Ecclesial Movements: The Catholic Charismatic Renewal
Renewal for the Springtime of the Church
God sovereignly drew many Duquesne University students into the chapel at The Ark and Dove Retreat Center. Some were laughing, others crying. Some prayed in tongues, others (like me) felt a burning sensation coursing through their hands. God had planned it in the Upper Room Chapel. It was the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!
PrintWASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The Catholic Charismatic Renewal finds its roots at a retreat for Duquesne University's Chi Rho Scripture Study group in February, 1967. The retreat was held at The Ark and the Dove Retreat House, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
During the retreat, Patti Gallagher-Mansfield and others had a special encounter with the Holy Spirit. I will let her explain it in her own words:
In the Spring of 1966, two Duquesne University professors were ASKING, SEEKING and KNOCKING. They had pledged themselves to pray daily for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives using the beautiful Sequence Hymn of Pentecost. In the midst of this time of prayer, some friends gave them two books: The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak With Other Tongues. Both books describe the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The men from Duquesne realized that this Baptism in the Spirit was precisely what they were searching for.
In January 1967, four Catholics from Duquesne attended their first interdenominational charismatic prayer meeting - the Chapel Hill meeting - in the home of Miss Flo Dodge, a Spirit-filled Presbyterian. Interestingly enough, a few months before these Catholics came, the Lord led Flo to read Isaiah 48 where He announces that He is about to do "a new thing".
We were planning for our retreat in February and the professors suggested a new theme: "The Holy Spirit." In preparation for the retreat, they told us to pray expectantly, to read The Cross and the Switchblade, and to read the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.
A few days before the retreat, I knelt in my room and prayed, "Lord, I believe I've already received your Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. But if it's possible for your Spirit to be more at work in my life than He's been up until now, I WANT IT!" The dramatic answer to my prayer was soon to come.
On Saturday a member of the Chapel Hill Prayer Group came to speak on Acts, chapter 2. All we were told was that she was a Protestant friend of our professors. Although her presentation was very simple, it was filled with spiritual power. She spoke about surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Master. She described the Holy Spirit as a Person who empowered her daily. Here was someone who really seemed to know Jesus intimately and personally! She knew the power of the Holy Spirit like the Apostles did. I knew I wanted what she had and I wrote in my notes, "Jesus, be real for me."
Saturday night a birthday party was planned for a few of our members, but there was a listlessness in the group. I wandered into the upstairs chapel...not to pray but to tell any students there to come down to the party. Yet, when I entered and knelt in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I literally trembled with a sense of awe before His majesty. I knew in an overwhelming way that He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. I thought, "You had better get out of here quick before something happens to you." But overriding my fear was a much greater desire to surrender myself unconditionally to God.
I prayed, "Father, I give my life to you. Whatever you ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves." In the next moment, I found myself prostrate, flat on my face, and flooded with an experience of the merciful love of God...a love that is totally undeserved, yet lavishly given. Yes, it's true what St. Paul writes, "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."
My shoes came off in the process. I was indeed on holy ground. I felt as if I wanted to die and be with God. The prayer of St. Augustine captures my experience: "O Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." As much as I wanted to bask in His presence, I knew that if I, who am no one special, could experience the love of God in this way, that anyone across the face of the earth could do so.
I ran down to tell our chaplain what had happened and he said that David Mangan had been in the chapel before me and had encountered God's presence in the same way. Two girls told me my face was glowing and wanted to know what had happened.
Within the next hour God sovereignly drew many of the students into the chapel. Some were laughing, others crying. Some prayed in tongues, others (like me) felt a burning sensation coursing through their hands. Yes, there was a birthday party that night, God had planned it in the Upper Room Chapel. It was the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!
The experience of the "Duquesne Weekend" quickly spread to other campuses, such as the University of Notre Dame and those serving in campus ministry at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan.
The Word of God, an evangelistic outreach at the University of Michigan in Ann ...
During the retreat, Patti Gallagher-Mansfield and others had a special encounter with the Holy Spirit. I will let her explain it in her own words:
In the Spring of 1966, two Duquesne University professors were ASKING, SEEKING and KNOCKING. They had pledged themselves to pray daily for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives using the beautiful Sequence Hymn of Pentecost. In the midst of this time of prayer, some friends gave them two books: The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak With Other Tongues. Both books describe the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The men from Duquesne realized that this Baptism in the Spirit was precisely what they were searching for.
In January 1967, four Catholics from Duquesne attended their first interdenominational charismatic prayer meeting - the Chapel Hill meeting - in the home of Miss Flo Dodge, a Spirit-filled Presbyterian. Interestingly enough, a few months before these Catholics came, the Lord led Flo to read Isaiah 48 where He announces that He is about to do "a new thing".
We were planning for our retreat in February and the professors suggested a new theme: "The Holy Spirit." In preparation for the retreat, they told us to pray expectantly, to read The Cross and the Switchblade, and to read the first four chapters of the Acts of the Apostles.
A few days before the retreat, I knelt in my room and prayed, "Lord, I believe I've already received your Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation. But if it's possible for your Spirit to be more at work in my life than He's been up until now, I WANT IT!" The dramatic answer to my prayer was soon to come.
On Saturday a member of the Chapel Hill Prayer Group came to speak on Acts, chapter 2. All we were told was that she was a Protestant friend of our professors. Although her presentation was very simple, it was filled with spiritual power. She spoke about surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Master. She described the Holy Spirit as a Person who empowered her daily. Here was someone who really seemed to know Jesus intimately and personally! She knew the power of the Holy Spirit like the Apostles did. I knew I wanted what she had and I wrote in my notes, "Jesus, be real for me."
Saturday night a birthday party was planned for a few of our members, but there was a listlessness in the group. I wandered into the upstairs chapel...not to pray but to tell any students there to come down to the party. Yet, when I entered and knelt in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I literally trembled with a sense of awe before His majesty. I knew in an overwhelming way that He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. I thought, "You had better get out of here quick before something happens to you." But overriding my fear was a much greater desire to surrender myself unconditionally to God.
I prayed, "Father, I give my life to you. Whatever you ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves." In the next moment, I found myself prostrate, flat on my face, and flooded with an experience of the merciful love of God...a love that is totally undeserved, yet lavishly given. Yes, it's true what St. Paul writes, "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit."
My shoes came off in the process. I was indeed on holy ground. I felt as if I wanted to die and be with God. The prayer of St. Augustine captures my experience: "O Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." As much as I wanted to bask in His presence, I knew that if I, who am no one special, could experience the love of God in this way, that anyone across the face of the earth could do so.
I ran down to tell our chaplain what had happened and he said that David Mangan had been in the chapel before me and had encountered God's presence in the same way. Two girls told me my face was glowing and wanted to know what had happened.
Within the next hour God sovereignly drew many of the students into the chapel. Some were laughing, others crying. Some prayed in tongues, others (like me) felt a burning sensation coursing through their hands. Yes, there was a birthday party that night, God had planned it in the Upper Room Chapel. It was the birth of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal!
The experience of the "Duquesne Weekend" quickly spread to other campuses, such as the University of Notre Dame and those serving in campus ministry at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan.
The Word of God, an evangelistic outreach at the University of Michigan in Ann ...
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the devil works is to hinders people from the truth because his charater is to steal,kill and distroy, remember that Christ himself was treated as besebol. So if people treated Jesus to be the king of devils what more charismatic, let them say. All I know is this catholic charismatic renewal is a prayer anwsered. Thank god for his gift,remember a church without the Holly Spirit is a dead church
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. This has been very helpful to me. Looking forward to read more informative topic.
While I do defer to the "teaching" of the Pope(s) and the Bishops united with him, having been "raised," so to say, in the teaching of St.John of the Cross, I am not at all inclined to partake of the Charismatic "format" of worship, whether within or outside of the Mass,... "Nada," but God Alone--to Him be honor and glory and blessing! ....But if I will spontaneously raise my arms high in the air when I am in Heaven, well, that will be a new and different "modus operandi" that I am happy here below to leave for that "day" without end! Amen!
I just returned from my weekly Catholic Charismatic prayer group and stumbled upon this article and thread. I, too, thought of Catholic Charismatics as, at best, fringe fanatics, and at worst as heretical. That was until I realized the number of popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, saints and evangelists that supported, recommended and lived the Charismatic life of the Church. One of the tests we all must use, and indeed, one that the Church herself uses to test anything, is fidelity to the Gospel and to the traditions and teachings of the Church. Obedience to the Magisterium is paramount. So either all those popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, saints and evangelists are wrong, or those who find the Charismatic Renewal heretical are being disobedient. I chose obedience, reluctantly learned more about the Renewal and now pray weekly to praise and glorify God through the Holy Spirit. The Mass and all the Church's teachings are no longer a burden, or mere doctrine, but a living faith it is a joy to try to follow. "Test all and keep what is good." A hardened heart and self-righteous judgment of the Church is not good. "Be not afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ!" I am thankful the Church does not demand of me the rigid perfection I sometimes demand of her. God bless.
To the folks who misunderstood my post,
The focus of my criticism was not the Charismatic Renewal as a whole, but the modernist perversions of Catholic doctrine within it, specifically religious indifferentism and syncretism, the idea that it doesn't matter for one's salvation if one is a Catholic or not. This was the implication of a good part of the article and, like it or not, it is anathema to the Church. The Council of Florence taught it infallibally, and the Church Fathers proclaimed it unanymously. In the mid twentieth century, Venerable Pope Pius XII proclaimed that we should not have good hope for the salvation of the (unconverted) protestants. Unfortunately, from what I have seen, the Charismatics contradict this teaching either explicitly or implicitly. This is heresy, like it or not. Plus, it has only been since the liturgy was protestantized and watered down that Catholics have left the Church for liturgical reasons in large numbers. If your grandparents are devout, ask them if they found anything lacking in the traditional mass. Talking in tongues has no grace more powerful than the Holy Sacrifice of Our Precious Lord's Body and Blood offered reverently to our Father in Heaven for the salvation of our souls. To say otherwise is something I find disturbing.
Hi Johnny.
I have no desire to question the need for the Spirit, but I suggest we have to be very careful not to restrict it to what would be termed 'charismatic'.
The Catholic Church is, unquestionably, the one and only charismatic Church, because it's the one Christ founded. Any other 'church' merely has it 'through a glass darkly' as it's in schism with Christ's Mystical body present, here on earth.
In short, the Catholic Church is the only true Church, and so is the only one to possess all the charisms fully.
Although I've benefitted greatly from Jeff Cavins, I suggest Dominus Iesus and Dominum et vivificantem as better guides in this regard, rather than our favourite gurus on EWTN and the like. However great and good, they're not infallible, as Frs Maciel, Corapi (awaiting outcome although there's rarely smoke without fire), and Euteneuer have shown...
Hi again, Matt.
Thanks for your concern. However, your reply still seems to miss the point.
The most charismatic Catholic or Protestant service falls INFINITELY short of the Grace present at the most 'boring' and 'uncharismatic' of said, weekday Masses. (The Mass is, of course, the least boring and most charismatic thing we could possibly participate in on earth.)
In other words, what you're implying by your reply is that somehow the Mass is spiritually insufficient, and I need that 'something extra' that the Mass cannot give, and it's to be found in some Charismatic community or experience.
I don't want (or need) to shop around or test communities 'to meet my need', because the Mass and Eucharistic adoration contains everything I could ever need. It is totally sufficient.
That is, any action on my part to find spiritual sustenance elsewhere would indicate a lack of faith in, and an insult to, the very centre of our life: Christ truly present – body, blood, soul, and divinity – in the Eucharist.
The fire of the Holy Spirit is something that needs to be experienced,not just taught! You can teach anybody just about anything,but until they experience whatever it is that your teaching,they will never fully understand.That's in anything,especially in the medical field and the spirituality of our lives.Jesus baptized in fire!Padre Pio had the gift of healings that's the fire of the Holy Spirit.He laid hands on people.King David sang and danced all throughout the Psalms! That's the joy from the Holy Spirit!Catholics need to quit being so easily spooked by Protestant worship of the Holy Spirit.Pentecost is coming and we need the Holy Spirit in ways we haven't had in centuries! Let do this Catholics!
I love Charismatics,we Catholics need to show the world where the gifts & charisms of the Holy Spirit come from,the Catholic Church!We can no longer be known for pickle juice faces anymore.@ Sean its sad to see so many traditional catholics continue to look angry at Mass and don't use the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit which is needed for this New Evangelism.The first and most obvious gift that was given at the first pentecost was the gift of tongues.It was given to the apostles and Our Lady. Go watch Jeff Cavins DVD on Acts of the Apostles,you might learn something.
@Paul, I'm sorry to hear of your bad experience with the Charismatic Renewal in England. I wish it would have been better. I don't know much about the Charismatic Renewal in England. I do know of a community in London, The Antioch Community. I know a guy who grew up in that community and have met people who have visited it before, but I have never been at a prayer meeting there. If you have not given them a shot, I would ask that you do. If you already have and they are in the same boat as the other charismatic groups and communities, I'm sorry. I'll definitely keep the work of the Charismatic Renewal in England in my prayers.