Pray the Rosary instead of practicing yoga!

Yoga is not suitable for a parish school, the Catholic bishop of Waterford & Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan has told schools in his diocese. In a letter to schools across Waterford, sent on October 10th, he also warned against mindfulness.

Bishop Cullinane pointed out that yoga was “not of Christian origin” and said it was not suitable for a parish school setting “especially not during religious education time.” On mindfulness, he told schools it had been practiced in the Christian tradition “in a sense” since the beginning. “But Christian mindfulness is not mindlessness but is meditation based on Christ, emptying the mind of everything unnecessary so that we become aware of the presence and love of Christ,” he said.

The Bishop referenced a homily from Pope Francis in 2015 in which he said “practices like Yoga are not capable of opening our hearts up to God... You can take a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things but all of this will never be able to give you freedom.” The Bishop concluded by asking teachers and principals to encourage children to “pray the Rosary” and help them spend time with Jesus in “adoration or in quiet meditation” in the classroom.

Irish Times