Other Christians, caught up in the movement towards openness and exchanges between various religions and cultures, are of the opinion that their prayer has much to gain from these methods. This psychological aspect is not dealt with in the present letter, which instead emphasises the theological and spiritual implications of the question. The spiritual restlessness arising from a life subjected to the driving pace of a technologically advanced society also brings a certain number of Christians to seek in these methods of prayer a path to interior peace and psychic balance. 1 Some people today turn to these methods for therapeutic reasons. Above all, the question concerns eastern methods. The ever more frequent contact with other religions and with their different styles and methods of prayer has, in recent decades, led many of the faithful to ask themselves what value non-Christian forms of meditation might have for Christians. These indications are addressed in the first place to the Bishops, to be considered in that spirit of pastoral solicitude for the Churches entrusted to them, so that the entire people of God-priests, religious and laity-may again be called to pray, with renewed vigor, to the Father through the Spirit of Christ our Lord.Ģ. This present letter seeks to reply to this urgent need, so that in the various particular Churches, the many different forms of prayer, including new ones, may never lose their correct personal and communitarian nature. Nevertheless, faced with this phenomenon, many feel the need for sure criteria of a doctrinal and pastoral character which might allow them to instruct others in prayer, in its numerous manifestations, while remaining faithful to the truth revealed in Jesus, by means of the genuine Tradition of the Church. The interest which in recent years has been awakened also among some Christians by forms of meditation associated with some eastern religions and their particular methods of prayer is a significant sign of this need for spiritual recollection and a deep contact with the divine mystery.
#My thoughts are not your thoughts sermon catholic how to#
Many Christians today have a keen desire to learn how to experience a deeper and authentic prayer life despite the not inconsiderable difficulties which modern culture places in the way of the need for silence, recollection and meditation. LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCHġ. He may be able to do it, but I have no reason to believe that he can.Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian Meditation – Orationis formasĬONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH Again, that may not necessarily be a divine power.
But other than that, I dont see any reason to believe that he could read your mind or read mine. He knew what Jesus was thinking because of what Jesus said.
In the Temptation he entered into dialogue with Jesus. Satan focused his assaults upon Jesus in the New Testament. He has all his little junior assistants, and he might send one of them to harass me and to tempt you and accuse you, but he’s going to save his time and energy for people of greater influence than me. So Satan cannot be at more than one place at a time. He’s a creature, and creatures by definition are limited spatially and temporally. I doubt that in my lifetime I will ever have to worry about Satan reading my mind, because I will probably never meet him. But Satan’s powers are not equal to God's.Ī similar question would be, Can Satan be at more than one place at a time? I would be inclined to say no. The tendency is for Christians to think that since God is a supernatural being and can read our minds, then Satan, also a supernatural being, must be able to read minds, too. He knows your thoughts as you think them-“There is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether” (Ps. They are more powerful than people but far less powerful than God. The Bible doesn’t give us an exhaustive list of the powers of angels. He is a creature with the limitations that are found normally with creatureliness. At the same time, I know that Satan is not divine he is not God, does not have divine powers or attributes. I know that Satan has more power than one would normally find among human beings. I am not certain by any means, nor do I have an exhaustive knowledge of the powers of Satan.
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