Hello everyone,

Hi I am Jasper T. Suquila, age 29, from Caloocan City, Metro Manila, the Philippines. I am interested to join your group and I thank the Lord Jesus that I am not alone as a Christian who practices Reiki.

I am a Reiki Master from the traditional Usui Reiki Ryoho stream, and am practicing Reiki actively for the past three years already. I am a Roman Catholic, (and I still am), temporary professed Dominican Third Order, graduated AB Theology from a Dominican school and currently finishing my MA Applied Theology (with concentration in Religious and Values Education) from De La Salle University - Manila as a scholar. I am a Christian Living/Values Education teacher in the High School for more than seven years already, and I do give reiki to my co-faculty teachers and students alike when they ask for it. I also use Reiki when I give counselling to my students who have family problems and behavioral problems.

I am so glad to know and find that there are a lot of people who worship and serve the Lord Jesus and yet are practitioners of Reiki. I thought that I am the only one in this predicament/situation. I have encountered a lot of "conservative" (read: narrow-minded) Catholics who think that I am practicing superstition and "pagan" methods of healing. There are also other Christian sisters and brothers from other denominations who profess to "love" Christ and yet are the first one to "cast stones" to Christians who are Reiki practitioners whom they deem as "followers of Satan" and are considered as "damned" or lost.

I have been a member of a Catholic Charismatic renewal community and I praise God for giving me the gifts of healing and teaching. When I came to a Reiki introduction talk, I am amazed and at the same time critical of Reiki, because it seems to me that Mikao Usui received also the gift of healing from God. As I attended my Level I Reiki, I am still cautious of it and I prayed very hard to Jesus to protect me from any "harmful spirits" who may be going around and enter my body. During my first attunement, I asked the Lord Jesus to cover me with His Precious Blood, and invoked the Holy Spirit to protect me from any spirit from entering me. I have a personal relationship with Jesus, and I told Him: "Lord Jesus, if Reiki comes from you, let its power flow through me, if not, I ask you to cover me with Your precious Blood and seal me with Your holy Light. Send forth your angels to! surround this place in Your Name." I prayed intensely while my Reiki Master was attuning me.

Guess what? The power of Reiki flowed through me and I felt the tangible presence of God. I thought to myself "This is the Shekinah of YHWH!". The sweet presence of God filled me, and the experience is akin to my Baptism of the Holy Spirit during my Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar, which I attended years ago, and I felt the loving touch of the Holy Spirit surrounding me and filling me, just like my experience during the Sacrament of Confirmation when I was a child. While in gassho position I began praising Jesus for this wonderful gift of Reiki.

My life has never been the same again with Reiki. For me, Reiki brought me closer to Jesus, and also, was more in touch with Jesus' mission on earth, which is to heal the sick and proclaim the Reign of God in our midst. My hands are very hot whenever I "pray over" the sick using Reiki.

As a Reiki Master, I define Reiki as "God-directed life force energy". I even equate Reiki to a manifestation of the healing presence of God in Christ Jesus. I believe that Reiki is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Reiki is indeed one of the charismatic gifts of healing (as mentioned in 1st Corinthians chapter 12). I believe in the sacramental and incarnational dimensions of Reiki to others. Let me elaborate it theologically.

Leonardo Boff, a Franciscan theologian, in his book, "Sacraments of Life, Life of the Sacraments" expresses his view that any object or person can be a "sacrament", if that thing or person leads you to God, and that person or object becomes for you a dynamic and visible symbol of the invisible presence of God. We encounter God in the midst of ordinary human experiences. The utter transparency of the invisible healing presence of God is made visible through Reiki. When we touch others to give Reiki, we are making visible the invisible healing presence of God in our midst. Touching is a human action where we make others feel that they are loved and cared for. Touching is a universal human action of affection. When we give Reiki to others by touching others, we make them feel the healing presence and power of God, who is Love Itself (1st John 4:18) and let us remember that&! nbsp;the love of God has been poured out through the Spirit (Romans 5:5). In Scripture we read in First Corinthians 12 we the phrase: "gifts of healing" (NRSV) . The word "gifts" is in plural form. It means to say that there are a variety of "gifts" of healing, not just the traditional method of laying of hands found in the New Testament. Remember that Jesus of Nazareth healed in a variety of ways. We do not see a "uniform or standard way" of healing the sick. I believe that Reiki is one of them.

As St. Irenaeus of Lyons said: "The glory of God is a human fully alive!" I believe that Reiki is part and parcel of the healing tradition that has just been recovered by Mikao Usui. We must recall that Reiki only seeks the highest healing good of a human person, and that brings a person's frequency or auric field and state of being into balance and perfect health which we call homeostasis. We cannot use Reiki to harm others or do evil. It will not simply work. When we give Reiki, we give glory to God, whose perfect Will and mission for human beings is wholeness and perfect balance in health, "fully alive!" as I have mentioned above.

For those who think Reiki cannot be reconciled to Christianity, just remember that first, Reiki is not a religion. It is a charismatic gift from the Spirit. In the Charismatic tradition, one receives the gifts of the Spirit through the laying of the hands, just like Reiki is received and open us up to the reservoir of God's manifold healing virtue through attunements (done through laying of hands also.) We are Christians who just happen to be Reiki practitioners and not the other way around. Second, God is the source and origin of Reiki, not Mikao Usui, or the Reiki Masters. Reiki Masters do not own Reiki, they are just channels of Reiki. Reiki Masters only open the uninitiated to the power of Reiki, but is not the source of Reiki. Third, The Principles of Usui is very much Christian and more closer to the spirit and intention of the Christian Scriptures.

Always remember the theological principle regarding the primacy of God's unconditional love for all human beings and all creation. God reveals Himself in many different ways through different people (Hebrews 1:1), and I do believe that Reiki is a manifestation of His healing presence to others. We cannot put God in a box or put Him nicely in our own limited human perceptions of reality. God is more than what we say or think of Him. You cannot say that: "God can only do this or do that" or say: "God cannot be the source of Reiki". God is more than who we think He is. In the book of Isaiah we read about God:" For My ways are not your ways and My thoughts are above your thoughts...."

I have a lot to share. But this is all for now.

With all my love and respect,

Jasper T. Suquila
A Roman Catholic who happens to be a Reiki Master