Can a Catholic practice Yoga? What does the Catholic Church that? How are you questions are common among Catholics, we will collect some of the points of a Charter of 1989 on this subject. This is the " Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation " (15-Oct-1989), I humbly recommend from the whole RIES, (here we bring only some fragments) and not just the bishops, already known, but all priests, seminarians, priests in general, as well as any layman, be of great interest and continued today. Note [1] : The expression "eastern methods" means methods inspired by Hinduism and Buddhism, like Zen, the "Transcendental Meditation" or "yoga." It is, therefore, methods of meditation in the Far East is not Christian, not a few times today, are also used by some Christians in their meditation. The guidelines of principles and methods contained in this document they want to be a landmark not only for this problem, but also, more generally, for the various forms of prayer practiced in the ecclesial, particularly in associations, movements and groups.
Item 2. ever more frequent contact with other religions and their different styles and methods of prayer have led to many faithful, in recent decades, questioned the potential value for the Christian non-Christian forms of meditation. The question refers mainly to Eastern methods [1]. Currently, some resort to such methods for therapeutic reasons: the spiritual quest of a life under stifling pace technologically advanced society, also promotes a certain number of Christians to seek in them the path of inner calm and mental balance. This aspect psychological not be considered in the present Charter, rather want to show the theological and spiritual implications of the issue. Other Christians in the line of the opening movement and exchange with various religions and cultures, think the same sentence can make a lot through these methods. Noting that not a few traditional methods of meditation, peculiar to Christianity in recent times have fallen into disuse, they wonder, could we not enrich our heritage through a new education in prayer, also incorporating elements that until now were strangers?
Item 3. To answer this question, it is necessary first to consider, even broadly, what is the intimate nature of Christian prayer, to see if and how it can then be enriched by methods of meditation born in the context of religions and cultures. To start this consideration should be formulated, first, an essential premise: Christian prayer is always determined by the structure of the Christian faith, which shines forth the truth of God and the creature. So configured, properly speaking, as a personal dialogue, intimate and profound, between man and God. It expresses therefore the communion of redeemed creatures with life People close to the Trinity. In this communion, grounded in baptism and the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of the Church, is contained an attitude of conversion, a flight of the ego of man to God you. Christian prayer is always authentically personal and at the same time individual community, shuns impersonal techniques or focusing on the self, capable of producing automatic where, who performs it, is an intimate spiritual prisoner, unable to free openness to the transcendent God . In the Church, the legitimate quest for new methods of meditation should always keep in mind that the encounter of two freedoms, the infinite God with man's finite, it is essential to authentic Christian prayer.
Item 12. With the current spread of eastern methods of meditation in the Christian world and in ecclesial communities, we face a mighty effort, not without risk and error, Christian meditation mixed with non-Christian. The proposals in this direction are numerous and more or less radical: Some use eastern methods solely for the purpose of obtaining psychophysical preparation for a truly Christian contemplation, others go further and seek to lead, with various techniques, spiritual experiences similar to those mentioned in the writings of certain Catholic mystics [13], others fear not even put that all images and concepts without proper to Buddhist theory [14], in the same plane as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which rises above finite reality, for this purpose, they use a "negative theology" that transcends any statement that has some content about God, denying that the creatures of the world can show any trace, even minimum, to submit to the infinity of God. For this, they propose abandoning not only meditation on the salvific works that the God of the Old and New Alliance has done in history, but also the very idea of \u200b\u200bGod One and Three, which is Love, in favor of an immersion "in the indeterminate abyss of the divinity" [15].
these or similar proposals to harmonize Christian meditation with eastern techniques need to be continually reviewed with careful discernment of contents and methods, to avoid falling into syncretism.
Item 26. Human experience shows that the position and attitude of the body are not without influence on the recollection and dispositions of the spirit, which is why some spiritual writers of the Christian East and West have taken notice.
His reflections, while presenting in common with eastern non-Christian methods of meditation, avoid those exaggerations or unilateral visions, however, often proposed today people unprepared.
Spiritual writers have adopted those elements that facilitate the gathering in prayer, while recognizing their relative value: they are useful if they comply and are oriented to the purpose of Christian prayer [30].
Item 28. Some physical exercises automatically produce a feeling of quiet and relaxation, pleasing sensations, perhaps even phenomena of light and warmth, which resemble spiritual well-being. Confused for the authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit would be a totally erroneous way of conceiving the spiritual life, to attribute symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience, when the moral condition of the person concerned does not correspond with it, represent a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to disturbances psychic and sometimes a moral aberration.
This does not prevent authentic meditation practices from the Christian East and major non-Christian religions, which exert an attraction on today's man, alienated and disturbed, might constitute an appropriate means to help the person who prays to be inwardly relaxed before God, but you urge the external stresses.
However, it must be remembered that habitual union with God, or that the internal vigilance and invocation of divine help in the New Testament is called the "constant prayer" [34], not necessarily or even stops when to pursue, according to the will of God, work and care for others, as the Apostle exhorts: "I eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10, 31) . Indeed, true prayer, as argued by the great spiritual masters, inspires in its practitioners an ardent charity that pushes them to collaborate in the mission of the Church and the service of their brothers for the greater glory of God [35].
The Pope John Paul II during an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this letter, adopted in plenary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and ordered its publication.
Rome at the headquarters of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on October 15, 1989, feast of St. Teresa of Jesus.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Prefect
+ Alberto Bovone Titular Archbishop
of Caesarea in Numidia Secretary
Source: Vatican
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