Centering Prayer In The Archdiocese Of Washington

In the January 2014 issue of Our Parish Times appeared the article to the left.  St. Elizabeth Church in Rockville, MD  is touting its "centering prayer" program.  I believe the term "centering prayer" is an oxymoron.  In reality, it's new-age spiritual poison, having roots in Hinduism.  Notice this sentence in the article: "Meditation in centering prayer is done with a much more conscious effort at letting go of our control over our thoughts..".  This is absolutely dangerous, for it leaves the human mind open to all sorts of influences, including those of diabolic origin.

Catholic Culture puts forth an excellent treatment of this practice, detailing its roots in eastern cults and its de facto idolization of man in opposition to God.

As you read this article, it becomes clear that the author is woefully ignorant of the spiritual dangers of "centering prayer".  At least I hope it's just a case of mere ignorance, as opposed to flat out defiance of the Magisterium.  I do find myself bemused that this article would see the light of day.  The publishers of Our Parish Times have in the past been involved in "rescues" at local abortion mills; how they could be so blithely allow this to be published is beyond me.

I've seen this "centering prayer" in the bulletins of other parishes, as well but can't recall which ones.  As I learn of these I will post.  Concerned Catholics are urged to alert their pastors to this menace.  Please keep this blog posted as well, and advise us if your concerns fall on deaf ears.

Envirowhacko Elf Lobby Of Iceland

Yes, you read that headline correctly.  I too am having difficulty believing that people take this seriously.  In Iceland, a highway project was halted because the proposed highway because (wait for it!) elves living there might be disturbed.  When I first saw this on Facebook, I truly thought this was a spoof.  However, when I saw this in the Guardian and the Atlantic I realized this story was factual.

Of particular concern (?) to the group filing suit on behalf of the elves (are these elves paying nice retainers?), is a rock formation that the self-appointed elf guardians know to be an "elf church".  Howe do they know?  Why, they "sense the energy"!  Silly me, why didn't I think of that?

In Maryland, we finally saw the construction of the Intercounty Connector (MD Rte 200).  That too was held up for decades because of envirowhacko concerns.  To the best of my knowledge, zeal for elves never factored into the debate.  Because of all the new-agey schlock that oozes out of progressive pores everywhere, though, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to learn that elves were an unacknowledged motive for opposition to the ICC.

But we must consider another factor.  Iceland is close to the North Pole.  Maybe these elves are employed by Santa Clause!  After a busy season, these poor elves are in need of a little vacation.  Should a bunch of bulldozers disturb their "down time", perhaps these elves may be poorly disposed to make fun toys for us next Christmas!  Golly gee!  Maybe we should think twice about this???  (Yes, ladies and gentlemen.  You may regard this paragraph as sarcasm.)

I would say that is the comedy to cap off 2013 - if there weren't actually people who took it seriously.  That is a tad disconcerting.  Have a blessed New Year's anyway.

Abortion And Witchcraft

Recently Pope Benedict XVI went to Africa.  While in Angola, he denounced the child sacrifice that is practiced by some of the native religions.  Before anyone accuses me of being "anti-African" or other such nonsense, let me state quite plainly that such occurrences abound in these United States, too.  Several years ago, I did sidewalk counseling at the now-closed Hillcrest Women's Surgicenter on Georgia Avenue, just inside the DC line.  Several of the "pro-choice escorts" were quite involved in Wicca; they had no bones about letting us hear of their escapades.  On another occasion, I was in a bookstore.  A headline on a new-agey type of magazine caught my eye; it read "A prayer before abortion".  I bought it just so I could read this "prayer".  It was full of wiccan imagry as this so-called "spiritual" person was about to murder her own child.  Now watch this video below.  Click here if you can't see embedded video.

If Your Lenten Observance Was Lacking, There's Hope!

Thanks to my colleague at Acts of the Apostacy (right side bar), you can engage in some much-needed mortification.  See if you can make it through this "sensitive, metro-sexual" drip without either:

1. Losing your temper and uttering all kinds of unprintable language, or
2. Laughing until tears are streaming down your face.

I failed!  I gave into the second one.  Sheesh!  I couldn't dream up this kind of crap to save my life!  Talk about rolling up new age, socialism, envirowhackoism, androgeny and goddess worship into one gloppy mess and delivering it with syrupy violin music!

Parents!  Don't let your sons grow up to be like these wusses!  And for heaven's sake - don't let your daughters look up to these pseudo-sensitive wimps!

And now, let the post-lenten mortification begin!  Click here if you can't see embedded video.

Shhhh! Richard Rohr's Coming To DC! Big Secret!

At least, it seems that the Franciscan Monastery in Washington DC tried to keep it a secret!  And why do I think they tried to keep Fr Rohr's appearance "on the q-t"?  Well, let's go to the Monastery's web page.  Look to the right under "events".  Notice how all the events are fairly well-described, except one!  It's called "October 23, 2010 Event."  Now doesn't that seem like an odd way to publicize an event?  I might think that if one were trying to draw attention, they might do something better than give it that non-descript title.  Could it be that the Franciscans simply don't want to draw attention to it?  Now why wouldn't they want to do that???  

Let's sneak a peak by clicking on that date (or this link if you'd prefer).
Ooops!  No details there, but it looks like we have a choice of pdfs.  Let's click on the first one called "October 23, 2010 Event.pdf".   Therein lie the details of the appearance.  I suspect they didn't want decent Catholics to get wind of this as we did with their Chris Matthews dissent fest in late June.  Remember that?  They were so reluctant to face us that night that they had to sneak away to some secret location in Bethesda Maryland (they sure do love secrets, don't they?).  Now some might point out that these folks weren't trying to keep Rohr's appearance a secret, since it is in the pdf file.  I think they were.  Rohr was only mentioned in a pdf file.  Pdf files are essentially grraphics; their contents cannot be googled.