Yoga

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God is the creator of all. Jesus is homoousious with the Father. He is one in being with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. We are created by God. We are creatures and God is the creator. When we pray, we pray in a relational way. God is other than man. We retain our identity, so much so that the day we die on the last day of judgment the body will rise and will be reunited to the soul for all eternity. We will not lose our identity. God created us good and it is what we do that is good or bad.

We have a "tool box" of talents and gifts to use for the glory and praise of God. Eastern religion denies the individuality of every human being and places salvation not in Jesus the Christ but in the individuals efforts.

A practice that takes Jesus out, it is not Christian, and Yoga takes Jesus out of what it calls meditation. We need to understand that only through Christ there is salvation. Ours is a Christ centered prayer, not a self-centered prayer.

Read the debates of the Early Church Fathers. E.g. The Council of Nicea, of Constantinople, of Ephesus, of Chalcedon. The first ecumenical councils had to do with Jesus, with his divine and human nature.

[John 3:16] For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

[John 3:17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

[John 3:18] Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

[John 3:19] And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.

[John 3:20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.

[John 3:21] But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Do not be deceived by Yoga practices that search for new revelations, like the gnostic did. Do not walk away from Christianity in search of better techniques. The way to the Father is Jesus. Keep Jesus in Christianity.

Nostrae Aetate said that in every religion there is an element of truth but it did not say that every religion is truth. The truth is in Jesus Christ. We respect all religions and their right to exist, but it does not mean that we deny our own. We cannot deny Jesus Christ. We have the full revelation of God is Jesus Christ. Every human being longs for God and left alone will search for God in its own way. The search is over for Christians. Christ is the full revelation of God. We do not need to search any further.

As Catholics, we have it even sweeter. The holy Eucharist is the real body and blood of Christ and Eastern meditation should be replaced by Eucharistic adoration. Instead of moving in, we need to move out in adoration of real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Marta

LEAP OF FAITH
http://faithleap.home.att.net

122804

Additional Insight

Yoga is the initiation into a religion. The advertisement in our society is that it is an exercise to make you physically fit.

The god they are talking about in Yoga is energy. The ultimate goal of a yogi is to be able to unite itself to that energy. Talking about a self-sufficient individualistic society- That is the proof of its popularity. The individual works for its own salvation and if it does not work in this life- They believe in reincarnation- They come back.

We Catholic and Christians believe that God is the creator and that he made us his creatures. That God himself- Jesus Christ - true God and True man- came to redeem us and through Jesus Christ the doors of heaven were opened to humanity to enter heaven after life on this earth. The Holy Spirit- one of three person in the trinity - dwell with us and in his wisdom guides us and protect us. The Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ with Peter as the first Pope is here on earth as our home of faith to share with us the mysteries of our faith and gift us with the sacraments in this our earthly journey.

We, Creatures, are good- contrary to Yoga that things that the body and material things are no good - Jesus Christ redeemed us and redeemed nature when he came. We through baptism are born again and we will lead this life and make decisions which will affect our afterlife. We will be judged the day we die, and on the last judgment our bodies will rise from the grave and will be reunited with our souls and live forever in eternity in heaven or in hell.

If we want to exercise while praying, let us learn once again to kneel in adoration while praying.

Let us go to daily mass and communion.

Let us pray the rosary in family, everyday.

Let us take a stroll in the park together as a family.

Let us take care of our children, our spouses, our parents, our relatives.

Let us be responsible to offer friendship and counsel to the lonely and poor.

Let us do as Jesus did and keep our eyes in the faith of our father and not try to search for old ways of heresy like Yoga which were present with the agnostics in the Early Church and which keep on popping up through out the ages to take the human creatures away from their redeemer Jesus Christ, true God and true Man and the source of our salvation.

Let us love one another as God loves us.

Marta

LEAP OF FAITH
http://faithleap.home.att.net

011108

Informational Bibliography

Click on the underlined title and it will take you to the source of the hyperlink.

Notice a few months after writing this article the Vatican published a document on New Age:-
I am including it, because of its importance:

Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue,
Jesus Christ The Bearer of the Water of Life. A Christian Reflection on the New Age,
Vatican City, 2003.

Carrera, Archbishop Norberto Rivera. “A Call to Vigilance -Pastoral Instruction on New Age” Mexico City, Mexico. January 7, 1996. in the August/September 1996 Issue of Catholic International.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Declaration 'Dominus Iesus' on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church.” www.vatican.va The Vatican Sept. 2000.

Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, “Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian.” www.vatican.va The Vatican . May 24, 1990

Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter for the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation” www.vatican.va The Vatican October 15, 1989.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Notification Concerning the Writings of Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J.” Vatican Information Service, August 22, 1998.

Dreher, Rev. John D. “The Danger of Centering Prayer.” http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0005.html

Gessy, Rev. Lawrence J. “The Basic Conflicts between Mahrishi and Christianity.” Today’s Destructive Cults and Movements, Our Sunday Visitor:Huntington, IN.

Gormley, William J., C.M., S.T.L. Medical Hypnosis, Historical Introduction to Its Morality in the Light of Papal, Theological and Medical Teaching – A Dissertation. The Catholic University of America Press:Washington, D.C. (1961)

Hardon, Fr. John A. S.J. “Why is Yoga incompatible with Catholicism? - Ask Father Hardon” The Catholic Faith 4, no. 2. Ignatius Press: San Francisco, CA. (March/April 1998)

Notra Aetate - Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions www.vatican.va The Vatican (1965).

Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ The Bearer of the Water of Life. A Christian Reflection on the New Age, Vatican City, 2003.

St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei

The New American Bible at http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/index.htm

Tweed, Thomas A. and Prothero, Stephen A. Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Compiled by Marta- LEAP OF FAITH – http://faithleap.home.att.net

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JESUS CHRIST
THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE
A Christian reflection on the “New Age”