In my experience within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal the emphasis hasn’t been so much on certain expressions or gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so much as on personal encounter and experience of God. In other words, the primary focus has been on personal relationship with God (i.e. encountering God as a Trinity of Persons) in the depths of one’s heart. The gifts of the Holy Spirit, whether “charismatic” or otherwise, flow from this personal relationship and are secondary to it. Gifts such as tongues, prophecy, interpretation of tongues, etc., are not always granted and are usually considered to be the lesser gifts (at least by those in the Renewal who are knowledgable of the Scriptures, particularly the writings of St. Paul).
The reason you don’t see so much of this in the Eastern Churches (although the Charismatic Renewal is there, even among some Orthodox) is because there has always been a strong emphasis on personal encounter and relationship with God in our spiritual tradition. Although academic theology does certainly exist in the East, it is not given as prominent a role in the East as in the West. Instead the most respected theologians of the East are those whose lives have been transformed, transfigured, and set afire by God through the struggle of prayer and asceticism. Among Eastern Christians there is almost a fear of those who have academic “head-knowledge” of God, but do not have the experience of God. A theologian whose life has not been transformed by personal encounter with God is considered spiritually dangerous.
In the lives of the Eastern saints (and even some monastics living today) you will see strong expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - even the Charismatic gifts. Saints,
because of their relationship with God, are often given the gift of clairvoyance, or prophecy, or tongues, or discernment of spirits. Others are given the ability to teach with great clarity and precision. Some were great organizers of monasticism. Others were best at caring for the sick. And yes, some were even visibly transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But long story short, I believe the reason the Renewal isn’t as strong in the East as it is in the West is because the East has always had that emphasis on personal encounter with God, whereas the West, at least for a time, was more focused on scholastic theology and not so much on “mystical” theology. Scholastic theology isn’t bad. It just needs to be balanced out by mysticism. Obviously the great champions of scholasticism - Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure - were also great mystics.
I’d be very surprised to find that you got out of a Greek Orthodox Divine Liturgy within less than an hour!
