Can a person learn to speak in tongues?

[benjammin]

I always thought that it was a gift that was from God,not something you could develop? However a friend of mine gave me a catholic pamphlet that says everyone has their own prayer tongue and can do it. Also, is it true that if you pray the devil can twist and distort your prayers and that if you pray in tongues this doesn’t happen

 

[jmjconder]

I always thought that it was a gift that was from God,not something you could develop? However a friend of mine gave me a catholic pamphlet that says everyone has their own prayer tongue and can do it. Also, is it true that if you pray the devil can twist and distort your prayers and that if you pray in tongues this doesn’t happen

I will be interested in the answers you receive on this question. I have many people in my life that “speak in tongues” and I often wonder about it all. I know it is one of the gifts of the spirits - however when I am in the presence of this I often wonder if I could do the same without an anointing of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Trishie]

No you can’t learn tongues.
And what your friend says isn’t necessarily so. People can deceive themselves or be deceived regarding tongues.

Certainly, we can be content that " In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, since we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us…" Romans 8:26

Jm, because I’m not inclined to be involved in the charismatic movement, I do not tend to share that I have ‘tongues’. In a way I find it embarrassing. I tried a charismatic prayer group briefly but wasn’t too sure of the veracity of what some people claimed…some yes, some not…they can get very ‘pious’ and emotional, some of them. I use it only privately and carefully, trusting it to God.

I didn’t seek it. My sister, unknown to me, prayed with her prayer group that I would receive it. Suddenly, living over a thousand miles away I had this language! Puzzled I spoke of it to her in a phone-call. She was excited, asked when, I said, she verified the time. I have always regarded myself as primarily Eucharistic with no need for such things. I can begin and end it but can’t change the words/sound. You speak it, you hear it, and all you can do is trust God. Praying privately before the Tabernacle, a deep experience, and even tears…At the end of a prayer I notice, the same phrases, sounds, praise I think. I usually only pray thus when alone before the Tabernacle. I even had songs of praise with quite beautiful music that came with them. So go figure!

I’m basically practical, so all I can say is well, that’s what happened.

 

[SaintPatrick333]

I know many people swear by this whole tongues thing and I admit I’m totally ignorant of the whole ordeal so maybe I am biased out of ignorance but I just don’t feel comfortable with the whole thing. I know “I” don’t have to take part in it personally, but the thought of it slowly becoming more and more widespread throughout the Church because of the Charismatic movement makes me fear for the Charismatic movement. I wish we’d just bring back the TLM in force and get back to our Catholic roots. Too much of what I hear and read about involving the Charismatic movement just sounds like protestant spirituality with a catholic twist. And I don’t like the thought of that becoming ingrained in younger generations of Catholics. I fear what the Church may look like in a hundred years from now.

 

[Trishie]

I think you’ll find it has diminished rather than spread, and in fact traditionalism seems to have taken hold and notably also amongst young people.
Remember that Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, so do not fear for the Church though we must continue to work, witness, and pray as good Sacramental Catholics.

What I would promote and what is most meaningful spiritual focus for me is the Sacraments and a sacramental life and in living the commandments of love.…I’m just illuminating the fact that it (the gifts of the Spirit including tongues) is a matter that goes back to the early Church. I know the arguments pro and against but don’t have any wish to engage. God will lead and draw each of us to Him according to His divine will. And God will witness through each of us according to His divine will, in whatever way He chooses. We trust in His mercy and His leading.

Actually the charisms are traditional in that their origins are found in the Bible, the New testament, and in the early Church!

In the early Church…
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance." Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 4

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit."1 Corinthians 14 verses 1-2

1Corinthians 14:22 describes tongues as a “sign to unbelievers.”

1**" Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. …

**4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines." 1 Corinthians 12 verses1, 4-11**

Saint Paul also wrote:
**If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but do not have LOVE,
I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but have not LOVE,
I am nothing.1 Corinthians 13:1-2

 

[osita4krist]

I think you’ll find it has diminished rather than spread, and in fact traditionalism seems to have taken hold and notably also amongst young people.
Remember that Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, so do not fear for the Church though we must continue to work, witness, and pray as good Sacramental Catholics.

What I would promote and what is most meaningful spiritual focus for me is the Sacraments and a sacramental life and in living the commandments of love.…I’m just illuminating the fact that it (the gifts of the Spirit including tongues) is a matter that goes back to the early Church. I know the arguments pro and against but don’t have any wish to engage. God will lead and draw each of us to Him according to His divine will. And God will witness through each of us according to His divine will, in whatever way He chooses. We trust in His mercy and His leading.

Actually the charisms are traditional in that their origins are found in the Bible, the New testament, and in the early Church!

In the early Church…
"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance." Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 verse 4

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit."1 Corinthians 14 verses 1-2

1Corinthians 14:22 describes tongues as a “sign to unbelievers.”

1**" Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. …

**4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines." 1 Corinthians 12 verses1, 4-11****

Saint Paul also wrote:
**If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but do not have LOVE,
I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but have not LOVE,
I am nothing.**1 Corinthians 13:1-2

Well Answered I don’t think this is your own wisdom it is divine. For we cannot understand the way of GOD. Even the Apostles Of JESUS who ate and drank with the Master could not understand these foolishness as it were before Man, But in our own Wisdom we are rendered foolish before THE IFINITE WISDOM!
For many of us who still posit that ‘until we understand it we don’t believe it’ I ask how many of the things or ways of GOD can we clearly explain without reverting to the scriptures which in itself is not written in plain languages. JESUS Originated Tongues, benevolently and freely gave it to the church as He promised. If we lack understanding lets study HIS word.

 

[benjammin]

Thanks for the answers. I guess I just don’t know what to think. I’ve never been against people who have this gift or the charismatic movement, but I always thought tongues was a gift from God and you either had it or you did it, and it seems like most charismatic Catholics have said the same and that we all have different gifts.

BTW, I found the pamphlet. It says it is by a Msgr. Vincent M. Walsh, J.C.D and it’s called Praying in tongues a Catholic Explenation. Maybe I was just explained this wrong by my friend. She’s a fairly new catholic (she’s only a few years older than me and was recieved into the church during her freshman year of college) and thought she has become very knowledgeable, she sometimes doesn’t know everything because she hasn’t had the background with it and I’m worried that this has happened with her