There is a great longing within each soul to become more than what it presently is, a yearning for some meaning and also to embrace the wonder years we left behind once childhood finished. In our yearning for this unspoken longing to become that which is the promise of who we can become has led many to embrace a spiritual alchemy of various different spiritualities which lack the solid foundation of the Catholic Church's Teachings.
We see this in those who wish to embrace various forms of 'spiritualities' in their daily life as they try and fill the void they feel within the depths of their soul with alternative beliefs such as embracing 'the feminine spirit' or a belief in 'the cosmic Christ' another belief is that all things both spiritual and temporal have their own 'karma'. All this sounds very enticing and radical, but it is not the spiritual elixir that will fill the longing that we all have to become the promise of whom we are meant to become.
The word that is missing in all this spiritual alchemy is religion, those who embrace this form of superficial spirituality deny that we need an 'organized religion' as if religion had become a dirty word or that it has dictatorial overtones. Another word that is missing from this mixture of beliefs is the diabolical for to those who believe and embrace this spiritual alchemy deny the existence of the Devil, therefore there is no Satan and no hell. Does this mean there is also no God? No Jesus? And therefore no Resurrection? What then is their guiding principle? Or is principles another 'dirty word' for this spiritual melting pot?
When one denies the existence of the Devil then they also must call God a liar, for sin came into the world through the temptation of the Devil as Eve and then Adam were seduced into a longing to become like gods, does this have a familiar ring? Does not all these radical spiritualities also promise us that we too can become our own gods? As many race out to buy their crystals, sacred rocks, wiccan staffs, tinkling cymbals all of this so they may feel a temporary spiritual fix rather like a drug addict who needs their next injection of illicit drugs to maintain their imaginary and transient feeling of 'nirvana'.
All of these spiritual alchemies have the element of the occult within them therefore they will deny the existence of the Devil, by rationalising sin and evil as mere expressions of our 'woundedness', but what they fail to explain is where is the source of evil? If evil can only be overcome through man's own 'power' does this not lead to an endless hopelessness as evil perpetuates itself with no end in sight for if there is no source of evil then there is also no source of goodness. This kind of spiritual mumbo jumbo must acknowledge that if Satan does not exist neither does God exist, therefore there is no hope for any of us.
In many forms of transcendental meditation, the spiritual guru will suggest that man use 'spirit guides', these 'spirit guides' are not to be confused with The Holy Spirit, the 'spirit guides' are little more than dressed up demons masquerading as enlightened beings to dim the senses of the unwary. As Scripture warns us, 'Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way. You, however, must be altogether sincere toward the LORD, your God. Though these nations whom you are to dispossess listen to their soothsayers and fortune-tellers, the LORD, your God, will not permit you to do so.' This means that even TV shows that promote communicating to the dead is an abomination to God, they too are mere 'soothsayers'. Even more seriously to those who seek to know where their loved one has passed on are lacking in trust of God and His Love, for is a TV presenter more worthy of notice than God's Word? What's next contacting God Himself for evidence that Jesus is in Heaven?
All these spiritual elixirs are taking the place of true religious Mysticism through sheer laziness, for to truly embrace the Word of God means we must become less focused on our self and more on service to others, whereas these bogus spiritualities focus entirely on self service and self seeking. We are not here to gratify ourselves that is not the message of Jesus, we are instead to empty ourselves of all self love and instead embrace and live the message of the Gospel, to love one another as God loves each of us. This form of love takes effort and unselfishness something that the bogus spiritualities would rather ignore as they promote self love and self gratification.
To deny the existence of evil is to deny the existence of the Devil and in order to do this we must also deny the existence of God as we are our own goodness our own source of enlightenment, this is the fundamental belief of all 'feel good spiritualities'. This teaching is also outside of the Catholic Church and to those who embrace it, who still proclaim themselves 'catholic' have become Apostates to the Faithful and a source of scandal!
This is an excerpt from one of these enlightened 'Catholics' who has written a book about what he perceives sin to be, " Is sin, then, not an energy (chakra) that is off center or missing the mark? Is sin not a love energy (chakra) that is misdirected? Might the chakra tradition of the East not shed light on what we in the West call sin? And might our understanding of sin also contribute to a deepening of the meaning of chakra? In Part III, when I discuss the seven capital sins and their "offspring" at some length, I conclude each chapter with a brief discussion of the traditional sacrament that corresponds to the chakra at issue and I offer practical exercises that persons can do to cleanse themselves of the "misdirection" associated with the particular chakra."
What does the Catholic Church say, "Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods," knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to contempt of God." In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation." In the Catechism there is no mention of 'chakra' is the Church wrong? Is it misguided or deluded? When one questions the validity of the Church, they then even if the words remain unspoken are proclaiming that the Catholic Church is not only deluded it is itself in error! Let us look to Scripture, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts and bestow on us righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on sin." Is the Word of God wrong was it written by deluded fools? For according to the new age spiritual soothsayers there is no sin!
Once again from a 'catholic writer' he see's sin as such, "All sin has a history. In this book I try to re-contextualize evil and humanity's complicity in it within a post-modern world view, one that begins with a scientific cosmology and a creation-centered spirituality....By returning to the sins of the spirit and the blessings of the flesh, we are paying attention to the wisdom of our ancestors whose awareness of spirit-sin was in many ways far more nuanced and developed than the moral agenda as it has come to us during the modern era. Life in the premodern era was lived closer to the earth and closer to the flesh. The mechanistic consciousness of the Newtonian era effectively removed the living flesh from the universe, assuring us that only humans and the food we ate were flesh. Today's cosmology, on the other hand, reintroduces us to the "fleshiness" of existence--all beings, even stars and galaxies--live, die and resurrect in their fashion and all are made of similar elements or stuff."
Once again we see this bogus 'spirituality' speak prattle that is not only nonsensical it is diabolical in nature, for it makes man as its own god its own creator and its own forgiver of their own sin for sin is no longer sin but a 'blessing! Once again let us look to the Catholic Catechism, and find out the reason for our existence, "God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life. "
Once a person opens the spiritual 'Pandora's box' they also leave themselves open for the evil one to enter the hearts of the unwary as they embrace this new age way of believing in...nothing!
We have within the heart of the Catholic Church a deep and integral Mysticism that goes directly to the heart of God Himself. Through the Saints and Mystics of our Church they have shed light on a path that will bring us closer to God and allow God to transform us into living Christ's if we give the Triune Spirit our own fiat. We also have the Sacraments which also unites us with God through the Sacrament of Penance and the Receiving of the Eucharist, we are made whole in Christ and one within the Divine as adopted children of the Father, through the Salvific death and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
There can be NO marriage between the Catholic Church and other forms of spirituality which deny the Revelatory Salvation found only through Jesus Christ, for to deny this Truth is to deny Christ Himself. Once again Scripture warns us, 'Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.'
We are not here to serve ourselves or to make others feel comfortable if they have embraced wrong beliefs or willfully choose to sin thereby making themselves in league with the Devil. We are here to bear witness to the Truth, not our interpretation of truth but Divine Truth as has been handed down by the Catholic Church. To believe anything other than this is to live outside of the one Holy and Apostolic Church, thereby making themselves...Apostates!
Peace of Christ to ALL
Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.
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