Are Your Kids Lost in a Prayer Labyrinth?

Gary: Now, Contending for the Faith….Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave and Tom, Our church wants to send our youth pastor to a national convention for youth pastors, and after looking over the activities, from secular lookalike, sound-alike, music groups to psychologized and Roman Catholic-led workshops, I noticed they’re going to have a prayer labyrinth. According to the brochure, this mazelike device idea is taken from a medieval Cathedral and is to be used by our kids as an aid to contemplative prayer, as a spiritual exercise, or as a form of pilgrimage. What can you tell me about prayer labyrinths?

Tom:  First of all, a prayer labyrinth is a path set in a concentric circle pattern, which is about 30 feet in diameter. A person begins from the outside of the circle and follows a path to the center, where there are meditation cells, and then follows the path to exit the labyrinth.

Historically, so-called Christian labyrinths developed in the 13^th century in cathedrals of the Roman Catholic Church. This came about because the Crusades were taking place, and that prevented Catholics from making pilgrimages to the Holy Land, so the Labyrinth enabled one to make the pilgrimage at least metaphorically, and it probably included whatever indulgences were given for the actual pilgrimage.

The Labyrinth revival in America is being led by the Reverend Lauren Artress of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. She walked her first labyrinth at a conference hosted by New Ager Jean Houston. Later that year, she visited the Chartres Cathedral in France and observed the labyrinth pattern in the stone floor of the church.

So, that’s some background, Dave. Now, we have this going on at an evangelical convention for youth pastors. And this is by the biggest organization claiming to be Christian in the country.

Dave: What do you mean, “the biggest organization”? Who are they, then?

Tom: Well, this is Group Magazine—this is Youth Specialties; this is…probably every youth pastor gets their magazine. So this is the going thing.

Dave: Yeah, Group has, of course, promoted visualization—visualizing God, even.

Tom: Well, part of it promotes the contemplative approach to spirituality.

Dave: Right. So now, Tom, we’re back to what we talked about a few minutes ago when we were dealing with exorcism. We’ve got techniques, we’ve got rituals. Somehow, I’m looking to this labyrinth…

Tom: “Spiritual tool,” they would call it.

Dave: Right. Somehow, I can’t walk with the Lord; I can’t just trust Him. And I’m not growing by reading His Word, feeding upon His Word, and that Christ died in my place, that I have died with Him, and when I’m crucified with Christ, “nevertheless I live, but now Christ lives within me.” This “living the life by faith,” and the wonder of—the miracle of—what Christ does in me! Somehow it doesn’t work, and I feel dry, and empty, or frustrated, or whatever it is, and what the Bible offers doesn’t work. And now, someone came up with this—well, it’s in the Chartres Cathedral there—and it’s been in other cathedrals, and now we’ve got a technique. We have a ritual. And some kind of a pilgrimage, and as I enter onto this journey, I begin to meditate, and…

Tom: “to look within…” I mean, this is a major part of it. Searching your heart, your spirit within, whether it’s the Holy Spirit or not…which I rather doubt.

Dave: And then, what do you know? Things begin to happen. We could probably refer to a lot of things. You could go back to a book…how many years ago? Thirty, forty years ago, written by Korzybski, a brilliant man. Modern Semantics, it was called. And he showed that if you just get a new perspective on something, just a new way of looking at things, you know—a semantic twist to something—why, it can transform your life! It just changes the way you see this… So, I’m not denying that these people entering upon this labyrinth, they have hope now, they’re expecting something, and, what do you know? They may have some experience, they may have some insights, and so forth, that they think.

But did it come from the labyrinth? Or how often do I have to walk this thing? Where in the Bible does it suggest a labyrinth? Did Paul use them? Did Paul take a canvas around with him and have people walk this labyrinth?

So, on the one hand, I’m sure you will have testimonies of people who say, “Wow! It just was like a spiritual breakthrough. I just felt closer to God,” and so forth. On the other hand, I’m afraid it takes them away from the simple faith—“The just shall live by faith”—it takes them away from the truth and the reality of God’s Word. And they’re now relying upon a technique. I do not believe it is biblical—I know it’s not biblical. I don’t believe it is healthy for a Christian, and it could open them up to other spirits—that’s one of the problems, because now they’ve opened themselves up to some kind of spiritual transformation, through walking this labyrinth.

Tom: Dave, my concern here is particularly for Christian youth. We’ve…in the past, we’ve talked about Taizé. Now we have this prayer labyrinth so-called.

Dave: Any technique—“Let’s come up with a new technique now.”

Tom: Something novel, something…

Dave: Right. What will we have next?

Tom: And the people—particularly youth pastors, who are taking these things in and then promoting it among their youth… I’d like them to do a little research here! If they begin to look at any of these techniques: What’s the background of it? What is being promoted? I would think it would make their hair stand up if they would take the time and effort to look at this. Whether it be Taizé, going back to meditative techniques, going back to the contemplative approach—all they have to do is read Ignatius’s Exercises. That should scare them to death, because it has to do with parking your mind over here and believing whatever is going to come to you…

Dave: Tom, let’s explain. You were referring to Ignatius of Loyola, who was the founder of the Jesuits.

Tom: But also, with this particular technique, this is a…was really started, or a revival of it was started, by this woman pastor, Episcopal pastor, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Now if you just go to her website, and look what she’s promoting… For example, you can sign up for a tour to Chartres Cathedral, but here’s the topic: “Let’s walk with Mary 2001.”

Dave: Mm-hmm.

Tom: So she’s taking a group over there and they’re going to be walking and meditating upon all that Mary is, all that she did—not the Mary of the Bible! This is a Roman Catholic Cathedral. This is the Mary of Catholicism, which is not the Mary of the Bible.

Dave: Well, Tom, why is the Mary of Catholicism not the Mary of the Bible? I mean, you put your foot in it. Now you’d better explain it.

Tom: All right, well, I’m going to…we don’t have much time here, but if people out there want to know, the October 2000 newsletter for The Berean Call, the article is titled “Mary Who?” And I believe I give out enough information so at least some who are interested in getting to the bottom of who Mary is can start with that article.

Dave: And you’re not putting down the Mary of the Bible.

Tom: Not at all.

Dave: No. But the Mary that the Catholic Church has built up: a perpetual virgin (contrary to what the Bible says—Jesus had brothers and sisters, it tells us that; she now appears all over the world; this Mary says, “I will be with you always.” No! That’s what Jesus said. The apparition of Mary comes with her “peace plan” for the world. No! Jesus is the Prince of Peace. There will never be peace without Him! She comes offering salvation and promoting…in fact, she is the originator of many of the unbiblical techniques such as the Rosary, and so forth…

Tom: Right. Some of the major dogmas within the Catholic Church!

Dave: So this is not the Mary of the Bible. This is a Mary who is the “Queen of Heaven,” who has a little baby “Jesus” on her lap in heaven, who looms larger than God as the Catechism and Vatican II say, and I’m quoting them, “This is the Mother of God.” No, she’s the mother of the body that Jesus took. God was around long before Mary was. She is the one that is known as “the Virgin [now, I’m quoting] to whom the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs.”

Tom: Dave, to finish this up—we’re out of time here, but my point in this is…some people may look at it as “Well, it’s just a simple technique to get people into more prayer.” No. If they begin to look at the background of all of these, it’s going lead off into directions further and further away from God’s Word. And that’s my concern.

Dave: Yeah. Amen.