“Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth is hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality with millions of copies sold since its original publication in 1978.”—Publisher description LTRP Note: Keep in mind three things as you read this article: 1) a strong link exists between Thomas Merton … [Read more…]
Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection by Ray Yungen is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet Tract. The Booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 45% off retail. Our Booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: On the morning of September 24th, Lighthouse Trails posted an article by Ray Yungen titled “Contemplative Spirituality – the Source of the Catholic Church’s Expansion” “Coincidentally,” one hour later, Lighthouse Trails was contacted and told that the Catholic Church’s Jesuit Pope Francis talked about Thomas Merton (using the term contemplative to describe him) … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: Thank you for your very important ministry; to warn and keep the Gospel pure. Recently, I gave my husband a few CD’s on a road trip—one being from Focus On The Family: Living Authentically Before The Lord (with Dr. Julianna Slattery). Arriving back, he asked me to listen to the first 2 … [Read more…]
Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama Quotes by Thomas Merton: “I’m deeply impregnated with Sufism.” (Merton, The Springs of Contemplation, p. 266) “And I believe that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great Asian traditions, we stand a wonderful chance of learning more about the potentiality of our own traditions, because they … [Read more…]
by Ray Yungen Contemplative advocates propose that there has been something vital and important missing from the church for centuries. The insinuation is that Christians have been lacking something necessary for their spiritual vitality; but that would mean the Holy Spirit has not been fully effective for hundreds of years and only now the secret … [Read more…]
by John Lanagan My Word Like Fire Thus far Castles in the Sand, the novel by Carolyn Greene, has visited some strange places. The book first journeyed to a friendly neighborhood labyrinth, and was left at the entrance. Shortly thereafter the book visited an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where it was given to a surprised AA member. The meeting, held in the … [Read more…]
Five million copies of The New York Times Best-Seller, The Shack, have now sold, and the book is still going strong. Considering that the average popular book is passed around to three or four people (by some estimates), there could be as many as fifteen to twenty million readers of The Shack. For those who … [Read more…]
This month, admirers of the late Catholic monk Thomas Merton are remembering him – it was 40 years ago December 10th in Bangkok that he was accidentally electrocuted, dying at the age of 53. According to an article on the Religion News Service, a new documentary film titled Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton … [Read more…]
by Ray Yungen A mystical pragmatism is growing particularly fast through various New Age healing techniques. One such procedure is called Reiki (pronounced ray-key), a Japanese word that translates to Universal Life Energy or God energy. It has also been referred to as the radiance technique. Reiki is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist healing system, rediscovered … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Eugene Peterson (d. 10/22/18) and Catholic priest Thomas Keating (d. 10/25/18) have died. The article below (which is promoting Peterson and Keating) is written by Carl McColman (author of The Big Book of Contemplative Mysticism) and is posted for informational and research purposes and not as an endorsement of the content. Both Peterson … [Read more…]
Today, we received this letter to the editor: Recently my church hosted an IF Gathering conference. I had already done research and found some disturbing facts about some of the various speakers. I wrote a letter to the leadership detailing all the information I had gathered. I thought I would pass it along for your … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: This weekend we received a letter from a Lighthouse Trails reader who sent us this response he received from Focus on the Family regarding their promotion of contemplative Gary Thomas. Our reader gave us permission to post the letter he received. Dear _____________, Greetings from Focus on the Family! Thank you for your … [Read more…]
Regarding our recent article on Obama spiritual advisor Jim Wallis, the following response was posted on Rose Marie Berger’s blog as she was mentioned in our article. This is really the heart of the matter – is contemplative spirituality an acceptable spiritual outlook, or is it a path to a panentheistic, interspiritual New Age/New Spirituality … [Read more…]
Contemplative proponents Rick Warren and Lance Witt will be speaking at Thomas Road Baptist Church (home of the late Jerry Falwell) at the Innovate Church conference, starting Monday, August 11th going through Wednesday, the 13th. Rick Warren, who has been promoting contemplative for over a decade and whose website recommends some of the most … [Read more…]
The headline is sadly accurate – Ravi Zacharias International Ministry website is carrying numerous articles which speak favorably of Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen, Catholic monk and mystic, Thomas Merton, and contemplative Richard Foster. The articles are under a section called A Slice of Infinity. A summary statement on the website says they are “aimed at … [Read more…]
The Imitation of Christ is a popular book in Christendom that most likely sits on the book shelves of many Christian homes and churches. In a google search, the title shows up over 145,000 times. Who was Thomas a Kempis, and was he a mystic? In Henri Nouwen’s book, Thomas Merton: Contemplative Critic a Hindu … [Read more…]
Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of … [Read more…]
Nearly eight years ago researcher Ray Yungen passed away at the age of 64. As regular Lighthouse Trails readers know, it was through Ray’s work that Lighthouse Trails began 22 years ago. Since Ray’s passing, Richard Foster’s contemplative prayer has infiltrated countless numbers of churches throughout North America. It is the late Dallas Willard who was the man who … [Read more…]
By Ray Yungen Catholic priest William Shannon, in his book Seeds of Peace, explained the human dilemma as being the following: This forgetfulness, of our oneness with God, is not just a personal experience, it is the corporate experience of humanity. Indeed, this is one way to understanding original sin. We are in God, but we don’t … [Read more…]
Neglecting to Test the Spirits—A Tragedy of Enormous Proportions by David Dombrowski and the Editors at Lighthouse Trails is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: Lighthouse Trails has been posting articles by Manny Silva for many years. Manny became part of a group called Concerned Nazarenes over fifteen years ago to warn the Church of the Nazarene denomination about the emergent movement and how it was entering into that denomination. Those warnings were largely unheeded by Nazarene leadership. … [Read more…]
Last week, a news release from InterVarsity Press, arrived in our inbox (Lighthouse Trails is on their e-mail list in order to track their continual flow of contemplative/emergent/New-Age sympathizing books). The news release was announcing the seven-year anniversary of the release of their book, The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and is … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails: Thanks again for all your effort and time that you put into this; it is greatly appreciated by many of us. There was a friend in our Bible study who was very much connected with contemplative spirituality and New Age. I gave her a copy of A Time of Departing for her consideration, … [Read more…]
Today, the Wall Street Journal released an article titled, “Ailing Pope Francis Hurries to Bolster His Progressive Legacy.” Lighthouse Trails has addressed several issues regarding the Catholic Church’s current pope since his inception in 2013. Pope Francis (aka: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina) is a Jesuit, and as we wrote about in March of 2013, … [Read more…]
Lighthouse Trails is very pleased to announce the release of the new updated and expanded 2nd edition of our 2013 booklet A Directory of Authors (Three NOT Recommended Lists) by Chris Lawson. The new edition includes many additional names, still under three categories and all alphabetized for easy look-up. Chris Lawson has done extensive research … [Read more…]
Dear Lighthouse Trails, I am so very grateful for Lighthouse Trails. You are exposing lies that are deceiving people. You love people by telling them the truth regardless of whether they accept it or not. In Galatians 4:16, Paul said, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” I too was … [Read more…]
LTRP Note: The information in this article was written a few years ago, but it remains as relevant today as it did back then—in fact, more so as you can see from the articles we link to at the bottom of this article. If you do not understand what the Catholic Church really teaches and stands … [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: Lighthouse Trails wrote this report in 2014. Since then, we have watched “Spiritual Formation” explode within the church. After over twenty years of warnings, to our dismay, the issue has not been challenged or even questioned by most of today’s Christian leaders and pastors. By Lighthouse Trails Editors Is your church involved in … [Read more…]
By the Editors at Lighthouse Trails Over the past several years, a number of our readers have asked us why we have not written about the theologian A.W. Tozer and warned our readers about his often quoting and referencing medieval-period and other mystics (many of them Roman Catholics). Thus, we have known about Tozer’s affinity … [Read more…]