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Published: June 11, 2007
“The stuff of our spirituality”
Retreat on yoga as means of spiritual discernment held in Oakland diocese
The Diocese of Oakland announced a June 8-10 retreat at Vallombrosa Center in Menlo Park: “Prayer of Heart and Body: Mediation and Yoga as Christian Spiritual Practice.”
 “The postures of yoga can powerfully express the attitude of the heart and the thoughts of the mind through the medium of the body,” said the diocese’s May 22 Administrative Weekly. “As Easterners and Westerners share notes with one another on the spiritual journey, Christians are discovering ways to help put into practice their own positive convictions about the body as a vehicle of grace.”
Leading the retreat was Paulist Father Tom Ryan, who, according to the Weekly, “lives in Washington, DC and works in ecumenical and interfaith relations.” Ryan has written books on yoga and Christian spiritual practice and has a DVD, Yoga Prayer. [An excerpt from this video, “Stretch with Fr. Tom,” features Ryan, in an orange t-shirt, brown trousers, and barefoot, doing stretching exercises. The set features candles and a Celtic cross. The musical accompaniment is “Rejoice and Be Glad (For Yours is the Kingdom of God.).”]
In an essay on his web site, “Christians Practicing Yoga,” Ryan explains that though Christianity “has the highest theological evaluation of the body amongst all the religions of the world,” it “has given little attention to the body’s role in the spiritual life in positive terms. High theology; low practice.”
Because of the Incarnation, says Ryan, Christians “have no right to dismiss the world as some second-rate practice field for the real life in heaven... all flesh is holy and the ground of all human endeavors is sacred. It is in these bodies that we will work out our salvation. Since the only life we know is earthly and sensual, it follows that this is the stuff of our spirituality.”
Ryan says he wants to unite yoga with traditional Christian meditation. Since we “don’t just have a body” but “we are a body;” and, “in the Christian afterlife we will have a body,” using the body can enhance the spiritual life, Ryan said in an interview on BustedHalo.com. Sports inculcate character qualities important for spiritual development; and those “who are in good physical condition through dance or swimming or yoga, know things in and through their bodies that pass others by... When all the cogs are meshing, when energy is flowing through the body it is much easier to experience the joy God intends us to experience rather than when we are lethargic,” said Ryan.
“Yoga is a good fit for Christians,” Ryan says in his video, “because it takes the body seriously as a pathway to spiritual growth... Salvation does not mean getting out of this skin but being transfigured and glorified in it.”
Ryan is not just a yoga master (he first practiced yoga at an ashram in India and pursued training at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts), but also an avid skier. He told BustedHalo.com that his favorite places to ski are Banff, Lake Louise (Alberta) and Vail, Colorado.
Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 5:22 AM By semperficatholic
Hum, I guess these folks were out to lunch when JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE was published and placed on the Vatican website for all to read and study. See what the Church teaches on this kind of New Age spirituality. Yoga is addressed several times in the document.
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html
ARE THEY COMPATIBLE?
Yoga & Christianity
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0206-peters
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 5:36 AM By phil floersh
Don't rush out to get his dvd! Did Fr. Tom study the great
mystics or how about St. Benedict's work and prayer. No wonder priests are available to hear confessions in prisons.
phil
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 7:28 AM By Puttss
"in the Christian afterlife we will have a body,” Who the hell is this guy kidding? This is the diocese of Oakland presenting this insidiously hypnotic unorthodoxy? Maybe Vigneron has too much education and not enough faith to prevent this kind of twisted docttrine.
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 8:23 AM By Lourdes
how sad...but yet we all know that all these things must happen before our Lord returns...
this is wrong and so are many other things that are being done or tolorated within our church...
we need to pray to the Holy Spirit every day, not just one day but every day asking Him to protect us for things will get worst...we all know that...
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 10:39 AM By Puttss
semperficatholic:
Unfortunately, the document that you mention is a report to the Vatican and the comeback could be that "well that's a report and not an infallible statement." However, I am familiar with the document and you are right on. Where are the leaders of ther local church when it comes to this stuff? This is really bad. I also agree with Lourdes, but it sure is aggravating.
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 10:42 AM By Daniel
Perhaps the good Bishop of the Diocese thought he could make a few bucks for his monstrosity warehouse. He could always try hosting a gay pride parade next. Like Lost Angles Diocese in the south they are a religion unto their own.
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 11:07 AM By ally
Wasn't the ex-communicated priest Matthew Fox a product of the Oakland diocese? Fox was practicing and teaching his new-age ways to the Holy Names nuns in Oakland for many years before he was asked to leave Catholicism.
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 11:37 AM By Fr. J
2000 years of Christian contemplative spirituality and this is what we get? Ridiculous, shallow, and puerile. Grow up Father, the '60's are long over.
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 1:05 PM By Mark
By their fruits you will know them! Pray for discernment from the snares and traps of the enemy who always comes as an angel of light!
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Posted Monday, June 11, 2007 2:32 PM By William Keevers
A good basis for a moderate study of the subject can be found at http://www.crossveil.org/
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 9:30 AM By Hhwest
I just don't ever remember reading about any of the Saints every doing Yoga, do you? I know that meditation and pray constantly was what Jesus taught. As Jesus said, without God the Father you can do nothing. So, I really do not care how good physically anyone is , that does not make them Holy. Yoga will never make anyone Holy either, it is actually an act of practicing a pagan religion. Get real Father, how much time do you spend on Yoga instead of being in the Confessional?.
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 10:00 AM By rsw
Hhwest, do you know how many Catholic practices and beliefs are actually imported from pagan religions? I agree that the take on yoga depicted in the article is ridiculous, but all of these accusations are very unsettling and indicates complete misunderstanding. Yoga isn't intended to make you holy, it's supposed to increase your appreciation for the body God has blessed you with by using it. So far the critics have posted references to books written by man and vague references to "traps of the enemy," but is there any specific verse in the Bible that says yoga is forbidden? I don't recall "Thou Shalt Not Combine Exercise With Contemplating The Blessings of God" in the Ten Commandments, and neither do I recall Jesus saying "No man comes to the Father except without Yoga." If anyone can pull a Bible verse condemning Yoga (or anything similar to it), I'll pray for forgiveness and join in the condemnation. Vague accusations against "evil" and other religions (Yoga is not a religion, nor religion-specific) doesn't count.
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:12 AM By Hhwest
If you have to waste your time doing Yoga, to appreciate your body, you have a problem. You should appreciate your body anyway, however, why ponder on your body?. You do not find it anywhere in the Bible to do Yoga, nor in Tradition.As a matter of fact Jesus said the Soul is the most important. I am sure that if it was important, Jesus himself would have done Yoga and would have told his Apostles to do Yoga instead of "feed my sheep".Yoga is blanking your mind of everything instead of thinking of Godly things. It sort of enfolds on oneself. If Yoga does not intend to make you Holy, why would a Priest waste his valuable time? Why give it so much time and effort to even produce a video of it?. If you are not moving towards God you are moving away from God, there is no such thing as statues quo..
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 2:09 PM By DJ -- Just Dust
Enough is enough. Sadly another awful Vatican II example of the erosion of the once pristine Holy Roman Catholic Church. Yoga is likened to another form of a false religion. Is this another modern clergyman striving for ecumenism? May God forgive Us all of these abominations. We must pray for forgiveness like St Augustine as written in the New Marian Missal from before Vatican II. The True Holy Roman Catholic Faith and Sacraments do exist today outside of Vatican II by the Grace of the Holy Ghost. The Traditional Latin Mass and Sacraments are available in every state of our United States and many foreign nations. You will be welcomed with open arms, so don't be shy, take courage and pray, pray, pray, for God's Divine Guidance. Letting go of Vatican II can be a struggle but enough is enough. You can find a listing of the Tradional Holy Latin Mass world-wide locations at www.traditio.com. For those in southern California, please visit www.fatimaparish.org. We welcome you and May God Bless You.
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 2:24 PM By Xavier
Oh my God! Yoga could be the door for evil spirits to penetrate! I personally know one whose mantra was the name of a demon!
Please read this article from a catholic Indian priest, fr. James Manjackal "Yoga in philosophy and practice is incompatible with Christianity "
http://www.jmanjackal.net/eng/engyoga.htm
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 3:43 PM By Tom
A good friend, a graduate of Steubenville, assures me that the bishop of Oakland is solid with the Pope and the Church. Here is what he said - "Bishop Allen Vigneron is solid. I pray for him daily. He has priests, nuns and lay “leaders” who oppose, even make fun of, his directives and the teachings of the Church. Please pray for this extremely difficult episcopal situation. He has some of the most openly rebellious priests I’ve ever heard of.
At least the Oakland diocese allows Courage to meet there. Priests of the Diocese of San Jose have opposed such a ministry to those with same-sex attractions here.
Thank God the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church!"
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:35 PM By Hhwest
to rsw, There are no Roman Catholic Practices imported from pagan religions. The Roman Catholics took pagan places and turned them into Authentic Catholic places. The Roman Catholic Church was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself and I can assure you that he was a Jew and did not do Yoga before He created the New Covenant. Please do not try and say that Yoga is not harmful to a Catholic because it is a pagan practice and should not be near any Real Catholic Church or Catholic Space.
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Posted Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:31 PM By Sonja
Do they hold these sessions at night, with holes drilled in the roof, so that they can do their YOGA Exercises among the Moon Beams? As I read this article I thought of that old Vaudville Line, GOIN CRAZY...WANNA COME ALONG????
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:36 AM By rsw
I won't pretend Jesus practiced yoga, and I won't push the issue any further (im as disinterested in yoga as the rest here are disgusted with it being part of catholicism, i'm just stunned by the overwhelming negative attitude towards what is predominately in the west a secular form of exercise, being christianized. if the Roman Catholis can take pagan places and turn them into Authentic Catholic places, can't they take practices as well?). Don't forget that gift-giving in late December is a pagan practice, as well as most Easter festivities.
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 5:49 AM By Diego
Many attempts have been made to "baptize" practices that are incompatible with Catholicism. Recall the efforts by Reuchlin and Pico della Mirandolla to "baptize" the Talmud's black magic Kabbala. Ryan, a Paulist, is on a parallel track trying to "baptize" narcissistic preoccupation with the body. Thankfully the Paulists, who publish books that oppose Catholicism (including some lauding the satanic Talmud), are nearly dead as a religious order. Their Americanist lineage deserves to die.
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 7:46 AM By Hhwest
To rsw, No Jesus did not put any pagan practices into play for His Church, The Roman Catholic Church. Gift giving is not a pagan practice,we give gifts because the Birth of Jesus is the Greatest Gift on Earth and is such a Joyous Event that everyone can celebrate with gift giving, especially to children so that everyone knows that a King is Born into the World. Easter is also a very big celebration, because now Heaven has been opened and all should celebrate the fact that they can be saved by the Holy Cross. Festivities to express Alleluia! Alleluia! You see God wants us to be Happy and Celebrate Life because He Loves us. The problem is that Not Everyone Loves God and do not celebrate Life as intended by God's Plan for them. Nothing pagan here. To deny History, that Jesus Christ was Born, Died on the Cross and Resurrected on the third day, is to be blind with scales over their eyes and totally deceived by the Prince of the World.
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 8:05 AM By Puttss
The insidious part of yoga is this: Its goal is to make we humans attain the divine energy to the point of making the practitioner equal to the divine. Christianity's goal is to relate to God by responsing to divine grace always with the faith that the divine and the human will never be equal. Yoga is not a series of phycical exercises. It is a pagan spirituality. Make no mistake about it.
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 9:58 AM By rsw
Those ridiculous poses have no power other than what you attribute to them. The idea that standing a certain way manipulates supernatural, spiritual energies is one approach to yoga, but not the only. Many meditative practices involve manipulation of energies as well, but the Catholics haven't completely blackballed meditation. I maintain my position that yoga isn't exclusively a pagan practice, and that you are misunderstanding it. I also notice that nobody has met my challenge to produce scripture condemning a secular exercise program, and reiterate that I will eat my words if anyone does.
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Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2007 10:49 PM By bj
This is great! Many of our Catholics could benefit from this type of exercise. Many of the priests and parishoniers nowadays seem to be in poor health, overweight and overstressed. Yoga might be one way of helping Catholics to take better care of their spiritual and physical selves.
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Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007 5:58 AM By Diego
If the introduction of pagan exercises, Talmudic prayers and seders, Protestant"holy roller" style liturgues, and such have been so good for the spirituality of Catholics, why is the Church worsening in every way? Why do Catholics understand and follow the authentic Faith less than before Vatican II opened the doors to Modernism and perversion?
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Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007 6:05 PM By rsw
Diego, I don't think anything new is happening in these days. I'm willing to bet that from the day the Roman Catholic church was established, on to today, there have always been invasions into the church from other cultures. We don't know about them because they weren't well documented -- inquisition and all that.
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Posted Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:17 PM By Dale
Diego: Perhaps if more priests would have integrated yoga exercises into their spiritual practice, they would have been more in touch with physical needs and less in touch with young children. Many of the worst offenders were the pre-Vatican II priests who said the Tridentine Mass in latin every day!
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Posted Friday, June 15, 2007 3:07 PM By Trudy
What Next? Maybe a DVD showing Nuns giving instructions in belly dancing? I have a good idea, tell the priests (Bishops Included) to get off their duffs and go out among the people. Obviously these guys have too much time on their hands.
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Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:14 AM By Ed
Consider, Dale, that today's living abusers and enablers can more effectively cover-up their crimes, than the dead "pre-Vatican II" abusers. There are horrific cases by POST-Vatican II abusers that have never been prosecuted, so are not tallied. Do you seriously think Brom, Mahony, and the rest are spending multi-millions on lawyers, struggling to hide their records, because they are trying to protect DEAD "pre-Vatican II" abusers? Give us all a break! They are trying to save their own sorry POST-Vatican II hides.
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Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007 1:39 PM By Celia
BRAVO, ED!!!!!
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Posted Monday, June 18, 2007 9:22 PM By Dale
Ed:
Your argument is among the weakest I've yet to encounter. With all of the investigations conducted by law enforcement agencies and the media, there is little hope of covering up the Vatican II era pedophiles. Some of the worst cases involve the pre-Vatican II priest/pedophiles who had no problem celebrating the Mass, in latin no less, after their various offenses.
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Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:58 PM By Edgar A. Suter MD
Dale, since I know of TWO untallied cases by living post-Vatican II perpetrators (one of which involved one of my own patients), though both were reported, I can say with certainty that cases remain hidden from view. As we have said, the living (post-Vatican II) perpetrators are far better at covering their crimes than the dead (pre-Vatican II) perpetrators. If everything has already been revealed, why are Mahony, Brom, Brown, et al. spending millions struggling to hide their records? Do you seriously expect us to believe your fantasy that they are trying to protect DEAD post-Vatican II pepretrators? They would LOVE to discredit anything PRE-Vatican II. If they could discredit the pre-Vatican II Church they'd be spilling their guts pronto. No, Mahony et al. are trying to save their perverted POST-Vatican II cronies and their own rotten hides!
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Posted Saturday, June 23, 2007 1:57 PM By Dale
Dr. Suter:
It would seem that some of the "posters" on this site would LOVE to discredit anything POST-Vatican II. If they could discredit the POST Vatican II Church it would build their case for a return to the pre-Vatican II Church. The polarization in our Church (and in our country as well) is destructive. It often appears that the instigators and perpetrators of this polarization, on both the left and the right, are irresponsible and dishonest. Regarding your comments regarding Cardinal Mahoney, et. al., they are, prima facie, unchartiable and un-Christlike. It is unjust to condemn the good Cardinal and his colleagues when you can only assume the nature of their motives.
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Posted Monday, June 25, 2007 6:27 PM By EAS
Help us out, Dale. Show us in the Gospels where Jesus promoted consensus and condemned "polarization." Is my Bible out of date? I didn't get the memo. Has the Novus Ordo gone to Biblettes to accomodate its weekly changes in dogma based on the latest lay convocation and opinion polls? Have I made a mistake in teaching my children the difference between right and wrong? Should I have been teaching them Jewish Kaballa, to aim for outright evil or something halfway between right and wrong? "No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." –Matthew 6:24 Too "polarizing"? "Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword." –Matthew 10:34 Too "polarizing"? We had better have a lay convocation to complain about all the "errors" that Jesus made, right? Let's dispose of all that old-fashioned "right" and "wrong" stuff. Better that we engage in Talmudic/Novus Ordo pilpul to "void the commandments of God for the traditions of men." Let's make man happy and to hell with God, right? Forget about, "But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." Too "polarizing"! As if Dale is right and Jesus is wrong. What a sick joke the Novus Ordo is! And Dale thinks we try to discredit the Novus Ordo, after the Novus Ordo has discredited itself so thoroughly.
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Posted Monday, June 25, 2007 7:28 PM By Dale
EAS: You have completely mis-represented what I wrote above and have displayed your "true colors". Your anti-semetic rant reveals that you are not a faithful Roman Catholic who follows the teachings of the Church but are instead a hate-filled ideologue. May Jesus Christ save America and the Church from the right wing wackos!
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Posted Monday, June 25, 2007 7:54 PM By EAS
As to Mahony and his ilk, I look to the Angelic Doctor and St. Ambrose, another Doctor, for guidance: “Outward movements are signs of the inward disposition, according to Eccl. 19:27 ‘The attire of the body, and the laughter of the teeth, and the gait of the man show what he is,’ and St. Ambrose says (De Offic. I, 18) that ‘…the habits of mind are seen in the gestures of the body,’ and that ‘…the body’s movement is an index of the soul.’” -St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II, II, question 168, article 1, reply to objection 1 “A man is known by his look, and a wise man, when thou meetest him, is known by his countenance. The attire of the body, and the laughter of the teeth, and the gait of the man, shew what he is.” Ecclesiasticus 19:26-27 Yes, by Mahony's squirming "gestures of the body," we know him. He has enabled and concealed monsters. We don't have to read his soul to know that.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 4:48 PM By Constance E. Cumbey
Everyone of those Yogic postures is a prayer to a Hindu deity. Nobody here is a better theologian than the Apostle Paul who said that those who pray to idols pray to devils. He warned the Corinthians we could not have communion with both. Now that Bishop Vigneron is coming to Detroit, I am now sadly depressed if this was in fact his doing. I pray not! He should have good conversations with Fr. Perrone and Fr. Ricardo in his new diocese.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 7:27 PM By Brenda
Yoga means yoking with God. Jesus spoke of it when he said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.was a yoga advocate." And Catholics engage in many yogic postures, whether it be kneeling, bowing the head, placing hands together, etc. It is all yoga.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 8:33 PM By Anne T.
Brenda, the Lord meant nothing of the kind when he used the term "yoke". A yoke is put on two oxen to keep them together. We are to be yoked together with the true God, not a pagan one. True yoga meditations worship a false god or gods. Expressions or terms such as calling up the coiled snake are part of true yoga meditations and honor a snake god (sound familiar?). The meditiatons of real yoga are very pagan. I supposed some people could do the excercises without the meditions, but that is highly unlikely. There are better ways for Christians to excercise. I say the Rosary or Jesus Prayer while walking. There are also traditional secular excercises that Christians can do that have nothing to do with pagan meditation. Ballet exercises are very similar to yoga and do not require any form of religious meditation. As far as Christian meditation, one is better off with Teresian or Carmelite types of meditation.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 8:37 PM By Anne T.
Regarding my last post, it is called Kundalini yoga and has something to do with the Hindu god Vishnu.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 9:35 PM By JLS
Reinforcing Anne T., St Paul teaches us "Do not be unequally yoked" (Galatians, or Ephesians, or ?): Yoking up a Catholic with an idol is unequal yoking. Catholics are yoked with Jesus Christ through the Sacraments. We are united in this way, joined by the yoke of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not unite, join or combine with fallen angels or works of the devil. This is why we are required to be Baptized first, to wash away our sins, ie our works of the devil. The Sacrament of Confession accomplishes this also. Jesus teaches that we cannot enter the wedding feast with an unclean garment. That is, we may not enter if yoked to an unclean thing, whatever it might be. I have not heard of any Saints who practiced yoga; yet I've heard of Catholics who've brought on troubles by doing so. Read Thomas Merton's final writings, and see how he was falling for idols ... and he died violently by electrocution.
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Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 10:26 PM By Brenda
Anne T, yoga is like religion. There are religions of all sorts, and there are yogas of all sorts. There is no requirement that yoga is pagan any more than it's a requirement that religion is pagan. Of course, in the broad sense, yoga like religion can be practically anything. What yoga means to each person is different for each person. Only some forms of yoga involve "calling up the coiled snake" or whatever "snake god" you dream of. The common form of yoga that's sold as exercise in the west is called hatha yoga. Yoga predates Hinduism. Yoga is found in virtually every religion, including Christianity. "Be still and know that I am God" is a yoga teaching. The yoke Jesus spoke of is yoga. Every Catholic-approved meditation is a yoga practice. Ballet can be a yoga practice, as can washing dishes, walking or posting on CCD. Even getting over your beliefs about yoga is a yoga practice. "Emptying yourself" in the Christian tradition is a traditional yoga practice.
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