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This “Golden Age” was during an
age of heresies, divisions and schisms. There was a great
outpouring of the Holy Spirit to strengthen the Church and propel
her into the future. It included a great enthusiasm and zeal among
believers (an intoxication!) that set the light of the Holy Spirit
high on a lamp stand to “give light to the whole church, to souls,
and to the whole world.”
Fr.
Cantalamessa quotes Pope Paul VI in suggesting that this type of
“sober intoxication” should be both a description of Catholic
Charismatic Renewal in our day as well as the vision we
embrace to guide us. We have a choice whether we will embrace it.
Fr. Cantalamessa writes:
We are faced with a specific request from God that is among the
clearest in the New Testament. It is an obligatory path: If we do
not begin to walk on it, we will not move toward God but rather
toward ourselves and our own whims. In fact, we will move toward
spiritual defeat. The gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit,
requires free acceptance – precisely because He is a gift – just as
the marital gift of the bridegroom requires a free “yes” from the
bride. But our “yes” is not genuine or profound unless it has been
declared by way of the cross.
The stakes, as
we can see, are serious. It remains to be seen whether this
movement, which is spreading among the people of God for a profound
renewal, will end as a will-o’-the-wisp or will take root and renew
Christians, as in that golden age referred to earlier.
Your own experience
of Catholic Charismatic Renewal may have been the instrument that
God used to deepen your enthusiasm and zeal, that enabled you to say
“yes” to God in a more profound way, and which allowed you to
embrace the cross of Jesus with joy and perseverance.
We at the DCCR are
dedicated to making “baptism in the Spirit” or “renewal in the
Spirit” available to every Catholic in this Archdiocese. It is the
“sober intoxication of the Spirit” that has mobilized millions of
Catholics all over the world to embrace the cross and dedicate their
lives in service to the Church and to the world, so that others
might be “justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal
life.” (Titus 3:7) In the end, it’s all about helping others gain
the gift of eternal life. In other words, we need the power of the
Holy Spirit to help other people get to heaven!
What better way to
begin to accomplish this goal than to invite others to attend the
“40 Years of Amazing Grace” Conference? Listen to how the Holy
Spirit is inspiring you. Is it to extend an invitation to some
young people in your life? Are you being called to pay for an
admission for a priest, religious, or another person who may need
financial help? Can you offer transportation to someone who may
need it? For what service is the Holy Spirit depending on you?
Listen and act! Listen and obey! Someone’s eternal salvation may
be at stake!
(Adapted with permission from an article written for the Western
Washington Catholic Charismatic Renewal Newsletter, by Virginia
King, the Executive Director of the WWCCR.)
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“Amazing Grace”
How
did John Newton come to write this hymn that is so much a part of
our Christian Faith and the theme of our Conference? In 1748, as a
young member of the crew of the merchant vessel, Greyhound,
John survived a harrowing storm in the North Atlantic, east of
Newfoundland. He felt that he had been “snatched, by a miracle,
from sinking into the ocean and into hell.” He began a reformation
of his life. |
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For the next
five years, he worked in the slave trade, not realizing the moral
seriousness of the dehumanization of African slaves brought to the
Americas in exchange for sugar that sold in England for a high
price. In 1754, he came in contact with some of the great leaders
in evangelical revival that was sweeping England. His shift in
thinking came quietly and gradually. He became a pastor of the
Church of England, and to encourage his congregation, he wrote many
hymns, including “Amazing Grace.” He became a writer and speaker,
and developed a network of people who advocated abolition of the
slave trade. He published a book entitled, Thoughts upon the
African Slave Trade, that helped to change people’s views about
slavery. His famous hymn reflected his philosophy that he was a
great sinner, and that Christ is a great savior. God never fails to
supply the “amazing grace” we need, as He has demonstrated over
these past forty years of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Praise God
for the grace He bestowed on us “the hour we first believed” and the
many graces since that first hour! |
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