The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith offers bishops doctrinal and pastoral guidance for evaluating meditation methods drawn from Eastern religions. Christian prayer is presented as a personal and ecclesial dialogue with the Triune God, grounded in Baptism, the Eucharist, Scripture, Christ’s historical revelation, and the action of the Holy Spirit. The letter rejects approaches that dissolve the distinction between Creator and creature, reduce grace to secret knowledge or psychological experience, or bypass Christ and the Church. It allows elements of other traditions to be adopted only when they serve authentic Christian prayer and do not produce syncretism. Spiritual direction, ascetical purification, fasting, bodily postures, breathing, and periods of solitude may assist recollection, but none is a technique for mastering mystical union, which remains a free gift of grace. Physical sensations must not be confused with spiritual consolation, and dryness in prayer can express faithful perseverance rather than failure. Contemplation retains human identity, leads to charity and service, and must be exercised in communion with the Church and its discernment.