April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
MEDITATING ON EXERCISE
Catholics find benefits in yoga
"I was taking care of everybody else except myself," Mrs. Barker remembered.
When someone suggested trying yoga exercises, she heeded the advice. "It's been the best advice I ever got," she told The Evangelist. "I literally believe it saved my life."
After she began practicing yoga, her sons told her they had never seen her so happy. A friend said the light had returned to her eyes.
Mrs. Barker, parish secretary at St. Mary's Church in Amsterdam, has been taking yoga classes at St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam for six years. She starts every morning by repeating breathing exercises, helping her stay calm and focused.
Yes or no?
In recent years, a growing number of Catholics have turned to yoga as a way to relieve stress and get fit. But some have objected to the practice because of its ties to Hindu spirituality, which asserts that yoga can free a person from the bondage of karma and return him or her to a state of original purity.
"The purpose of yoga is to set the soul free," stated The New Catholic Encyclopedia in 1967. "Lacking the light of revelation, [yoga] is inevitably exposed to the dangers of illusion and of magic and superstition."
Today, opinions are split.
"There's no reason yoga should be a violation of the Catholic faith," Rev. John Dietzen told The Evangelist. He's the syndicated columnist who has penned the "Question Box" (see page 2) in Catholic newspapers nationwide for decades.
But a 2003 Vatican document denounced "New Age" practices, listing yoga, Zen Buddhism and Celtic Christianity in that category.
"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 cooperation with divine grace," reads the document, titled, "Jesus Christ: The Bearer of the Water of Life."
No New Age God
"There is talk of God, but it is not a personal God," the document continues. "The God of which New Age speaks is neither personal nor transcendent. Nor is it the Creator and sustainer of the universe, but an 'impersonal energy' immanent in the world, with which it forms a 'cosmic unity.'"
However, it adds: "There is no problem with learning how to meditate, but the object or content of the exercise clearly determines whether it relates to the God revealed by Jesus Christ, to some other revelation, or simply to the hidden depths of the self."
In the Albany Diocese, yoga students say the practice strengthens their relationships with Jesus. Many parishes and Catholic hospitals host classes.
"When we do our final meditation, we always do our prayer," Mrs. Barker said. "When you're trying to pray, sometimes your mind is scattered. We practice letting those thoughts go and just centering. So it definitely helps your prayer life."
The Schenectady Gazette newspaper has published letters to the editor from Christians opposed to teaching yoga to schoolchildren. This upsets Mrs. Barker, who says yoga can teach kids to be still and connect with God: "You have no idea what you're preventing these kids from experiencing."
At St. Mary's Hospital's yoga classes, the certified instructor does not invoke spirits, said Sister Rita Jean DuBrey, CSJ, director of the hospital's Center for Complementary Therapies. She said yoga is about creating harmony in mind, body and spirit.
"It's really an invitation for people to seek out true peace," Sister Rita Jean said. "This brings us to a deeper relationship with God, because God is at the center of our being. Each one of us finds God in a different way."
St. Mary's does not allow reiki, a practice involving laying hands on a client to promote healing. Last March, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called reiki inappropriate and unscientific. The hospital has sponsored yoga, however, since the early 1990s.
For all intents
Anthony Commisso, a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist Church in Schenectady, took a breathing yoga class at the American Meditation Institute in Averill Park in 2005. Students focused on their respective deities, and the instructor quoted from the Bible, as well as the Quran and the Bhagavad-Gita.
"They built from that," Mr. Commisso said, "almost like a priest would do a homily."
Mr. Commisso, who said he's "steeped in Catholic tradition," believes the faithful should discern the reasons for their interest in yoga.
"It all depends on intent," he said. "If you know Jesus in your heart, these other things are immaterial."
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