Posted on 08/20/2004 5:58:41 AM PDT by bufferina
This is my first post.
I am posting in the hope that someone can explain what happened at this healing retreat which I attended recently.
It was a healing retreat, but I am reluctant call it by name. The "leader" had given me a scholarship. I am sure she meant well.
The session on Friday lasted from about 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Up again at 7 a.m. on Saturday and the sessions were to have lasted until about the same time that night, so I was told. Sunday would have run from 8:30 until 5 p.m. I left at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
I left because (not wanting to be rude to my benefactor) I asked permission to miss the evening sessions to get some sleep. I am not lazy. I was not in denial as far as my needing to be there was concerned. I had been unable to sleep the night before and was so tired I felt sick to my stomach. All day, I fell asleep as others told their stories. I told several people how tired I was and no one heard me. One lady offered to prop me up! The leader told me I could sleep later on Sunday, but wake up was 8:30!!! I told her that if I couldn't sleep that evening, I was going to have to leave. She told me I had to explain to the entire group why I was leaving. I did. I was polite, of course, and thanked them for sharing the weekend with me.
At that point, the leader first threw the scholarship up in my face, then asked if the group leaders could pray over me. I apologized for having wasted the scholarship and declined on having them pray over me.
I left. One man in the group begged me to stay and told me he would not let me leave. I politely told him I really did need to leave, as I was very tired. At this point, a woman came after me, followed me to my room, sobbing, telling me she loved me and begged me to stay. She asked me if she could rock me like she rocked her children. Other women came in and did similar things. They told me they loved me and cried, sobbed. I was quite uncomfortable. I felt trapped.
All weekend long, sessions had been long, intense, symbolic and replete with praying over people (the leader's hands trambled in a strange way) and in the beginning, a sort of "purification" ceremony using salt to rid the room or area of evil? devils? demons? (I forget the word used) was held. In addition to being extremely tired, I think that I also might have needed some time away from the group and the activities. Traditional prayers were (Our Father, Hail Mary, Prayer to St. Michael) said during the retreat, but I don't remember the Sign of the Cross being made. Is that significant? Maybe it was never made.
Finally, a priest came in to talk to me. We had a nice talk. I e-mailed him after I got home and thanked him for befriending me. He did not respond to my e-mail. I knew him from long ago. He knew my family from the 1950s.
I feel diminished after the experience. It was Catholic and held at a Catholic Diocesean facility.
To say that I feel diminished is an understatement.
An English major, a writer -- I am at a total loss for words.....I do not feel healed. I could not go to Mass Sunday. I could not even pray a Rosary until Tuesday. Everyone else seemed to be doing just fine, healing, praying, etc. So the problem must have been me.
Can anyone shed light on this?
Sounds like you were manipulated and assaulted rather than healed. Don't hang out with those people anymore!
It is called P.C. psychobabble taught by the extremist leftists that have infiltrated into ALL the repigions and not just the Catholic Church.
This was instructed by Gramsci back in the early 20th century on how to destroy true religions and convert them all to STATE RELIGION.
wah!wah!wah! how do you expect to get by in the world when you can't get up by 0830 for a mere week and stay up past seven pm?
Then you mope around all day whining about how tired you are. Get real.
not a lot of sympathy here kiddo. grow up.
for the spelling gestapo....
repigions = religions (as if you couldn't tell)
Sounds like EST from the 80's. Trapped in a room without bathroom breaks and not knowing when the sessions would end. They ran from early morning to very late at night and the agenda was to help you obtain "breakthroughs". I admit I used it to get away from my current situation but it was manipulation from the get-go.
Let your faith settle back in. Your spirit is still intact in spite of the "healing" efforts. You're not broken, just temporarily shattered.
Creepy. Salt instead of Holy Water? No Sign of the Cross before beginning prayer?
Way too much emotionalism and it sounds more like some encounter session than therapeutic healing session. Was the facilitator a parish member or a social worker?
And yes, I'm Catholic. Healing prayers are just that and certainly do not require the presence of the afflicted.
Antonio Gramsci, 1891-1937
In 1919 an Italian socialist named Antonio Gramsci began to publish a newspaper in Milan called, L'Ordine Nuovo, or "The New Order." Loosely rendered, he concluded that the average person would never voluntarily reject the faith and culture of the West. He concluded that the best way to implement a collectivist government was to use an intellectual elite to destroy traditional values by attacking fundamental Jewish and Christian beliefs.
Antonio Gramsci, 1891-1937
...A. The New Order (L'Ordine Nuovo)
......1. Italian Communist newspaper, founded 1919
......2. Co-founder of Italian Communist Party, 1921
......3. Pre-Prison Writings, ed. Richard Bellamy (Cambridge, 1994)
......4. Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Intl. Publishers, 1971)
...B. Lenin was wrong, and the Leninist revolution will fail
......1. The workers will see the revolutionary government as a new boss
......2. When the revolution fails, the west will re-import Capitalism
...C. Gradual revolution through infiltration & subversion by revolutionaries
......1. Infiltrate the State: elective & appointed office; judgeships
......2. Infiltrate the military: enlist & subvert from within
......3. Infiltrate justice: undermine and discredit state constitutions
......4. Infiltrate education: professors & administrators
......5. Infiltrate & discredit religion: scoundrels as clergymen
......6. Register, then license, then confiscate all privately held weapons
...D. Form or infiltrate international organizations to promote goals such as "global understanding," "economic development," "transfer of resources"
...E. Both Capitalism and Judaeo-Christian culture must be destroyed before a Communist revolution can succeed
......1. Religious sentiment cannot be destroyed through legislation, as Lenin believed, but must be redirected from the divine to the state
.........a. Terror will only drive Religion underground
.........b. Religion will then reemerge when Leninism fails
.........c. So Religion must be destroyed in the minds of men
......2. Infiltrate religious academies and become priests and clergymen
.........a. Subtly promote heresy within religious organizations
.........b. Infiltrators must act so as to discredit the church
............(1) Cause financial and sexual scandals
............(2) See that this is given a high profile in the news
............(3) Like-minded infiltrators in the media will cooperate
......3. Once religion is discredited from within, continuously promote the idea that only the state can solve the problems that have been traditionally brought before the church
...F. When propagating revolutionary ideas, cloak them in polite terms
......1. National Consensus
......2. Popular Mandate
......3. National Pacification
......4. Pluralism
......5. Global Community
......6. Economic Justice
......7. Economic Democracy
......8. Liberation Theology
......9. Direct Action
...G. Marxists "must enter into every civil, cultural, and political activity in every nation, leavening them as yeast leavens bread."
'Stay away' is good advice.
Sounds more like witchcraft than Catholicism.
What a group of nutcases..... run far away from them and never look back.
Are you saying that the magic spell was cast properly and since nothing happened you must be wrong?
Last time I checked Christianity did not have any magic spells. In fact, Christianity is dead-set against magic spells. We do not manipulate G-d, we serve Him.
There is disease in the world due to its fallen nature. We all die due to the world's fallen nature. Sometimes G-d chooses to heal people miraculously, but He does so for His reasons, not because we cast magic spells that obligate Him to act.
If you are not well, seek prayer, medicine, holistic life changes, and whatever else you can to heal you of your illness. If none of it works, seek G-d's will in your illness and continue to serve Him as your strength allows. When you die, you will be healed. You will also stand before Him who will say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Now enter into your reward."
Shalom.
I bet it was a..
Hot August night
And the leaves hanging down
And the grass on the ground smelling sweet
Move up the road
To the outside of town
And the sound of that good gospel beat
Sits a ragged tent
Where there ain't no trees
And that gospel group
Telling you and me
It's Love, Love
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone knows
Brother Love's show
Room gets suddenly still
And when you'd almost bet
You could hear yourself sweat, he walks in
Eyes black as coal
And when he lifts his face
Every ear in the place is on him
Starting soft and slow
Like a small earthquake
And when he lets go
Half the valley shakes
It's Love, Love
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone knows
Brother Love's show
(sermon)
Take my hand in your hand
Walk with me this day
In my heart I know
I will never stray
Halle, halle, halle, halle, halle, halle, halle
It's Love, Love
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
Pack up the babies
Grab the old ladies
Everyone goes
Everyone knows
Brother Love's show
Amen
If I were you, I'd steer well clear of these folks in the future. They sound like stone wackjobs to me. Would you be interested in disclosing the name of this group on this forum?
You shouldn't blame yourself. I hope you are reading some CS Lewis, or have read some in the past. Look through his Screwtape Letters - it will aid you in your discernment, I think.
Avoid them like the plague. They sound like some new age feel good crap filled bunch that have based ther religion on Care Bears cartoons (BTW, my 3 year old loves the Care Bears but their message is "Everything can be fixed if you only care enough", decidely liberal).
Lack of adequate sleep has been shown to CAUSE physical problems.
I hear that They're comin' to America....TODAY
Perfect recipe that Marx's children are implementing today, here.
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