A PRAYER AGAINST ´NEW AGE´
Heavenly Father,
Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, in commenting on a Document on the New Age released by the Church on February 3, 2003, said that the errors of the New Age Movement are "one of the greatest threats to Christianity in the third millennium".
Recognizing the occultism and esotericism in the philosophies and practices of New Age errors that have infiltrated Holy Mother Church, and compromised the eternal salvation of many souls which include priests and nuns who practise and propagate eastern meditations [name them: Transcendental Meditation, vipassana, yoga, zen, etc.] and alternative medicines [name them: acupuncture, homoeopathy, pranic healing, reiki, etc.], we pray to You:
New Agers believe that you are an impersonal, amoral, evolutionary force within the universe;
But You are a moral, personal Being, who is the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present Creator of the universe.
New Agers believe that we, humans, are the apex of evolution, having unlimited potential, giving self-awareness to the "Divine Life Force", depending on our own "intuition" and capable of guiding the process of evolution;
But we know that You created us in Your image and likeness as personal, rational, moral beings.
New Agers believe that we can mystically become aware of the divinity of all things, that we can experience union with the "Divine Life Force", and that “higher entities”, “angels”, "guides" and “masters” from other dimensions assist us in this;
But we know that You have revealed Yourself through natural revelation [nature and our conscience] and special revelation [through the prophets, the Holy Bible and Your Son Jesus] and the teaching of the Church.
New Agers believe that Your Son Jesus was one of many "Masters" and "Christs", a superior teacher who became aware of His deity and dedicated Himself to help each one of us become aware of ours;
But we know that He is the Only Son of God, the eternal second person of the Trinity, both God and man, and Redeemer of the human race and of the universe.
New Agers believe that sin is simply ignorance, a failure to recognize one's own divinity, that truth is subjective, and that good and evil are relative and not absolute;
We know that sin is moral evil, a willful violation of your absolute moral Law.
New Agers believe there is no external source of authority, only an internal one.
We know that the external sources of authority are You, the Word of God, and the Church that your Son founded on St. Peter.
New Agers believe that salvation is deliverance from fear and ignorance through awareness of our own deity;
We know that salvation is deliverance from the power and penalty of sin through repentance and faith in Your Son Jesus, whose death on the Cross paid the price for our sins.
New Agers believe that since evil and sin are illusory and no personal Judge exists, we will be purified through reincarnations and higher levels of consciousness;
We know that we will be judged by You for our actions, rewarded in heaven for our faithfulness, or punished in eternal hell if we rebel against You.
New Agers believe that we can be liberated when our consciousness is enlightened through meditating on the "god within", which is a discovery of our own "divinity".
We know that any attempted liberation of ourselves is salvation by works and that true meditation is to reflect on Your greatness and glory and the treasures of the Word of God in the Holy Bible.
New Agers believe the principle of monism, that "all is one", a divine "energy" from which all things emanate and return to, and they try to manipulate that energy for healing body, mind and soul through alternative therapies that take control of that energy for what they call "holistic healing".
We know that You created us in love and that You have provided us with medicines [in nature and through the development of science] and the wisdom of doctors [Sirach 38], and that the healing of our whole selves, spirit, soul and physical body [1 Thessalonians 5:23] comes from You alone according to your holy will and plan for each one of us.
Father, we bind all the evil powers that operate through New Age philosophies and practices and their proponents, both within and without the Church, and we bring them to the foot of the Holy Cross where Your Son has already triumphed victoriously over them.
We pray for all those who are in bondage to the New Age paradigm, especially those who are family and near and dear to us, and the clergy and religious, and cover them with the Most Precious Blood of Your Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
We claim, for our healing and salvation, the graces available to us as the People of God through Holy Mother Church, especially in the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion which the New Age has sought to substitute through occult alternatives like the different psychologies.
As we pledge to expose the fruitless works of darkness [Ephesians 5:11], we remain confident in the assurance of our ultimate and complete victory over the forces of deception and evil,
And we make this prayer to you Father God, in the Precious Name of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael the Archangel, and all the angels and saints in heaven.
Amen.
NOTE:
Serious browsers may write to me with suggestions and corrections which will be considered for inclusion in the prayer.
Michael Prabhu michaelprabhu@vsnl.net
