The Charismatic Renewal--Come Holy Spirit

THE CHARISMATIC RENEWAL
The idea for this post came to me this morning at mass. A couple of days ago I wrote about the baptism in the Spirit, using a talk I gave some years ago. Today I feel the need to add more of an overall picture. Through the years I have read and heard many testimonies about the difference the baptism in the Spirit makes in the lives of Christians.

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What does the Catholic Church say about the charismatic renewal? ***Watch this video for an overview. Look especially at the face of John Paul II in 1981 before he says, “Long life for the Charismatics” and listen to the praising in tongues afterwards!

Please read in your bible about the happenings at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21). The people in the upper room were already Christians, already followers of Jesus. But Jesus knew they needed more and promised to send the Spirit. Re-read Acts 2 and try to convince yourself that the baptism in the Spirit was not both needed and effective. Then ask yourself whether it is needed today. We read: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…..”

How and where are people being led to the Lord and filled with the Spirit in these latter days?
A TV network, EWTN, now international, was brought into being by a simple tongue-speaking nun, Mother Angelica. I’ll bet that today, even at 85, despite her incapacities, she still has that twinkle as she looks back on the wonders God has worked through her.

Christ prayed, “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you….” (John 17: 21). I pray we are headed toward a time when all may be one in the Spirit. It will surely happen – because Jesus prayed for it!
Most of us should not expect so many fireworks — so much recognition – in our careers. But we should all have some fire in the belly, a glowing ember inside, that tells us God is working in us and we are part of an alive body of Christ, equipped to serve.

Once again, the invitation: Is God your Father? Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? Then why not ask Jesus to give you more of His Spirit with an openness to any gifts he has for you? What could you lose except your resistance to the will of God for you? What could you gain? God is just waiting to give good things to willing, open, yielded souls. Dare to trust!

**Popes Paul VI and John Paul II both blessed the charismatic renewal but said that it will fulfill its purpose only when, like the early liturgical movement, it ceases to have a separate identity of its own and is absorbed into the whole Church. In other words, every Catholic should be a charismatic, baptized in the Spirit, empowered like the apostles.
It is needed now, more than ever. Jesus is the one who sends the Holy Spirit. The Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. — Luke 11:9-13.
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**Long life for the charismatics. – John Paul II, 1981.

**Open yourselves docilely to the gifts of the Spirit. Accept gratefully and obediently the charisms which the Spirit never ceases to bestow on us. Do not forget that every charism is given for the common good, that is for the benefit of the whole Church. — John Paul II, 1998

Excertps taken from http://www.musingsat85.com/myblog/