A few weeks ago, my Life Teen group had a Life in the Spirit retreat, and we prayed over the teens for baptism in the Holy Spirit. Most of them rested in the Holy Spirit, mostly at the time of the prayer, but one boy was kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament and 15-20 min later, he fell as hard as he could have right on his face.
There was not a mark on the boy.
It seems to me that God protects this sort of thing (although it is very prudent to have catchers, which we did, at the prayer stations).
This sort of thing should not be happening in a Catholic Church at all. Their is no histroy of it in the no Church, ever. The early Christians were not “slain in the Spirit” ever. It never happened to any of the saints. It is simply not part of our Catholic faith. The only time saints had any kind of mystical experience it was a SOBER innebriation, nothing like the almost cultic and overly emotional services of Charismatics. Furthermore, the saints only achieved a mystical experience when they achieved a level of incredible sanctity; something most of us, unfortunatley, will never reach. There was none of this falling on the ground and crying nonsense.
The idea of being “slain in the spirit” actually did not come from the Catholic Church. Rather it finds its roots in the Shakers of the 1800s and the Pentacostal movement of the Early 1900s. Both are sources that cannot be attributed to God. In fact, the Pentacostals of the early 1900s where not even Christians. Because of their rejection of the Trinity and acceptance of Modalism (the idea that the Father, the Son, and athe Holy Spirit are all the same person), they did not baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit as Christ commanded. Rather, the Pentacostal baptism of this movement was in the name of “Jesus only”. By ignoring the proper form of baptism their baptisms were rendered null and void, deprived of grace. For this reason they are not born again Christians, but still living in a state of Original Sin. Thus, they are not even Christians.
We should not be endorsing cultic practices that come from non-Christian sources.
A note on baptism in the Holy Spirit. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a separate rite in the Church because we already have two sacraments that fullfill this. The first is baptism. In baptism we are born again of “water and the Holy Spirit” (John) and thus recieve the Holy Spirit into our souls. In fact we are indewlt by the Holy Trinity. For this reason the Gospels place Christian baptism and pre-Christian baptism in opposition to one another. As St. John the Baptist states, “I Baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire.” The second sacrament that qualifies as Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the Sacrament of Confirmation or chrismation. In the Acts of the Apostles whenever any of the Apostles laid hands on a person that person would recieve the fullness of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Today, when a Bishop annoints a believer with holy Chrism, laying hands on him he says, “Recieve the Gift of the Holy Spirit”, the believer recieves the fullness of all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The is called Confirmation.
Since the Catholic Church already has two sacraments through wich the Christian recieves the Holy Spirt and all of His gifts and the scriptures refer to these Sacraments as Baptism in the Holy Spirit, why do Charismatics feel it necessary to establish a second rite in the Church also called Baptism in the Holy Spirit? Are the sacraments not good enough?
On a personal note: I grew up in the Charismatic movement, and it was through this movement that I fisrt learned about the love of Jesus Christ. Thank God for that. But I also learned that this movement is dangerous. It draws people into an emotional faith, rather than a solid relationship with Jesus Christ that can stand the test of time. When the emtions are gone, what have we left? In the Charismatic movement, the answer is nothing. As a Traditional Catholic, we still have the objective gift of faith infused in our souls at baptism and the grace of the Holy Spirit whether we feel it or not.
