The 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) was celebrated on Saturday 18 February 2017, and all of 2017 is considered to be a year of jubilee. #ccrgoldrenjubilee2017 should help you find some of those celebrations. As with any special anniversary, it is a time to look back, a time to give thanks, and a time to look forward.
 
I was able to attend celebrations over the weekend of 17-19 February 2017 in Parramatta Diocese and to watch and listen to all the sessions video recorded at the con-current celebrations at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, where the Renewal started. Those video sessions are no longer free, but are available at www.somethinglikereal.com/ordermedia . From both I will stitch together a history from all the memories that were shared.
 
To find the real start, we need to go back to the late 1890s and Pope Leo XIII and Blessed Elena Guerra. Blessed Elena wrote several letters to Pope Leo XIII asking him to promote devotion to the Holy Spirit. Accordingly in 1895 he wrote Provida Matris, in which he recommended to Catholics special prayers at the Feast of Pentecost, for the Reunion of Christendom. In 1897 he wrote Divinum Illud Munus (On the Holy Spirit) talking about the role of the Holy Spirit in the Divine Economy and calling for a novena of prayer preceding Pentecost and attaching indulgences to that novena. (Ed. It is well worth a read.) Sadly these two requests didn't get a lot of response world-wide. Next he was asked to have the Veni Sancte Spiritus (the sequence for Pentecost) sung as he processed in for the first Mass of the 20th century. This he did. Soon after the Pentecostal revival began in 1906. As a Church if we had responded in 1897 we would perhaps be celebrating the 120th anniversary of the Renewal.
 
The world goes through the First World War, then the events at Fatima in 1917, the Great Depression and the Second World War. Along comes Pope St John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Here is the prayer prayed before each of its sessions:
 
We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in Your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength
to know Your will,
to make it our own,
and to live it in our lives.
Guide us by Your wisdom,
support us by Your power,
for You are God, sharing the glory of Father and Son.
You desire justice for all;
enable us to uphold the rights of others;
do not allow us to be misled by ignorance
or corrupted by fear or favour.
Unite us to Yourself in the bond of love
and keep us faithful to all that is true.
As we gather in Your name, may we temper justice with love,
so that all our discussions and reflections
may be pleasing to You, and earn the reward
promised to good and faithful servants.
We ask this of You who live and reign with the
Father and the Son, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 
The work of the 2nd Vatican Council was a major movement of grace and stirred up a lot of things and gave the Holy Spirit room to move.
 
In 1966 two professors at the small Catholic university in Pittsburgh got serious about praying daily for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They, too, used that anciently beautiful Pentecost sequence for the purpose. During this time they were given by friends two books to read; The Cross and the Switchblade and They Speak With Other Tongues. Reading them made it easier for them to attend a local Pentecostal prayer meeting in January 1967. Impressed, they returned, sought and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
 
These professors were leading students in a scripture study group. A February retreat had been planned, and a theme chosen, but they decided to change the theme to 'the Holy Spirit'. Participants were encouraged to prepare for this retreat weekend by praying expectantly, reading 'The Cross and the Switchblade' and the first 4 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. The place they went to was called The Ark and The Dove.
 
During the retreat, at the beginning of each session they sang an ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit, the Veni Creator Spiritus. Early sessions were on Mary, on returning to God in the sacrament of Penance, and on surrendering to God as Lord and Master. Following this two students, David and Patti, proposed that they conclude the weekend with a renewal of baptismal promises. They committed to doing this even if no one else decided to. On the Saturday night of that retreat, there were some birthday celebrations downstairs. But David felt a prompting to go upstairs to the wooden paneled chapel with the box-like tabernacle. There he had a profound experience of God. Patti came into the chapel looking for students to send down to the party, and began to pray. She then had a profound experience of the presence of God that prompted her to surrender herself unconditionally to God with this prayer. "Father, I give my life to you. Whatever You ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves." And she was flooded with an experience of the merciful love of God. Leaving the chapel to find the chaplain to talk about this, she came across two other girls. Patti led these two students into the chapel and began to pray, “Lord, whatever You just did for me, do it for them!” And He did.
 
Many, but not all of the retreatants made their way to the chapel that night and experienced God too. Of those that didn't, fear held them back, either fear of making such a surrender to God or fear of the strange things the others were experiencing. One had felt an inexplicable hatred for Patti the whole weekend, and was only set free to experience God when Patti and the professors prayed for her to be delivered from evil.
 
For more detail about this retreat, read http://www.arlingtonrenewal.org/duquesne-weekend.html
 
These experiences of God, and the charisms that came with it, changed their lives so noticeably that others asked to be prayed for and this work of the Holy Spirit spread rapidly throughout the United States and then to the rest of the world.
 
The students wondered if what they had experienced was Catholic or not, and they found an affirmative answer in the documents of Vatican II, especially Lumen Gentium 12b:
 
'It is not only through the sacraments and the ministries of the Church that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and leads the people of God and enriches it with virtues, but, "allotting his gifts to everyone according as He wills, He distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts He makes them fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church, according to the words of the Apostle: "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit". These charisms, whether they be the more outstanding or the more simple and widely diffused, are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation for they are perfectly suited to and useful for the needs of the Church. Extraordinary gifts are not to be sought after, nor are the fruits of apostolic labor to be presumptuously expected from their use; but judgment as to their genuinity and proper use belongs to those who are appointed leaders in the Church, to whose special competence it belongs, not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to that which is good.'
 
Bruce Yocum was a university student who heard about the Duquesne experience in March 1967. A friend of his knew Steve Clarke and Ralph Martin. A few months later he met them through the Catholic chaplaincy, and when an opportunity came in February 1968 he was baptized in the Holy Spirit immediately. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the prayer group that started as 8 people in February was 90 people three weeks later and 300 people by May. This formed the nucleus of the covenant community movement.
 
Because these young people knew each other well, they were able to organize quickly on a national and international basis. Bishop Joe McKenney got involved early. Endorsement from the bishops of the United States was obtained in 1969. Cardinal Suenens visited a few years later bringing with him Fr Wilfrid who was slightly depressive. The dramatic change in this priest after he was prayed with, and became joyful, laughing and energetic was proof for the Cardinal that this was the authentic work of the Holy Spirit, 'because only God could make this change'.
 
Alex Reichel, a professor of applied Mathematics at the University of Sydney was in Colorado for a year's sabbatical in the late 1960s when he came across the charismatic renewal and his faith became alive in a new way. Upon his return to Sydney, Alex went to the Archbishop, Cardinal Gilroy, and asked for permission to start up a prayer group on the university campus. The response was, 'Good Luck'. That prayer group started at St Michael's College in City Road.
 
At the time there was a dual science/theology student at the college by the name of Ken Barker. From his rooms he could hear the prayer group noise as he tried to study. He decided that 'if I can't beat them, I'll join them'. Good coffee and lots of hugs won him over. But he never went into the little room where people went in normal, got prayed over, and came out quite different. Yet he kept on going to that prayer meeting. He finished his science degree, and his seminary studies, was ordained and got sent to the United States for another 4 years of study. At this point he thought he was equipped for ministry, but he wasn't. Young people convinced him to attend a charismatic priest's retreat at Hunters Hill. It was there that he learned that he needed to give up self-sufficiency and say to the Lord, 'I can't do it, but yes Lord, You can do it' and to join his Yes to that of Mary's. In this he found the surrender prayer of Blessed Charles de Foucauld very helpful:
 
Father,
I abandon myself into Your hands;
do with me what You will.
Whatever You may do, I thank You:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only Your will be done in me,
and in all Your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into Your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to You with all the love of my heart,
for I love You, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into Your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for You are my Father. Amen.
 
After that retreat, everything changed. A prayer group next to the Cathedral in Canberra began. One day a prophetic word came 'to take the renewal to the heart of the Church'. Not sure how to respond to this, they reasoned that the cathedral was the heart of the local church. So Fr Ken asked if he and the young people could be responsible for one of the weekend Masses at the cathedral. No one wanted to serve the 7pm Sunday night Mass, so they gave him that, and the prayer group happened after that Mass. At one of those 7pm Masses a persistent thought kept coming to him, 'you can call the people forward if you want to'. So at the end of the Mass he decided to ask if anyone wanted to come forward to be prayed over, and 2/3rds of the congregation came forward. Many of them 'went down like ninepins'. When we surrender, the Holy Spirit moves.
 
Four months after Alex Reichel began that initial prayer group, Costandi Bastoli joined. At first there was some reluctance about the need for this experience. 'No, I am a Catholic, I know my theology, I have already received the Holy Spirit through the sacraments'. To which they replied, 'It is not whether you possess the Holy Spirit that matters, but whether the Holy Spirit possesses you. Surrender to Him.' Costandi said Ok, and was then asked to renew his baptismal promises, which he did, and then asked if he wanted to receive a gift from God. 'If He wants to do so, I’ll take it'. 'Relax, and the Holy Spirit will do it'. As he started to praise God he was immersed in God's love and started praying and laughing at the same time. That prayer group outgrew its premises quickly, and moved to a meeting place at Lewisham.
 
In 1973 the first international leaders' conference was held in Rome. Around this time the second in charge at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith met with Steve Clark and Ralph Martin, and on his desk was an issue of the New Covenant magazine. They spoke for an hour.
 
In 1975 another international leaders' conference was held in Rome, which around 10,000 people attended. On the Sunday of the conference, everyone went to the papal Mass with great expectation that Pope Paul VI might say something to the renewal. At the end of Mass he did, 'This renewal is an important chance for the Church.' At the closing Mass of that conference they were permitted to use the papal altar in St Peter's basilica. It was a very powerful time of prayer, praise and worship. However all of the microphones stopped working when it was time to share some prophetic word, and only the microphone at the main altar was working. A message was given about days of darkness and serious trouble coming, but followed by a great age of evangelization and days of glory when we would see people tumbling into the Church.
 
Here http://webjournals.ac.edu.au/ojs/index.php/VMAG/article/view/261/258 are a series of reflections on the first 7 years of the charismatic renewal, written by Keith Ranaghan. It was under his leadership that a very broad-based ecumenical committee prepared and led an ecumenical conference of over 60,000 in Kansas City in 1977. It was there that a message that continues to echo was given, 'Weep and mourn, for the body of My Son is broken'. Many ecumenical initiatives began as a result of that conference.
 
When a mountain river gets a good ways down the mountain it becomes deeper, broader, even more powerful but less violent- which is a good analogy for what happened in the renewal during the 1980s and 1990s. According to Lalith Perera in these years the renewal got organized and became more respectable, but perhaps started seeking official acceptance more than seeking the Holy Spirit. Both manifestations of the Holy Spirit and numbers lessened. Following years of personal crisis from 1996 to 2000, he was invited to a retreat with the Divine Retreat Centre at Potta in India. It was a time of grace for him, because God invited him to surrender to Him more than he had ever before and to relinquish his fears and let God be his security and the director of his life. He was overcome by an urge to cry and heard this, 'Cry, cry for the wasted years you lived and served without really submitting to My plan'. As he cried a new anointing of the power of the Holy Spirit came upon him. From that time everything began to flourish and large numbers started being touched by the Lord. Last year the Lord challenged him to see Him in the obstacles and problems around him. 'If I call you, I will do it for you. Do things My way'. God kept that promise. By sitting at the feet of the Lord and asking Him for the breakthroughs, all obstacles were broken by supernatural means.
 
In 2014 leaders of the renewal gathered in Bethlehem from 46 nations to seek the Lord and ask Him how He wanted the 50th anniversary in 2017 to be celebrated. One afternoon of that time was set aside specifically for listening to the Lord. It was a downstairs room with no windows. As they began, the electricity stopped. No lights, no air-conditioning. Confusion reigned. They considered abandoning the time of prayer, but those from the Duquesne weekend said no, this reminds us of the water and plumbing problems that weekend at The Ark and The Dove. As soon as the Holy Spirit came, the water came back on again. So they prayed and called out to the Lord. 'We don't have any power, we are helpless'. Someone grabbed a life-sized crucifix off the wall and brought it to the centre of the room, and said 'Look to Jesus', and the lights came back on. God wanted us to acknowledge our weakness and nothingness and to see that He is the power that we are looking for. God is drawn to our brokenness. The Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. Open up to Him and let His Spirit come. To the most needy, He wants to come most. The next day 200 of us went from Bethlehem to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, and had the extraordinary gift of being able to pray there for an hour. Normally groups are only permitted in for a few minutes at a time. At that time these messages came: 'I have given you My Holy Spirit, and I will continue to give you My Holy Spirit again and again. You will receive more if you join your Yes to the Yes of the Blessed Virgin Mary.' The Lord is about order, but not routine. He brings freshness and newness. We need new weapons for new battles, not yesterday's weapons.
 
To mark the 50th anniversary a big Crucifix of the Renewal was commissioned, and unveiled and blessed on 18 February 2017 at The Ark and The Dove. The international director wanted this to happen, but didn't know how to find a sculptor. Soon after placing the project in God's hands, an email arrived from someone in the renewal who was a sculptor…and it went from there.
 
At the anniversary weekend 17-19 February 2017 the international director Michelle Moran spoke about this Cross and also about how Pope Francis has invited members of the renewal to celebrate Pentecost 2017 with him. The ICCRS team have experience with events in St Peter's Square, but Pope Francis wants this gathering at the Circus Maximus in Rome, open to the view of the city, a place from which it would be easy to send forth people to all directions of the compass.
 
The major prophetic word that weekend, given initially on Friday 17 February and repeated on the evening of 18 February was:
 
Psalm 42: Deep calls unto deep. Go deeper. Call to Him from a place of great depth.
Genesis 7: In the second month, and on the 17th day of that month, that very day all the springs of the great deep broke through and the sluices of heaven opened. It rained on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. This is for good, not for destruction, so that the world may be filled with the presence of God as the waters cover the sea.
 
Visit http://www.societyofsaints.net/blog/category/prophecy to read an interpretation of this.
 
At the vigil Mass of that weekend Bishop Zubik impressed upon us that we must be listeners of the Word and not just hearers of it.
 
Other messages and insights from this anniversary weekend were a profound call to unity, and to reconciliation between leaders and prayer groups and communities and other Christians. That we were to link arms in solidarity just like Patti and David did 50 years ago, and that when the curtain goes up we will be surprised who we have linked arms with. When movements of the Holy Spirit have happened before throughout history, eg the Desert Fathers, St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi that grace took form in religious life. The charismatic renewal has been marked by lay leadership and lay participation, and the prayer groups and communities were how this grace has taken form in our time. But in the outpouring God has promised it will take a new form that we have never seen before. For Him to do this we have to be prepared to go where He says, to stop when He says stop, and be utterly responsive to His promptings.
 
Pentecost 2017, if we call out to the Lord persistently from our hearts for the gift of the Holy Spirit as He has asked us to do, will be momentous indeed.
 
Come Holy Spirit!!!
Holy Mother Mary of each New Pentecost, Help of Christians, pray for us
 
 
(For another history, which fills in other details of these 50 years of grace, read: http://www.jeevanjal.org/jeevanjal/origin-ccr.html )

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The 18th of February 2017 was the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. #ccrgoldenjubilee2017 : It is what happened when students from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh came together with some of their teachers for a weekend retreat at a place called 'The Ark and the Dove'. Leaders from across the world gathered at The Ark and the Dove for a weekend retreat to celebrate all that God has done in the past 50 years. Those very inspiring talks were Livestreamed, but are no longer available for free online (www.somethinglikereal.com/ordermedia is where you can find them now).
 
As you might expect when people gather to call on God's name, and to praise and thank Him, He talks to them and reveals His purpose.
 
Here is the primary prophetic word that was given at the 50th anniversary retreat. It was first shared on the Friday evening 17 February, and considered so important it was shared again on the Saturday evening 18 February once people began to understand its significance. If you have ever read the life of Blessed Imelda Lambertini, you would have come across the adage, 'gifts are given on the eve of the feast'.
 
I apologise that it is only the bare bones of that word. I was going to go back and transcribe both of them properly, but I was too late.
 
Psalm 42: Deep calls unto deep. Go deeper. Call to Him from a place of great depth.
Genesis 7: In the second month, and on the 17th day of that month, that very day all the springs of the great deep broke through and the sluices of heaven opened. It rained on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. This is for good, not for destruction, so that the world may be filled with the presence of God as the waters cover the sea.
 
My initial interpretation: God wants to give us the second part very much, but it depends on us doing the first part. Think of the outpouring God wants to give like a huge balloon full of water. It is up to us to push deeper and deeper until it pierces. The deeper and more united we are across time and space and distance the better able we will be to pierce the balloon so that the torrent comes and not the trickle. But we have to get on our knees and call out our desperate need to God for the Holy Spirit. We have to feel and pray in our dryness for the Spirit's dew, we have to long for Him like for cool shade on a day of 45 degree heat. We have to be prepared to let the Holy Spirit groan our need in us. This is a privileged moment, we can praise Him any day of the week, but today His desire is that we ask and importune Him for this outpouring. The moment to obtain all He wants to give will soon pass. There are some things so big and so precious, that He can only give them to us if we ask. Asking makes a place in our hearts to receive. In the Gospels there are two things that Jesus especially asks us to plead for in prayer: vocations and the Holy Spirit.
 
My subsequent interpretation: When the sluice gates open, it takes a while for the dam water to reach the valley where the people live. We have to go deeper in our relationship with God if we want to become larger receptacles for His grace. Whenever we hear '40 days', don't we always think of Lent? That privileged time of our communal return to God in preparation for Easter, where we try to grow in prayer, in generosity and service, and in self-denial. They are our primary clues for going deeper. Pope Francis has particularly invited members of the Renewal to Rome to celebrate Pentecost with him. Instead of the big gathering happening at St Peter's Square, it is going to be at the Circus Maximus. Unlike St Peter's where there is really only one direction in and out, the Circus Maximus is a place where people can be sent forth from all directions. If you visit https://www.facebook.com/iccrsoffice or https://twitter.com/iccrsoffice the vibe is very strong that this coming Pentecost is momentous.
 
So how do we go deeper (apart from the traditional prayer, fasting and almsgiving)?
We have to go beyond where we feel safe and in control.
We can go deeper into listening to God with Christian meditation and Lectio Divina.
We can go deeper in our understanding of God through scripture study and reading the Catechism.
We can go deeper in prayer through time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
We can go deeper by working on reconciliation with others and coming into unity with them in love. (CCC 1445: 'Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.')
 
We can also learn a lot about going deeper by reading about what those first Duquesne students did, and doing the same.

In preparation for that retreat weekend they read the Acts of the Apostles, particularly the first 4 chapters. They also read The Cross and The Switchblade and They Spoke With Other Tongues
Every time they met together they prayed the Veni Creator Spiritus, an ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit.
Reflecting upon the Acts of the Apostles, David and Patti wanted to renew their baptismal promises, but the others weren't interested. Yet they stood their ground together and did it anyway. They were the first two God led into the upper room chapel.
They were led to pray a prayer of surrender: “Father, I give my life to you. Whatever you ask of me, I accept. And if it means suffering, I accept that too. Just teach me to follow Jesus and to love as He loves."
​
For more detail, read this inspiring account: https://www.ccrno.org/TestimonyPGM.htm
 
Because I had read 'Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire' a few months ago, I was more aware of what this 'deep calling on deep' needed to be. I highly recommend it. It is the story of a young married pastor of a church in Brooklyn, New York, a church in serious danger of closing. 'When I was at my lowest, confounded by obstacles, bewildered by the darkness that surrounded us, unable even to continue preaching, I discovered an astonishing truth: God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him. Our weakness, in fact, makes room for His power'. He told the Lord that he would rather die than merely tread water throughout his career in the ministry…always preaching the power of the Word and the Spirit, but never seeing it. In his need and acknowledgement that he was well and truly out of his depth as a pastor, God answered him with a promise: 'If you lead My people to pray and call upon My name, you will never lack'.
 
18 February is a feast day of St Bernadette. St Bernadette wrote, 'You want to pray like a saint, I invite you to pray like a beggar, like a pauper before God'. When Our Lady at Lourdes asked her to drink from the stream, first Bernadette had to dig, and to dig, and go deeper some more, until first the mud came and then the clear spring water. Inspired by her example let us go deeper and call out to the Lord until the Holy Spirit flows as torrentially as He desires to.
 
Mary, Mother of Jesus, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mother of the New Pentecost, pray for us

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This talk was given by Archbishop Christopher Prowse at Seven Hills, NSW on Saturday 18 February 2017, the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. #ccrgoldenjubilee2017
 
(As usual, this is only the edited gist of the Archbishop's talk. The content of this talk he expressly asked to be distributed far and wide.)

In this talk I want to give you a bishop's perspective on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Catholic Church and on the contributions of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) over the last 50 years.
 
Australians are a practical people. In Rome you mix with all sorts, and you get to know the qualities of various nationalities. You can depend on Germans to have precision, and upon Italians to have a party with drinks and pasta. Us colonials, being practical, bring the drinks and the glasses to drink them from.
 
In this talk I would like to make 6 points with practical application for our lives.
 
The whole Church is charismatic
When the charismatic renewal began 50 years ago, it was a wide spread explosion; a tsunami of the Holy Spirit. The whole Church is charismatic because the whole Church is animated by the Holy Spirit. We are part of the same Church begun under the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and prefigured by Mary - the one overshadowed by the Holy Spirit when she said Yes to God. Mary was the original charismatic.
 
Expand your minds. Much depends upon the hope you have that the Holy Spirit can bring light into our darkened world.
 
St Francis of Assisi and St Benedict all started movements. Their response to God started when they were lay people and developed into a religious vocation. The CCR has been mainly led by lay people, which is something distinctive about this movement. It has been a grass roots 'bottom-up' movement. These last 50 years have seen the start of many lay Catholic movements, and most of them have origins in the charismatic movement.
 
At Vatican II Pope St John XXIII prayed for a new Pentecost, and this prayer has been echoed by subsequent popes. John XXIII was very wise and had a great sense of humour. When asked how many people worked at the Vatican, he replied, 'about half'. In the documents of Vatican II the Holy Spirit is frequently mentioned.
 
We belong to the Latin Rite of the Church, but there are 27 different Rites. The Eastern Rites have a far more developed understanding of the Holy Spirit than we have. The Ukrainian Rite understands the Trinity this way: God the Father is the source of the river; God the Son is the shape and banks of the river; God the Holy Spirit is the water of the river which flows.
 
This flow of the Holy Spirit can be seen in Rublev's icon of the Trinity, based on the story of the three men who came to visit Abraham. In it there is a circular movement. Others express this dynamic flow of the Holy Spirit as a circle of a dance.

Marriage is another way to understand the Trinity, husband, wife, and the love between them. Not too long ago I went out to Temora to share in the 65th wedding anniversary celebrations of a couple – a couple still holding hands! When asked what their secret was, the answer came, 'The secret is not the me, but the we; not the mine, but the ours'.
 
Catch the wave!
 
Kerygma
Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour. That is the initial proclamation of the Gospel, our kerygma.
 
Finger wagging doesn’t make people disciples.
 
People can go through Catholic schools and all the sacraments of initiation and not come out the other side with a relationship with Jesus. A personal encounter with Jesus does not happen automatically on this 'conveyer belt'.
 
First we need to invite people to open their hearts to Jesus; everything else will follow after that crucial first step. Jesus won't come in unless He is asked, so our invitation has to include, 'You have to ask Jesus to come into your life and into your heart'.
 
It is only after people have asked Jesus in that we find that they want to know more about Him. That's why catechism has to come after kerygma. We have to give them a thirst for Jesus before we begin any kind of teaching.
 
A bishop is the kerygmatic and catechetical leader of his diocese.
 
Young people are tribal, they want to feel like they belong. Give them a chance.
 
Example vs Testimony
Hearing testimonies of the action of Jesus in people's lives has helped me a lot over the years.
 
The Catholic instinct knows that there is a difference between witness and testimony. A gothic cathedral gives witness to the faith of the people who built it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. But the cathedral cannot give testimony.
 
You can only give the answer when people ask the question. If people are not asking you the reason for the faith and hope and joy that you have, then you are not living your faith properly.
 
Catholics are not proselytizers, but we are inviters. We don't impose, but we propose. As Pope Francis said in his 5 Oct 2016 General Audience, 'The real mission is never proselytism, but rather attraction to Christ, beginning with strong union with Him in prayer, adoration and concrete works of charity, which is service to Jesus present in the least of our brothers'.
 
We take the scriptures seriously, but not literally in a fundamentalist way. We take Jesus as our model. Look at Him with the woman at the well (John 4). As a Jew He shouldn't have been talking to a Samaritan, let alone talking to a woman on her own especially one coming for water in the hottest part of the day (indicating that she was a social outsider) and asking her for a drink. Notice that He didn't start by saying, 'You should be a Jew and worship at the Temple'. He started in a non-threatening way, with easy conversation and dialogue – waiting for her to be intrigued enough to ask questions.
 
In a similar way with the man born blind (John 9), Jesus is patient. When the man is healed, he doesn't know what Jesus looks like. But when he has become hungry enough to want to know more who this Jesus is, Jesus comes quietly and introduces Himself.
 
There are good Catholic commentaries on the scriptures out there. Go looking for them.
 
Healing and Holiness
These things are not just for canonized Saints, they are universal calls and gifts.
 
Experientially in the charismatic renewal we learn what Vatican II taught, praying for healing and growing in holiness is what normal believers do.
 
Holiness is a gift from God. The closer you come to Jesus, the warmer your hearts are.
 
Here's what normal holiness looks like: In Melbourne there was a taxi driver who belonged to one of the early prayer groups. He would pray before he started work – for safety and for all the passengers of that day, and kept his taxi clean and sweet-smelling. He played gentle, uplifting background music. Around the inside of the taxi were various holy pictures. He took care to be a safe driver and a good listener. If his passenger wanted conversation he would take part. Many times he was asked why he was so happy and contented, or what this or that holy picture was all about – and that was his opening to talk about Jesus with them and sometimes to even pray with them.
 
Open to all
The charismatic renewal has been quite ecumenical and generally quite youthful. There has been a sense that everybody is welcome – especially in the early days.
 
Keep being open. Don't let your prayer groups devolve into places where anyone under age 70 isn't welcome. Be places where I can send our young people after their World Youth Day experiences, places where they can grow and be accepted and not be told verbally or non-verbally that 'we don't do things that way, and don't want to try' and they get the message that they are not wanted.
 
Mary
Mary, our model of the charismatic dimension of the Church is a great gift. The Peter dimension is hierarchical, and we need both. It is the interwoven circle and the triangle. The circle has the charisms and the gifts to share and serve; it has a Marian dimension of gentleness and motherliness. The circle softens the triangle.
 
Your deference to authority is good. Bishop Long asked me after Friday night's big Mass at the cathedral why there wasn't any sounds of the charismatic gifts. I told him, 'that's because you didn't give them the green light to go for it, they were just waiting for your signal of permission'.
 
I know you love the pope, and your bishops and priests. Keep loving them.
 
Don't get discouraged. Catholics think and work in 100 year blocks. It is a huge ship and it takes time to turn. We are not on a speedboat. The last 50 years is just a blink in time to the Church. Be patient as the Church comes to a greater understanding of the charismatic renewal and God's purpose for it.