San Francisco Archdiocese Catholic Charismatic Renewal

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

"The Baptism in the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is related to several sacraments. The Baptism in the Spirit makes real and in a way renews Christian initiation... The Baptism in the Spirit's effectiveness in reactivating baptism consists in this: finally man contributes his part –– namely, he makes a choice of faith, prepared in repentance, that allows the work of God to set itself free and to emanate all its strength. It is as if the plug is pulled and the light is switched on. The gift of God is finally "untied" and the Spirit is allowed to flow like a fragrance in the Christian life."

by: Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap – See Full Article Here

Proclaiming the Lordship and
Love of Jesus Christ!

Serving Charismatic Catholics in the counties of
San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin.

Daily Reflection: September 7, 2010

"The Cost of Discipleship"
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time"

September 5, 2010
Fr. Robert Barron – WordOnFire.org

"Listening to God's Voice"

by Michelle Fontaine,
Queen of Peace Prayer Group
St. Hilary Parish, Tiburon, CA
August 23, 2010

Recently, I was asked to give a talk at a retreat for high school seniors about how prayer and studying the Bible has deepened my relationship with God. As I prepared the talk and prayerfully reflected on my own faith journey, the Holy Spirit shed light on how my reading of Scripture and my prayer life have changed, grown, and deepened over the years. Let me share with you how God has used both my reading of Scripture and my prayer life as the foundation for being able to hear and discern His Voice today.

Getting Started

When I was a freshman in college, my confirmation finally "took," meaning, I finally could say for myself, "Yes, I want to follow Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and live my life for Him." I began reading the Bible and praying. Reading the Bible as a person of faith was new to me. While at first I didn't read the Bible quite like a history book, I also didn't fully understand that the Bible is God's revealed Word that has specific messages for me today.

At first, I mostly read the Bible to find out "what happened" and to understand the broad sweep of salvation history. I discovered later, that God used the time I spent slogging through the laws, the "begats," and strange prophetic messages to lay an important foundation of basic Bible knowledge and understanding for me. Getting an overview of how our Loving Lord has offered salvation to His People throughout the centuries built a crucial knowledge base that has helped me hear and discern the true Voice of the Shepherd when He speaks outside of the Bible to me today.

As for prayer, it too started with the basics, mostly asking, asking, asking. There's an old country gospel song that says, "Jesus on the main [telephone] line, call Him up and tell Him what you want." That was a good description of me for many years: "Jesus, please do this or that." While not all of my prayers were about me-I prayed for the needs and wants of other people in my life, too-the focus of my prayers was on "us," not Him. I approached God as The Solver of life's problems more than anything else.

During these first fumbling years of Bible study and prayer I made reading the Bible and prayer a daily habit. Almost forty years later now, I can see this daily habit has kept my communication line with the Lord open, and has given me the opportunity to practice recognizing His Voice from among the many other competing voices in our world today.

God Became My Focus

I was baptized in the Spirit during my senior year of college. At that time my prayer life and how I read the Bible began to change slowly but significantly. The first change was a shift in my prayer focus. Up to that point, almost all my attention had been on me and my problems, hopes, and dreams, and on interceding for other people. After I was baptized in the Spirit, my attention began slowly to shift to God and to considering what would be pleasing to Him.

The Holy Spirit gave me a deep thirst for knowing God, not just knowing about Him. Praying in tongues became part of my daily devotional time. As I prayed in tongues, the Holy Spirit opened up my spirit more and more to hear God's Voice speaking to me through the Bible and prayer. On occasion the Lord gifted me with moments of deep intimacy when I experienced His incredible love for me. God began to speak to my heart-better said, the Holy Spirit opened my spiritual ears in a way that I could now, on occasion, hear God speaking to my heart.

After I was baptized in the Spirit, I began to read the Bible differently, especially the psalms. I began to pray the psalms as prayers of my own and that helped me develop a prayer vocabulary of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. I began to thank God for what He was doing in my life and the lives of others instead of mostly asking Him to solve our problems.

In my devotional time I began to sing to the Lord. I began listening to praise and worship music. At that time Maranatha was just beginning and Amy Grant had not yet produced her first Christian album, so there wasn't a lot of the kind of praise and worship we do today. But God put songs in my heart and by the late 70's I began to accompany myself on the guitar, singing to Him and experiencing the joy of praise. Learning how to praise God for who He is and how to thank Him for what He has done opened me up to a whole new focus of knowing and loving the Lord.

Ups and Downs in Learning to Listen to God

During the 1980's I began to write in a journal during my devotional time. I had used a notebook from the beginning to write down Scripture verses that touched my heart or verses that I wanted to memorize. Now I kept a journal to record my prayers to God as well. My prayers to God got longer and longer-often they became very introspective as I tried to sort out the "inner stuff" we all deal with in one way or another. For several years, my introspective prayer focus unintentionally became me, myself, and I again. I was seeking healing and wanted God to set me free from all the painful life baggage I was carrying. However, it was very difficult to focus on God when I was preoccupied with getting physical and inner healing for myself. In reflecting on that time of my life, I now see that my preoccupation with self became a major hindrance to hearing God's Voice because I wasn't focused on Him.

Lately, God has been teaching me that He, better than I or anyone else, knows what needs healing in my life. I need to focus on HIM and enter into His presence through praise, thanksgiving, worship, and adoring the Blessed Sacrament in addition to receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. I need to be preoccupied with Him, not my own need for healing or anything else. I am just now learning to trust that God is taking care of all my needs in His own time and in His own way. I am finding that it is much easier to trust Him when I'm focused on Him in worship and praise.

In the mid-90's, I enthroned the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my home and began to spend my daily devotion in Bible reading and prayer, sitting in front of a beautiful picture of the Sacred Heart. As I reflected daily on Jesus' great love for me, I began to be quiet and just sit in God's presence, thanking Him in my heart for His love. Around the same time I began to go to Adoration regularly. There too, I sat quietly in God's presence and listened to Him rather than doing all the talking myself. During the silence I began to hear the Lord speaking wonderful words of love to me. Eventually, I started writing down what I was hearing from Him in my journal. I didn't realize it at the time, but the Lord was training me to hear and recognize His true Voice so that eventually He could use me in charismatic renewal communities.

Continued

"You Will Receive Power"

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

"Today, millions of Catholics in more than 115 countries are involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. What accounts for this dramatic growth? Those involved in the Renewal say that God has touched them in some profound way, releasing the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

The goal of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is to serve the mission of the Church by enabling people to live a renewed and Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is called to be charismatic – that is, to be equipped with gifts of service for the good of the Church. (1Cor.12)

In the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Catholics speak of being "baptized in the Holy Spirit." This statement does not change the Catholic teaching about the Sacrament of Baptism. It simply means that the power of the Spirit received in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation often awaits a fuller "release" in the lives of many Christians."

Click here to view a video about the History of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church.

Miracle Prayer

New Catholic Bible Search – Launched on May 20, 2010

"A new online Catholic Bible search engine, which enables people to find specific Scripture passages using keywords, has been launched. The program has been developed by Catholic.net with the support of the US Bishops' Conference. It is believed to be the first complete Catholic Bible translation made available for keyword search."