Charismatic Renewal Still Active?

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Shakuhachi

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There used to be Charismatic renewal back in the 80’s and I liked it but have not seen it much , at least where I am living now.

How about your location?
Any Charismatic groups? or interest?
 
One church near my husband’s family home has a charismatic pastor who talked about how he went to a large arena gathering of charismatics for a major anniversary of the movement recently. It sounded like it was alive and well from his homily. I would go to a charismatic Mass once or twice, just to see, but it does not seem to be happening in the churches I attend; however, if it is filling arenas, it’s out there somewhere.

Edited to add, I just Googled and it seems like one reason I have maybe not noticed it is that they are not calling their Masses around here “Charismatic Masses” but instead are referring to them as “Monthly Healing Masses” or similar. I wonder if the word “charismatic” is offputting or not understood by people, whereas many folks would want to come to a “healing Mass” if they or a loved one was ill.
 
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I think that you are right, as I have noticed in the past that some of the healing Masses that I went to seemed to be Charismatic in nature.
 
I think i would be more interested in a Charismatic Renewal Prayer Group rather than a “Charismatic” Mass. I need to start asking around.
 
The Charismatic Renewal was in full swing in the Northeast during the 70’s.

I was part of in in 1976

Jim
 
What some may not know is that the longtime preacher of the Papal household, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, is a charismatic.

As to local involvement, the Seattle/Western Washington area has a quite active group.


The movement falls into criticism by those who often make the mistake of looking, not at the best of practitioners, but at the worst. The same applies to those who leave the Church.

God calls us to look always upward!
 
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I was heavily involved in the Charismatic Movement when it was very big in our area, late 1970s - 1980s. Since that time it has gotten much smaller in terms of participants in prayer groups. There still are a lot of healing Masses. Most people involved are older.

Why did it shrink so much? Partly because young people coming up had far less Catholic doctrinal content in their religious education, or for that matter, in parish preaching. In the Life in the Spirit Seminars of the 1970s, most people had had, and still remembered, solid catechesis on Christian Faith in general, all leaders had to do is build on that foundation. If anyone had a question about this or that charismatic aspect, you could usually point them to something they already knew about the sacraments, etc, and expand it or apply it a little.

By 1990 young adults had no foundation to build on. I don’t mean to criticize them personally, through no fault of their own, they never got the Catholic doctrinal context, in which Catholic Charismatic Renewal fit into. Some were picked up in Protestant charismatic young adult outreaches, most de emphasized religion in general. A few went into the New Age Religion.
 
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With the declines we see in church attendance (as an indicator of faith life) I think we need more “Life in the Spirit”. I think I participated in that in the 70’s. I have been more in the quiet, contemplative and conservative path most of my years. Time to see who else has interest in more around my parish.
 
In my city, all the Charismatics are Hispanics. There are several parishes that have Charismatic prayer groups among the Hispanic community. My husband is part of the largest one. It’s not very common among the English-speaking community here.

As an introvert, I have a preference for a more contemplative approach. I’ve gone to some events that my husband’s group was in charge of but he doesn’t pressure me and I normally just sit to the side.

One of the priests at our new (English-speaking) parish seems to be a great combination of Charismatic-contemplative. My husband was really drawn to his intensity and I was drawn to his thought-provoking homilies and meditative reverence at the Consecration. I know that priest does some more Charismatic type events, but I think it’s mostly geared toward the youth.
 
You can look for a prayer meeting, if there’s one in your parish or nearby parishes. Check out their time and day of gathering. You can just drop in, you don’t have to be a member. Observe their meeting, what they do and if your are interested, talk to any of their ‘core leaders’.
 
AIPM1615 said:
Thankfully, the so-called “renewal” is finally dying off. Most young people want nothing to do with the “charismatic” nonsense. They see it for what it is - a big sham.
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The fact that something is not perfect does not make it bad. I knew a few prayer groups that had issues, but I also knew lots of parochial schools, convents, media ministries, etc that had issues, much worse. That is a result of original sin, and also the larger problems in the Church in recent decades.

The Renewal reaffirmed prayer at a time when it seemed most of the Church was only interested in peace and justice and psychology. A prayer group book table put me in touch with C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton, who I never heard about in my parish or Catholic school or college. The Renewal emphasized the supernatural aspect of Christianity, at a time when it was mostly forgotten in many places.

Many former prayer group people are in Prolife and in a very Catholic Mission in the inner city. It was a step, sometimes the first big step, on the road to permanent diaconate for some. Yes there are fewer people in this, but also fewer people in many other good Catholic things.
That does not make it any less good for a person to get involved in the Renewal now.
 
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Look like some petty rivalry nonsense coming out of the closet and it is pretty ugly.

Unfortunately this phenomenon is often the make up of a parish where there are needlessly infighting rather than finding actual personal peace and holiness.
 
I also am an introvert and at that time, now nearly 40 years ago, I tried to be open to The Spirit as I saw others speaking in tongues and getting very emotionally involved in prayer. Nothing extraordinary occurred with me.

But as I said earlier, I am tired of the quiet, dark, contemplative path.

I was just looking in my journal and I saw my entries from 2014. Even then asking for the Holy Spirit to come upon me in a powerful way. How could God not want that and give that to one who is asking in the name of Jesus? I cannot deny that through the years of my life God has spoken to me, moved me, called me and I powered me. But it has been so subtle, so sober. I am hungry for electricity, more juice.
 
A big sham? Nonsense? Are you Catholic? Christian? Do you believe there even is a Holy Spirit?
 
AIPM1615 said:
They see it for what it is - a big sham.
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What, exactly, is the nature of the “sham”? Who is shamming, and what is their motivation? Is it money? Do the organizers of charismatic groups earn a lot of money that way?

The kind of thing the charismatics do – the shouting and the arm-waving and the rest of it – has never had any appeal to me. My wife and I went to a series of talks (ten, I think) by a Charismatic spokesman in what was then our local parish church, but that was back in the nineties. My wife has a sister who was very much involved with the Charismatics, and my wife herself also used to go to their prayer meetings, which I never did, except for that one series of talks. But this is the first I’ve heard of any allegations of fraudulent behavior of any kind. Could you please give more specific information?
 
That is right. Here it goes the other way, the charismatics vocally and publicly demean the rest of us who those things don’t appeal to. I make no claim either way.
 
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