INDORE, India (UCAN) -- Sister C. Lissy could not help laughing when she first entered the meditation room of the Universal Solidarity Movement (USM).
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| Sister C. Lissy at the meditation room of the Universal Solidarity Movement headquarters in Indore, India, on July 8. |
"I looked all around for the tabernacle in the dim light," the Congregation of Jesus nun admitted to UCA News, "but all I could see was a small ceiling fan, a tube light and a gigantic mirror on a wall."
The sari-clad nun, 32, began wondering why the room did not even have a crucifix, but then her eye caught a black, wooden sign above the two-square-meter mirror. Written on it were the English words "God within" and a phrase in Sanskrit, "Aham brahmasmi (I am God)."
The nun, a volunteer at USM headquarters at Indore, Madhya Pradesh state, 810 kilometers south of New Delhi, said an electric shock passed through her as she read the words, but the message took more than a week to sink in.
The unusual meditation room is the brainchild of 56-year-old Father Varghese Alengaden, who founded USM 16 years ago to combat the sectarianism that was then sweeping across India and leaving more than a thousand dead in riots.
The movement, the priest explained to UCA News, aims to generate responsible citizens to promote harmony among India's various groups by encouraging them to live the values of their respective religions. The "mirror room" is just one of various methods he uses to promote harmony and solidarity, he said.
Father Alengaden said Saint Paul's words, "God lives within you," prompted him to devise the room. People change drastically once they understand they are the image of God, he said, and "we'd then have no problem to accept the other person as also an image of God." In his view, this realization will help people accept plurality and equality, and dissuade them from harming others.
"The meditation room is open to all, but only one at a time," the bearded priest added in his sonorous voice. He said USM volunteers spend at least an hour a day in the room when they are in Indore, and they must keep their eyes focused on the image in the mirror while praying.
According to Sister Lissy, the six-square-meter room appears simple but praying there is tough. Initially, the idea seemed quite outlandish, she recalled, and "I used to laugh seeing me in the mirror." But after a week or so, "I realized God is within me, not in a church. I also realized I was confronting myself and this helped me behave better with others."
She also discovered "more meaning" in praying before the mirror than meditating before the tabernacle or in a church. "God is merciful, beautiful, kind and compassionate, and so am I, because God is within me," she added.
This realization has helped her overcome biases, she continued. "You will not differentiate between black and white, tall and short, Hindu and Muslim, because all are the image of God and He lives in them."
She said she used to focus on her shortcomings while praying, "but once you begin to analyze yourself before the mirror, you realize that what you considered as weakness is a blessing in disguise. You learn to appreciate God's creation and thank Him."
Sister Anjali John, USM's former director, says the mirror room is her strength. "I had been praying before the crucifix or the tabernacle, so I first thought it was foolish to pray before the mirror," she told UCA News.
However, the Holy Spirit nun soon realized that facing oneself is tougher than encountering others. "If you sincerely look at yourself in a mirror, it will become your strength," the 44-year-old nun said.
Sister Sunita Pinto, another Congregation of Jesus nun who is on a three-month training program at USM headquarters, told UCA News she finds the mirror room "wonderful," even if it distracted her at first.
After a week in the room, USM's director, Father Varghese Kunnath, 49, told UCA News, people become aware of "a divine presence" there, and "this divinity is exuded by your reflection, which in a way is just another image of God."
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September 30, 2008 at 8:50 am
The teachings of the Catholic Church do not change with different cultures and different countries.
The first Commandment is for everyone. "I am the Lord thy God, you shall have no other
god's before me." Only through the Truth, (which is Jesus Christ Himself, for He said: 'I am the Truth'"
will peace and harmony ever exist. If the truth is changed by words or actions it is abused and is no
longer the whole truth. Consequently we will not have true peace or harmony.
September 9, 2008 at 2:55 am
It makes me sad to read all the comments above.
It reminds me of the poem – ‘Six Blind Men and the Elephant’, each sees the elephant from their own perspective and concludes what the whole elephant is like.
I would like to highlight a few things that seem to have been overlooked. First that Universal Solidarity Movement is started in India which is a multi-religious country. There have been recent upsurges of religious extremists attacking the Christians on so called ‘issues of conversions’. Fr. Varghese’s attempt is to invite people from different religious communities to come to this meditation room, which cannot have religious objects of any one religious denomination (I think), so that they may realize some common truths that are shared by all, i.e. we are all made in the image of God and therefore the concept of ‘God within us’, (which is easily understood by the Hindu majority in India).
He clearly mentions that “The movement aims to generate responsible citizens to promote harmony among India's various groups by encouraging them to live the values of their respective religions. The "mirror room" is just one of various methods he uses to promote harmony and solidarity.”
If we only read the news of the severe attacks by religious extremist forces on Christians in Orissa, India, we will appreciate the need for some concrete measures to help people towards peaceful co-existence.
I think the involvement of sisters in this programme is necessary because they are all working with different religious groups and they need to be catalysts for peace and harmony.
It is also necessary to understand the cultural context of the interior parts of India where missionaries like Fr. Varghese and the sisters work in order to appreciate their work for inter-religious harmony and peace. I personally feel it is unfair to judge this initiative from a lens of “Western Catholic culture”.
August 31, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Blatantly New Age! By looking in a mirror we are chosing our own will and not that of the Almighty and Eternal Father. Adoration, usually takes place after Benediction. Where is the Blessed Sacrament? If He is not in His Temple, how can we Adore Him!
August 26, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I would like to make one more comment. It is true that we are made in the image and likeness of God. This image refers mainly to our soul, which has the same powers (imperfectly) as God, and they are our memory, intellect and will, free-will which we can use to love and adore ourselves or to freely love God. God within us, happens when we receive Him in Holy Communion, and He only stays with us if we are in state of grace, which means, free of mortal sin.
August 25, 2008 at 6:04 am
This is very sad. A loss of faith among the witnesses.
August 25, 2008 at 3:41 am
Hellfire awaits. Pray for the souls who have fallen for this Satanic Ploy
August 24, 2008 at 5:41 pm
A few years ago our local paper which sits lightly to received spelling carried a FOR SALE ad for "Large Oval Guilt-edged Mirror." It would have been appropriate here?
August 24, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This priest needs to be corrected by his Bishop, thus the Church has a solemn responsibility to stop heresy and the like. This Roman Catholic Church of ours must hold another Ecumenical Council and soon in order to correct so many of the errors taking place within the Church today. Which I will boldly add are leading many of us to Hell. So I ask where is the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church in this circumstance?
August 24, 2008 at 9:04 am
get away from the computer. y,all will be better off.
help your neighbor and in turn you shall help , "jesus's mission"
had HE spent time on a computer i shudder to think
where we would all be!
may god bless y'all
August 24, 2008 at 5:29 am
What is the priest thinking? Has he become so lethargic in his faith that he has to expose others to lunatic theology? We need to be smart enough to know when a priest is leading us in the wrong direction, and these sisters are not being very smart! If the priest really wanted to teach them to see God in others, he would find a way to direct their attention away from themselves and toward helping others who are also in the image of Christ.
August 24, 2008 at 1:52 am
If it was true and that simple there would be no need for anything or anybody else. God knows that we don't even know ourselves ever! Therefore, the need for Himself and the gift of Himself to us.
August 23, 2008 at 1:38 pm
This isnt new age...its very "old age" . Its Gnosticism. See the knowledge that is inside one's self. We are all equal to God, etc etc.
We all know what happened to the people/abstracts in scripture who claimed equality to God. Read a bible
August 23, 2008 at 6:09 am
NONSENSE! NONSENSE! NONSENSE!
August 23, 2008 at 2:17 am
Does this mean then that blind people cannot find God????
August 23, 2008 at 2:14 am
Proceed with caution! We are not gods... we are God's creation, His children. Our consciences need to be formed based upon the "fullness" of Christ's truth and I agree that the mirror could help us in realizing that our actions must be Christ-like towards all of God's creation. However, it seems rather risky to actually pray before your own image. After all the New Agers could also use this as a helpful tool towards misleading souls. The sole place that Christ is tangibly present is in His greatest gift to us left at the Last Supper--the Holy Eucharist, which was a miraculous way for Him to remain "tangibly" with us until the end of times, as He promised to do.
I pray that the priest involved in this realizes its limitations and recognizes the possible dangers involved in using any type of simple prop--especially mirrors. If kept as a simple tool for reminding us of our divine calling-- because of His divine presence in our souls-- this may be helpful, however, left alone too long in front of one's own image can also be used as an instrument of the devil so that we fall into the sin of pride and confusion... perhaps even thinking we have all we need within ourselves to become holy. It would seem wise to perhaps
counsel people before and after going into the miror room, so that they understand the purpose of it and they should be directed to pray to Almighty God, Father of all of Creation and the Holy Trinity because of the love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which they need to "tap into" in order to love their brothers and sisters without discriminating, if they are being encouraged to pray at all while in front of the mirror.
August 23, 2008 at 1:44 am
These poor devils. They are deprived of real sacraments thanks to the false teachings of the Novus Ordo new agers, and have no idea what it means to be Christian. The guy even read St. Paul out of context -- forgetting that St. Paul called the dieties of the Indian continent "devils" and advocated the destruction of their temples. Most people who fall for this "self-worship" have no idea about what's going on today. They've probably never even heard of Sedevacantism or know about the debates concerning the post-1958 papal candidates and their new sacraments!
August 23, 2008 at 1:24 am
It is so sad that not only a Priest, but, Nuns, too, are saying that Jesus is not enough! Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will let them come to a true knowledge of themselves if they spend that 1 hr a day with Christ, Himself! New Age, Relativism, Denial..whatever you want to call it, has no TRUTH. ...because unless it's the whole truth, it's a lie.
August 23, 2008 at 1:09 am
“The Christians were at once the objects of hatred and contempt [by the populace of the Roman Empire]. Because they were intolerant of all other religions, because they either denied outright the existence of heathen deities or regarded them as evil spirits whose worship was the greatest sacrilege and treason to the true God – they were called narrow-minded bigots…” (Fr. Laux, Church History, p. 44)
August 23, 2008 at 1:07 am
If you don't see the danger in people praying to a mirror, then you aren't Christian and you most certainly aren't Catholic. Period. This is New Age. False teaching. Heresy. Run screaming from it.
Find it beautiful, trendy, enlightening? Hopefully someone you know will pray for you to escape the tempter's snare.
August 23, 2008 at 12:56 am
I am not sorry to say that this screams of new age/false spirituality. Ever see the movie, "Out On A Limb" , with Shirley MacLaine? Well, she learned to do the very same thing except while facing the ocean, as she was admonished to do by a false prophet. We are to see the Christ in all people which means we are to love ourselves as we love neighbors and vice versa, which the false spirituality has twisted to become, "I am God". This is nothing new. My hope is that people will truly look upon themselves as mere children of God, which is who we all are, but we cannot be God. Jesus told us this numerous times in the Gospels, and, He is afterall, the only begotten Son of God the Father. Therefore, love your neighbor as you love yourself, but do not believe you are God, nor even utter these words on penalty of blasphemy against the One True God. Pray for yourselfs, and you will see the truth.
August 23, 2008 at 12:21 am
A mirror is "more effective" as opposed to a tabernacle where Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is? They should have 24 hour Adoration!
August 22, 2008 at 11:12 pm
According to Christianity God is within us; that's true. What cannot be said is that I, or you, or anyone but Christ IS God.
We are a mix or good and evil. All that is good within ourselves is of and within God. Therefore God is within us, but we cannot forget that there is much within us that is not God We constantly work by grace to increase God within ourselves and purge that which is not God (good). To say I am God is to forget our faults and failings: to forget those is to cease to work on them; to cease to work on them is to reject God's grace.
August 22, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I'd rather look at the Holy Face of Jesus and contemplate His Sacrifice while praying, instead of looking at myself.
August 22, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Where are these people's religious superiors?!? Where is this preist's bishop?!? The lot of them ought to be reassigned to work that does not deal with the public.
The sense in which St. Paul speaks of the Christian as a temple of the Holy Ghost is not the same sense in which Our Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament. Whenever we talk about God living within us, this only occurs in proportion to our ability to receive Him. His presence in the Blessed Sacrament, however, is absolutely independent of us and out shortcomings. A person with theological traiining (like someone with a degree from a seminary or someone in vows within a religious order) knows and understands this difference. SO, the fact that they portray both of these "presences" to the public as if they were equal is a deliberate deception.
They all ought to be brought up on charges before a canonical court - especially the bishop and immediate religious superior(s) that allow this place to continue in existence as a catholic establishment.
The 60's are over, folks! I'm not ok and you're not ok... and we never really were.
August 22, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Sisters, I pray all of you read these comments from your Catholic brothers and sisters. (take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' Mt 18:16)
Our Lord was telling each and everyone of you from the moment you walked into this meditation room that it was not of HIM. That electric shock Sister Lissy initially experienced was a strong warning that much is at stake which is your precious soul and the souls you touch. You had HIS gift of discernment, and you must pray for it to be returned.
August 22, 2008 at 9:17 pm
This is not New Age spirituality, but rather old. If we cannot find Jesus within us, how can we see Him in others? If we can't see Him in others, where can we meet Him? Only in Tabernacle? I don't believe this. We are created in the likeness of God and even if we use a mirror to see Him, it is justifyable. Bible speaks more than once that God is within us. I am not justifying Fr. Alangadan and his several means to create a harmonoious world. But whatever it is, unless and until we discover the God within us, we will not "really love others".
August 22, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I find it amazing that a Catholic Nun who must have had a good Catholic Education, is a bride of Jesus, can take the focus off Him and put this focus on herself in a matter of a week. This does not even happen in a marriage breakdown. In marriage love goes cold gradually, not over night. How much did this Nun love her Spouse? Here is another great need for prayer!
August 22, 2008 at 9:00 pm
These are all good comments supporting the Real Presence, but I think we all should carry this a bit further. We should really ask ourselves in what ways the Eucharist is being similarly disrespected in our own parishes. Are people sitting in the pews talking in church, chatting, before and after mass? Are they failing to genuflect entering and leaving church? Is the priest genuflecting? Before mass, do lectors and ministers and dancers and ministers to the sick stand about in the sanctuary chatting? Does the priest require a paten be held during communion in case Our Lord falls? Are the mass vessels of durable and precious metals, as required? Is the tabernacle of reservation really accessible, really central, well adorned? Or is it an excuse to treat the rest of the church as one's living room? Are people entering church dressed as to be in the presence of a king?
If we see these things and do nothing, we are guilty of the same error as the one named here. We have made gods of ourselves. Please speak up! Please protest! Please restore Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament to a place of primacy in our churches and our lives! He is our great treasure!
August 22, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Score a big one for Satan! We are being blessed with young vocations, and Satan would like to see those vocations fall more than any other. That poor Sister Lissy! Being taken away from Jesus, and replacing Him with "I am God" nonsense. Shame on the leaders of those orders who would allow their members to participate in this evil.
August 22, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Where is his Bishop in all of this???!!! Nothing is is or ever should be above Christ. We can only strive to be a reflection of Christ's light on earth and we need to medidate at the tabernacle and partake of the Holy Eucharist to have that grace bestowed on us.
August 22, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I believe the mirror exercise does have merrit. I would never replace my time with the Blessed Sacrament with a mirror, however I will spend some additional time in front of the mirror. Why?? We as Christians are a reflection of Christ. Time spent with the Blessed Sacrament is sometimes spent thinking " Am I ever a good guy to be here" Time spent in front of a mirror is spent looking at ourselves as God sees us. When we look at ourselves, in all our weaknesses, as God sees us; we now have something to correct. This is evident when Sister Lissy says "I also realized I was confronting myself and this helped me behave better with others"
August 22, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Like all the other commenting above even I am disturbed to hear that - Sister Anjali John, USM's former director, says the mirror room is her strength. "I had been praying before the crucifix or the tabernacle, so I first thought it was foolish to pray before the mirror," she told UCA News.
This substitution of God with image of self is.... I donno what word to assign for te feeling.
The whole idea is against what we as christians truly believe............. 'Holy Communion'. No doubt God is within us and indeed our strength, but does avoiding the tabernacle or a crucufix make you holier. If this thought is true and has weightage then the only person lauding this will be none other that Fr. Varghese himself. Take care father... on the tight rope you are walking and guiding many others as well.
God Bless us all !!
August 22, 2008 at 7:35 pm
"Only one other being looks into a mirror and sees God. Satan." M, Canada.
Indeed this is a frightening practice especially when it is fostered by our religious against our religious. M's quote above is stunning. Let us all pray for sisters and priests, my God preserve them.
August 22, 2008 at 7:33 pm
"Only one other being looks into a mirror and sees God. Satan." M, Canada.
August 22, 2008 at 7:22 pm
make that prayers, not priors. Thanks.
August 22, 2008 at 7:21 pm
This is very frightening. As if the world isn't full of too much narcissism, now this priest and the New Age Movement are endorsing and fomenting the ultimate narcissism = "I am God".
I sure would not want to be in that priest's shoes on Judgment Day, recalling what Scriptures say about leading His little ones astray! He is abusing thorugh his position as a leader. There is no excuse for this. Explanations, yes (his own narcissism), excuses no.
This sounds like something from "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis.
We need to arm ourselves a la Ephesians and spiritual warfare priors are definitely in order.
August 22, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Would someone please report these lunatics to their bishop? to Rome? I am sick and tired of all the nonsense posing as Roman Catholicism.
Prey TO Jesus. Meditate upon HIS suffering for OUR sins. Pay homage to the CREATOR of the universe who humbled HIMSELF to become like us. The only person who can even dare to utter the words "I am God" is any of the Trinity. I certainly am not God, and wouldn't want to be. I am utterly content in being His child!
August 22, 2008 at 2:37 pm
scripture from Psalms.
“Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.” Psalm 46:10
I live for God and thank Him for is grace, without which, I would be as a worm crawling in the dust.
Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters to great or awesome for me. But I have stilled and quieted myself, just as a small child is quiet with its mother. Yes, like a small child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord - now and always. Psalm 131
If you stand infront of a mirror you will see your image. If you want to see the Creator's image then you go to the tabernacle.
I feel we cannot equalize the church, where God exists, with any other things like mirror etc.
Julie Cyriac
August 22, 2008 at 2:21 pm
poor sister lissy....she'd rather meditate infront of the mirror instead of the tabernacle?....and she's a nun?...how sad....looking at her admiring herself on the mirror just makes me so sad....
August 22, 2008 at 10:31 am
more meaningful to look into a mirror than to meditate before Christ's Real Presence in the Tabernacle? This is very distrubing to hear. In addition to this, to hear a Catholic sister say this is even more disturbing. This is the type of psychological babble that unfortunately affected more than afew sisters in the USA and one reason they're numbers have greatly decreased. May I respectfully remind the Catholic sisters, my sisters in Jesus, that it is in drawing closer and closer to Jesus that we will begin to love others as we ought Because Christ is LOVE HIMSELF. Please Sisters, don't let ANYONE, including clergy, lead you astray. yes, Christ is in each of us. Yes, each person has equal value and dignity no matter who we are because each of us is made in the image and likeness of God, but please don't be led astray with practices such as the mirror exercise.
August 22, 2008 at 9:51 am
More New Age mumbo jumbo... this is a dangerous practise, imo.
God is the Trinity, Father , Son and Holy Spirit. We are all so far removed from "being God", that to have a Catholic nun and Priest organize, condone and promote this is a terrible tragedy.
August 22, 2008 at 6:43 am
In Praying before a mirror, a person who has human faults that need to be addressed, is reflected. God is not one dimentional.
In Praying before the Eucharist in the Tabernacle you pray before God himself, and become aware of his perfections and power. There is no comparision and it should not be neglected because someone (a priest?) has come up with a way to distract people (Sister Sunita Pinto is very discerning) from adoration in Church, as it should be practiced. It is very dangerous to substitute this concentration on self.
Only one other being looks into a mirror and sees God. Satan.
August 22, 2008 at 5:55 am
Part of the problem in this world, is that we focus way too much on ourselves. This is just another New Age gimmick!
August 22, 2008 at 3:51 am
So .. . let me get this straight; instead of taking the focus off of ourselves and placing it on the one true God who is Jesus Christ, present in the tabernacle, we should place the focus on ourselves with the words "I am God" above in the mirror. I'm sorry, but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't this what Satan originally got man to do in the Garden of Eden?? WE CAN BE GOD! Focus on ourselves! Get the focus off of Christ! Just who is it that would like man to do that? God or Satan??
August 22, 2008 at 2:12 am
Beautiful article, but for one factor...We need to be feed with the nourishment of the Eucharist in order to see the Christ within.
August 22, 2008 at 1:15 am
What rubbish. This is nothing more than New Age and any other so-called "religion." The purpose of our Faith is to worship God, not ourselves. I hope the local Catholic bishop will denounce this. One does not have to go to a place to worship oneself in the mirror. I also believe Satan can use this as a ruse to woo us away from the living God. Without him are are nothing
August 22, 2008 at 12:38 am
Sounds like New Age, looks like New Age, must be NA. I would prefer holy statues, the tabernacle or pictures of our Lord over a mirror and day. Just another way that NA has seaped into our culture and unsuspecting individuals are falling for it. However, it is even more sad when the religious fall for it.
August 21, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Though the idea is nice to help other people know that all of us are children of God therefore we shouldn't be harming one another,however, there is a dangerous doctrinal error here in praying before a mirror instead of in front of the BODY and BLOOD of JESUS who is TRULY PRESENT in the TABERNACLE. This is reflected by the comment of the sister that the meditation room is a more important place of prayer than the TABERNACLE. If she has not been moved to love others while praying in front of Jesus, it is because she has not fully grasp the command of Christ to love others as he/she love himself. I think that to simply remind people about it frequently is enough to change our attitude towards others not necessarily having to pray in front of the mirror. This could lead to heretical views and watering down on the teachings of Christ and the Church. Look at the movement of Focolare founded by Chiara Lubich. They have learned to reorient their attitude towards living peacefully and amicably towards other people by praying in front of the Tabernacle and Blessed Sacrament and not towards themselves which actually is going to lead to idolatry soon afterwards. I hope the doctrinal ideas of this sister can be corrected because it is dangerous.
August 21, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Cafeteria "Catholicism" with "butterflies and be myself" theology!
Trendy,"ear tickling" and twisted.
August 21, 2008 at 10:02 pm
This is nothing more than taking true worship away from the Creator God and placing it on man, the creation. The 'Catholic' priest who started this is going to be accountable for this travesty of our faith. I pray that his conscience awakens before he faces Almighty God, either during the Warning or upon his earthly death. The centre of our faith is Christ - his life and atoning death on the Cross is what our faith is based on. Furthermore He is truly present in the consecrated host kept in the Tabernacle, front and center of the church. To substitute the Tabernacle for anything else is idolatry.
August 21, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Simply marvellous!
It's true the more you do good to others and harbour no hatred in your heart the reflection of God surely shines in your face and one is truely transformed by His appearance and that is the proof of your good actions.
August 21, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Re: She also discovered "more meaning" in praying before the mirror than meditating before the tabernacle or in a church. "God is merciful, beautiful, kind and compassionate, and so am I, because God is within me,"
Yes, God may be within you, but He is truly, substantially, and totally present..... Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist and you think looking in a mirror stimulates a greater intimacy in prayer?
Let us all go out and buy a mirrorso we can admire 'God within us' instead of paying Him homage in Eucharistic Adoration.
This, from a 'catholic' (?) priest and nun leading the poorly catechized into more and more Eastern mysticism! Wolves in sheep's clothes!
God forgive us for we know not what we do.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths”
(2 Timothy 3:1; 4: 3-4).
August 21, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Well, the priest seems to have succeeded in turning the Sisters and others away from Jeus and Christianity. Thanks, Fr. Relativism! These nuns began with a strong devotion rooted in Christ and the Holy Eucharist, and now you have taught them to abandon Our Lord in favor of the panteheistic idea of worshipping themselves! Wonderful! (Christians worship the Creator, not the creation!!!!!!)
August 21, 2008 at 8:58 pm
This type of spirituality, that of saying that God is in everyone and that you just have to look to yourself to find God, is an anti-thesis to scripture and the Doctors and other teaching authority in the Catholic Church. This congregation has gone over to "rationalism" and a spirituality that is NOT authentic in origin. An authentic spirituality involves looking at the Cross and going outside yourself to find the supernatural. Those Baptized Christians who don't have any deadly or mortal sins on their souls have souls that are Temples of the Holy Spirit, but to say that everyone has God in them, is theologically in correct. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other documents, not this order. Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II's letter on the year of the Eucharist explains, fully, that the Eucharist and Adoration before the Tabernacle whether exposed in the Monstrance or hidden behind the veil, is the source and summit of an authentic spirituality in our Christian lives. May God richly Bless you with wisdom and understanding.
August 21, 2008 at 8:57 pm
This type of spirituality, that of saying that God is in everyone and that you just have to look to yourself to find God, is an anti-thesis to scripture and the Doctors and other teaching authority in the Catholic Church. This congregation has gone over to "rationalism" and a spirituality that is NOT authentic in origin. An authentic spirituality involves looking at the Cross and going outside yourself to find the supernatural. Those Baptized Christians who don't have any deadly or mortal sins on their souls have souls that are Temples of the Holy Spirit, but to say that everyone has God in them, is theologically in correct. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other documents, not this order. Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Pope John Paul II's letter on the year of the Eucharist explains, fully, that the Eucharist and Adoration before the Tabernacle whether exposed in the Monstrance or hidden behind the veil, is the source and summit of an authentic spirituality in our Christian lives. May God richly Bless you with wisdom and understanding.
August 21, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I FOUND THIS ARTICLE AN ATTACK ON THE HOLY EUCHARIST ,IIT IS GOD ALONE WE WORSHIP ,NOT OURSELVES,WHICH YOU CLEARLY DO IN THIS NEW AGE "MIRROR CULT."
August 21, 2008 at 8:07 pm
This is not Catholic or Christian. It is "new age" or worse. Just because a Catholic priest set it up does not make it good or right. May God have mercy on those who it's all about "me". It is NOT all about us, it is all about our Creator and Lord, Jesus Christ who died for our sins and showed us how to live for others (not for ourselves). May God enlighted this priest and those who are misled by his "invention".