Enneagram practitioner continues to minister at the Divine Retreat Centre for the 7^th successive year

From:
preena.joelrodriguez@gmail.com
To:
undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 9:17 AM

Subject: POWER 2012 – Divine Retreat Centre

Dear and Precious Friend in Christ, Warm and Prayerful Greetings from the Divine Retreat Centre!

We have begun preparations for POWER 2012, the 7th International Youth Conference here at Divine Retreat Centre, Kerala from 22 to 27 July 2012. And we are delighted to invite you with your family, friends and relatives to be here with us at this special week. During this week there will also be held simultaneously the International Couples Retreat, Children’s Retreat and the Bible nursery for the tiny tots.

The theme of the Conference this year is the grand declaration: “Christ in you, Hope of Glory” (Col 1:27). We rush through life hardly having the time or the courage or the light to see what is there within us. We are challenged by the impossibilities and settle for a defeated existence. During this week we shall be led to discover the glorious presence of God that dwells within us and the great possibility God offers us to live life in all its fullness. The Conference will be led by Rev Fr Augustine Vallooran, VC. Each day begins with lively praise & soulful worship. Through the day there are inspiring messages preached by the Divine team and bishops, priests, preachers and gospel choirs from across the globe. Each day ends with crowning moments of the Holy Mass & Eucharistic Adoration. This year the team includes Rev Fr Michael Payyapilly, VC, the preachers of Divine Retreat Centre, Bishop Julian Porteous of Sydney, Rev Fr Stan Fortuna, CFFR, (a favourite with the youth and known as the Rapping Friar), Rev Fr Andre Patenaude, MS, (an extraordinary singer and musician from the US), Jude Antoine and the Empowered Music Ministry from Malaysia, Lalit Perera and the Risen Lord Community Singers from Sri Lanka, Fritz Mascarenhas (ICPE) and Colin Calmiano (Spread Your Wings), the FAITH band (from Goa) and Divine’s own music ministry led by Glen & Teresa La’rive. There will also be special testimonies, worship dances, skits. Groups of youth from around the world will be here to journey together to the experience of the heart of God. All in all this week will be a rich experience of the Church and of the faith.

The Conference begins at 10 am on 22nd July 2012, Sunday and ends at 1 pm on 27th July, 2011, Friday.   Registration will commence on 20th July at 6 pm. Please ensure to make your travel plans accordingly.

Registration fee is 400 Rs for Local cuisine and 1200 Rs for Continental cuisine and covers the cost of food and stay in the dormitory for the retreat period. This fee can be paid by demand draft and sent to us along with your registration form (attached with this document) for us to register your names and ensure that all the formalities when you arrive here will be completed at a separate counter.

Rooms are available for physically sick people and families with room sponsor cards. The Sponsor cards are meant for the use of the sponsor and their immediate family members only. First preference for rooms would be given to those who have room cards and to those who do prior registration. Youth must stay in the dormitories for the complete retreat experience.

Please bring your own Bible, note pad, pen, bed sheets and toiletries.

We would request you to dress code in a manner appropriate to maintain the sanctity of this place of prayer. Please avoid sleeveless, transparent, above-the-knee, sub-waist trousers, super-tight choking stuff. It is monsoon time – it is going to be raining a bit and quite cool, so an umbrella and rain-proof footwear are recommended.

Here at Divine we are praying for all the doors to open for your travel plans and for a fruitful retreat experience.  We seek your prayers for us as we prepare for this great season of God’s salvation.

For further details, please contact divineyouth.drc@gmail.com.

Yours in Christ,

Preena

for DIVINE YOUTH

A U.S. apologist writes to a priest who mentions the Enneagram during his homily

03 August 2003

St. Mary Catholic Church

242 North State Street,

Painesville, Ohio 44077

Attn: Rev. Fr. Michael Stalla

Dear Fr. Stalla,

Yesterday evening I attended the 5 P.M. vigil Mass at St. Mary’s wherein you were the celebrant. I am not a parishioner but attend Mass at your parish once or twice a year when in the area. First, I would like to commend you on having such a moving and beautiful Holy Mass. You seem to be a wonderful priest that our diocese is quite fortunate to have. Thank you for answering the call and becoming a priest! You are in my prayers.

The remainder of this letter may seem to be an oxymoron based on what I just said, but I assure you, it is not.

During your otherwise excellent Homily, you mentioned (almost in passing) the Enneagram and where you placed on it – a procrastinator. Fortunately, you did not recommend that Catholics participate in the Enneagram. I have done a considerable amount of research on the Enneagram and have found that it has occult roots. There is no question that it is part of the New Age practices, is contrary to Catholic teachings and should be avoided. Merely mentioning this during your Homily will be accepted as an endorsement by many whom heard you and will be a temptation to look into it.

“The Enneagram originates in contemporary Sufism, Sufism being an offshoot of Islam. Contemporary Sufism, which claims 40 million adherents, has become a mix of pantheism, magic and rationalism with a belief in telepathy, teleportation, foreknowledge, transmigration of souls and a denial of a personal God. The man primarily responsible for transmitting the Enneagram into the West was George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, an Armenian occultist who lived in Russia from 1877 to 1947. For Gurdjieff, the Enneagram had secret powers not particularly allied to personality typology. He believed all knowledge can be included in the Enneagram and with the help of the Enneagram it can be interpreted.”

“For example, on the cover of the Hurley-Dobson book, What’s My Type? readers are enticed to use the Enneagram in order to: Identify the secret promise of your personality type; Break out of your self-defeating patterns; and Transform your weaknesses into unimagined strengths. The more you read about it, the more it begins to resemble a college-educated horoscope; and that is not compatible with Catholic doctrine or practice. The more one runs into claims of an ‘upward spiral of self-transformation’, the further we seem to be away from Christianity and the more we get involved in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. As a tool for Spiritual Direction, it seems to me most deficient, even dangerous. The Enneagram is really built on a theology (?)-perhaps ideology-of self-renewal and self-regeneration that is a far cry from (perhaps contradiction of) the Gospel teaching (read John 12:24 here).”

Do not the above quotations seem to conflict with Holy Scripture? “Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, or one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations The Lord, your God, is driving these nations out of your way.”

If the Internet is available to you, there is a website that has several excellent articles written by Catholic priests and laity about the dangers of the Enneagram. The site is http://www.petersnet.net/. I get the site through the Yahoo search engine. The first choice in the menu will be Petersnet: Home. Click this choice. At the top of the page is a search mode. Type in Enneagram and ‘Go’ and it will take you to a list of articles.

Sincerely in Christ,

Ronald Smith

11701 Maplewood Road, Chardon, Ohio 44024-8482 Email: hfministry@roadrunner.com.

LALITH PERERA

Categories: new age

Tags: Divine, Divine Retreat Centre, Divine Retreat Centre Potta, Enneagram, God, Stan Fortuna, United States, Youth Conference (Christian)