Is it OK (Catholic) to Visualize Goals?

[LilyM]

Originally Posted by MirandaRiver

Could you not, in visualising the goal see God's power working to make it manifest? Then you know that if it happens it is only through God's Will that it has manifested (although you through your visualising have in a way prayed to God for it to happen?)
God can see into our hearts and our minds and images, as well as hear the words we say in prayer.

No - because not everything we want, not all our goals, are His will, nor will He work with His power to make those which are contrary to His will manifest.

Even His own Son, who prayed for relief from His suffering, did not presume to 'see God's power working to make it manifest' - because on a fundamental level He knew that it was the Father's will that He suffer. So instead He humbly asked 'not my will, but Yours be done.'

We are God's servants. We pray to learn what He wants us to do for Him, not to tell Him what to do for us.

[slywakka250]

I am a new age crazy.

Perhaps I will return to a more Catholic understanding of this in the future, but right now Law of Attraction is changing my life for the better in ways I could never have imagined.

The Law of Attraction implies, that we as individuals and collective consiousness are the primary creators of reality, and not God.

However, as I read these posts here, I believe Law of Attraction could be applied in a Catholic way.

One of the pre-requisites to using the Law of Attraction is to decide what you want to manifest. It is highly personal, with no reference to God's will.

But what if you took God's will into account? The actual practice of Law of Attraction involves feeling Gratitude for what you want to achieve, feeling as though you have already achieved it, and letting go, and letting the goal manifest.

This seems awfully similar to the Christian notion of Gratitude for what God wants to give us. Christ says he wants to give us peace, life to the full, etc. And the LOA concept of "letting go" is in a way very similar to the Christian notion of 'detachment'.

So I think for Catholics, law of attraction is fine, but you don't get to choose what you want to create based on your own desires, but based on God's specific will for your life.