Posted on 05/08/2005 3:56:34 PM PDT by NYer
The First Commandment is "I am the Lord Thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me." But, according to one local convert from the New Age, San Diego Catholics who aspire to know their God better are sometimes presented with information on strange gods instead.
Moira Noonan, a resident of Encinitas, authored Ransomed From Darkness which tells the story of her conversion from New Age spirituality to the Catholic faith. Noonan believes most Catholics are being insidiously exposed to New Age ideas in the Church.
How long have you been a Catholic?
I finished RCIA about 10 years ago. Actually, I was baptized Catholic and attended Catholic school as a little kid. New Agers are constantly searching, always looking for something new. The first true — I hate to say it — 'enlightenment' which dawned on me was that I didn't want to be reincarnated. And I thought, "How do I get off this wheel of reincarnation?" I remembered something from when I was a [Catholic] kid about 'eternal life.' Yet I was constantly being bombarded with reincarnation in the New Age. I just said, 'I don't want to come back. If there is eternal life, or if any of those Sacred Heart nuns who taught me as a kid are in eternal life now, won't you pray for me right now?' It triggered something.
Reincarnation is one of the biggest demonic heresies in the world. When you consider how much of the world's population believes in reincarnation, it's scary. All New Agers believe it. And most of the people I knew in the New Age were fallen-away Catholics.
What do people mean when they say, "I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual?"?
"Spiritual" seems to be one of the trendy catch words coming out of the New Age movement, because New Agers never say, "I'm of this faith" or "that faith". What they say is, "I'm spiritual" because the New Age movement came from the spiritualist movement. The spiritualist movement was a big movement in America around the turn of the century, with people like Madam Blavatsky. This all came from the time when people started believing in Darwinism. We didn't need God anymore. Now people are saying that they are "spiritual." We don't need any religious truth or religious facts, because we can make up our own gods again.
Is their any link between homosexuality's ascendancy and the New Age movement?
I don't recall seeing homosexuals in the New Age movement, or at least I never met any. They seem to prefer to stay in their own community. But apparently now the lesbian movement is huge in the New Age. This is what's happened to some women's religious orders. Many of them were feminists who turned to Wicca or white witchcraft. It's much more pervasive on the East Coast and, thankfully, I was never a part of any of that. I agree with our Church['s position] that it [homosexuality] is gravely disordered.
I used to go to confession at the Cathedral downtown. One time, when I walked in, I saw a book on the Enneagram (a New Age personality type test) sitting on the priest's chair. What's wrong with the Enneagram?
First off, the Enneagram is being used in almost every Catholic spiritual direction and retreat house in America. It's now the main tool for teaching people how to do spiritual direction. Its origins are occult, not Christian. Now why is this different than using traditional Catholic spiritual direction and counseling, such as St. Ignatius of Loyola's exercises to discern God's will? The Enneagram isn't about working with God's will or understanding it, it's all about personality. It's a personality exercise, not spiritual, and it's not based on God's will. It relies on the human spirit, rather than something divine."
So where is this New Age infiltration happening in the Church in San Diego?
I really don't want to mention these sisters by name, because some of them were very helpful in my conversion a long time ago. I can tell you that they are in a beach community where they operate a retreat house. They also use the Celestine Prophecy for spiritual direction. The Celestine Prophecy was a popular New Age novel which, like the Da Vinci Code, was taken as fact but in reality slanders the Catholic Church. It enjoyed a brief vogue in the 1990s. It's all about developing psychic powers. I was a former New Ager and I sure didn't need these nuns teaching me New Age stuff after leaving the New Age movement. After that experience, thank goodness, a priest from out of state got me to go to Prince of Peace Abbey for spiritual direction. And that is the only place I would recommend anyone in San Diego to go."
For some time now, the La Providencia retreat center in Alpine has been offering Reiki. It's been said that Reiki is just a type of massage therapy. Is that correct?
I don't know anything about La Providencia, but I can tell you about Reiki. Reiki is psychic healing. It is not reconcilable in any way, shape, or form with the Catholic Church, because it uses spirit guides. Spirit guides are fallen angels — not guardian angels but deceivers. It's not Swedish massage. It's occult massage. In order to do Reiki, you have to follow a master. It's like being consecrated to a guru or master. I can say that, because I was an advanced Reiki master healer.
Some photos posted on the internet from Cardinal Mahony's latest religious education congress, show people walking around through labyrinths.
They're using labyrinths in Christian churches and New Age churches. The big difference is that in the New Age churches, they are doing it to a mantra. If it's done in a Christian setting and with a Christian mindset, then I wouldn't have any objection to it.
Does the San Diego diocese contribute to this New Age contamination?
I can tell you that here in North County, there is a coastal parish where I just finished a basic catechist course — I really don't want to mention it by name -- that is so bad you cannot believe it. This is where they are training people to be religious education teachers in parishes. I was told by this instructor not to mention Mary, the rosary, statues, novenas or "any of that superstitious stuff." This is the director of religious education for that parish who teaches the class. It was so unbelievably awful. And, just as in the New Age, he told us that no stories in the Bible were literal events." He said that the Bible is, "nothing but stories, not an accurate account."
Yes - the slate shingles were effective, albeit one small leak.
No photos online yet. Good thing because the front steps are missing and many of the windows are still boarded up (to prevent vandalism).
Despite the dust, cobwebs, stacked up hymnals, peeling paint and moth eaten choir robes, Father has a clear vision of how the church will look when the restoration is completed. We are all working industriously on fundraisers, to help him accomplish this goal.
Benedict XVI understands his primary role of defending the faith. "The Faith" can seem a very nebulous thing. My hunch is that Benedict XVI will first set out to clearly define the "borders" of the faith. This defining of the the borders will push the corruption out of the Church. We may well "lose" some hospitals, schools, universities, polititians and no doubt members. But when that time comes remember, the Church never really "had" them to lose anyway. They were not assets. Then the borders will be defended as in any proper defense. The anti-Catholic rot like we read about here will be shown for what it is in due time.
Is it just happenstance that Scientology uses similar terminology?
Hardly happenstance, in my opinion.
You can do it on yourself though the true 'hard core' work is done with another person.
Be extremely EXTREMELY careful if you are doing reiki. In fact, STOP DOING IT. I've dealt with a few Catholics (and Catholic nuns) who practice reiki, and it's an extremely slippery slope. There's a spiritual battle going on in the world and the enemy will be happy to make use of our hands to take the focus off of God and put it on our own self-empowerment instead...
I'm not casually throwing this out there. I've seen the damage it does to the Catholic faith of its practitioners...
Thanks for the warning. Actually, I've not kept up on the lessons. I'm most interested in juicing, exercise and the raw food diet. I do have an open mind when coming to alternative therapy BUT not so open my brains fall out. I notice that a lot of Catholics do have issues with staying in the faith and not just with new age thought. A person can attend mass and find the most core concepts of the new age right in the mass. At least that's how I see it. To me there's nothing more self empowering than God in Jesus. Saying the rosary is a comtemplative act that can put someone in a real altered state. When I used to go to wiccan gatherings most all of the wiccans were ex-catholics. I can talk more about this but this post is long already.
What a mess. Hidden away, in some of the hundreds of parishes in California, are good and holy priests toiling away in anonymity, serving the flock with total abandonment to God... sigh
Reiki isn't for everyone. Every reiki practioner is different and a person should inquire into what they believe first.
It's not necessary nor more or less beneficial to receive communion under the species of wine. It shouldn't be a spectacle.
The article I cited is a critique of the information provided by The International Center for Reiki Training website, specifically how it is not compatible with the Catholic faith. I offer the information for your education only, which of course you are free to ignore.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
It was focusing on children from around the world which were the biggest numbers of guests at this educational forum.
For children, it does need to be bright, exciting, entertaining and a bit over the top to keep their interest.
I don't know if you realized this was for kids, but for kids you do lots of meaningless cute stuff that's important for them that as adults we could care less about.
I've seen a greater percentage of kids pay attention to a Latin Mass then one of those "rally masses".
Sounds great, but this was an education CCD forum for kids around the world who came here to give exhibitions of their culture and how it is expressed in their worship at their homes.
It wasn't a mass alone. I think the mass represented about 1/50th perhaps of that event at most.
If the Mass wasn't the most important part of their conference, then I don't care what the rest of it was.
There was a disturbing presence in there- Seemed so inviting but something alien in the air. Just hearing Enya in a church was enough for me. I high-tailed it outta there after 5 minutes
This kundalini, earth blessing, whatever, thing -- was it something officially sanctioned by that church locally? Why are they there?
Why? Well, here's the proclamation from their own website. I guess worshipping Baal is tolerant and inclusive and fits their mission
"Holy Trinity is a unique church whose community is characterized by informality, where both traditional and contemporary worship are available. It is a church of inclusivity, both in language and comprehensive lay participation.At Holy Trinity warm human relationships are nurtured. We are involved in and develop work in many areas from music to homelessness, lunch to refugees. At the 10:30am Sunday service, people stand around the altar where concerns, joys and sorrows are spoken and the eucharist is shared around the circle."
"We are a community of artists, activists, theologians, cooks, writers, students, gay and straight, lay people and clerics. We are part of the Diocese of Toronto in Anglican Church of Canada and celebrate its tradition. At the same time we are unafraid to challenge what we believe to be wrong."
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