Who Said That?

"Heavenly Father, Open my heart to the silent presence of the Spirit of your Son.

Lead me into that mysterious silence where your love is received by all who call.

MARANATHA -- Come, Lord Jesus.

Begin repeating to yourself this one word (often called a mantra): `MA-RA-NA-THA', keeping the accent equally on each syllable. Do this throughout the time of prayer, which is usually 30 minutes, twice a day. Whenever you find thoughts or images coming to your mind, return to the mantra. If you are distracted from this repetition, gently return to it as soon as you are aware you have been distracted."

Leave your guess in the comments section below!  Please no google searches or cheating!  The whole point is to make a guess!

Update on Friday, October 17, 2008 at 02:45PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This quote is from John Main (1926-1982), a benedictine Monk, recently re-discovered by the emerging types. Main learned how to meditate from a "swami," and this is one of his favorite meditations.

You can find more of the same drivel here: Click here: John Main Prayer Association

Comments

["lee n. field"]

Hmmm. Spiritual disciplines. "Shoulder to the yoke and pull, you slackers!"

Bill Hybels, in a contemplative moment.

[Paul C. Quillman]

Brian Mc Laren.

[Jeff Rolfe]

Sounds like Richard Foster

[Merritt]

It sounds like someone who is closely related to Buddhism or Hinduism. it's probably someone from the world community for christian meditation maybe john main or laurence freeman

[PB]

I'll say Father Thomas Keating, he of contemplative / centering prayer.

[John Yeazel]

Why is this stuff so attractive to so many people? Perhaps it is the noetic influence of sin and our tendency to have lazy minds. It sounds so spiritual and loving- thank God I am out of that scene. It is a bad and strange trip. It ruins a lot of lives of those who have an attraction to Jesus. A good part of sanctification lies in the work we have to do with our minds. "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Doctrine that is true brings life to our souls. This kind of stuff keeps a large part of the Church in bondage. You cannot give solid answers to those who are honestly questioning Christianity with this kind of stuff.

This certainly is not the way that Luther and Calvin taught those who they were influencing to pray. I just read Luther's answer to Peter the barber when Peter asked him for advice in his prayer life. Luther constantly makes remarks about not letting your mind wander and how this is an affront to God's majesty and glory. Prayer was definitely a mental exercise which needed our complete mental concentration. None of this mantra like baloney.

What is tragic about the emergent movement is this kind of stuff intermingled with some stuff which is not so bad. It also predominates in a lot of the charismatic movement and the Word/Faith movement. It could be any number of people involved in these movements in the Church.

[dsanger]

Brian McLaren or "Living Spiritual Teacher" Richard Foster

[Aaron]

Richard Foster

[KyleinWI]

Foster or Willard maybe

[Cheryl]

Reminds me of a Catholic, not necessarily sanctioned by the formal RCC, contemplative style prayer. Reminiscent of Hindu meditation with the seated position - like in Yoga. Definitely not sanctioned by the Bible. Seems dangerous to me, mimicking pagan religious practices. I can see Joel Osteen up on stage with his cheesy smile, eyes closed, leading his congregation as they wave one hand over their head in rhythm with one another, chanting their way to a better they.

[Coyle]

Sounds either Eastern Orthodox or really, really, ridiculously mystical Catholic. I'll guess either Maximus the Confessor or Louis de Montfort.

[Dazsa]

Watchman Nee

[Rev. Z. Bartels]

R.C. Sproul. But he was kidding.

[Greg]

Richard Foster was the first name to come to mind, but Willard was also a thought.

[Philip Walker]

Mike Horton after a bad spliff? No? And I was so sure that the last one was the Gaithers, y'know?

Seriously, I reckon it's a Word-faither. For the sake of naming a name, I'll say Hinn, but given everyone else is going generically Emergent I'm gonna have a wild stab at another brand of idiocy.

[Patrick]

Deepak Chopra? Actually haven't the foggiest. Although someone said Keating and it does sound like what he might say. All that centering, lectio divina etc etc. I find some disturbing similarities between the practices of the Eastern religions and RCC, in particular rosaries, rote prayers and so on and it is either an RCC person or a liberal if not my other guesses.

[Charles S]

Must be someone in a monastic order, if so, obviously Roman Catholic. Beyond that the only one I can think of is Michael Card.

[John Yeazel]

If anyone is interested, Chris Rosebrough at his extremetheology.org web site has an interesting take on one of the speakers (John Ortberg) at the Willow Creek Reveal Conference last week. I went to a couple of Ortberg's classes when he used to be at Willow Creek. One was on eschatology and the other an Old Testament Survey class. He now is a Pastor at a Presbyterian Church in California. He, like Rob Bell, is a very engaging speaker who confuses people about what Christianity is. It is people like this whom the reformers battled with during the time of the reformation. Attractive and engaging people who led people who were attracted to Jesus astray. Ortberg spoke vehemently against Tim Lehaye and the premillenialist postition in his eschatology class so it becomes a bit tricky to pin them down doctrinally. They avoid doctrinal discussion like a plague. They do not separate the Law and Gospel properly either and this is their biggest error and one which used to confuse me. I never thought I was ever quite measuring up to what I was supposed to be like. It is kind of related to this weeks Who Said That so I thought I might mention it. Willow Creek now espouses a lot of these emergent type thinkers and they look upon Reformational Christians as their enemies.

[JM]

Joe the Plumber

[VJ]

Greg Boyd and some of his staff members,

This was taught a lot at his church and it still is!