 |
The Trumpet Newsletter of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services
|
|
|
The Trumpet Newsletter of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services
|
| Year | Issue Date | Article Title | Author |
| 2004 | Oct./Nov./Dec. | Pentecost is for Everyone | Ron Bergman-Diocesan Liaison |
| 2004 | Oct./Nov./Dec. | Sacramental Confession: A way to Freedom | Rev. Sylvester Nnaso |
| 2004 | Oct./Nov./Dec. | Jesus Christ in the Gospels | Kate Elliott, DRE |
| 2004 | Oct./Nov./Dec. | Pray for Our Priests and Seminarians | Linda Daniel-Editor |
From The Liaison
"Pentecost is for Everyone" [back to top of page]
Sister Nancy Keller, a top speaker and leader in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States and around the world, was a featured speaker at Peoria’s Catholic Charismatic Renewal conference we attended this past July. It’s theme was “Let The Fire Fall Again.” For the last several months she has widely proclaimed the theme “Pentecost is for Everyone,” and it struck a chord within me that has caused me to think and rethink my own belief and sense of what the Lord is asking us to do as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in our own diocese. I had a brief conversation with Sister Nancy before leaving the conference, and as we prayed together about my concerns she received a word from the Lord that I believe was for our diocese. The word was “Think Big.”
Many things she said have led me to ask myself, “Do I really believe that the Lord intended the full experience of Pentecost to be for everyone or just for a few?” First of all I had to recall what Sister Nancy explained was the result of that birth-of-the-Church event. Was it just a docile event that came and went without making a difference in the lives of those who were there? NO! It was a life-changing experience for them. As she explained, it EMPOWERED them. For example, Peter, the burly fisherman, denied Jesus not to a strong Roman guard who would kill him if he spoke wrongly, but to a young servant girl (Luke 22:56; Mk 15:66). Brave, wasn’t he? But after the Pentecost event he boldly proclaimed the truth everywhere he went. That’s empowerment. Jesus’ eleven handpicked followers went into hiding (cowering in the upper room in utter fear that they would be discovered) until the Pentecost event. You know the rest of their story. “All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamations as the Holy Spirit prompted them.” (Acts 2:4) And then they went out and boldly and JOYFULLY used the Gifts of the Holy Spirit as God directed them. They healed in His name, and more importantly, they all realized a personal relationship with Jesus in a new way. Their lives were changed forever, and after that not one of them was willing to give up that relationship, not even at the risk of death.
Do we believe this kind of Pentecost experience is intended for just a few? Yet that experience apparently is still docile in many of our brothers and sisters (as it was in us), lacking the overwhelming joy of a personal, committed relationship with Jesus. We benefited greatly from the Baptism in the Holy Spirit; would we want that for our brothers and sisters in the Lord? These and many other questions followed Sister Nancy’s presentations and prayers. I now firmly believe the Holy Spirit would want the exciting experience of Pentecost to flourish in the lives of everyone in our diocese, just as Sister Nancy suggests. Don’t you?
The leaders of the diocesan prayer groups recently gathered to pray and ask the Lord what He would have us do to bring that Pentecost experience to more people in our diocese. We realized that, in recent years, we have been so docile about sharing the wonderful experience that we are presently not in a position to do things the way we’d like. But we have already seen the Lord working and leading us in this direction.
So our intention is to “Think Big” and begin a prayerful, long-term effort to again build the support base from which we can offer the joy of a life empowered by the Spirit to all in our diocese who will listen. Our smaller prayer groups plan to join together to offer Life-in-the-Spirit Seminars around the diocese. We have already been working for several months to schedule a Diocesan Life-in-the-Spirit Seminar in Spanish to support and promote spiritual growth and support within our Spanish-speaking prayer groups. It presently appears that may materialize this Fall. Please join the effort by encouraging all your Spanish-speaking friends to attend this seminar. By the end of this year we expect to have a Web site so we can better communicate and reach not only those in our own diocese, but bring encouragement and support to hundreds and thousands who would not ordinarily be reached by other means. We will be working with leaders in surrounding dioceses to “piggy-back” with them as they bring gifted speakers into their areas and bring those speakers into our diocese while they are nearby. Funds to do this are slim; if you feel led to financially support these efforts, please send your contribution to the CCRS address.
Our task, yours and mine, is to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in living out the command of Jesus to “spread the good news to all nations.” Most of us are not called to be missionaries in foreign lands, but the Holy Spirit has EMPOWERED us to fully use our talents and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We all know there are more Gifts of the Holy Spirit available to us than only the “Isaiah” gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Council, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord. There are also the gifts of Prophecy, Healing, Miracles, Teaching, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Service, Administration, and many others. (1Cor. 12-14). We need your prayers and we need your gifts as we do our best to follow the Lord’s call. We do not expect all of this to happen overnight, but we do expect it to happen. Because as Sister Nancy reminded us, “Pentecost [really] is for everyone.”
Blessings,
Ron
Know Your Faith
Jesus Christ in the Gospels [back to top of page]
When I was a little girl I learned a prayer that invoked the names of the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels that went something like this, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Bless this bed that I lay on.” It was a simple prayer and I’m sure there was more to it than these few lines. But the idea behind the prayer, I suspect, was to better acquaint children with the Gospels and in particular with the person of Jesus Christ about whom the Gospels were written.
We know that by reading and meditating on the Gospels, we are drawn closer to Jesus and His message for the world and for our own individual lives.
Let us first examine the three Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Synoptic comes from two Greek words which mean “the same view.” These first three Gospels tell us the stories of the life of Christ showing His public life and ending with His death and resurrection. “The three Gospel texts are similar in two ways: 1.) the events related (content); and 2.) the literary expression used to tell the stories (method).” (Jesus Christ, Mary and the Grace of God by Christopher M. Buckner. The Catholic Home Study Institute. Page 3)
The Synoptic Gospels are more concerned with factual data and what Jesus did. The gospels stress the divinity of Jesus “and they showed that Jesus did many things especially that He performed miracles; these actions proved that He was God.” (Buckner) The Synoptic Gospels also show that Jesus’ life and work were a fulfillment of prophecy.
We need to remember while reading and studying these Gospels that Jesus Christ is the same as His teaching. We sometimes talk about Jesus and then talk about what He said. This is incorrect. “What Jesus said and what He taught was Himself. He taught about the Messiah and He was the Messiah. He told the people that the Messiah was the Desired of Nations, and He was the Desired of Nations.” (Buckner. Page 4)
St. John’s Gospel was written after the other three Gospels. It “supplements what others had written about the Savior, and compliments what Jesus Himself had taught during His visible stay on earth.” (The Catholic Catechism by John A. Hardon, S.J. Page 123) Around the end of the first century two errors arose; one by the Gnostics which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ and another by the Docetists which questioned whether Jesus had a true human nature. Into this controversy came St. John’s Gospel, inspired by God to show forth the humanity and divinity of Jesus.
In John 1:14 it is stated that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John stresses that Jesus is the Word of God, therefore He is divine, He is God. We also see in the stories of this Gospel the humanity of Jesus as He weeps at the tomb of Lazarus and sits to rest at the well of Samaria, and as He hung on the cross, He thirsted. Attesting to the divinity of Jesus, St. John also records a number of miracles in this Gospel and writes about the oneness of the Father and the Son. St. John’s Gospel shows Jesus Christ as both God and man. It also shows that fallen human nature can be raised to a higher level through participation in the life of Christ.
In our prayer time, let us once again reacquaint ourselves with the Gospel stories we have heard so often at Mass. It might be a good idea to memorize some of our favorite passages and use them to inflame our hearts, minds, and souls to grow closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Kate Elliott, DRE
Holy Spirit Church, Roscoe
Pray for our Priests and Seminarians [back to top of page]
“Those who say yes to a higher calling sacrifice much in the name of Jesus Christ and so do their families. These men of God have given up one lifestyle where ‘family’ is defined in a narrow personal context for a commitment where ‘family’ is defined in the broader all-loving heart of Christ. Our priests and religious are under attack daily from all sides. Now more than ever they need us. They need our prayers. They need our encouraging words. They need our love.
“The Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of Rockford has been instrumental in forming an organized effort of support for priests and deacons of our diocese. Through a group of people referred to as the Opening to the Spirit Committee [a prayer card titled] the Prayer for Priests [was distributed in the summer of 1995].”
The above was first printed in the November/December 1995 issue of The Trumpet in an article by Vicki Spiess titled “Love Our Priests.”
There have been an increased number of priests ordained in our diocese in the years since. Rev. Martin Heinz was appointed Director of Vocations effective June 18, 1996. Rev. Aaron Brodeski was appointed Director of Vocations effective May 27, 2002.
Sacramental Confession: A Way to Freedom [back to top of page]
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to give us the fullness of life. His mission on earth is to save us from the bondage of sin and slavery. To live in sin is to live in bondage. It is evident that we fall into sin easily: if not by thought, it is by action; if not by commission, it is by omission. This is more so since the sin of our first parents had weakened our human nature and allows it to act against the love of God (Genesis 5:19). For this reason, St. John clearly states that “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Also, St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In fact, sin is the greatest addiction in the world today yet only very few people know the way to freedom. Even those who claim to know the way to freedom seem to have been affected by fear, pride, laziness and procrastination. These are the weapons the evil one (devil) uses to devour the children of God. The devil’s greatest happiness lies in getting the children of God to revolt against God. We should stand up to him strong in faith (1Peter 5:8-9). When John the Baptist preached about repentance, the people asked him, “What then should we do?” (Luke 3:10). He carefully explained to them the true way to freedom.
The first step towards freedom is a sincere acknowledgment of one’s sinfulness. Christ Himself has said that the first act of the Holy Spirit is to censure the sins of the world and convict us of them (John 16:8). This statement is truth, because the world fails to believe in Christ. It takes a spiritual courage to look at sin in the face. This is because by its very nature, sin does not purpose to be remembered or exposed, though it never escapes the “book” of conscience, for the Psalmist says “sin speaks to the sinner in the depths of his heart” (Psalm 36:1). One of my friends once said, “Conscience is like the mother-in-law whose visits never end.” This natural sense of guilt cannot be suppressed, otherwise it leads to other kinds of complexes. Therefore, our best option as good Catholics is to bring our sins to the Sacrament of Reconciliation where the cleansing blood of Jesus washes us ever bright and beautiful.
Christ gave the power to forgive sins to the priests when He said to His disciples, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven” (John 20:22). Since there is no limit placed on the power of the keys Christ gave His Church, the Church, through the uninterrupted transfer of the power bestowed by Christ on the Apostles, is able with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to continue this mission of Christ on earth. St. Alphonsus once told his congregation that “if our Lord Jesus Christ were to sit in one confessional and a simple priest in another, the sinners who went to the priest would be as fully pardoned as those [who] had confessed to Christ” (Sullivan, Paul. An Easy Way to Become a Saint. Tan Books & Publishers, Rockford. 1990. Page 98). Why continue living in bondage while you have an expressway to freedom?
In the past, some Jews questioned the power of Christ to forgive sin and even accused Him of blasphemy. Christ repeatedly proved to them that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2-28; John 20:22-23). Are you one of the doubting Thomases? Are you still making up excuses not to go to confession? “Give some evidence that you mean to reform... the ax is laid [solidly] to the root of the tree. Every tree that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:8-9). Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ often referred to Proverbs which states that “no one who conceals his sins will prosper, whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). My question then is, do you want God’s mercy in your life?