Somebody came up to me once during a conference and asked, "What about 'Our Lady of Fatima'?" What do you think of her? When I am asked questions like that, I am reminded of the story of the time they were taking the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on an airplane to a pilgrimage for worship, and as they were flying over the South of France the plane began to wobble and to shake and it looked like it was going to come apart. And the miraculous statue cried out, "Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!" And all was well. Wasn't it wonderful, one "Our Lady" helping another "Our Lady"?

There was also a group of a thousand people who went on a pilgrimage to Mexico City to venerate the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and sat down before the statue in protest because the Bishop of the Diocese had declared "Our Lady of Lourdes" patroness of the diocese! They were sure that Our Lady of Guadalupe felt this very much, so they were doing the protest in REPARATION for the offense. That's the trouble with religion, if you don't watch out.

When I speak to Hindus, I tell them, "Your priests are not going to be happy to hear this" (notice how prudent I am this morning), "but God would be much happier, according to Jesus Christ, if you were transformed than if you worshipped. He would be much more pleased by your loving than by your adoration." And when I talk to Moslems, I say, "Your Ayatollah and your mullahs are not going to be happy to hear this, but God is going to be much more pleased by your being transformed into a loving person than by saying, "Lord, Lord." It's infinitely more important that you be waking up. That's spirituality, that's everything. If you have that, you have God. Then you worship "in spirit and in truth." When you become love, when you are transformed into love. The danger of what religion can do is very nicely brought out in a story told by Cardinal Martini, the Archbishop of Milan. The story has to do with an Italian couple that's getting married. They have an arrangement with the parish priest to have a little reception in the parish courtyard outside the church. But it rained, and they couldn't have the reception, so they said to the priest, "Would it be all right if we had the celebration in the church?"

Now Father wasn't one bit happy about having a reception in the church, but they said, "We will eat a little cake, sing a little song, drink a little wine, and then go home." So Father was persuaded. But being good life-loving Italians they drank a little wine, sang a little song, then drank a little more wine, and sang some more songs, and within a half hour there was a great celebration going on in the church. And everybody was having a great time, lots of fun and frolic. But Father was all tense, pacing up and down in the sacristy, all upset about the noise they were making. The assistant pastor comes in and says, "I see you are quite tense."

"Of course, I'm tense. Listen to all the noise they are making, and in the House of God!, for heaven's sake!"

"Well, Father, they really had no place to go."

"I know that! But do they have to make all that racket?"

"Well, we mustn't forget, must we, Father, that Jesus himself was once present at a wedding!"

Father says, "I know Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet, YOU don't have to tell me Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet! But they didn't have the Blessed Sacrament there!!!"

You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ. When worship becomes more important than love, when the Church becomes more important than life. When God becomes more important than the neighbor. And so it goes on. That's the danger. To my mind this is what Jesus was evidently calling us to -- first things first! The human being is much more important than the Sabbath.. Doing what I tell you, namely, becoming what I am indicating to you, is much more important than Lord, Lord. But your mullah is not going to be happy to hear that, I assure you. Your priests are not going to be happy to hear that. Not generally. So that's what we have been talking about. Spirituality. Waking up. And as I told you, it is extremely important if you want to wake up to go in for what I call "self observation." Be aware of what you're saying, be aware of what you're doing, be aware of what you're thinking, be aware of how you're acting. Be aware of where you're coming from, what your motives are. The unaware life is not worth living.

The unaware life is a mechanical life. It's not human, it's programmed, conditioned. We might as well be a stone, a block of wood. In the country where I come from, you have hundreds of thousands of people living in little hovels, in extreme poverty, who just manage to survive, working all day long, hard manual work, sleep and then wake up in the morning, eat something, and start all over again. And you sit back and think, "What a life." "Is that all that life holds in store for them?" And then you're suddenly jolted into the realization that 99.999% of people here are not much better. You can go to the movies, drive around in a car, you can go for a cruise. Do you think you are much better off than they are? You are just as dead as they are. Just as much a machine as they are -- a slightly bigger one, but a machine nevertheless. That's sad. It's sad to think that people go through life like this.

People go through life with fixed ideas; they never change. They're just not aware of what's going on. They might as well be a block of wood, or a rock, a talking, walking, thinking machine. That's not human. They are puppets, jerked around by all kinds of things. Press a button and you get a reaction. You can almost predict how this person is going to react. If I study a person, I can tell you just how he or she is going to react. With my therapy group, sometimes I write on a piece of paper that so-and-so is going to start the session and so-and-so will reply. Do you think that's bad? Well, don't listen to people who say to you, "Forget yourself! Go out in love to others." Don't listen to them! They're all wrong. The worst thing you can do is forget yourself when you go out to others in the so called helping attitude.

-- David (David@hotmail.com), May 14, 2002

Answers

David,

First, I hope that "David@hotmail.com" is your real email address. If not, please do not use an email address that is not your own.

Second, do not plagiarize Fr. Anthony de Mello, SJ's work! Give him credit for his writings.

Fr. de Mello writes:

"You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ."

Here, we have a clear statement from Fr. de Mello that he denies implicitly that Jesus Christ is the Blessed Sacrament. If he accepted that, he wouldn't be able to contrast the two.

Fr. de Mello writes:

"When worship becomes more important than love, when the Church becomes more important than life. When God becomes more important than the neighbor. And so it goes on. That's the danger."

Here, Fr. de Mello forgets that we as Christians must love God first. Jesus couldn't be clearer in the gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 22:36-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he [Jesus] said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

In Christ,

Mateo

-- (MattElFeo@netscape.net), May 15, 2002.

David,

There are already a few David's in this forum. Would you mind, using another letter in your name, Please?

Maybe you could be David,A or something?

David

-- David (David@excite.com), May 15, 2002.

David (the First David on top)

I feel that a Chritian is the one who fullfills this :

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets".

A Christian is the one sets God the center of his life and not himself the center. Charity is esential, but with love.

God Bless, Xavier

-- Xavier David (xavier_david24@yahoo.com), May 15, 2002.

David - I like your post!! Great stuff.

-- Jean Bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), May 15, 2002.

Mateo

Is this Posting at the very top written by a New Age Priest? I ge that very impression that it is from your comments.

Jean

Did you see the errors that Mateo pointed out? Why are you so eager to applaude a piece of work full of errors? New Age bug still in your bones? Get rid of it and then come back. We want GOOD CHRISTIAN values not garbage.

Blessings

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 15, 2002.

Fred,

This is the same priest that "John McDowell" quoted a couple months ago. This is a new quote, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same person posting now (they both claim "hotmail" accounts, they both "forgot" to mention the author, etc).

Enjoy,

Mateo

-- (MattElFeo@netscape.net), May 15, 2002.

Mateo

Now I remember well. Thanks. Is that some more New Age rubbish coming down the pike too? Sure looks like it to me.. It is a mode to discredit the Holy Sacrament totally. I spent several hours the other day looking into it and it makes my stomach turn the way they want to reduce Christ to a mere set of earthy and planetary elements. YUK. It took me 58 years to get this far and now they want to destroy it all.

I now wish I had your youth and energy. It is so darn refreshing to see the great faith you show at your young age. I pray the GOD will keep you like this forever after I die. It is a breath of fresh air to read your comments and remarks. Whew. You yong man are now teaching me.. Thanks be to GOD.

Blessings.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 15, 2002.

Dear dear Fred - " They copied my gate and the copied my stride - but when they tired to copy my mind - I left them a generation behind.

-- Jean Bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), May 15, 2002.

Jean

Your aims and Goals do not fool me at all. You just want to confuse others with your slanted "New age ideology" just like the Mormons and JW's do. You are as plastic as they come. Be on with yourself satan.

-- Fred Bishop (fcbishop@globaleyes.net), May 16, 2002.

Gentlemen,

Several days ago, on the "ATTN: Dennis" thread, Joanne Storeyye spoke positive of Anthony DeMello, S.J.. In response I posted the following:

In March, Mateo (replying to someone ...) stated: "This man, while validly searching for Truth in all expressions of religion, invalidly opines that Jesus would hold a view that contradicts His own position. deMello imagines Jesus saying: 'He [God] is bigoted, fanatical, and cruel.'"

On August 24, 1998, a Catholic World News news brief reported the following:
"VATICAN CITY -- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a warning on Saturday concerning the writings of the late Indian-born Jesuit Father Anthony DeMello. The Congregation said the priest's writings contain omissions and references to contradictions to Catholic doctrine.

"Father DeMello, who died in 1987, had produced numerous books and other writings, some published posthumously ... 'Already in certain passages in these early works and to a greater degree in his later publications, one notices a progressive distancing from the essential contents of the Christian faith,' the CDF said in its statement. The congregation said the writings often deny the personal nature of God, the divinity of Jesus, and the existence of an objective morality. Father DeMello also called religions, including Christianity, 'major obstacles to the discovery of truth.'

"The CDF adds that, under Father DeMello's theology, 'any belief or profession of faith whether in God or in Christ cannot but impede one's personal access to truth. The Church, making the word of God in Holy Scripture into an idol, has ended up banishing God from the temple. She has consequently lost the authority to teach in the name of Christ.' The statement ends with a warning that Father DeMello's positions are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm."

God bless you.
John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 17, 2002.