13. 1: PG 31, 424- 425; St. Gregory Nazianzen, "Orationes" 40, 3, 1: PG 36, 361.

 

25. Dogmatic Constitution "Dei Verbum" n. 8.

 

26. The Eucharist, which the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen  Gentium" defines as "the source and summit of the Christian  life" (LG 11), makes us "really share in the body of the  Lord": in it "we are taken up into communion with him"  (LG 7).

 

27. Cf. St. Teresa of Jesus, "Castillo Interior" IV 1, 2.

 

28. No one who prays, unless he receives a special grace, covets an  overall vision of the revelations of God, such as St. Gregory recognized  in St. Benedict. or that mystical impulse with which St. Francis of  Assisi would contemplate God in all his creatures, or an equally global  vision, such as that given to St. Ignatius at the River Cardoner and of  which he said that for him it could have taken the place of Sacred Scripture. The "dark night" described by St. John of the Cross  is part of his personal charism of prayer. Not every member of his order  needs to experience it in the same way so as to reach that perfection of  prayer to which God has called him.

 

29. The Christian's call to "mystical" experiences can  include both what St. Thomas classified as a living experience of God  via the gifts of the Holy Spirit. and the inimitable forms (and for that  reason forms to which one ought not to aspire) of the granting of grace.  Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologiae" Ia, IIae, 1 c, as  well as a. 5, ad 1.

 

30. See, for example, the early writers, who speak of the postures  taken up by Christians while at prayer: Tertullian, "De  Oratione" XIV PL 1 1170, XVII: PL I 1174-1176: Origen, "De  Oratione" XXXI 2: PG 11, 550-553, and of the meaning of such  gestures; Barnabas, "Epistula" XII, 2-4: PG 2, 760-761: St.  Justin, "Dialogus" 90, 4-5: PG 6, 689-692; St. Hippolytus of  Rome, "Commentarium in Dan" III, 24: GCS I 168, 8-17; Origen,  "Homiliae in Ex" XI 4: PG 12, 377-378. For the position of the  body see also, Origen, "De Oratione" XXXI, 3: PG 11, 553-555.

 

31. Cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, "Ejercicios Espirituales"  n. 76.

 

32. Such as, for example, that of the Hesychast anchorites. Hesychia  or external and internal quiet is regarded by the anchorites as a  condition of prayer. In its oriental form it is characterized by  solitude and techniques of recollection.

 

33. The practice of the "Jesus Prayer," which consists of  repeating the formula, rich in biblical references, of invocation and  supplication (e.g., "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on  me"), is adapted to the natural rhythm of breathing. In this regard, see St. Ignatius of Loyola, "Ejercicios Espirituales"  n. 258.

 

34. Cf. 1 Thes 5: 17, also 2 Thes 3: 8-12. From these and other texts  there arises the question of how to reconcile the duty to pray  continually with that of working. See, among others, St. Augustine,  "Epistula" 130, 20: PL 33, 501-502 and St. John Cassian,  "De Institutis Coenobiorum" III, 1-3: SC 109, 92-93. Also, the "Demonstration of Prayer" by Aphraat, the first father of the  Syriac Church, and in particular nn. 14-15, which deal with the  so-called "works of Prayer" (cf. the edition of J. Parisot,  "Afraatis Sapientis Persae Demonstrationes" IV PS 1, pp.  170-174).

 

35. Cf. St. Teresa of Jesus, "Castillo Interior" VII, 4, 6.

 

36. St. Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos" CXLII 6: PL  37, 1849. Also see: St. Augustine, "Tract in Ioh." IV 9: PL  35, 1410: "Quando autem nec ad hoc dignum se dicit, vere plenus  Spiritu Sancto erat, qui sic servus Dominum agnovit, et ex servo amicus  fieri meruit."

 

Provided Courtesy of:

 Eternal Word Television Network

 5817 Old Leeds Road

 Irondale, AL 35210