Do U.S. Bishops Ever Read Vatican Letters?
Position of the body affects spirituality

In 1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent out “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation.” The letter focused on various Eastern spiritual practices, including Yoga. The letters says bodily considerations, such as Yoga’s various pretzel configurations can have an impact in spirituality.

What? You mean even the Vatican recognizes human spirituality can be affected by the position of our body? Naaah, can’t be. Surely our bishops would have told us!

The letter says, “Human experience shows that the ‘position and demeanor of the body’ also have their influence on the recollection and dispositions of the spirit. This is a fact to which some eastern and western Christian writers have directed their attention.”

Having been alerted to this phenomenon by the Vatican, do you think there is any connection to the movement of the last decade by certain members of the USCCB, a la Mahoney, Brown, and friends, to ban kneeling after Communion, to insist on the congregation standing after the Sanctus, or to demand that the Holy Eucharist not be received while kneeling?

Curious Catholics want to know.