Others, again, from afar off, are children of bad parents, who have not been taught the practice of their religion; who have had no good example at home shown them: the leakage of the Church, who are swept along in the torrent of godlessness, sinfulness, and riotousness of the wicked world.

Others, again, who have fallen away. Once they were innocent children of God, but neglect and carelessness crept in; they wearied of the restriction of a good life; and at last they left their Father's house, and they were seen no more at Mass or the Sacraments. Many, thank God, have not wandered thus far from God; but how few of us have not fallen away to some degree! How few of us can say that we are as good and earnest as once we were as good as we should be!

The danger of wandering far off, or a little way off, from keeping close to our Lord, and listening to Him, and obeying Him, is this. Whatever the distance may be, it is far enough, and too far, for us to find our way back of ourselves. Many think that they can return to the good life of their early days when they choose, and so put God off. But this is a sad mistake. They cannot of themselves, but only if God in His mercy draws them.

What gratitude should be ours to remember that Christ's mercy and compassion are always seeking to attract us. Patiently and in many most varied ways He is seeking us out and drawing us to Himself. But it is all His merciful doing, and not our own doing. You will say, The prodigal son found his way back to his father, so why cannot I when I make up my mind?

Yes, the prodigal, happily for himself, did return, and was lovingly received by his father. But what prompted him? What gave him the impulse and the resolution "to arise and go to his father"? What sustained him on the long, hungry journey, and enabled him to face the shame of it, to be "a hired. servant" as he expected, where once he was a son? It was the memory, the sweet memory, of his loving, patient father! The poor boy never dreamed that his father, with yearning eyes, was looking for him time after time; he never dreamed of such an affectionate welcome; he only expected to be fed, to be under a roof, to be safe.

When our Blessed Lord was describing that loving father He was portraying Himself. For how many souls from afar off is the Redeemer looking this day! For some He has been waiting for years. The danger is, the longer we are away, the greater chance of forgetting the memory of our Father, of forgetting the compassion of the Sacred Heart of our Lord. If we forget His mercy, where is the power that can draw us back? If we are only beginning to slip away from fervour, let us be afraid; and pray that a loving memory of that compassion may ever live in our hearts.

Realize that kindness of Christ, and we should trust in Him more and more. See what He did, as recorded in the Gospel. He worked a miracle for those who had come from afar off, lest they should faint on the way. They had followed and listened to Him, and in return, in compassion, He worked the miracle. And for us as well, if we only come humbly back, He works the miracle of miracles, and nourishes us with the Bread from heaven, lest we should faint on the journey through life. How sad when our Blessed Lord is thus longing for us, and is prepared to receive us and strengthen us, that so many are kept back from entering again into His holy service, from attendance at Mass, from frequenting Holy Communion, by false shame and through human respect, for fear of what some carping neighbour may say! Oh, may the good God so strengthen us with the memory of His compassion, the confidence in His mercy, that we may arise, determined never to be far from Him again; but rather to cling to Him, cherishing His words, doing His holy Will, faithful to the end!" Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (6th Sunday after Pentecost)

 First: "You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill . . . but I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment . . . be reconciled to thy brother " (Matt. v. 21). Alas! how often is this doctrine disobeyed and disregarded by the world.

 Secondly: "Of old it was said: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart" (ibid. 28). Not actions alone, but thoughts and desires denounced as guilty before the eyes of God.

 Thirdly: "But I say to you, that whosoever putteth away his wife and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery" (ibid. 32). With these words of the Son of God before them, how dare the iniquitous laws of divorce be passed, to make sin easy and to be thought of no account?

 Fourthly: not only perjury forbidden, "But I say to you not to swear at all . . . but let your speech be yea, yea; no, no; and that which is over and above these is evil" (ibid. 34, 37).

Fifthly: the law of retaliation is condemned--" an eye for an eye," and instead, this neighbourly spirit insisted on: "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not away (ibid. 42).

And the last word: Instead of "love thy neighbour and hate thy enemy," the Son of God inculcates that doctrine of love and perfection: "But I say to you: love your enemies, do good to them that hate you; pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; that you may be the children of your Father Who is in heaven" (ibid. 43-45.)

How sad it is to look around us and behold the world ignoring these emphatic words of Christ; at variance with them; yea, acting in defiance of some of them. Christian states passing laws about divorce, utterly abrogating the law of Christ, as if the divine Lawgiver were a God of yesterday and not of today. What answer at the judgment day will be found for having gainsaid the words of Christ? Have they forgotten that He said, "My words shall not pass away" (Luke xxi. 33; Mark xiii. 31)?

And do Catholics, even those who think that they are fairly good Catholics, take all these words to heart and keep them as religiously as they should? Are they as careful about being angry and unforgiving as He commands? Lustful thoughts, swearing -are they avoided with that holy fear that they should be? Have they learned and do they practice, "Give to him that asketh" and "Love your enemies and pray for them that calumniate you"? And if not, are they Christ's disciples? for He says, "If you continue in My word, you shall be My disciples indeed" (John viii. 31). "And if any one love Me, he will keep My word " (John xiv. 23).

Do we "thrust out from the land" when we pray? And have we Jesus Christ in the vessel of our heart when we make the launch? Our prayers, to be good for anything, should have four characteristics: they should be recollected, detached, definite, and persevering.

1. Before we begin to pray, we must place ourselves in God's presence. We must collect all the powers of our minds and hearts, and set them on the one supreme object. The Memory must be called away from every-day affairs, and used to furnish food for our meditation; the Understanding summoned from its ordinary musings on worldly things, to reason and reflect on what we pray for, and Whom we pray to; the Will steadily fixed on God--striving to conform itself to the divine will, producing affections and forming resolutions suitable to our present needs.

2. Without detachment there can be no recollection. We must thrust out from the land." And how can we do this if the vessel of our soul is moored to the shore by a thousand and one little cords of earthly desire, and worry and care, and anxiety and passion? All these cords must be cut away, and we must "launch out into the deep," if we would pray aright and have God's blessing in ourselves.

3. Let us have a clear, definite idea of what we are going to pray for. Vague, meaningless generalities are out of place in such a serious business. Let us make up our minds beforehand about what we want, and then pray for that. It will not profit us much to ask for all the Cardinal Virtues and allthe Gifts of the Holy Ghost at one time. It will be quite sufficient, and decidedly more profitable, to single out some one virtue of which we stand in special need, and make that the particular burden of our prayers and thoughts and efforts for weeks, and months and years, if necessary, until we gain it.

"Teach all nations" was the command of Christ, and therefore His Church was endowed with divinely revealed doctrine. And in this regard St. Paul speaks to us with no uncertain voice. "For I give you to understand, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. i. II, 12). Your memory instantly recalls the great truths of religion, with the express testimony of the Apostle regarding them, and how one after the other have been impugned, explained away, or denied, not only by the godless world --the enemy of God—but by those who profess to be Christians, and to believe in the Holy Scriptures.

Take the doctrine of the Resurrection. "For I delivered to you first of all, which I also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day" (1 Cor. xv. 3, 4). Doubting, denying this is common in these days; and disbelief in it is so condoned that it does not disqualify from the highest positions in the Church in the land! Should not such men remember and fear these words of St. Paul: "If Christ be not risen from the dead, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins" (ibid. 17)?

And that sweet and blessed doctrine of our Faiththe divine Presence in the Holy Eucharist. Alas, how often denied and blasphemed by various sects in the face of such evidence as this! "I speak as to wise men; judge ye yourselves what I say. The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ? And the Bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the Body of the Lord ?" (1 Cor. x. 15, 16).

These words, which you know so well, let them not weary you, but glory in them as the great doctrines of our Faith. We hear on all sides that religion is old-fashioned and out of date. Doctrines must be changed, so as to embrace all the variations of modern thought. And do such people think they are something new, something original ? Be not led away with various and strange doctrines," says St. Paul (Heb. xiii. 9). And St. Peter says (2 Peter iii. 3): "In the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers." Can the eternal truth be out of date? "From eternity to eternity Thou art God . . . for a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday which is past" (Ps. lxxxix. 2, 4).

For ourselves how grateful we should be to God for the Faith which He has bestowed upon us--its authority and its doctrines. Let us pray to those glorious Apostles - who typify this authority and doctrine - to strengthen our faith, that we may live up to it, peacefully yet manfully, humble yet glorifying God by our obedient and holy lives." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (Saint Peter and Paul)

"But how," it may be asked, "about holy things, such as relics, medals, Agnus Dei, gospels, scapulars, and the like? Surely you would not call it superstitious or sinful in any way to keep or wear such things as these, or to think that they might do us some good, not only spiritually but even in the temporal order?" No, you are right about this. It is not sinful even to ask for miracles by the aid of things like those, which are either sacred by their nature or by the blessing of the Church. And the reason why it is not sinful is very plain. It is because God is invoked by means of them, and that any favors which are obtained by them will be for His honor and glory. Still that this should be so, they must be used with piety and devotion. To wear a scapular, for instance, simply as a sort of charm, without any desire or intention of honoring the Blessed Virgin by it, or to invoke her aid to escape from sin, would be not only useless but highly displeasing to her Divine Son. Almost every one feels this; few dare to profane holy objects of this kind by such. use of them; those who have really given themselves up to the devil seldom try to protect themselves in his service by such means.

Well now, to pass to the other subject, that of consulting spirits, or seeking, as the Jewish law has it, the truth from the dead. You see it is no new thing, this spiritism, though the rapping and table-tipping business is rather a new form of it in these days. It has been and is still very common among us, though it may be losing ground somewhat lately. But I do not think that Catholics have at any time been much interested in it compared with some other people. With regard to the next life, we have our faith to instruct us and are not inclined so much as others to ask the spirit-rappers to give us information. But still many Catholics have gone to their meetings, and would have little scruple in going now, just, as they say, from curiosity. They think there is nothing in it; that it is only a more or less clever piece of jugglery. Now, in this they should understand that they are likely to be greatly mistaken. Jugglery and trickery it is sometimes, no doubt; but there is the gravest reason to suspect that in many cases the spirits actually have a hand in the matter. Not, it is true, the spirits of the departed who are invoked, but evil and lying spirits who personate them, and wish by information seeming to come from them to weaken or destroy our belief in the truth of revelation. It is, then, no joking matter, but a very serious and dangerous one, to put one's self in the power and under the influence of these spirits from hell; and this is what one who goes to these spiritual seances, as they are called, may probably do. Remember, then, to have nothing to do with them if you value your immortal soul." Fourth Sunday after Easter Five Minute Sermons by the Paulist Fathers

Resources:

Bishops’ new guidelines condemn Reiki therapy as ‘superstition’ (CNA)

Guidelines for evaluating Reiki and Alternative Therapy (USCCB)

Reiki, not for Catholics. Not now, not ever by Mary Ellen Barrett (Amazing Catechists)

Yoga Isn’t an Exercise, it’s a Spiritual Practice: Why Catholics Shouldn’t Practice Yoga. Jenny Dubay (Missio Dei)

Demonic Possession from Yoga, Reiki, and the New Age with Adam Blai  (Divine Intimacy Radio)

Q. Crystal Energy and Healing Stones? My Catholic Life! A journey of personal conversion!

Can Shamanism Be Compatible With Christianity? (Women of Grace)

‘Intergenerational healing’ has no basis in Catholic doctrine, Spanish bishops affirm (World Report)

Superstition! Healing Your Family Tree (Australian theologian, Fr Peter Joseph)

Korean Bishops Condemn 'Family Tree' Healing Practice (2007, UCANews)

How happy would it be for you, could you thus readily follow where your obligation calls, and not let every pretended difficulty be sufficient to justify you in the frequent omission of duty.

Fall down in spirit, and adore Christ; and with the three kings acknowledge him for your God and Redeemer. Fail not to make your offerings with them. Offer your heart to him, if it be your own, or his. But if it be otherwise engaged, either in riches, pleasures, or excessive troubles, pray for its deliverance. Lay your gold, your frankincense, and myrrh all at his feet; let neither the sweet nor bitter keep you from him; offer all to him, who is Lord of all.

The zeal and courage of the three kings was very wonderful. Being informed of the birth of Christ, by the appearance of an unusual star, they forthwith undertook their journey; neither regarding the discourses of the world, which would charge them with folly and rashness, nor considering the dangers of going to proclaim a new-born king, at the court of a jealous prince; nor apprehensive of those many difficulties, the usual consequences of an uncertain journey, not knowing how far they were to go, nor whether they were ever to return. Whenever a soul comes up to this degree of resolution, there is reason enough to hope that it has overcome the world; since in this very point consists its victory, that it admits of nothing to take place of duty. And this is the test, by which every Christian may make a true judgment of himself. For, whatever his condition be, there is no proposal can be made of seeking Christ, and making any advance to him, but he must be exposed to some of these trials. The world will ever do like itself; it will certainly meddle with what belongs not to it; it will curiously examine, discourse, and its censures. It will condemn whatever departs out of the common road of its loose maxims, as singularity, folly, and vanity; and declare its resentment against every one, who disapproves of its ways by forsaking them. So that whoever pass has not gained this point, to be unconcerned at what the world says, is not yet in a possibility of finding Christ; since there is not one step which he can take, whether in prayer, recollection, fasting, penance, or frequenting the sacraments, but the world by its insults and mockeries will be ever discouraging him from all his pious designs, and will by this means bring him to the trial, whether his concern for what this world says, be not greater than his zeal for duty and justice.

Another difficulty he must meet with in respect to himself. No one can think of going towards Christ, but he will presently discover the way to be long, through the variety of interior contradictions, the apprehension of losing his own ease and convenience, and the obligation of making war against his own inclinations. This war is absolutely necessary, because his nature being corrupt, and strongly inclining him to selflove and the love of the world, he can no other way make approaches to Christ, than by resisting all such interior motions, and obliging them, by a sort of violence to yield, in obedience to the law of God. Now this cannot be effected, but by many uneasy conflicts. Nature itself must be overcome, passions must be mastered, what is pleasing must be renounced, and that made choice of, to which sense and inclination are wholly averse. And this must go on, till by this exercise the soul becomes wholly changed, not desiring now to follow the corrupt principles of the first Adam, but to live by the better maxims of the gospel, even the life of Christ. For he knows that there is no finding Christ, till he finds him abiding within his own heart, and there commanding as his Lord and Sovereign.

This is the way, and these are the difficulties, by which every one is to go to Christ. And there are few, though at the greatest distance from him, through the unhappy state of error or vice, but who are informed, like these three kings, by some providential light, where Christ is to be found: and had they a zeal and resolution like theirs to undertake the journey, would as certainly find him, to receive their offerings, and reward their labours. But here is the greatest instance of human weakness: few follow this light. Only three of all that nation in the East, to which the star appeared, followed it; and, it is to be feared, as few in other nations, in proportion to the great numbers who now see enough of it, to direct them to the truth of Christ. They have light shining upon them in their darkness, enough to awaken them; but, like men oppressed with sleep, they shut their eyes against it, and sleep on. The thoughts of what the world will say, the many inconveniences, as to their business and interest, the displeasure of friends, the difficulties of a change, with a thousand other discouragements, immediately present themselves; and prevail so far on minds unwilling to be disturbed, that on such motives of self-love, they desist from farther enquiry; and contenting themselves with some general principles of education, and the company of others, like themselves, they stifle the light and choose darkness.

The same weakness is, in many others, the occasion of continuing in the practice of very dangerous liberties, and walking on in a way very unjustifiable and unchristian. For though Almighty God often touches their hearts with a sense of their failings, and by an interior light from the gospel, good men or books, lets them see the danger of their state, and the necessity of reforming; yet being unwilling to forsake what pleases, and foreseeing the difficulties of a true conversion, they run for shelter to the example and authority of others, whose learning, position, reputation, and character seem to qualify them for being a rule. They plead that such a one does this, such another does that; if this were not allowable and safe, certainly such as they are, would not permit or practise it; and the like. Thus the example of religious, of priests and prelates, is brought forward; and there is scarcely any kind of vanity, pride, covetousness, levity or excess, but what is warranted and justified under this cover. And what is the ground of all this, but deceit and delusion? What is this, but a vicious partiality of insincere souls, who study how to delude the designs of infinite goodness, and by the treacherous authority of weakness itself, shut out the light of heaven, and harden themselves against all its impressions? It is plain that these are nothing but little subtilties, to put a fair gloss upon an ill cause. Were there any sincerity in them, and zeal for truth and justice, they would carefully attend to that light from heaven, which glancing upon them at all times, puts them upon seeking farther than they yet have done. They would join these sages in finding Christ; and let no human respect, or the example of the errors and infirmities of others, stop them in their way. Such courage would ensure blessing and success to their endeavours; and they would certainly find Christ. Let this thy light, O God of mercy, touch the hearts of all those, who by vice or error, are at a great distance from thee. Give them strength of mind to follow it with constancy and perseverance, that they may never stop till they find their Redeemer, and offer themselves at his sacred feet." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother