The Walk to Emmaus is a program put on by Upper Room Ministries. Upper Room promotes Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality), and if you want to understand the dynamics of Walk to Emmaus, then understanding the spirituality of Upper Room will help you:
“The Walk to Emmaus is an adaptation of the Roman Catholic Cursillo Movement, which originated in Spain in 1949.” from the Walk to Emmaus website
Walk to Emmaus is widely spread. It is estimated that over half a million persons have experienced a Walk to Emmaus weekend and today the Movement counts more than 300 communities distributed all over the United States as well as all over the world.1
Mantra Meditation is promoted at Upper Room Ministries also:
“Mantra — The word comes from Sanskrit. Its two-syllabus mean: man or mind and tra or deliverance. A mantra is sound vibration that is intended to deliver the mind from distractions and a focus on the material world. A mantra is repeated like a chant and has a spiritual effect associated with the physical vibration. A mantra can be as simple as one syllable ‘OM’ or as more complicated such as, ‘OM SRI RAM JAI RAM JAI JAI RAM’.” From the Upper Room website (now removed)
“The Walk to Emmaus is an adaptation of the Roman Catholic Cursillo Movement, which originated in Spain in 1949.”2
Tres Dias is an offshoot of the Cursillo Movement and should be avoided as well.
List of places that do Walk to Emmaus
Both Tres Dias and Walk to Emmaus have their roots in the Catholic Cursillo movement. That should be enough to raise red flags.
To Jan O.: Thank you for your interest in posting comments to our blog. While we do not question your sincerity, we very strongly disagree with your approval of the Walk to Emmaus. Upper Room Ministries (the creators and promoters of Walk to Emmaus) has been a strong advocate and teacher of contemplative prayer (which is based on an interspiritual panentheistic mantric-style meditation) for many years and incorporates this wherever they can, including into the Walk to Emmaus. We are glad you have not run into this yourself, but we hope you will do some further research. While you personally may not have performed contemplative prayer while doing the Walk, the Walk is designed so that participants can engage in contemplative prayer during the walk; and not only “can” but “should” to gain the full “benefits” of the Walk (from Upper Room’s perspective). The problem with combining truth with error (as they have done at Upper Room) is that the error is disguised and often undiscovered; yet, the damage from it is still done. In the case of Upper Room, the ratio between truth and error is continually changing (in the favor of error) as they move further and further away from biblical Christianity. In addition to the push for contemplative prayer, Upper Room is an ecumenical, interfaith organization in the most dangerous sense of the word. Here are a few examples of where Upper Room promotes contemplative spirituality and ecumenism: https://daily.upperroom.org/?p=6646 https://daily.upperroom.org/?p=3223 https://urelearning.upperroom.org/p/mandalas (Mandala coloring by Upper Room used as a vehicle to meditate) (see our research on this: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=28760. Upper Room publishes many books. Their book, Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices, teaches readers a mantric prayer telling them to repeat their special word or phrase over and over in order to prepare them to hear the voice of God. This book is just one of many that Upper Room publishes that teaches and/or promotes contemplative prayer. The Upper Room E-Learning “school” is packed with contemplative teachings, many of which are interfaith, interspiritual, ecumenical, and mystical. Just one of many examples of how Upper Room is ecumenical (meaning basically moving toward the Catholic Church) is their course on “Protestant Prayer Beads” (developed to mimic Catholic rosary beads):https://urelearning.upperroom.org/p/praying-with-protestant-prayer-beads. Upper Room – Labyrinths: https://www.upperroom.org/resources/walking-prayer. Another book, A Guide to Prayer, published by Upper Room contains the teachings of Henri Nouwen (Catholic mystic) and Sue Monk Kidd (Christian-turned-goddess-worshipper). Their Guide to Prayer for All People includes the teachings of panentheistic, Buddhist-sympathizing monk Thomas Merton. The above is just a sampling of dozens and dozens more examples that can be found on the Upper Room websites. Jan, if you would like some basic information on the contemplative prayer movement, please e-mail us at editors@lighthousetrails.com, and we would be happy to mail you some well-documented material that may help explain our concerns. (formatting in WordPress not allowing for proper formatting in this reply)
There are NO MANTRAS in the Walk to Emmaus or any other cursillo movement. We follow a strict Bible centered curriculum covered with prayer and praise. I am not sure what you are talking about in this website, but you are doing a major disservice to the ministry that has given thousands of Christians renewal. I suggest you print this so people will go to the official websites of these weekends and learn for themselves.
Thank you Kayla for your comments. Anyone who is not threatened by Catholic teachings and or mantras disguised as Biblical prayer is vunerable for demonic deception. I don’t have to go on any ‘Walk’ to search the Scriptures. Retreats such as these definitely are ecumenical and mystical and point to a universal ‘Jesus’. “And in the last days, men shall no longer endure sound doctrine.” I and II Timothy 4
I read the comments made by Kayla and I was deeply saddened by them. I went on an Emmaus Walk and came back more in love with Jesus. During the 3 day experience I was surrounded with unconditional love. No particular religion was put forth, but it all pointed to Jesus and what love He has for us. It is a time to reflect on your walk with Jesus, to be taught about what it is to walk with Him in our everyday life and fellowship with other Women who may be broken too. My prayer is for women to find their way to an Emmaus Walk where they come back forever changed in their own walk on the road to Emmaus.
I’m grateful to God for helping me come across your site tonight! I found out the walk to Emmaus was demonic when I went on the walk this last weekend. It was the most horrible thing I’ve been through in my life. I believe God was protecting me while I was there. I thought I was going on a restful retreat. That’s what my church convinced me of anyway. I was in total hurt and shock by the end of the first day! I begin to agonize to leave the place. Too much to list here went on while I was there. Anyway my church has segregated themselves from me, because I refused to give my “happy testimony” about the walk. They think I’m a problem now. Much more to the story. I came home Sat. night feeling like I had just come home from the pits of hell. Everyone else that went said they had a great experience… weird. I don’t get it, and they seem different than the people I knew and cherished before the walk. I’m saddened by all this… my eyes have definitely been opened to the huge scale deception that’s taking our churches by storm! I didn’t even know any of this about this gigantic scheme until I went on the walk! I knew it was the last days. I knew about nwo. But I didn’t know about this particular infiltration. Thankyou for your work! My prayers are with you!!