BC Charismatic

Mar 8th Armand Danis: A relationship with God

Communion with the Trinity is the key to the Christian life, Deacon Armand Danis told Our Lady of Pentecost Summer Institute.

It’s also the key to evangelization, and to spiritual warfare, he said.

Danis, a retired Catholic high school principal and counsellor from Thunder Bay, Ont., spoke on deliverance, and on discovering your spiritual gifts. But before addressing his formal topics, he presented extensive citations of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other Church documents to underline the point that Catholic Christianity is not about following rules, earning grace, or judging other people.

“We are not selling a product,” he said. “Our faith is about a relationship.”

Drawing on his counselling background, he noted that psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs lists self-actualization as the highest human need. But from a Christian point of view, he said, transformation, in and by Christ, is the pinnacle of life.

And that transformation is a free gift, he said. Too many Catholics think grace is earned, by being good and going to church. In fact, he said, that’s backward. Grace is a free gift from God that makes it possible to be good and go to church.

Grace, he said, is simply participation in the life of God. “What do we have to do to participate in the life of God? Want to.”

Evangelization, he said, is not an intellectual exercise. It’s an outgrowth of our relationship with God. When we have the intimate relationship God offers to us, we have the power to be His presence in the world, as instruments of His love, and in that way draw other people to Him.

This “spirituality of communion” makes us open to everyone. All humans are made in God’s image, he said, “so whoever you meet in this context is your brother and your sister.”

Concerning spiritual warfare, he warned that “the existence of the Evil One is real,” but if we are in communion with Christ, there is noting to fear from the devil.

“We are never alone,” he said. “We can dispel the Enemy, not of our own doing, but because we have this intimate relationship with our Friend and our Lord, who does it as simply as flicking a mosquito off your arm.”

While actual demonic possession is rare, Danis said, lower levels of demonic activity are more common. They begin with simple temptation, to which all of us are subject. Temptations fall into three main categories, as shown by the Gospel accounts of Jesus temptation in the desert: pleasure (in Jesus’ case, turning stones into bread); power (the devil offering Him the kingdoms of the world); and lack of responsibility (the devil’s demand that Jesus throw Himself down from the peak of the Temple).

Next comes oppression, in which we experience a frightening sense of lack of control in our lives. Job suffered from this in the Old Testament, and Danis said that when his wife, Mary, was diagnosed with cancer, the couple suffered from oppression for a time—not the cancer itself but the initial fear and hopelessness.

Another level is obsession, where the lack of control is real. This happens especially with addictions, including drugs, alcohol, and abusive sexual behaviour, but also with occult activities such as the use of the Ouija board.

Danis said it would take a whole weekend to talk about deliverance in detail, but the most common form of deliverance is self-deliverance, especially as found in the Lord’s prayer: “deliver us from evil.”

“Every time we say it, it’s a deliverance prayer,” he said. “The Lord’s prayer is one way to assure ourselves of communion with the Trinity.”

Concerning spiritual gifts, Danis said there is no known finite list. God gives countless gifts, some for specific situations and some for ministry. Discerning them can often be a matter of looking for the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as these may point to gifts we have received even though they aren’t exactly what we prayed for.

He told the story of a 22-year-old man diagnosed with cancer, and with days to live. Danis prayed for him, and though he was not cured—he in fact died within a few days—he received a massive spiritual healing that extended to everyone around him, and left him content and joyful.

“It can be a question of touching hearts rather than the external condition we’ve prayed for,” Danis said.

At other times, he said, he has seen the external situation change as a result of prayer. During his teaching career, one of his students cut his lip badly, obviously needing stitches. As he left to take the boy to the hospital, he had the other students pray, and when they got to the emergency room the cut was gone.

“What do you think that did for the faith of the children in the classroom?” he asked.

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Feb 8th Life in the Spirit: 19 years, 50 seminars

The Vancouver archdiocese’s 50^th Life in the Spirit Seminar will open Jan. 20 at Immaculate Conception Parish in North Delta.

The seminar will begin each Friday at 7:30 p.m. for seven weeks.

A celebration of the 19^th anniversary of Life in the Spirit Seminars in Vancouver will be held the previous Friday, Jan. 13, also at 7:30 at Immaculate Conception. Abbot John Braganza of Westminster Abbey in Mission will be principal concelebrant of the anniversary Mass, to be followed by a reception. All are welcome.

The seminars began Jan. 29, 1993, at Immaculate Conception, with 365 participants, and have been held in many parishes since then. Every session of the seven-week seminar features a talk by a priest, with two more as concelebrants for the closing Mass on the seventh week.

Highlight of the seminar is week 5,when participants receive prayer to be baptized in the Holy Sprit.

Organizer Lennie David, who is a member of Vancouver Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, says more than 9,000 people have attended the seminars over the years. Twenty-two charismatic prayer groups have been formed as a result of the seminars, of which 16 are still in operation in the archdiocese along with five that were in existence prior to the beginning of the seminars.

Fifty priests have taken part. Archbishop Michael Miller will be one of the speakers at the upcoming seminar.

The anniversary celebration is also an annual event. Principal concelebrants have included Archbishop Miller, former Vancouver archbishops Adam Exner and Raymond Roussin, and bishops Richard Gagnon of Victoria and David Monroe of Kamloops.

All are welcome at the seminar. There is no charge.

To register, call Lennie David @ 604-597-8227.

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Jan 8th Document planned on baptism in the Spirit

By DR. MARY HEALY

associate professor of Scripture
Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit

Three years ago the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services council commissioned Bishop Joe Grech, Fr. Peter Hocken and myself to create a theological document reflecting on baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The document would have a twofold purpose. First, it would serve as a reference point within the renewal by clearly articulating the grace of baptism in the Holy Spirit in light of scripture and tradition. Second, it would be a resource for ecclesial authorities, including bishops and priests, who have pastoral responsibility for renewal groups and the more than 120 million Catholics worldwide who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Our first step was to create a draft document, which was completed in 2009 and sent to about thirty theologians and Renewal leaders worldwide for comment. We received detailed feedback and incorporated much of it into the revised document. In the middle of this process our beloved Bishop Joe was unexpectedly called home to the Lord, and I am convinced his prayers are supporting us in this work even now.

In March 2011 the document was presented at an international colloquium in Rome, organized by ICCRS and attended by theologians and Renewal leaders from 44 countries. The participants discussed baptism in the Spirit in depth and offered further input on the document. Afterward the document was again revised, and it has now been submitted to the ICCRS Council for final review and publication.

In preparing this document and conversing with many people on this topic over the last several years, I find in my own heart a renewed excitement to understand, live out and share with others the amazing, transforming grace of baptism in the Holy Spirit.

As the Catholic charismatic renewal fast approaches our jubilee anniversary in 2017, I believe the document is especially needed for three reasons:

First, there is a need to continually foster and deepen the reception of baptism in the Spirit within the renewal, especially through good formation. Unlike other movements in the Church, the renewal has no human founder, no centralized structure and no unified process of formation. This is part of its uniqueness, a gift of God, but it also means that we have to strive to ensure that solid formation occurs wherever the renewal exists, so that the flame of Pentecostal fire is kept burning and baptism in the Spirit is deeply integrated into the whole of Christian life.

Good formation also helps avoid pastoral mistakes, which over the years have given the renewal a bad reputation in some parts of the world. Thus there is need for teaching materials that can serve as a foundation to be used and adapted by different groups around the world.

Second, theological reflection is part of the ongoing process of growth in ecclesial maturity. Like Christians in every age, we are called to reflect on what God is doing in our time in the light of the deposit of Catholic faith. The beautiful diversity of the renewal, in all its rich variety of expressions around the world, also means there is ongoing need for theological dialogue with one another and for resources that express a basic consensus.

Finally, part of God’s purpose in raising up the renewal is to spread the “culture of Pentecost” and the “spirituality of Pentecost” throughout the Church. Indeed, Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II have given us this mandate. This is already being done to some degree, but there is much more to be done. There are many misunderstandings in the Church about baptism in the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. There is a resistance to the renewal in some parts of the world. At the same time, in some areas there is a new openness and interest where previously we found only closed doors. The time is ripe for us to develop a clear, unified and well-thought-out strategy of communication, so that doors may be opened even wider to the Holy Spirit and his gifts.

The document has four parts which cover the following key areas.

Part I: Characteristics and Fruits

This section answers the question: What are the visible, concrete fruits of baptism in the Spirit as it is experienced today? How has this grace changed the lives of individuals and the Church? Our answer was aided in part by the many encouraging statements on the renewal published by bishops’ conferences around the world, which are remarkably consistent in their description of baptism in the Spirit and its effects.

The section begins with a definition of baptism in the Spirit, which we refined on the basis of input received at the colloquium: Baptism in the Spirit is a life-transforming experience of the love of God the Father poured into one’s heart by the Holy Spirit, and received through a total surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. This grace brings alive sacramental baptism and confirmation, deepens communion with God and with fellow Christians, enkindles evangelistic fervour and equips a person with charisms for service and mission.

Part II: Biblical and Patristic Foundations

One of the most important tasks of the renewal is to help others in the Church recognize that baptism in the Spirit is not a marginal phenomenon —a group of Catholics over in a corner who happen to like Pentecostal styles of worship. Rather, it is a ‘coming to life’ of what is already at the heart of Christian life as presented in scripture and tradition, but which, over time, has sometimes become obscured and forgotten. Part II of the document shows this by presenting the biblical and patristic foundations of baptism in the Spirit.

The biblical section explains the background and meaning of the term “baptism in the Spirit,” the significance of the Pentecost event as narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and St Paul’s teaching on the Christian life, as life in the Spirit.

The patristic section shows the ways in which baptism in the Spirit today corresponds to the experience of the early Church, especially in connection with the sacraments of initiation.

Part III: Theological Reflection

Part III was perhaps the most challenging part of the document to write, because here we sought to bring together diverse views that have been expressed since the early days of the renewal. As we worked on this part, I found myself more and more appreciating the different views by which theologians have sought to explain baptism in the Spirit. The reality is richer and deeper than any one explanation, and each contributes something significant. So, rather than choosing one view and discarding others, we sought to incorporate some aspects of each.

I like to use this analogy: Is light a wave or is it a particle? As physicists know, the answer is… yes! It is irreducibly both. We cannot reduce light to either a wave or a particle, because otherwise we leave some of its behaviour unexplained. Part of the richness of our faith is the Catholic ‘both-and’. Is Jesus God or man? Is our faith based on scripture or tradition? Is the Bible the word of God, or the words of men? Is the kingdom of heaven now or not yet? Both!

I think we can apply this principle fruitfully to baptism in the Spirit and the renewal. For example, some theologians describe baptism in the Spirit as a revitalization of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation; others describe it as a new sending of the Spirit into one’s life. Both views express something important. Similarly, some see the charismatic renewal as a current of grace meant for the whole Church; others see it as a movement among other movements. Again, these views are complementary and each contributes something important.

Part IV: Pastoral Issues

This section offers some basic pastoral principles that can be adapted by various groups according to their own local needs. The document does not impose a specific program for baptizing people in the Spirit (such as the Life in the Spirit Seminar), since part of the mission of ICCRS is to maintain great respect for the principle of subsidiarity. That is, it allows as much freedom as possible for initiatives at the local level.

The pastoral oversight of the renewal is not without its challenges. Fr. Peter Hocken mentioned the danger of turning baptism in the Spirit into a kind of quasi-sacrament and of making the preparations quasi-liturgical.

To over-institutionalize the work of the Spirit —to subtly place it under our control— would be to betray the very grace we have been given. Yet, as Pope Benedict has said, the charismatic must to a certain degree be “institutionalized” (that is, develop stable forms and structures) if it is to remain and bear fruit over time.

At the same time, the institutional must always be charismatic (that is, dependent on the Spirit). There is a delicate balance between creating programs that foster the work of the Spirit, and yet allowing the wind of the Spirit to blow freely, to surprise us and even sometimes upset our plans.

The document places a strong emphasis on formation. Some of the problems in the renewal —for instance, people leaving the Church, immature people establishing ministries of healing and deliverance, misplaced emphasis

on resting in the Spirit and other phenomena— can be minimized by good formation.

As Cardinal Rylko has noted, one of the outstanding features of the new ecclesial movements is their capacity to provide a solid and deep formation in which the Christian faith is not a veneer placed over an essentially secular interior life, but a transformation of the deepest core of the personality, impacting all a person’s choices and behaviour.

There is a great need for charismatic saints —people who live the grace of baptism in the Spirit fully and allow it to mature into heroic holiness. We should pray that God would raise up such saints in our midst to model for us what charismatic renewal holiness looks like. These saints will be men and women who love both the charismatic and institutional aspects of the Church, who experience, understand, and communicate to all the grace of God found in baptism in the Holy Spirit.

To be sure, one document will not completely answer all questions about baptism in the Holy Spirit. Indeed, as the document was being created, I grew more aware of the enormity of the subject we were considering. One cannot fit the ocean into a single jar! Yet it is a beginning, one that we hope will lead to further reflection and dialogue.

—reprinted from ICCRS newsletter

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