Prayerful meditation and how to do it

Maria Billingsley · May 18, 2019

Athanasias said:
There are positive and negative gifts. Christian of deep faith in Christ and Saints and Mystics for 2000 years have experienced ecstasies, levitations, and other gifts of God. Satan also mocks these gifts and gives his own ecstacies, levitations to individuals and they come out in Eastern pagan practices and meditations(ask any former satanist or new ager). One is of God the other of the demon. Its is very hard to distinguish sometimes by looking. Remember they said Jesus cast out satan by satan. They misunderstood his power. If they come from God there is peace in the soul and an increase of holiness. If they come from the devil there is not peace. The devil can make a person feel good and excited but the one thing he cannot give is peace.

The Priest that is talking about this is a Exorcist so he has experience with the demons and with the power of God and the saints. He is also a Catholic scholar. One of the most powerful meditations and prayers for a Christian is the rosary(which is a mediation on the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary).

I will respectfully bow out of making anymore comments as this is becoming upsetting.
God bless you!

Athanasias · May 18, 2019

~Anastasia~ said:
You make some very good points concerning how Satan copies the gifts from God. This has been something people of God have had to deal with for many centuries (millennia!) ... I started to say Christians, but it was essentially the same for Moses and pharoah's magicians. At any rate, that is certainly a major tactic of the enemy!

Well said! Yes! Exactly!

com7fy8 · May 18, 2019

Athanasias said:
Prayerful meditation and how to do it

This says meditation which is "Prayerful". It does not say repetitious or mindless.

To me, prayerful means I am quiet while God does what He pleases with me. I do not try to control or produce the prayer, but I discover how I become in God's peace, and then what He has me thinking and praying.

Now, meditation prayerful, then, for me would mean how God has me thinking about something.

He can help me prepare for the day, by having me thinking the right way about Him and myself and people I might be seeing during the day and things I might be doing. Plus, how I am becoming is how I need to stay this way during the day . . . always submissive to how our Heavenly Father personally rules each of us in our "hearts" in His own peace >

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

So, perhaps, if this is meditation "prayerful" > this gets me standardized in my thinking and how I am spiritually, for how to stay all through the day. And, of course, I can get away from this, at times; so at times during the day I will need to take pit stops and be restored by the Lord so I am tuned to Him and submissive to Him in His peace, then discovering what He has me doing.

Athanasias · May 22, 2019

~Anastasia~ said:
Well if we are only disagreeing (on the first point) on word definitions, that's certainly fine. It just has potentially broader meanings for us, so in order to discuss we just have to be sure of what we mean.

Actually since you said "thinking about the Lord and His word" ... that actually includes our (Orthodox) two primary definitions of meditation, so we aren't actually disagreeing there. And it's a wonderful practice. Very wonderful.

We too (as Orthodox) are greatly concerned about "ecstatic states" within Catholic spirituality. It's an area where we diverge from them.

And it interestingly ties back to Pentecostal practices, which maybe I shouldn't get into here, but it involves our understanding of the current practice of modern "speaking in tongues" and also goes back to the same practice in non-Christians in history who experienced ecstatic states. It's surprising how different aspects can be related. Or maybe not since we are all humans. Since I did mention it, I should at least say that in our estimation, there can be both positive effects (allowing the heart to open to prayer) as well as negative effects (related to the ecstatic state) within Pentecostal practices, as otherwise I might seem to be fully endorsing or fully condemning, and I don't want to do either.

Thank you for the discussion. To be honest, I'm always encouraged by the things various ones of us agree on, and I do understand the concerns you've mentioned. They can't be ignored. It's just that within a wider experience and context, we recognize them too.

God be with you.

Escatic states in the saints have nothing to do with pentecostalism. It is a very different king of thing. unlike the pentecostals which have only existed since the 1900's. The saints and mystics span the 2000 years of Christianity and these gifts were not brought on by emotionalism(which is a danger) like the charismatics. In fact Fr. Ripperger the exorcist who had the video for this in his other videos talks about the problems with pentecostals and charismatics in the Catholic church and he has said he has had to clean up much demonic opression, and possession because of the false theology and practice of these pentecostal movements. I hope this clarifies a bit. The Catholic Spiritual practices and prayer goes deep and cover both eastern and western practices and meditations.

~Anastasia~ · May 22, 2019

I'm actually glad you commented on this. I thought about it a bit more after this thread and wanted to ask you (or other Catholics) some questions. Not sure I can get back to it tonight but this thread had me wondering if I'd misunderstood some things.

Athanasias said:
Escatic states in the saints have nothing to do with pentecostalism. It is a very different king of thing. unlike the pentecostals which have only existed since the 1900's. The saints and mystics span the 2000 years of Christianity and these gifts were not brought on by emotionalism(which is a danger) like the charismatics. In fact Fr. Ripperger the exorcist who had the video for this in his other videos talks about the problems with pentecostals and charismatics in the Catholic church and he has said he has had to clean up much demonic opression, and possession because of the false theology and practice of these pentecostal movements. I hope this clarifies a bit. The Catholic Spiritual practices and prayer goes deep and cover both eastern and western practices and meditations.

com7fy8 · May 23, 2019

Athanasias said:
Escatic states in the saints have nothing to do with pentecostalism. It is a very different king of thing. unlike the pentecostals which have only existed since the 1900's. The saints and mystics span the 2000 years of Christianity and these gifts were not brought on by emotionalism(which is a danger) like the charismatics.

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)

Athanasias · May 25, 2019

com7fy8 said:
"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)

Amen! These saints were some of the gentle and quietest souls there were.

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Prayerful meditation and how to do it

Maria Billingsley

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Athanasias

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com7fy8

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Athanasias

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~Anastasia~

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com7fy8

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Athanasias

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