Friday, July 29, 2005
MEISNER'S REALLY IS ANOTHER GOSPEL
According to Rev. William G. Most's explanation of "The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, they are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. The Fruits of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5 in the Douay Rheims are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Charity was changed to love in the NAB. Yet despite the fact that there are 7 Gifts and 7 Fruits, Meisner concentrates on just one--love--and he does it over and over and over, Sunday after Sunday.
Where does he get a theology with only one Gift/Fruit of the Holy Spirit? Perhaps the first five months of his "Sunday Thoughts" in 2004 give a clue. From January 4 to May 23, with the exception of Easter, Meisner writes on quotes from Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love.
Williamson's theology is based on the popular work of Helen Schucman, A Course in Miracles. At the EWTN website, Tracy Moran outlines the problems with this theology. The article is titled "A Course in Brainwashing." The first problem is that A Course is channeled. In the article Fr. Mitch Pacwa is quoted:
The key problem is the [course's] pseudo - Christian vocabulary and ideas....People don't know the Catechism, they don't know their faith....The course strongly rejects the correct use of reason and thinking....This is precisely what makes the Course feasible. Once you get rid of reason, you get rid of discussion.
This same "logic" turns up in other occult material. It would seem that thinking and reasoning and asking questions is anathema to occultists. According to Fr. Pacwa:
One of the things said repeatedly and forcefully in the course is that sacrifice has nothing to do with love--they are incompatible.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel is even more critical, calling the movement a sophisticated cult. The article indicates that the Course "presents the image of a contemporary revealed scripture, a modern-day message from God to mankind." But revelation was completed with Jesus Christ. There is nothing left to reveal. (CCC 65 and 66)
Meisner demonstrates what Fr. Groeschel describes. In his June 6, 2004 "Sunday Thoughts" he writes that:
It was Jesus who invited us to call our Father, Dad, and He referred to Himself as our Brother, but it is in our day that the Holy Spirit has revealed Her desire to be known as the feminine part of God and called Sophia.
On Pentecost Sunday (May 30, 2004) he follows that up with:
Now, in our time, She wishes to be known as Sophia. This name was given her in Scripture, and with it She can better be known and loved by men and women as a Person of the Holy Trinity.
What's more, he tells us that "this Divine Woman...completely transformed [the Apostles and Disciples], and we dare to say that She did it much more than Jesus did!"
Meisner questions scripture:
August 22, 2004:
Is it possible that mankind has interpreted and even wrote the word of Scripture through his own colored glasses of anger and revenge?
Apparently he doesn't know the First Commandment--either the First Commandment of the Ten, or the First Commandment of the two that Jesus gave. He writes:
August 1, 2004:
Our ability to fulfill the first commandment, love God and others, depends on our ability to love self. If our primary emphasis is placed on growing in the ability to love self by acquiring virtue and inner healing, then the things outside of self, the things of this world, its possessions and power, will never be abused or used as a substitute for or a projection of one's inner spirit.
A Christian is called to self-forgetfulness so as to concentrate on the needs of others. Meisner presents just the opposite idea.
On October 24, 2004 he asks: "What does it profit a man if he conquer the whole world and still does not experience love in his heart?" a parody of "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul"? (Mark 8:36)
At a glance the entry for June 20, 2004, appears to be traditional Catholic theology. There is the picture of the Sacred Heart. There is the picture of Divine Mercy. But read the theology. For Meisner, the sacred heart is not only the heart of Jesus, it is also our heart in which we would work to "initiate the flame". We would do that by:
first visualiz[ing] the energy that is contained within our physical and spiritual bodies, harness it so that we can move it up into the upper area, our sacred heart, and then ignite this energy within. It is like igniting a gas stove. First, the gas is turned on. Then a simple flame ignites a whole fire.
One would hope that our heart would not suffer the same fate as the gas stove in Meisner's hands!
Contemplative prayer is important to Meisner's theology. He doesn't explain it precisely, but on July 18, 2004 he tells us that
when we share intimate love with our beloved, we are also sharing it with the Lord. That sharing will become even more conscious when the beloved is also aware that the Lord is present in their sharing of such intimate love. In unconditional intimate love, three is not a crowd. Three is the Trinity! Perhaps this thought will clarify more why La Ermita wants all to know the Holy Spirit as Sophia. Such an intimate love for many men can more easily be experienced with Sophia, the Divine Feminine of God.
Meisner has in mind that our beloved will enter into our aura which means within 3 to 5 feet of us. He says: "The beloved must be able to occupy the same 'space' with peace and love. Such a union is called contemplative. It is contemplative prayer."
I would give it another name--"sacramental sex." I don't recall any of the saints suggesting that was the equivalent of contemplative prayer.
On June 13, 2004 we are told that the Eucharist is a meal. There is no mention of sacrifice.
Meisner delivers the forgiveness homily on November 14, 2004. This is the concept that has been put forth by priests and bishops during the sexual abuse crisis.
Much of what Meisner writes reminded me of the theology of former Catholic James Twyman. The heavy emphasis on love, combined with teaching on the need to get rid of fear while spreading forgiveness is reminiscent of Twyman's thinking. This is hardly surprising since Twyman, like Meisner, got his ideas from A Course in Miracles via Marianne Williamson. Twyman, a visionary, if you will recall from my previous blogs, promotes Our Lady of the Universe. He makes no secret of the fact that his religion is the religion of the Cathars. It was not a great surprise to read in Meisner's November 28, 2004 "Sunday Thoughts":
The movement of James Twyman has hundreds of thousands throughout the world associated with him in contemplative prayer. The charismatic renewal that has taken place in almost all churches also has opened the doors of hundreds of thousands to contemplative prayer.
On October 31, 2004, Meisner reminds us again that
La Ermita formally came into existence December 27, 1994 when its founder rededicated his life to Sophia, the Holy Spirit, before the Abbot of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery and some members and friends. He is known as a hermit in the marketplace, a man who desires to integrate, well, the life of contemplative prayer with daily living in a world of work and problems.
A website dedicated to "The Cathar Myth: 'Church of the H. Grail' reminds us again that
a seance held in 1881 had foreshadowed to the Duchess [Lady Caithness] "a revolution in religion which would result in the New Age of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit" (source: "History of the Gnostic Catholic Church" by T. Apiryon)....
De Castres instructed Doinel to reconstitute the Gnostic Doctrine by establishing a Gnostic Church, the "Assembly of the Paraclete". Doinel was spiritually wed with his "Helene-Ennoia (Simon Magus' "Sophia"), his 'Helen' who would serve as an oracle. He was also 'ordered' to take the Fourth Gospel, 'the Gospel of John', as the holy book of the forthcoming Gnostic Church. Male Bishops and female "Sophias" would administer Doinel's Gnostic "Cathar" Church, a neo-Albigensian Church.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
