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Monday, October 10, 2005




DID YOU KNOW

that Catholic Charities has Gatherings? A reader sent in the link.

There is a post-gathering...er "Post Conference Tour"...sight seeing trip that will include a Taize ceremony.

Be one of the thousands of visitors who visit the Chapel for inspiration and renewal. Gaze out the Chapel window to tawny cliffs rising from the buff, desert floor, listen to the wind singing through the box canyon, and make a wish on the spires that glow from within. As a "special" treat, church personnel have planned a Taize ceremony for your tour.


Why do they call it a "gathering" one wonders? It could have been a "workshop," a "seminar," a "conference." Those are all more commonly used words for this sort of thing than "gathering." Even the travel agent appears to know that and calls the side trip a "post-conference" trip. Were the conference organizers influenced by Gurdjieff gatherings one wonders, considering that the Gurdjieff enneagram has had such wide distribution inside the Catholic Church.

I found another "Gathering". Hmmmm. According to the website, those who attend "are predominantly gay and bisexual." Wonder if this group follows the teachings of Gurdjieff as well? Could just be coincidental, of course.

Turning over "Gatherings" rocks reveals all sorts of things. Like this little discovery in "Spiritual Gatherings". Take a moment to look through the listed "Meeting format/content" list where you will find Ken Wilbur, Neale Donald Walshe, Gurdjieff, Contemplative Outreach-Centering Prayer Session, Fourth Way, Osho, Krishnamurti study group (He was a Theosophist), Sufism, Yoga, Zen, New Thought/New Age, spiritualism, even an "Axiom What the Bleep Do We Know!? Conference". All of this is part of the "Albigen System" (Would that be short for Albigensian, one wonders?) of Richard Rose who founded the TAT Foundation.

Now none of this would make a dust mite's difference if it weren't for the fact that down there at the bottom of the websites where the links are located--where you can click on "Retreat Centers" that will bring you to this webpage.

Yup, that's right. A large number of those retreat facilities are Catholic.

Oh, I know not all of them are. There's even a Maitreya Meditation Center. But isn't it just slightly odd that so many of them are? Would those be the retreat centers that pious little old Catholic ladies are supporting with the pennies saved out of their social security checks?

TAT? For some reason I have yet to learn what the letters stand for. It does occur to me that TAT are the letters of Talking About Touching--that controversial new sex ed program being forced on Catholic parochial children. Just another coincidence, I suppose.

Remember Osho from that list of "Meeting format/content" in the Spiritual Gatherings webpage up above? The one that offered "Gurdjieff, Fourth Way, Osho group of seekers in the Nashville, TN location? Here's Osho. Isn't that special?

Our Lady of Fatima, is it already too late?



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