Vatican on New Age and Spirits' response - Part 4

Spiritual perfection entails our attainment of God's divine qualities and character. And they are to be applied consistently in our daily life. Deeds are all-important.

The secret doctrine of Theosophy is God's Divine Plan of Evolution that is now being made available to all those who desire to learn more about it.

It reached its clearest form in the ideas of Helena Blavatsky, a Russian medium who founded the Theosophical Society with Henry Olcott in New York in 1875. The Society aimed to fuse elements of Eastern and Western traditions in an evolutionary type of spiritualism. It had three main aims:

1. "To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, caste or colour.
2. "To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science.
3. "To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.
In the study of Theosophy, every student is free to make up his own mind regarding any of the teachings. Everything is open to question. There are no hidden agendas. No dogmas. No recognized authority. Not even Helena Blavatsky. Everyone on earth is merely a student. No one is perfect. Everyone is prone to error.

Guidance is provided by the Masters or the senior students that include all the spiritual masters, gurus, adepts and other advanced beings that have ever lived and studied on earth.

2.341 New Age involves a fundamental belief in the perfectibility of the human person by means of a wide variety of techniques and therapies (as opposed to the Christian view of co-operation with divine grace).
There is no other Way to God but through Righteousness, Love and Service to our fellowmen. Christ by way of his own example symbolizes this Way. However, through the application of the twin principles of Reincarnation and Karma, exacting divine justice automatically eliminates the need and exercise of divine grace.

2.342 "All is one". This unity is monistic, pantheistic or, more precisely, panentheistic. God is the "life-principle", the "spirit or soul of the world", the sum total of consciousness existing in the world. In a sense, everything is God.
This was first and better known as a Hindu teaching that predates Christianity by 3000 years.

This is also essentially the exact-same divine principle that Christ teaches in his Parable of the Vine and the Branches and our being One with the Father and with him in the Book of John. And so does St. Paul elaborate on this basic principle in I Cor., the One Body of Christ.

"Christ" is a title applied to someone who has arrived at a state of consciousness where he or she perceives him- or herself to be divine and can thus claim to be a "universal Master". Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ, but simply one among many historical figures in whom this "Christic" nature is revealed, as is the case with Buddha and others. Every historical realisation of the Christ shows clearly that all human beings are heavenly and divine, and leads them towards this realisation.
Contrary to what the Christian Churches teach, Jesus Christ himself affirms this truth in his own words.

"Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?" Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants him to do is my brother, my sister and my mother." (MT 12)

Jesus said, "But you are to become perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (MT 5)

He also said, "All that I have done, you, too, can do." (JN14)

3.4 The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefits from it knows himself to be unworthy".
Except for God creating us and endowing us with eternal life and every potentiality to become like the Father, there are no free gifts. Our enjoyment of everything else is based on merit.

It is just that God and His Holy Spirits will do for us what we cannot as yet do for ourselves. But they will leave us to do for ourselves all that by virtue of our own development we are already competent and capable of doing.

Let the Light shine in

6.1 People who wonder if it is possible to believe in both Christ and Aquarius can only benefit from knowing that this is very much an "either-or" situation.
So was the Sanhedrin in Jesus' time faced with this similar dilemma. But this hard-line position of the Church is misguided and regrettable and should not be adopted or followed.

For this Age of Aquarius is in fact the promised return of Christ. And these teachings are part of the "so much more" that he wanted to tell us but didn't, because we would not have been able to understand them anyway, at the time.

And if it should ever come to a choice, we can all be certain that whoever positions himself against the Lord will not prevail.

All those who refuse to go forward will discover much to their regret that they will be falling behind. Their friends and classmates will advance to Higher Studies in the Higher Realms. They on the other hand will be joining the next batch of spirit-students and undertake another round of physical existence - suffering more pain and hardships - on similar material and earthly planes.

6.2 The Catholic Church has its own very effective networks, which could be better used. For example, there is a large number of pastoral centres, cultural centres and centres of spirituality. Ideally, these could also be used to address the confusion about New Age religiosity in a variety of creative ways, such as providing a forum for discussion and study. It must unfortunately be admitted that there are too many cases where Catholic centres of spirituality are actively involved in diffusing New Age religiosity in the Church. This would of course have to be corrected, not only to stop the spread of confusion and error, but also so that they might be effective in promoting true Christian spirituality. Catholic cultural centres, in particular, are not only teaching institutions but spaces for honest dialogue.

Whenever confronted by new concepts and ideas, especially those that would seem at first to disagree with our long-held beliefs, there is the normal tendency to refuse to listen, misunderstand or be confused in the beginning. But confusion is the beginning of learning.

To all those among you who are now ready, let the mysteries unfold!