THE CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC
RENEWAL
The
Catholic Charismatic Renewal traces it's beginning to 1967.
But in order to fully understand the significance of this
renewal movement, we have to “rewind” back a few years. Prior
to the birth of the Renewal something important was already
taking place in the Roman Catholic Church.
 In 1962, Pope John XXIII gathered all the bishops
together in Rome for the Vatican II Council. His prayer for
the Council was "...may the Divine Spirit deign to answer in a
most comforting manner the prayer that rises daily to him from
every corner of the earth... Renew your wonders in our time,
as though for a new Pentecost." -
The church prayed for a new Pentecost …
and the Holy Spirit heard!
At one crucial point during the Council, one of the cardinals
stood up and said, "Let's not have any references to the gifts
of the Spirit, because they are not for today." But another
Cardinal, Cardinal Suenens, read the Scriptures, discussed
with the theologians and came back the next day and said,
"Charisms are for today; leave the references in the
document."
And so prophetically, the Vatican II documents, especially in
the "Dogmatic Constitution of the Church" and the "Decree on
the Apostolate of the Laity" contain clear teachings on the
Holy Spirit and the importance of charisms or gifts of the
Spirit.
Quoting one example: "It is not only through the sacraments
and church ministries that the same Holy Spirit sanctifies and
leads the People of God and enriches it with virtues.
Allotting his gifts 'to everyone according as he will', he
distributes special graces among the faithful of every
rank..... These charismatic gifts, whether they be the most
outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused are to be
received with thanksgiving and consolation, for they are
exceedingly suitable and useful for the needs of the Church."
(Lumen Gentium, No. 12)
Some have described Vatican II as the church throwing open
her windows to let the Holy Spirit come in like a Breadth of
fresh air. Well, the Holy Spirit did come -- like a mighty
wind!
In Feb 1967, just a few months after the close of
Vatican II, a group of Catholic students from Duquesne
University U.S.A. were having a retreat. These were Catholics
who were already actively involved in serving the church and
doing all sorts of Catholic outreach in the University. In
spite of all this they felt that there was something lacking
in their individual Christian lives. Somehow there was an
emptiness, a lack of dynamism, a sapping of strength in their
lives of prayer and action. It was as if their lives as
Christians were too much by their own power and of their own
will. It seemed to them that the Christian life wasn’t meant
to be a purely human achievement. Something was missing!
Prior to that retreat, they read together the letters of St
Paul and the Acts of the Apostles and some of them had
recited, every day for a whole year, the prayer of the Church
for the Octave of the Feast of Pentecost: Come Holy Spirit.
The theme of the retreat was: The Holy Spirit. They began each
session singing the hymn, "Come Holy Ghost". In the first talk
the speaker quoted Acts 1:8 "You shall receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you". The speaker then explained
that the word power in Greek was similar for the word
"DYNAMITE"! In the 2nd talk, the speaker read from Acts 2
about the day of Pentecost, and said "This still happens
today."
YES, IT DID....AND STILL DOES.
One student testified as follows:
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He went for a
walk....when he came back he was told that the water pump
was broken....so, there was no water. He decided to go up
to the chapel to pray.... Somehow he was feeling rather
excited about praying so specifically, for such a specific
need. When he came down from the chapel, to his amazement
and delight the water started flowing again! He was so
excited that he went back up to the chapel to thank God.
The moment he stepped into the chapel....something
happened: he was overwhelmed by the presence of God.
Falling down to the ground, he laid prostrate on the floor
worshipping God. As he continued to worship, something
even more wonderful happened: he found himself praying in
a strange language… he was starting to pray in tongues.
Only later did he come to understand his experience as
being “Baptised in the Spirit.” |
Significantly his prayer that the tap water would flow
again had resulted in an even more important flow of water….
the Living Waters of the Spirit!
But he was not the only one to experience it that night…
In a somewhat separate incident, another retreatant, Patti
Gallagher, testifies:
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As the weekend proceeded
many of us were confronted with what it would mean to
surrender our lives completely to Jesus as our Lord and
Master and to open ourselves to the power of his Spirit…
to allow Jesus into the very centre of our lives. By
Saturday afternoon, many of us realized that we needed to
commit ourselves more deeply to Jesus. One of the young
men suggested that at the close of the retreat we make a
personal renewal of our confirmation and ask the Holy
Spirit to be released in us.
That Saturday evening, Feb 18, 1967 was an important night
in my life. During a birthday party at the retreat I
wandered up into the chapel to see if any of my friends
were there. I didn’t plan on praying myself. I was simply
going to call my friends down to the party.
But as I entered and knelt in the presence of the Lord in
the Blessed Sacrament, I trembled with the awareness that
it was God himself, in all his holiness, before whom I had
come. I found myself praying from the depths of my being a
prayer of total surrender to the Lord. In the next few
moments I found myself prostrate before the altar and
filled with an awareness of God’s personal love for me.
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Immediately after that experience she went to tell the
Spiritual Director of the retreat what she had experienced. To
her delightful surprise the Director told her that she was not
the only one, someone before her had gone to the chapel and
had a similar experience. Well, before the end of the party
that night, all the students were drawn into the chapel. It
was as if Jesus was walking amongst them and touching each
person in some special way. Of course, later they were to
learn that what they had experienced was the “baptism of the
Spirit”.
That birthday party had given rise to a much more important
birth… the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
From this first encounter, word spread to the neighboring
Catholic University, Notre Dame, where some key Catholic lay
leaders were to be similarly baptized in the Holy Spirit. The
water did not stop flowing… it became a great river. From
there the outpouring of the Spirit continued to spread all
across USA, America, Europe and Asia….. and Singapore. In 1979
the Renewal came to our own U.S.A. (Upper Serangoon Area),
Nativity Church.
Is 43:19-21
"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do
you not persive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert....for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the
people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my
praise."
Compiled by: Edmund Ang
Source Reference: A New Pentecost (Cardinal J. Suenens); The
Spirit and the Church (Ralph Martin); New Covenant Magazine.
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