Fall Newsletter 2017
A flood of grace
“To share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church, to praise the Lord unceasingly,
to walk together with Christians of different Churches and Ecclesial Communities in prayer and activity on behalf of those in greatest need, to serve the poor and the sick. This is what
the Church and the Pope expect from you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but also from
everyone here: all of you who have become part of this flood of grace.”
—Pope Francis, Pentecost 2017 vigil prayer meeting, Circus Maximus, Rome
Pope marks charismatic jubilee with 50,000 pilgrims
By RICHARD DUNSTAN
Three years ago, Pope Francis invited the world’s charismatic Catholics to join him in Rome for Pentecost this year. Fifty thousand people from more than 120 countries took him up on the invitation—including about 50 from B.C.
This year marks the Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which got its start at a retreat held by students at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1967. International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services celebrated the jubilee with five days of activities in Rome, culminating in Pentecost Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square with Pope Francis June 4.
Pilgrimages to Rome were organized in the Vancouver archdiocese and the Nelson diocese, while others from B.C. travelled with an Edmonton group or independently. The groups also visited other religious sites in Italy.
The celebration in Rome featured three events with Pope Francis: a general audience at St. Peter’s Square Wednesday morning, at which he welcomed charismatic pilgrims; a Saturday evening prayer vigil at the Circus Maximus, scene of ancient Roman chariot races and Christian martyrdoms; and the Pentecost Sunday Mass.
At the prayer vigil, Pope Francis welcomed the crowd to “a kind of Upper Room beneath the open sky,” and called the charismatic renewal “a flood of grace” for the whole Church, “not just for some.”
“Many have come from different parts of the world, and the Holy Spirit has brought us together to build bonds of fraternal friendship that encourage us on our journey towards unity, unity for mission. Not to stand still! But for mission, to proclaim that Jesus is Lord.”
Pope Francis went on to stress three more points: Christian unity, the importance of praising God, and the care of the poor. He called attention to the fact that the Circus Maximus, where he was speaking, was a place where early Christian martyrs were killed—and that Christians of all denominations are still being killed today for their faith. He called this “the ecumenism of blood,” when people are killed, not for being Catholic or Evangelical or Lutheran or Orthodox, but simply for being Christian.
He concluded: “To share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church, to praise the Lord unceasingly, to walk together with Christians of different Churches and Ecclesial Communities in prayer and activity on behalf of those in greatest need, to serve the poor and the sick,” he said. “This is what the Church and the Pope expect from you, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, but also from everyone here: all of you who have become part of this flood of grace.” L’Osservatore Romano put attendance at 50,000.
At the Pentecost Sunday Mass, he prayed, “Spirit of God, Lord, who dwell in my heart and in the heart of the Church, guiding and shaping her in diversity, come! Like water, we need you to live. Come down upon us anew, teach us unity, renew our hearts and teach us to love as you love us, to forgive as you forgive us. Amen”.
In addition to the events with the Pope, a Jubilee prayer meeting and Mass was held on the Friday at the Circus Maximus, featuring Patti Mansfield and David Mangan (see Page 4), who were part of the 1967 retreat in Duquesne; Michelle Moran, president of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, the Rome-based governing body; Ralph Martin, a longtime Catholic charismatic leader and evangelist; and Vinson Synan, a Pentecostal pastor who has supported the Catholic renewal from its early days. Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell celebrated the Mass. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household and a major charismatic speaker, spoke at the Saturday vigil.
Workshops on numerous topics, from charismatic gifts to working with the poor, were held at various churches in the city. Speakers included Sister Briege McKenna, Sister Nancy Kellar, Jim Murphy, Cyril John, Charles Whitehead, Mary Healy, and many other charismatic leaders.
It’s time for the Catholic charismatic renewal’s 50-year review. Fortunately, the Book of Revelation has already done it for us.
Peter Thompson, featured speaker for Our Lady of Pentecost Gathering in the Spirit in Kelowna in August, says the letters to the seven churches found in chapters 2 and 3 of the New Testament book of Revelation were written about 50 years after the original Pentecost. More than 1,900 years later, they match up well to the situation of the renewal 50 years after it began.
Precious Embers was the theme of the gathering, held Aug. 13-18 at St. Elizabeth Seton House of Prayer. Thompson, a Catholic evangelist from Calgary, and Father Obi (Sylvester) Ibekwe of Creston, Nelson diocesan liaison for the charismatic renewal (see page 3), were the speakers. The gathering, formerly known as Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute, is sponsored by Nelson Diocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services and endorsed by Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of B.C. More than 40 people, from across the diocese and beyond, attended.
Thompson told the crowd that today’s Catholic charismatics, like the churches addressed in Revelation, need to stir up those precious embers. For example, the letter to Sardis (Rev 3:1-6) says to that church, “you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
Sound familiar? “We (charismatics) have a reputation of being alive in the Holy Spirit,” Thompson said. “People might think we were a bit crazy, but we had a reputation of being alive.” And now, he said, most of us, like the church in Ephesus, have “turned aside from your early love.
“Keep firmly in mind the heights from which you have fallen. Repent, and return to your former deeds.” (Rev. 2:4-5a)
Thompson, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1974, said God has had to remind him and stir him up many times since then. “If you’ve felt that flame begin to die, simply ask the Holy Spirit,” he said. “We can’t generate the flame ourselves.”
In six talks over the first three full days of the gathering, Thompson gave advice on many fronts for recovering the power of the charismatic renewal.
Exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He said there are far too many prayer groups that don’t exercise the charismatic gifts beyond maybe 20 seconds of prayer in tongues at each meeting. There’s no prophecy, no healing. “Why the decline? Have we allowed that desire to grow cold?
“God has given us the whole Holy Spirit. Don’t be content with just tongues.” As St. Paul said, “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy” (1 Corinthians 14:1). We need to step out in faith and deliver the prophetic word God seems to be giving us. “If you have faith for just three words, give those three words.”
He also said prayer group leaders need to get serious about praying in preparation for meetings. “Don’t just leave it to five minutes as we’re driving in.”
Read the Bible. It’s a falsehood that Catholics are, or ever were, forbidden to read the Bible, except for a brief period during the 12th century in response to a particular heresy that was distorting Scripture. What has been forbidden is reading false translations, but popes and saints all through the centuries have urged the reading of Scripture. St. Jerome (fourth century), the great Bible scholar and translator, said “ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ,” and Pope Benedict XV (not XVI) said in 1920 Catholics should be “saturated with the Bible.”
Because of readings at Mass, Thompson said, “Catholics know far more Scripture than they think.” But we should read the Bible on our own time, too, he said; “as we read, the Holy Spirit transforms our whole being.” It also equips us for ministry to others; “if you’re immersed in the Word, the Holy Spirit will bring the word that’s needed for that person at that time.”
And if we read the Bible so much that some parts become familiar, read them attentively all the same. “Don’t skip it—read it, because God has more to say to you.”
Be holy. You won’t get into heaven until you are, so you might as well try for it now rather than waiting for purgatory. “Rev. 21:27 says nothing imperfect can enter in,” Thompson said. “Everyone who enters in will be Saints, capital S Saints.”
He asked if anyone had been to a funeral recently, and when nearly every hand went up, he asked with a smile, “was that person canonized?”
At most funerals, he said, we hear that the deceased is in a better place, presumably heaven. “Not quite so fast,” he warned. “We may need further purification.” That’s what purgatory is for. Jesus desires that everyone be saved, but we need to be made fit for heaven first.
But he said holiness in this life is a realistic goal—humanly impossible, but realistic, because “all things are possible for God’s grace.”
“To be holy is to be set apart by God, for God,” he said. Everyone, even adults with a spectacularly sinful past, are made holy at the moment of baptism, and when we fall away from that, we can turn to confession and the Eucharist.
He said confession is “the sacrament of healing love. Don’t wait for a mortal sin. Going regularly fortifies the soul. The just man fails every day.” As for the Eucharist, “every Mass is a miracle beyond imagination, taking place in front of us.”
He also recommended seeking indulgences offered by the Church out of the “treasury of heaven”—the immeasurable merits of Jesus, as well as the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. Indulgences do not forgive sin but do take away the temporal punishment of sin, shortening time in purgatory for ourselves or for those in purgatory for whom we pray.
He also reminded the gathering that both faith and works are pure supernatural gifts from God; we don’t earn salvation by our own efforts. This point was agreed to by the Catholic and Lutheran churches in 2000, thus ending one of the biggest arguments of the Protestant Reformation. “It’s grace, grace, grace,” he said.
Spread the Gospel. “The Church exists to evangelize,” Thompson said. “It’s not an option. We’re commissioned at our baptism.”
“There are in excess of seven billion people on earth, and every one of them needs Christ,” he said. “Increasingly today there is a whole generation who have no knowledge of Christ, other than as a swearword.”
He said everyone in heaven is Catholic “by the time they get there,” but not everyone who gets to heaven is Catholic in their earthly life; those who lack knowledge of the Church and the Gospel, but seek God with a sincere heart and follow His grace, can be saved. Still, this doesn’t mean everybody is saved; the Catechism of the Catholic Church (844) says many are deceived and choose darkness. We don’t know if any individual is in hell, Thompson said, but he noted that Jesus said the road to destruction is wide, and many follow it.
How serious is our obligation? Thompson said early missionaries to the West African country of Ghana took their coffins with them, because foreign missionaries had a life expectancy of six months to a year; “they knew they were going to die.” But it was worth it to save souls.
How should we evangelize? We should start by praying for the salvation of every stranger we see. And we should show our faith by the way we live. But we need to talk about Jesus, too. “The witness of life sooner or later must be proclaimed by the word of life,” Pope Paul VI said.
“Love, and pray for the opportunity to share the Good News,” Thompson said.
He said we should also pray for the salvation of the dead. It’s never too late, he said—“God is outside of time.”
Prepare for the final battle. St. John Paul II said in 1978, shortly before his election as Pope, that the Church is entering the final confrontation between Christ and the antichrist, the Church and the antichurch. But as Pope, he also said “Do not be afraid.”
“We don’t know when the Lord will come back or how long the confrontation will last,” Thompson said. “We may never be called to give our lives for Christ, in the sense of losing blood, but we may.”
He said our society is in bad shape and most people demonstrate “practical atheism” in that “the word of God has no bearing on their lives.” But he also said the real struggle is in the spiritual realm, not in human society. “Our battle is not against those who deny Christ, but against powers and principalities” [the demonic].
We need to put on the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-17), pray in tongues when we’re confronted by the enemy, and “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Satan’s time is short.”
“We are in dark times,” Thompson said, “but we also live in great times, the times Jesus the Lord has chosen for us to live.”
Thompson, born in England, studied for the priesthood, but discerned a vocation for lay life. He and his wife, Madeleine, who was also at gathering, have been married f55 years. They moved to Canada in 1967. They spent two years in door-to-door evangelization in England in the 90s. Peter has served 12 years on the Canadian national service committee, and two terms on the international service committee. He also does missionary work in Africa with Renewal Ministries, headed by Catholic evangelist Ralph Martin, and was on his way to Kenya the day after leaving Kelowna.
—Richard Dunstan
John to headline 2018 Kelowna gathering
Cyril John (at right), former vice-president of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services and author of Pray Lifting Up Holy Hands, has been announced as guest speaker for the 10th annual Our Lady of Pentecost Gathering in the Spirit, to be held next summer in Kelowna.
The event, formerly known as Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute, will take place Aug. 12-17 at St. Charles Garnier Church. Theme is Prophetic Intercession.
John, 60, was born in Kerala, India, and currently lives in New Delhi. He was baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1982 and held a number of leadership positions in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in India beginning in 1991. He was named to the international service committee, based in Rome, in 2004 and was vice-president from 2007 to 2015.
His book, Pray Lifting Up Holy Hands, was published in 2012 and is a guide to intercessory prayer.
The Gathering in the Spirit will run Sunday evening to Friday lunchtime, and will feature two talks by John on each of the four full days, plus discussions, a healing Mass, and other evening devotional events, plus ample time for prayer and reflection. All events are at St. Charles Garnier except for the opening Mass, to take place Sunday evening in Mary’s Grove at St. Elizabeth Seton House of Prayer.
Cost until June 15, 2018, is $500 including accommodation at Seton House, or $275 without accommodation; both figures include meals and all sessions of the gathering. After June 15 the cost is $550 with accommodation, $325 without. Space at Seton House is limited to 30 people (double occupancy). Some billeting may be available.
To register, contact Maria McManus, #22-2035 Boucherie Rd. Westbank BC, V4T 1Z6, 250-707-1423, untamedspirit@telus.net. A $50 non-refundable deposit must accompany registration to hold a room at Seton House.
The Gathering in the Spirit is sponsored by Nelson Diocese Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services and endorsed by Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of B.C.
Why we still need Pentecost in 2017
The fire that poured down on the first Christians on the original Pentecost day is just as necessary for the Christians of the 21st century, Father Obi (Sylvester) Ibekwe told Our Lady of Pentecost Gathering in the Spirit.
“Pentecost was not an event of 2,000 years ago,” he said. “It’s an experience for us today.”
“The ‘why” of my existence can never be fulfilled without the Pentecost experience.”
He noted that the Baltimore Catechism taught that God made us “to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.” And the Holy Spirit, given at the first Pentecost and to all Christians since then who are willing to receive Him, makes it possible for that to happen.
“The love of God has been poured into my heart through the Holy Spirit [Romans 5:5],” Father Ibekwe said. “I can love because I have been loved. And the Pentecost moment is when we realize we are loved by God. We enter into a kind of paradise.”
He noted that in the account of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, the tongues of fire that bring the Holy Spirit separate and come to rest on each individual (verse 3). “When God deals with us, He doesn’t deal with us as a crowd,” Fr. Ibekwe said. “Each person is unique.” And like the burning bush of Exodus 3:2, where the flame does not consume the bush, the fire of the Holy Spirit is not destructive of our individuality. “We are still intact,” he said.
It does change us, though. It fills us with joy – “it is a contradiction to see a Christian who is sad” – and it gives us a sense of urgency to “rush out of the door” and proclaim the word of God. The risen Jesus tells the disciples in Acts 1:8 that they will go to the ends of the world to be His witnesses, and Pentecost, a Jewish holiday which originated as a harvest feast in the agricultural sense, became a spiritual harvest, with 3,000 people converted to the Gospel (Acts 2:41).
He said there are five steps by which people become disciples of Jesus, and gave advice on how Christians can help them along the path.
First, we must help them establish trust. If we treat people with kindness within an ordinary human relationship, people can see we are human beings just like themselves. “People need that bridge of trust to Jesus.”
Then, we need to satisfy curiosity when people have questions about our faith, even hard questions like how a good God can allow evil in the world. We need to tell the reason for our hope, but we shouldn’t overdo it—sometimes, he said, “we try to fill a teaspoon of a question with a gallon of an answer,” but that’s a mistake.
Next, we must pray for and encourage spiritual openness. He said all people, from Pope Francis to the famed atheist author Richard Dawkins, have a “God-sized hole” in their hearts, and can be brought to realize this.
Then, we should encourage any active spiritual seeking that people may show, as when they want to attend Mass or get involved in the parish some way.
The final step is when people become intentional disciples: consciously, actively following Jesus, as Peter did when he laid aside his fishing net, and with it his former way of life. This may not happen soon, or even in our lifetimes, but we should never be discouraged. We sow the seed, but God gives the growth. “Someday, the seed we sow will grow.”
– Richard Dunstan
Ground Zero:
When the fire fell at Duquesne
David Mangan was looking at the Holy Spirit through a scientist’s eyes when he went on the first Catholic charismatic retreat 50 years ago. He saw more than enough to convince him that the Spirit is real.
Mangan, now 72, was a 22-year-old math graduate when he joined 26 others on a retreat at the Ark and the Dove Retreat Center near Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in February 1967. Twelve of the young Catholics were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the retreat, which is now considered the beginning of the worldwide Catholic charismatic renewal. He told his story as featured speaker at the Nelson diocesan charismatic conference in April in Kelowna, as the renewal celebrates its golden jubilee.
“I am still an introverted mathematician, but I am a radically different man from what I was then,” Mangan told the conference.
The Duquesne retreat was set up after two members of a Catholic study group had been baptized in the Spirit at an interdenominational prayer meeting. Participants were asked to prepare by reading the first four chapters of the book of Acts, plus Pentecostal minister David Wilkerson’s 1962 book The Cross and the Switchblade. “Most of it went over my head,” Mangan said. He was an active Catholic who had never had a crisis of faith, but “I was not exactly a spiritual giant.”
At the weekend retreat, Mangan was too tired from his week’s work to get much out of the Friday evening activities, but on Saturday morning his interest was piqued by what he heard from the speakers on the first two chapters of Acts. He learned that the Greek for “power” in Acts 1:8 (“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”) is dunamis, the origin of the English word “dynamite.” “I said, ‘where’s the dynamite?’” he recalled. Then he was told that speaking in tongues, as in Acts 2, still happens today, and he wrote in his notebook “I want to hear someone speak in tongues—me!”; he says he probably wouldn’t have believed in tongues if he had heard somebody else.
Then at lunchtime, the whole project was threatened. A water pump failed, the repair man couldn’t come until Monday, and it looked like the retreat would have to be cancelled. Mangan was upset at that prospect—“I’m on the trail of something,” he said—so he and a few others went into the chapel to pray for a solution. “Never before had I prayed for something that I needed the answer right now,” he said. But as the group sat on the floor of the bare chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, he had a brief burst of faith and prayed out loud, “thank you, Lord, for giving us water.” Then he felt foolish—what if there was no water?
When the group was done praying, the others went off to lunch, but not Mangan. “I was the scientist,” he said. “I went right into the kitchen and turned on the water. It came gushing out.” It turned out that the repairman had had a change of heart and fixed the pump while the group was praying—not a miracle, but answered prayer is answered prayer.
So Mangan returned to the chapel to thank God, and the Holy Spirit clobbered him. “I was so overcome with the presence of God that I could hardly walk,” he said. “It was like walking under water. The next thing I knew I was prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament in adoration.”
He had forgotten saying “where’s the dynamite?” but now he felt “little explosions” throughout his body. And he had forgotten writing that he wanted to hear himself speak in tongues, but that’s what he found himself doing. “I thought that I might die,” he said. “Nobody can look on the face of God and live.”
No sooner had he left the chapel, though, when he began to doubt whether his experience was real. So, he said, he did what scientists do when they mistrust their data: they look for more data. He went back to the chapel and all the same things happened again.
The rest of the weekend, the Spirit stayed with him. Sunday morning, he was trying to be unobtrusive in the back row when he was overcome by roaring laughter; he fell off his chair and had to go to another room—“so much for not disturbing people.” The laughter lasted an hour.
After the weekend, he felt “lost in Christ” for nine to 12 months, at a level of high spiritual development that he had done nothing to achieve. At the end of that, he returned to more or less normal, but he said God told him “this [the ‘lost in Christ’ feeling and the spiritual development] is where you’re going.”
Since the retreat, Mangan has married and had five children; taught theology and math and worked as an administrator in Catholic high schools; and travelled nationally and internationally as a speaker. His most recent book is God Loves You and There’s Nothing You Can Do About It. —Richard Dunstan
50-year veteran looks ahead for the renewal
The Catholic charismatic renewal is far from dead, but at age 50 it could use some rejuvenation, says David Mangan, who has been part of the renewal from the beginning.
Mangan asked three pre-teens who attended the Nelson diocesan charismatic conference in April in Kelowna to pray a blessing over the 150 people in the congregation, most of them a long way past their teens.
He said he always looks for youth in the audience at his speaking engagements, and “here you don’t see many, do you?” It’s the same most other places. Young adults and teens are “the missing group in the Catholic charismatic renewal.”
The renewal is “hardly ready to be put out of its misery,” Mangan said, and it has some real strongholds in some parts of the world. In the United States, where he lives, there are some strong pockets, but not many, and he said he suspects Canada is much the same.
Among the world strongholds are Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, and in the United States, the strongest areas are places where the Latin American population is large. The renewal is also strong where there is an outreach to youth and to the needs of youth; where the healing ministry is most active; and where there is a sense of community. He said people don’t return to prayer meetings because the quality of the prophecy; “they come back because they felt love.”
He said part of what the renewal needs is a return to the willingness early charismatics had to go to trouble for their faith. People would attend conferences at a moment’s notice, and though that isn’t always possible, “that should be your heart.”
Mangan said we need to embrace the gift of tongues more fully. He said he has developed the ability to “pray without ceasing” by praying in tongues under his breath whenever he’s not doing anything specific that requires his attention. At times that has led him into contemplative prayer—not always, since contemplation is a gift from God, but when it happens he said it is like being the disciple John lying on Jesus’ breast (John 14:25, 21:20). If you haven’t prayed in tongues, he said, ask God for the gift and then just keep making sounds, but don’t speak English or any other language you know. Those who already pray in tongues should do the same, and keep going while avoiding the tongue they usually use.
In every situation, he said, we should ask God what He’s doing there; “then you follow that, and it will work.” We won’t know everything God is doing, but we will know some things—for example, He is always loving people.
Above all, we must remember that God loves us—not as an abstract doctrine, but “knowing with your knower.”
“Jesus died while we were sinners,” he said. “He didn’t wait until we stopped sinning.” There are 10 Gospel passages where Jesus rebukes the disciples for their “little faith,” but every time He still meets their needs—for example, He saves Peter when he starts to sink after trying to walk on water.
“I was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I didn’t know what it was, when I didn’t know what it was for, when I certainly didn’t deserve it, and when I was certainly going to mess it up. The Lord gave it anyway.”
The biblical roots of the jubilee celebration
By MARY HEALY
(Dr. Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture at 
Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, chair of the Doctrinal Commission of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services. and author of several books, is a featured speaker at the annual Vancouver Catholic Charismatic Conference in September.)
A jubilee is a time of joy, grace, and celebration. As St John Paul II wrote of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000: “The term ‘jubilee’ speaks of joy; not just an inner joy but a jubilation which is manifested outwardly.”
The origins of the jubilee are in the book of Leviticus, where God teaches His Chosen People how to sanctify time. Through Moses at Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed the Israelites how to order their lives within the rhythm of weeks, months, and years such that they continually renewed their fellowship with Him and with one another. They were to keep holy the seventh day, the Sabbath; to celebrate each new moon; and to observe a liturgical cycle of special feasts and seasons each year.
And beyond the annual calendar, certain years were sacred. The Lord commanded that every seventh year would be a sabbath year (Lv 25:1–7). That is, the people had to rest from agricultural work and let the land itself “rest,” or lie fallow—there could be no sowing or reaping. To celebrate the sabbath year was an act of trust in God. It required trust that even without human labour, God would provide enough for the people to eat through what grew of itself or what they had saved from previous years. The sabbath year helped ensure that God’s people would not be slaves to work, that they would not close themselves off in a utilitarian or consumerist vision of reality.
Even greater than the sabbath year was the jubilee year (Lv 25:8–55). The jubilee was a kind of super-Sabbath, to be held after every seven times seven years—that is, the fiftieth year. The Israelites called it a “jubilee” (Hebrew yobel) because they announced it at the end of the forty-ninth year by blowing a ram’s horn (yobel). Leviticus goes on to explain that the jubilee is to be a year of rest, release, and return.
It is a year of rest because, just as in the sabbath year, the people are to take a year off from their farm labour and let the land lie fallow. Long before modern ideas of crop rotation, the Lord taught Israel how to let the land rest and recoup its nutrients!
It is a year of release because the slave-owners of all Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery to pay a debt (a common practice in the ancient world) would free them. This means that no Israelite could be a true slave. He was only an indentured servant, who would eventually be free. Thus, God reminded the Israelites that they were servants of Him alone, who freed them from slavery in Egypt. The book of Deuteronomy later added another form of release: during the jubilee, all debts are to be forgiven (Dt 15:1). The weight of a debt could not permanently oppress God’s people.
And it is a year of return because all land that had been sold off (another common way of repaying a debt) had to be returned to its original owner, and the owner could return to his land. The jubilee ensured that selling property was only a long-term lease. This was essential because an Israelite family’s portion in the holy land was not real estate that they could trade like a commodity, but a sacred inheritance from the Lord. No member of God’s people could be permanently alienated from his land.
The jubilee would thus enable all God’s people to remain in the freedom and fullness of life that He desired for them. No Israelite could be permanently impoverished, and no small group of people could accumulate most of the wealth.
But sadly, it is doubtful whether the jubilee was ever actually carried out as the Lord instructed.The Israelites experienced the bitter fruit of ignoring God’s commands, culminating with their exile and captivity in Babylon—the opposite of rest, release and return. But through the prophet Isaiah, God announced a restoration to come:
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,
to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favour from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God,
to comfort all who mourn;
To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes,
To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning,
a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit
(Isa 61:1–3).
The “year of favour from the Lord” refers to the jubilee. God promises that the coming of the Messiah will be a new and greater jubilee, a time of freedom and healing, consolation and joy.
And what happened when Jesus came? At the beginning of His public ministry, He went into the synagogue at Nazareth, read this passage from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and then announced to His stunned audience, “This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening” (Lk 4:21). Jesus was proclaiming that His whole mission is to inaugurate the new and everlasting jubilee—the true rest, release, and return of which the ancient jubilee was only a foreshadowing. He gives us the true rest of communion with God, the true release from captivity to sin, and the true return to the promised land God always intended for us, heaven.
The Church had long forgotten the idea of a jubilee in her history until Pope Boniface VIII announced a jubilee year in 1300. He called Christians to celebrate it with almsgiving, works of mercy, and pilgrimages. Since then, the Church has celebrated jubilees on and off, and sometimes has marked an “extraordinary” jubilee (one not at a fifty-year interval), like the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis.
So what does all this have to do with the Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal? It is interesting to
note that Israel’s jubilee had a special connection with Pentecost because just as Pentecost was always celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover (7×7+1), the jubilee is celebrated every fiftieth year (7×7+1). The beginning of the Renewal fifty years ago was a kind of new Pentecost that spread like holy fire throughout the Church. It brought countless people to experience the love of God and the glorious majesty of Jesus. It is fitting to celebrate the jubilee of this great work of God by asking Him to renew in us the wonderful things He did through Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Specifically, this year we might:
Celebrate the Jubilee as rest by taking extra time off from our labours, even ministry labours, and simply enjoying the fruit that God has made to grow through the Charismatic Renewal. Take extra time to visit people, renew old friendships, make a pilgrimage, and enjoy the Lord’s presence in worship. Celebrate the Jubilee as release by forgiving any outstanding debts—debts of offences committed against us, and perhaps even monetary debts. Let us do all that is in our power in this Jubilee year to heal broken relationships.
Celebrate the Jubilee as return by returning to our first love, the passion for Jesus that the Holy Spirit kindled in us, and by returning to the childlike trust in God and abundant exercise of spiritual gifts that we may have known in the past.
Finally, it is curious that the Latin word for jubilee, jobeleus, sounds a lot like another Latin word, jubilus. For the Fathers of the Church, jubilus or jubilation meant sounds made by the tongue that express overflowing joy but without words—that is, nothing other than the gift of tongues! To sing in tongues is a wonderful way to praise and thank God in the Spirit for the gift of His Son Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the jubilee. —ICCRS Newsletter
Greetings from new ICCRS president
By JIM MURPHY
President, International Catholic
Charismatic Renewal Services
Dear brothers and sisters,
I was baptized into the Catholic faith when I was 2 weeks old, and have loved being in the body of Christ my entire life. I love the Catholic Church!!!
My introduction to the Charismatic Renewal began in Juneau, Alaska (USA). It was June of 1971. I had gone into an Assembly of God church, out of mere curiosity. I was surprised by what I encountered there, but fell in love with these new brothers and sisters. So many things that I had longed for in my relationship with God I found in that amazing encounter with the Holy Spirit!
I returned to my home in Michigan (USA) and attended a prayer meeting put on by the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In the following years, I became very involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I was excited to see how the Spirit was transforming the lives of so many people. I was happy to serve where I could, as I believed the Renewal was a significant way God was working in the world, and was excited to be part of this amazing grace.
Eventually, I was asked to serve on ICCRS, which was a great honour, but also carried a sense of responsibility. In ICCRS, I met many wonderful brothers and sisters from all over the world. I also saw how the one Spirit could move in many ways. God’s work was much bigger than anything I could imagine. I also understood that God works in a variety of ways through a variety of people. No one “owns” the Spirit.
Those years of service and all those important lessons came to a new moment of realization and clarity as I stood in the crowd at Circus Maximus, during the recent celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal held in Rome at Pentecost. The Jubilee was an opportunity to look back, give thanks, and reflect upon some important lessons. It was also a time to look ahead, trying to understand God’s plans for us and learning how to respond in this new day.
In the ICCRS council meeting that followed the festivities, there was a surprise of the Spirit with my election as the next president of ICCRS. I love and respect our former president, Michelle Moran, so much, that, to be honest, it is a bit intimidating to try to walk the path she has blazed for us. Still, I have to trust God and rely on the prayers of my beloved brothers and sisters, that God will give me the grace necessary to fulfill my task.
As the ICCRS council was coming to a close, we returned once more to the now empty Circus Maximus. The open field was in sharp contrast to the throng of nearly 38,000 people gathered there just a few days earlier. We walked back to the place where Pope Francis had addressed the crowd. The stage was gone; the chairs were taken away. It was an empty space. However, as we stood there looking over the open area, I seemed to see again the smiling faces, the banners snapping in the breeze, and the hands lifted in prayer and jubilation. “Looking out” over the crowd once more, a crowd from more than 120 nations, I fell in love with the Renewal all over again.
But the “Renewal” I felt so deeply for at that moment wasn’t simply a structure, an organization, or an office. It was the men and women, the brothers and sisters…the family from all over the world who had experienced and surrendered to this sweet touch of God’s love, the Holy Spirit.
At the end of the day, the Renewal is not about numbers, demographics, or even accomplishments. It’s about people… you and me… who have been “set on fire” with the love of God. People who believe that the Spirit of the Lord still moves upon the land to bring hearts close to the Father under the Lordship of Jesus.
That is the Renewal that I love.
Richard Dunstan
That is the Renewal I will serve.
—ICCRS Newsletter
B.C. Charismatic
CCRS of BC newsletter
published spring and fall
editor Richard Dunstan
308-225 Belleville St.
Victoria BC V8V 4T9
email: richard@thedunstans.com
phone: 250-477-4700
website: www.bccharismatic.ca
Posted in Uncategorized
Spring Newsletter 2017
Awake from your sleep!
Renewing the power of the renewal after 50 years
By FRANCIS EDO ELOTU
ICCRS council member—Nigeria
The fruits of the charismatic renewal in the lives of Catholic men and women when it started in 1967 left no one in doubt that the renewal was the work of the Holy Spirit, and with time, it was accepted by the whole Catholic Church. The renewal brought freshness in the life of the Church, and people touched by the power of the Spirit were experiencing conversions, expressive praise and worship, spontaneous praying, speaking in tongues, healings and miracles, prophecy, evangelization and other spiritual gifts.
However, as we celebrate the golden jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 2017, it is pertinent to ask ourselves whether our fervour had retained its vigour over the years.
Spiritual slumber is a state of indifference to God and His calling upon our lives; it insidiously develops in a formerly fervent Christian. It is a common trend in human beings to allow the fire of renewal to gradually chill into lukewarmness and slumber unless a person is spiritually alert. Jesus used hard words for the Church in Ephesus when He told them in Rev 2:4 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” In Mt 26:40-41, when Jesus found His disciples asleep, he woke them up telling them to watch and pray that they would not fall into temptation. St. Paul in Ephesians 5:14, 1 Thess 5:6 and Romans 13:11-14 told his audience to wake up from sleep. Jesus in Rev 6:15 said: “Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!”
This Jubilee affords us an opportunity to re-examine our lives and repent of the sin of sleeping while we ought to be awake doing God’s work. To stay awake in times like this, the following are practices would be helpful:
- Aspire to grow in the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You must be acutely aware at all times that you need the grace of God to succeed as a Christian; ask the Lord daily for this grace. Paul told Timothy that he needs to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim 2:1).
- Spend quality time with the Lord every day. Regular visits to the Blessed Sacrament afford you the opportunity to be intimate with the Lord. Power flows from God to us when we are in His presence. Psalm 16:11, tells us that in God’s presence, there is fullness of joy and on His right hand, there are pleasures forever.
- Practice the presence of God. It means muttering a prayer before all your activities of the day. When you cultivate an awareness of God’s presence in all you do, sin will be repugnant to you. “He ‘prays without ceasing’ who unites prayer to works and good works to prayer. Only in this way can we consider as realizable the principle of praying without ceasing.” (CCC 2745, quoting Origen)
- Establish a personal culture of Pentecost, wherein you ask the Lord for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon you daily. By this you would not be living on stale manna. Praying in tongues for extended periods daily helps you build your inner man (1 Cor 14:4). The Holy Spirit makes us a fountain of living water (Jn 7:38) and helps us in contending for the faith in times like this (Eph 5:18; Jude 20).
- Receive the sacraments frequently, especially the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. The sacraments help us to remain steadfast in the faith. They enable us to connect with Jesus who tells us in Jn 15:5-6, that unless we abide in Him and He abides in us, we cannot bear fruit.
- Get involved actively in evangelization. Pope Francis said, “How I long to find the right words to stir up enthusiasm for a new chapter of evangelization full of fervour, joy, generosity, courage, boundless love and attraction! Yet I realize that no words of encouragement will be enough unless the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts. A Spirit-filled evangelization is one guided by the Holy Spirit, for He is the soul of the Church called to proclaim the Gospel….I implore Him to come and renew the Church, to stir and impel her to go forth boldly to evangelize all peoples” (The Joy of the Gospel, 261).
- Spend time on the word of God – read, study and meditate upon it. It will build your faith, shine light on your path, make your life fruitful and give you an inheritance among the saints. (Josh 1:8; Ps 1:1-4; Acts 20:32).
- Use your spiritual gifts actively in the prayer group and in the church at large. May the Lord give us the grace to know how much we need to keep awake in the times we are in so that we can maximize every opportunity to serve the Lord faithfully.
–ICCRS Leadership Bulletin, Jan.-Feb. 2017
Thompson headlines Kelowna event
Catholic evangelist Peter Thompson of Calgary will be featured
speaker Aug. 13-18 at Our Lady of Pentecost Gathering in the Spirit in Kelowna. Theme of the event, in the golden jubilee year of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, will be Precious Embers—Catching the Fire.
Father Sylvester (Obi) Ibekwe of Creston, chaplain for the gathering, will also be a featured speaker.
The Gathering, formerly known as Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute, will take place at St. Elizabeth Seton House of Prayer in Kelowna. The schedule will begin with praise, worship and Mass Sunday, Aug. 13, starting at 5:30, and end after lunch on Friday, Aug. 18.
Talks will be held mornings and afternoons. A healing Mass open to all will be celebrated on the Monday at 6:15 at St. Charles Garnier Parish in Kelowna, and devotional activities are planned for Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Seton House. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be offered at lunchtime Tuesday through Thursday.
The Gathering is presented by Nelson Diocese Charismatic Renewal Service Committee and endorsed by Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of B.C., the provincial service committee.
Cost before June 15 is $500 per person including all meals and accommodations (double occupancy) at Seton House, or $275 for commuters, including all meals. After June 16 the cost is $550 live in, $325 for commuters. Seton House has a capacity for accommodation of 30, on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity of the meeting room for Gathering sessions is 40. Some billeting may be available. For registration contact Maria McManus, 250-707-1423, untamedspirit@telus.net, 22-2035 Boucherie Rd., Westbank BC V4T 1Z6.
Peter Thompson was born in London, England, and educated by the Xaverian Brothers at Clapham College. He studied for the priesthood with the Holy Ghost Fathers, but discerned a vocation for lay life.
He served two years with the Royal Air Force in early warning radar. In 1962 he married his wife, Madeleine, and in 1967 they moved to Canada with their three young children. Peter worked in retail display and design for 20 years.
The Thompsons joined the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1974, during a crisis in their marriage and faith, and Peter was called into leadership. In 1990 with the call by Pope John Paul II to a decade of evangelization, the Thompsons were invited to join the Sion Catholic community for evangelization in England, and spent the next two years in door-to-door evangelization and street ministry.
Thompson also taught 20 years at the now-closed John Paul II Catholic Bible School in Radway, Alberta, served 12 years on the Canadian national service committee, and two terms on the international service committee. He has also served since 1998 with Renewal Ministries, headed by Catholic evangelist Ralph Martin; with Renewal he has travelled extensively in several African countries, and he was appointed country co-ordinator for Kenya in 2004.
Thompson is also a professional watercoulour artist and supports his ministry through the sale of his work.
He will speak Monday through Wednesday at the Gathering.
“I am looking forward to hearing Peter Thompson again and to see what the Holy Spirit has in store for us this year,” says Loree Renwick, co-ordinator of the Gathering. “He never disappoints.”
Father Sylvester Obiora (Obi) Ibekwe, originally from Nigeria, was ordained for the Nelson diocese in October 2015 and is currently pastor at Holy Cross Parish in Creston, with missions in Riondel and the Lower Kootenay Native Band. He has long been active in the Catholic charismatic renewal and was featured speaker at Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute in 2016, 2014 and 2013.
He will speak on Thursday and celebrate the closing Mass on Friday.
Lynne Williams is co-coordinator of the event. Gladys Miller is master of ceremonies and Johanna Tournemille will lead music. Maureen Watson is in charge of the word gift team, Bev MacIntyre the prayer teams, Roy MacIntyre the after-talk activities, and Flo Reid the intercession ministry. Father Sylvester and Loree Renwick will organized the evening prayer events.
The renaming of the former Summer Institute was the result of a year-long process of discernment and discussion, says Gladys Miller, chair of the Nelson service committee.
“We were certain that the Summer Institute was instigated by the Holy Spirit,” she says, “and it was our desire that it should evolve according to the Holy Spirit.
“We were aware that at least some and perhaps many viewed the SI as an extended conference, and we thought it should be more than that. We wanted it to be a place and time of formation, growth in discipleship and faith, empowerment to be disciples and ambassadors of Jesus.
“We hope that the people attending would be fired up with a stronger desire to serve the Lord wherever and however He calls. It is our fervent hope that the Gathering will have something to offer the novice and the seasoned.”
The discernment process produced a vision statement: “To make missionary disciples who are empowered, equipped, and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.” The accompanying mission statement says the Gathering is intended “to facilitate ongoing spiritual development to all who seek to live the Gospel in response to Jesus’ call to make disciples out of all people.”
This year’s theme, Precious Embers—Catching the Fire, was discerned in connection with Exodus 3:2, Moses’s encounter with the burning bush. “While the fire of the Holy Spirit consumes us, it never destroys us,” says Miller.
“We have become increasingly aware of the need for renewal of God’s people on all levels. No matter how long we have served the Lord and no matter the level of passion, ‘there is always more,’ to quote Pope St. John Paul II, and the time seemed opportune.”
—Richard Dunstan
The Royal Road of the Cross
By PETER THOMPSON
featured speaker
Our Lady of Pentecost Gathering in the Spirit
Aug. 13-18, Seton House, Kelowna
Blazoned on the mind of every disciple of Jesus is the image of the Cross.
The first prayer we were taught is the Sign of the Cross. Before we could walk or speak, our parent guided our tiny hands to form the holy sign upon our bodies. We were baptized into Christ, signed with the Cross, born again of water and the Spirit. The heart and core of our faith was expressed by our parents and godparents as they signed our foreheads with this holy sign. At our baptism the royal road of the Cross began.
St. Paul in 1 Cor. 1:18 reminds us that the message of the Cross is complete absurdity to those who are headed for ruin, but to us who are experiencing salvation it is the power of God. Jesus gave us the supreme example of what it means to embrace the Cross. He left heaven, taking the form of man, knowing that He would lay down His life for all humanity, and that includes every one of us (Phil 2:6-11).
The Cross was foreshadowed long before Christ came. The prophetic word was clear that the Messiah would suffer grievously. Psalm 22 describes the crucifixion, as does Isaiah 53: the Suffering Servant. St. Paul in 1 Cor 11:1 invites us to “imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Paul walked that royal road of the Cross, embracing daily the struggles, hardships and sufferings of being a true disciple of Christ. He lists a catalogue of trials in 2 Cor 11:16-32, inviting us to imitate him.
Throughout the centuries we are witness to countless saints, ordinary men, women and children who walked this road—some embracing the greatest witness of all, martyrdom, for the sake of the name. We, likewise, in our time are invited by Christ to take up our crosses daily, to imitate Christ. He promised to be with us, shouldering the crosses He allows us to carry. As He did with Simon of Cyrene, Christ now walks with you.
There is no escaping the crosses of life. We can seek to fight against them, reject them, grumble and complain bitterly. But in doing so we reject the very means God in His love gives to us, so that we, like our forefathers, can come safely home to the Beatific Vision.
St. James tells us to “rejoice when you suffer all kinds of trials and tribulations. Why? Because your faith is tested; this makes for endurance. Let endurance come to its perfection so that you may be mature and lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). Who amongst us does not suffer many trials throughout our lives? As we embrace these crosses, we are being made ready for heaven.
The words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 never cease to give me courage to face whatever trial will come my way. In a CD I heard recently by Kimberly Hahn, she reminded us that if we ae currently in a lull between trials, then be assured this is a lull and trials (crosses) will return. We need to memorize these words of Jesus so that wherever on the road of life we are, then His word will penetrate our mind and heart: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Self-denial is a sure way to train ourselves for this royal road: disciplining our physical bodies, controlling our thoughts, curbing our tongues. In this way we are better prepared to embrace fully the trials, be they small or severe, that come our way.
Again, St. Paul gives us the example of the runner, racing to grasp the prize. He who would aspire to greatness in the field of athletics must learn from the start to exercise discipline, if he is to achieve his goal. We are seeking the highest goal of all, eternal life in Christ.
The hardest thing for us to do is to place our total trust in Jesus. Trusting that no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, God in His wisdom is working tirelessly for our salvation. In our embrace of the Cross, we join with Christ in the work of salvation. Christ invites us to pick up our crosses daily and follow Him.
This is the royal road that will lead to victory.
(Originally published in The Bread of Life, July-August 2016.)
Mercy: Our only reason for hope
By RICHARD DUNSTAN
How do we know God is merciful? Well, for one thing, because the world still exists.
If God hadn’t forgiven our sins, His justice would have annihilated the world, Bishop Sam Jacobs told the provincial Catholic charismatic conference in Vancouver. But God has given us mercy instead of justice.
“He gave us what we don’t deserve, and that is forgiveness, that is healing, that is mercy,” Bishop Jacobs said. “What God does not give us is justice, because if He gave us justice, none of us would have a chance.
“All is mercy, because we deserve none of the gifts God gives us.”
Bishop Jacobs, of Louisiana, chair of the U.S. national service committee for the Catholic charismatic renewal, and Dr. Margarett Schlientz, of Wisconsin, whose ministry combines theology and psychiatry, were featured speakers at the conference, jointly sponsored by Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of B.C. and Vancouver Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services. More than 1,100 attended.
The conference returned to Broadway Church, a Pentecostal church approved for Catholic events, after three years in other locations.
Bishop Jacobs said God is like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), which he said should really be called the parable of the foolish father, because the father’s generosity goes far beyond common sense. He accepts the insult of his son effectively wishing him dead, by claiming his inheritance early; then he spends his time waiting for him to come back from throwing the inheritance away on a life of sin, runs to him and kisses him, and throws a feast for him. So there’s no reason for us to stay away from confession for years, the way some fallen-away Catholics do.
“The Father is waiting with open arms for you to come back. Why are you waiting? No matter how far we feel from God, the Father is waiting. All we have to do is pronounce that word from the heart—‘Father, I need You—and He’ll forgive you, no matter what you’ve done.”
Of course, we’re supposed to do something with that mercy we’ve received. We’re supposed to pass it on. If we refuse, we’re refusing God’s mercy for ourselves as well.
“God does not show mercy and healing to those who are in rebellion, to those who refuse to show mercy for others,” Bishop Jacobs said. “God doesn’t refuse us His mercy—we refuse to accept His mercy. We want mercy on our terms—we have to receive it on His terms. To the extent you are open to mercy for others, to that extent you receive mercy from God.”
God’s mercy begins in baptism, Bishop Jacobs said; we are born alienated from God, and in baptism we are united with Him. Mercy continues in the Eucharist, in the sacrament of reconciliation, and in the anointing of the sick.
If we don’t approach it as wholeheartedly as we should, he said, confession can be like cutting weeds—the weeds will grow back again. We need to give God permission to uproot our sins, and when we go to confession we should ask the priest to pray that God will heal us in the core of our sins.
The liturgy of the Eucharist contains many references to mercy, he said: “Lord have mercy” at the beginning, and “Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us,” and “speak but the word and my soul will be healed” just before Communion. “We need to step out and expect that God is going to do mighty deeds in our lives because of the Eucharist.”
As for anointing of the sick, we can look for healing there too. “It’s not the sacrament of the dying, it’s not the last rites, it’s the sacrament of the healing of the sick,” he said. His own dentist was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of a grapefruit; he would die without surgery and might die, or be left in a vegetative state, even with surgery. He received the anointing of the sick, and prayer, and the surgeon found only a pea-sized tumour that did not penetrate the brain.
The bishop noted, though, that the ultimate healing is sometimes death. God may want us with Him in eternity, where there will be no more suffering. “He’s God, and we’re not.”
Bishop Jacobs said Mary is the Mother of Mercy: prepared from the moment of her conception to be the mother of the Saviour, “she literally brought the Divine Mercy to birth in the world: mercy incarnate, Jesus Christ. Her motherhood of us all was sealed at the foot of the Cross, and after her assumption into heaven she continues to come to our aid.
Dr. Schlientz also stressed the Eucharist – and the need to show mercy to others.
Noting that there are 70 million ex-Catholics in the United States alone, she said the Eucharist “is the greatest miracle, and we have it right in our hands. It’s the cure for everything, and we walk by it as if it doesn’t exist.” She told of a priest who was healed of an addiction to pornography by spending one hour prostrate in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and she urged Massgoers not to bypass the chalice when receiving Communion. “Satan hates the Precious Blood,” she said. She told of a woman who was healed of Lyme disease by receiving from the chalice, and noted that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention check chalices regularly for germs and have never found a dangerous organism.
But she, too, said we have to pass God’s mercy on by forgiving others. Too many people are still angry at somebody after receiving the Eucharist, as can be seen in any church parking lot.
“Something is wrong with this picture,” she said.
“Forgiveness is the hardest human task there is. People find hundreds of excuses not to do it.” She said we can’t forgive by our own efforts, but must ask for God’s help. “You can’t do it, but God can.”
Since we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we must be Jesus to those we meet. “When people see you, do they see the Lord? Ask yourself this every evening in your examen [examination of conscience].”
“When Jesus came down from the mountain [after the Sermon on the Mount] the crowds were following Him (Mt. 8:1). They should be following us—right into the Church.’
She said we must pray for seminarians—whose numbers have increased dramatically in recent years—and for priests, and not criticize them. “They are instruments of God—they aren’t supposed to be perfect.” We must even pray for the people in ISIS, and love them as well. “I watch TV news because of the negativity,” she said. “It is our responsibility to pray for everyone who commits a criminal act.”
Dr. Schlientz also said we must pray for healing, of ourselves and others, and expect results. “We rely too much on ourselves. We’re all educated, and we think that’s enough.” She prays at every opportunity. For example, she once prayed in a fabric store, with a woman who was buying material for a turban—a fact that identified her as a cancer patient.
“Medical science has much to offer, but it will never replace healing prayer,” she said. “There are many places of affliction that medical science cannot touch.”
“Our problem is, our God is too small. We don’t ask enough. We don’t trust enough.
“We may pray for a lifetime [for a particular need]. God is always moving in some way. It may be delicate, it may be subtle, but it is not absent.”
Bishop Jacobs is retired bishop of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana, previously bishop of Alexandria, Louisiana. Born in Mississippi but raised in Louisiana, he was ordained in 1964 and served there in the dioceses of Lafayette and St. Charles as parish priest and chaplain, and diocesan director of vocations and seminarians. He was named bishop in 1989. He was named to the national service committee in 1982 and was chairman from 1987 to 1993; he returned to the committee in January 2015. He also chaired the committee for evangelization for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2005 to 2005, and is currently a member of the committees on laity, marriage, family life and youth, and evangelization and catechesis. He retired as diocesan bishop in 2013 but continues to serve as a speaker, as well as operating the Spirit Aflame website, http://www.spiritaflame.org/ . He was featured speaker at the 2015 Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute in Kelowna.
He may be seen on YouTube at http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+bishop+sam+jacobs&qpvt=you+tube+bishop+sam+jacobs&FORM=VDRE.
Dr. Schlientz, a Wisconsin resident, holds a doctorate in psychiatric nursing and master’s degrees in theology, spirituality, and psychiatric nursing. She is founder of the Pope Leo XIII Institute for the education of priests in exorcism and deliverance, and assistant director of the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Nebraska. She is co-author of the RISEN program (Re-Invest Spirituality and Ethics in the Networks of Health Care), and presents it regularly to health care systems across the U.S. She has held teaching and administrative posts at Marquette University in Milwaukee, speaks at conferences and parish missions, and ministers as a spiritual director to priests. Her website is https://drmargarettschlientz.com/. She is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yre6KPH7RJg.
Going to heaven in Duquesne
David Mangan went to heaven 50 years ago—without dying.
It was Saturday, Feb. 18, 1967, the middle of the famed “Duquesne weekend” that marked the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. About two dozen students from Duquesne, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, were attending a retreat on campus, looking for an experience of the Holy Spirit like a handful of individuals had experienced over the previous couple of months while attending interdenominational prayer meetings.
Mangan was upstairs in the retreat centre chapel praying when he was overwhelmed by what he later learned was called baptism in the Holy Spirit.
“You are probably aware of a phrase that some people say when they are extremely happy about something,” Mangan wrote in 2014 in Pentecost Today, the magazine of the National Service Committee for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the USA. “They say, ‘I thought I died and went to heaven.’ I realize that everyone’s experience is different, but when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit I thought I remained alive and went to heaven.”
He found himself face down on the chapel floor, felt “little explosions” going on in his body, and began praising God in what he later learned was the gift of tongues. Other members of the group were baptized in the Spirit later the same day, and the Catholic charismatic renewal was under way.
Mangan, a longtime leader, speaker and author in the renewal, is this year’s featured speaker at the Nelson Diocesan Charismatic Renewal Conference, April 28-29 at St. Charles Garnier Parish in Kelowna, with the title Jubilee of Fire. The conference date falls just after the publication date of the spring B.C. Charismatic, and a full account will be carried in the fall edition.
In the Pentecost Today article, Mangan wrote that praise, healing, and tongues are wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit experienced within the renewal, but the most important gift—“our charism”—is what he calls the “glimpse of heaven” he had in the chapel.
This glimpse may come in obvious religious settings like prayer time, Mass, or prayer meetings, he said, but also in less obvious settings—seeing a newborn baby, serving the poor. And “although we may have experiences where we feel great joy, it is not the feeling that is the gift. The gift is that ability to recognize it for what it is, a glimpse of heaven. The gift is the action of the Holy Spirit in our life whether we feel good about it or not.”
“I am looking forward to my next glimpse. But if I never have another ‘glimpse of heaven,’ I know that I have already received more than I could ever deserve. But I am sure we all are looking forward to that day when we get infinitely more than a glimpse. That is the day when “we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
—Richard Dunstan
Nelson retreat: Becoming ambassadors for Christ
By LYNNE WILLIAMS
(Editor’s note: The Nelson diocesan charismatic leaders’ 
retreat was held Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Seton House in Kelowna, with Gladys Miller, diocesan service committee chair, and Father Sylvester [Obi] Ibekwe, diocesan liaison, as speakers.)
Talk 1 – Ambassadors for a New Heart – Gladys Miller
What does the dictionary have to say about the word “ambassador?” It is a Hebrew word meaning one who goes on an errand; an interpreter; a messenger. An ambassador for Christ is all of these things. It is a title used by St. Paul in designating those appointed by him to declare God’s will. To do injury to the ambassador is to do injury to the king who sent him.
“So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making His appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 20-21)
“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.” (Eph. 6:18-20)
We have a privileged place in God’s kingdom because we represent Jesus Christ and his reconciliation to others. We are called to proclaim the gospel to all nations. To do so we must be soaked in scripture, putting our trust in God and recognizing that everything is a gift from God. God will provide all that is necessary for us to do His work.
How does Jesus expect us to be His envoy? “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor. 5:17) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Ps. 51:10). It is through a new heart that we become a new creation. This requires co-operation, patience, study, obedience (dying to self), and self-discipline.
We are required to grow and change. “A new heart I will give you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My spirit within you and, and make you follow My statutes and be careful to follow My ordinances.” (Ez. 36: 26-27)
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has said that the ways of the Lord are not easy. We are not created for an easy life but for a life of greatness.
Would you like a new heart? Ask for one. Resting in the Spirit is like open heart surgery; the Spirit will stir up your gifts, showing, guiding and providing opportunities and many graces. Pray for holy boldness, zeal for the salvation of souls, and a new heart to be obedient to the Master’s call no matter the cost. Seek to put God first in your life and all will fall into right order; pray to Jesus to remove blockages such as fear, timidity and any other paralysis. Take your eyes off yourself and put them onto Jesus.
Talk 2 – Reflection on 2 Cor. 5 – Father Obi Ibekwe
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness (holiness) of God.” (2 Cor.5: 21) For some people, this is the most important verse in the bible. Sometimes we see ourselves as sin (because of our many sins), but Jesus comes to save us so that He becomes sin in order that we can be reconciled with God.
We live in difficult times, in a world that is strange and puzzling. Into this world, Jesus is calling us to enter into these troubling situations and become ambassadors for him. We are the risen presence of Jesus in this world, and as we serve as His ambassadors, He walks in this world through us.
Proclaiming the good news is a magnificent commission. “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Is. 43:18) “For I am about to create a new heavens and a new earth …” (Is. 65:17)
To preach the message of Christ and Him crucified, we must bring the message of God’s great love for all people in the sacrificial offering of his son, Jesus, on the cross. He wants all to receive reconciliation and peace. In Jesus’ rising, death is forever overcome as his followers are promised everlasting life and unity with God. These promises are for all time.
Talk 3 – The Holy Spirit Enables – Gladys Miller
Our ambassadorship is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (Jn. 10:10) this scripture is not about material things; it is about being with God and receiving from Him all He wants for us. It is His plan that we enjoy, not endure. To love a party and to celebrate is important. We should celebrate our ambassadorship even though we have trials.
“God is faithful, by him you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (1 Cor.1:9) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will be empowered. Bloom where you are planted; everyone has ministry and one does not need to go searching it. The Holy Spirit surprises us and speaks through us. Passion, that love of our ministry and fire in our belly, is needed to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen. All our gifts are good and God calls us the use them, following the lead of the Holy Spirit.
What happens when others are unhappy with your ministry? Turn to the Lord in prayer, asking, “what do You want me to learn from this?” Involve your spiritual director and repeat the process, if necessary. “Meanwhile, the church … had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit …” (Acts 9:31)
Satan is busy, but God is busier. The better we know God, the more we trust Him; the better we trust Him, the better we know Him. How do we grow in the knowledge of God? We grow through reading scripture, attending daily Mass, praying, journaling (a love letter to God), and receiving the sacraments. In the Eucharist, you become what you eat.
If we are going to become ambassadors for Christ, we need to know Him and become like him. “Bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Honour Christ by your conduct.
To be afraid of God is an unholy fear. Scripturally, to fear the Lord is to love Him. Fearing God involves reverence, respect, obedience, submission, worship, awe, living in his righteous standards and honouring him in all we do. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and love from the Lord is its completion.
God loves us and will never leave or forsake us. “Am I not free? Am I not and apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 9:1) May you claim your apostleship, living in peace, loving and serving the Lord.
Blessed Elena Guerra, mother of the renewal
By DEACON CHRISTOF HEMBERGER
ICCRS council member—Germany
Blessed Elena Guerra (1835–1914) is remembered in the history of the Charismatic Renewal as someone who prepared the way. She courageously pursued what was on her heart: The Holy Spirit needs to find room again in the Church’s awareness! But who was this woman who caused a whole century to be called an “era of the Holy Spirit” – and what did she really achieve?
Blessed Elena Guerra was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Lucca, Italy, and was educated as befitted her rank. Her nature was shaped by the desire “to do good for God.” Her heart was burning for the conversion of unbelievers. She willingly visited the poor and ill of her city. She wrote down her spiritual intentions and thoughts in small brochures and tracts. Elena gathered like-minded people, and as a young woman she founded prayer groups and prayer initiatives (“the perpetual world-wide Upper Room”) and the Congregation of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit.
It was Blessed Elena’s desire to bring people into a close relationship with the Holy Spirit. Church and society – Blessed Elena says – need the Holy Spirit as never before for their own renewal and vivification! She was untiring in this task: she encouraged prayer to the Holy Spirit and exchanged letters with priests and bishops exhorting them to teach and preach about the Holy Spirit. In her diaries, Blessed Elena called herself “a poor maidservant of the Holy Spirit” and even a “baggage porter of the Holy Spirit.” As the reaction she received for her efforts still seemed too small, the desire to ask the Pope for support and for a global spreading of her intention, grew more intensely in her.
Blessed Elena’s message was received by Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) readily and in openness: Only three weeks after her first letter, the Pope introduced a solemn period of prayer to the Holy Spirit between Ascension and Pentecost (now known as Pentecost novena). Between 1895 and 1903, Blessed Elena wrote a total of thirteen letters to the Pope. She encouraged him to urge the bishops to pray together with the faithful for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit as well as for the unity of Christians, which only the Holy Spirit could bring about. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII responded to Elena’s desire by writing an encyclical (“Divinum illud munus”) about the Holy Spirit. This teaching document was about appreciation for the Holy Spirit and His gifts.
While in 1900, Pope Leo had consecrated mankind to the Heart of Jesus on the occasion of the Holy Year, Blessed Elena was moved in her heart to ask the Pope to begin the new century by calling down the Holy Spirit. Pope Leo took up this suggestion and sang the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus” (Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest) in the name of the whole Church. This prayer did not remain without effect. On the same day, the Holy Spirit really came with his gifts as in the days of the early Christians.
However, it was answered in a different way than Blessed Elena and the Pope had expected: The Holy Spirit was first experienced in a new way by people outside the Catholic Church, who had earnestly sought Him in prayer: In the evening of that same day when the Pope prayed in Rome, a group of American Protestants gathered around Charles Fox Parham (1873-1923) experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts. A second initial event for the so-called Pentecostal movement was a revival in the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles led by the African American William J. Seymour. The Holy Spirit did not adhere to confessional boundaries.
It took quite some time until members of the Catholic Church received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and experienced the outpouring of the charisms in 1967, which we consider to this day the starting point of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church and which we celebrate in the 50 year Jubilee in 2017.
Exactly at a time when our Church underwent major changes (the secular power of the Popes disintegrated with the loss of the Papal States during the time of Blessed Elena Guerra), this small, unimpressive religious sister helped the Church refocus on a power of the Church which did not rely on rule or armies and had been forgotten for a long time: the power of the Holy Spirit.
At her beatification on 26 April 1959, Pope John XIII called her a “missionary of the veneration of the Holy Spirit in our present time” and thus testified to Blessed Elena’s extraordinary vocation in the church and for the church, which she lived courageously – which makes her a model for us to this day.
—ICCRS Newsletter, Jan.-Feb. 2017
Jubilee marked in Rome
Five days of special events are scheduled in Rome May 31-June 4 in honour of the Golden Jubilee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. A substantial number of charismatics from B.C. will be attending these events on pilgrimages organized in Vancouver, Kelowna, and Edmonton.
The celebration opens with a general audience with Pope Francis, who invited charismatics to Rome for the occasion in his address to a charismatic rally that drew 50,000 people to Rome’s Olympic Stadium in June 2014. It closes with a Mass celebrated by the Pope in St. Peter’s Square June 4, Pentecost Sunday.
Other events include a worldwide jubilee gathering with Mass, a Pentecost vigil with the Pope, prayer meetings, devotional sessions, workshops, leaders’ meetings, and a theological symposium.
The jubilee events mark the 50th anniversary of the Duquesne Weekend (see also Page 5), when a group of Catholic students at a retreat at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh received baptism in the Holy Spirit after praying for an outpouring of the Spirit. The weekend took place in February but the jubilee celebrations are centred on Pentecost, the day the Church celebrates the first outpouring of the Spirit in Acts Chapter 2.
Vancouver conference coming Sept. 22-23
Most Rev. Peter Smith, auxiliary bishop of Portland, and Dr. Mary Healy of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a leading Catholic Bible scholar, will be featured speakers Sept. 22 and 23 at the Vancouver archdiocesan conference.
The conference will take place at Broadway Church, 2700 East Broadway (corner of Slocan), a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada facility approved by the archdiocese for Catholic events.
Bishop Smith, 56, is a member of the Brotherhood of the People of Praise Community, a charismatic community which grew out of the People of Praise at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, and is now based in Portland. He has also served as archdiocesan liaison to the charismatic renewal.
Born in South Africa in 1958, he served in the South African Army and earned degrees in business administration and law, intending to join his father’s law firm, but instead felt called to Christian community in the United States, where he moved in 1983. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2001 and was named bishop in 2014.
Dr. Healy completed her doctorate in biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2000. She is associate professor of Scripture at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission which advises the Pope on scriptural issues, and co-editor of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, a multi-volume commentary currently in progress.
She is also a member of the doctrinal commission of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, and former co-ordinator of the Mother of God Community, a charismatic group in Maryland.
B.C. Charismatic
CCRS of BC newsletter
published spring and fall
editor Richard Dunstan
308-225 Belleville St.
Victoria BC V8V 4T9
email: richard@thedunstans.com
phone: 250-477-4700
website: www.bccharismatic.ca
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