Carefully Charismatic and Fully Catholic

Catholics, unlike many mainline Protestants, have always believed in the possibility of miracles, and we actively pray for them at every Mass and during each Rosary or other prayers. Yet, the controversy of whether the nine charismatic gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14 are valid is nevertheless a major source of friction among Christians of all stripes.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is an ecclesiastical movement which promotes the reception of the “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” accompanied by spiritual signs such as speaking in tongues and prophecy. We can revisit the terminology at another time, but for now, I wish to focus more on the validity of such manifestations, their richness, and caution regarding both, on one hand, rejecting them and, on the other, a mindless acceptance of all that is done in the name of the Spirit of God.

Johnette Benkovic Williams, host of EWTN’s “Women of Grace,” calls it one of her favorite topics. In my Assemblies of God days, one of my pastors at the time, Rev. Kenneth Olson, said that the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit gave commonality to the Assemblies of God with the Catholic Church because Catholics believe in miracles.

Sacred Scripture and Tradition

Catholics have always taught that Sacred Scripture is the infallible Word of God. We also believe that there are three main transmissions of Divine revelation. The other two are Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium. Just a quick word that not all tradition, even within Catholicism, is sacred or infallible. Some of it is simply, as, in every Christian group, the “way things are done.” Those parts are changeable and have been at times. An example would be whether one must fast on Fridays by eating no meat. The Sacred Tradition or the principle of sacrificing, particularly on the day of the week Jesus died, is still in place. That did not, nor will it, change. The specific way we do so is now generally up to the individual, except during Lent. Sacred Tradition, however, is handed down from the beginning by the Apostles, such as belief in the Trinity, and the two natures in the one person of Christ, the God-man. There are no verses, per se, in the Bible that spell either of these out with no need for further explanation. The Magisterium, which are the bishops in union with the Holy Father, does that spelling. Roman and Eastern Catholics thus see those three as equal streams of the revealed Word.

Awakening to God

When I was 14, I began attending the local Assemblies of God (A/G) youth group. I remained Catholic, as my parents raised me, but had begun a spiritual search as to what I, not family nor Catholic friends, and leaders, had taught me. Catholics often emphasize that they read the Bible, and hear it every Mass. While this is certainly true, and in fact often more so than within Protestant Christian circles, what we tended to do less adequately, at least until Vatican II, was to personally study the Sacred Scriptures with much depth on a regular or daily basis. This lack, corrected in large part by men of God such as Jeff Cavins and Dr. Scott Hahn, came only after they each converted or reconverted to Rome. We can thank them and the overall Church for the new emphasis on day-to-day reading—and digesting—the Scriptures as one of the most basic methods of bringing the Word of God to believers such as you and me.

I explain this to point out that, though well-catechized, primarily through the Baltimore system, and serving as an altar boy for nearly five years, did not prepare me for a group of devout young people (again A/G), teens and my peers, who studied the Bible voluntarily and ardently followed what they learned from it. One example was when a young woman in this youth group fell during a hike, and the leader stopped, as we all immediately prayed for her, while also helping her to safety. This type of spontaneity was foreign to me, though I personally hungered for it, and the quick knowledge of Bible verses and where to find the passages quoted was beyond my pay grade. I began to study.

Great, you say! It in fact was. Reading and studying the Bible on a daily basis, starting (slightly unwisely on my part!) with the book of Revelation, but soon being directed into other books that were more relatable to me, and knowing that my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was not just because my parents or others told me to believe, was a change beyond anything I expected or looked for. However, one difficulty began to occur. As I thirsted for more of God, I found myself unfortunately drawing away from the Sacraments. Baptized as a baby, I was told that my baptism was not valid, because it was not after a clear choice on my part to follow Jesus. I then learned of another baptism, one of the Holy Spirit, and soon my impending Confirmation made little sense to me either.

Finally, I became so Bible-centered that my earlier foundation as a Catholic Christian was seemingly not enough for me. A new set of truths had replaced it, and I thought that I had to accept the false dichotomy between Catholicism and the Bible. There is no such distinction, but try telling that to an enthusiastic 14 or 15-year-old, even one who studied the Faith diligently, and he or she can miss that salient point. I did. That is the warning here. When I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, which was very real to me then and now, I no longer believed that I needed Confirmation, since both claimed to be the power of Pentecost in our lives. When I was re-baptized at age 15 in the river which ran through our small Minnesota town, proclaiming to the world my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what I did not realize was that I was simply renewing my baptismal promises from the sacrament and making them my own. As Catholics, we do that formally each Easter during the Vigil and other seasonal Masses and are encouraged to do it often in-between times. Somehow, I overlooked that fact.

Also, when I received Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper as it was called in my new circles, I often felt the presence of Christ and received with as much devotion or more than when I received the Eucharist as a younger Catholic believer. Since Jesus already lived within me through the Holy Spirit, why would I need Him to bodily enter me Sunday after Sunday? Dr. Scott Hahn, though charismatic himself, warns of this type of thought progression, and so did Mother Angelica and others who have stated that the charismata were never meant to replace the Sacraments.

This is not an article meant to scare away those interested in special movements of the Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges the good within the Renewal movement. It also states this in regard to those manifestations in paragraph 2003—  “Whatever their character – sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues – charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church.” They are never meant to bring us closer to Jesus but farther from His Church.

Praying in the Spirit

Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray “at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (ESV). Now, I will give my view of what “tongues” is. In the book of Acts, people heard tongues of many languages on the first Pentecost, and many within Catholic circles believe this is the only way they are valid. My view is that it does not matter whether the words I speak are German, English, or some part of my unconscious simply crying out to God. In 1 Corinthians it speaks of using this gift for prayer between oneself and God without interpretation. I do not have to know the meaning of the words or syllables. Romans 8: 26 alludes to something occurring, at times, as we pray: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (ESV). I would contend that this is more than silence, or at least can be. The next verse states “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Tongues, tears, and silence can all be powerful forms of taking us away from our own mindsets and presupposed desires and letting God instead deal with the details. Praying in the Spirit.

I would add to this that the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, Lectio Divina, the Hours, Eucharistic Adoration, and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, can each fulfill the promise of this verse too. Before I returned to the Church, I prayed in tongues constantly because it was the only way I knew of to pray in the Spirit. Yet Ephesians says, “all prayer,” and that certainly includes the liturgy and other prayers given to the Church that leads us into worshipful meditation. This means, incidentally, not to pray the Rosary in a train-wreck fashion. Meditate on those Mysteries, even if it takes longer at times. God will bring you surprising insights when you least expect it if you do. I write elsewhere about the blessings and dangers of misunderstanding what meditation is for and what it does, so suffice it to say that our prayers need to always be God-centered, rather than some way of emptying the mind. This applies to the charisms as well.

Final Thoughts

I have not begun to fully cover the theological implications of the Charismatic Renewal here. Just know that you do not need to be afraid of it. Nor, unlike me, do you need to let it take you away from Rome. It is just one more arrow in God’s quiver of astonishing tools for us. Instead, let Him fill you up daily. After all, as the late charismatic priest and chancellor of Franciscan University, in Steubenville, Ohio, Father Michael Scanlan, once told me simply, “we leak.”