Do you know people who pray in tongues?

[TheLittleLady]

That is the only sort of “tongues” that Scripture speaks of.

When the Apostles preached and every man heard it in his own language (some say it should be called the “gift of ears”).

It is the “gibberish” that is non-Scriptural.

Those who practice the “babble” sort of speaking/prayer are usually very earnest, sincere in their faith. They have simply fallen into a very widespread protestant error.

 

[starlady]

Speaking in tongues is a gift of evangelisation, not a form of prayer.
The reason people think it does something is because they get worked up into a frenzy by the group they are in.
I ask, how is it meant to benefit someone’s relationship with God if they don’t know what they are saying? The whole idea makes no sense.

I don’t know. My husband did it, just a simple phrase, while peacefully praying the Rosary with myself and my family. I don’t think he was “worked up” by anyone.

I suspect I heard it the other day too, when we were praying the Rosary together, meditating pretty deeply. It was sort of under his breath, so I could have heard wrong, but it didn’t sound like English or Spanish (we were praying in Spanish).

My husband had always humbled himself and never claimed any credit for anything he has done in and for the Church, saying instead that he only goes where the Holy Spirit calls him.

Again, believe what you will, but I can’t imagine and don’t believe that my husband, a truly Catholic man who strongly believes and follows the Catholic faith, was overcome by the evil one or some spirit of Protestantism in these moments. These two moments were private moments and were not in the midst of any gathering. I don’t understand it either, but I don’t fear it.

 

[whyeyeman]

You aren’t necessarily “overcome by the evil one”. It’s just a bunch of random sounds. If I or an atheist were to make a bunch of random sounds it would sound exactly like someone praying in tongues.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Flashes from the restaurant scene in “Love Actually”.

 

[Reuben_J]

Scripture? Why we getting Sola Scriptural trying to rebut ‘tongue’?

 

[TheLittleLady]

Happened in book of Acts, does not happen in a Catholic setting again until 1967 at Notre Dame. Not one dot of ink is spilled about this phenomena for 1930 ish years…Sola is all we got!

 

[Reuben_J]

Interesting.

I was shown that there were evidence that some saints did pray in tongue. Not that I want to argue it here because the phenomenon is approved by the Church.

I think Pope Francis prays in tongue.

 

[adgloriam]

Well, Santo António de Lisboa [some call him Saint Anthony of Padua] still has the fastest canonization of all time, and one reason might be that one day while preaching he “spoke in tongues” before the pope, several cardinals and a cathedral full of religious and lay.

 

[Kaliaa]

Deacon Jeff mentioned Father Raniero Cantalemessa in an earlier post when someone asked for the name of charismatics who have been “vetted” by the Vatican. There was no response to his message but Fr. Cantalemessa is and has been the Preacher to the Papal Household for almost 40 years. This covers the tenure of three Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Fr. Cantalemessa is also a well-known Charismatic.

 

[adgloriam]

And, God willing, I’ll be in a conference with Fr.Cantalamessa next month

 

[adgloriam]

…And perhaps from “The mission”? Or more recently “Silence”? I apreciate the reference

 

[newcalling]

I pray in tongues. I don’t choose to do it, but I don’t choose not to do it either; when it happens, I let it happen. When I pray, I seek a connection with God, which the Jewish community calls “Davening” (various spellings.) When in that state of communion with God, sometimes tongues come out. I think of it as God knowing what I need to pray for. Whether it’s the Holy Spirit speaking a language through me, or God just taking over so much that my speech is muttered; I can’t say for sure. I’d like to believe it’s the former. I know that either way it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that God knows my prayers before I even speak them.

 

[thistle]

No, I will not give you names.

I knew that would be your response because there are none.

 

[adgloriam]

Hey @Reuben_J I speak about 4 languages fluently and can understand at least another 4…

So I can understand what you are saying on various levels hahaha

What you do is something that came naturally to me, I wouldn’t call it Xenoglossia/Glossolalia because that is also reducing in a sense…Do I have a gift? What defines a gift?.. Do I consider it, whatever it is, God given? Yes!..Nothing extraordinary really [and yet, a privilege both permanent and extraordinary, isn’t it?] I just moved about during my life and was exposed to several languages and good teachers.

Now, do I “play around” and “experiment” with languages normally? Yes, everyday I’m mentally exercising myself…I remember language classes where I was relating morphological structures and etymology across three or four languages simultaneously and when I spoke about it both teachers and classmates were outraged and ordered me to shut up…Only much much latter did I discover linguistics and understood that I was actually quite right and inducing linguistic laws from experience.

Now, what you describe should be seen in the following light (here you need to exert your understanding): Interview a practitioner of Judo, Wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu. Ask them exactly what they felt during the first classes…They will answer:“I felt a profound change in my innermost self like I had never felt in my life”. Ok, why do they describe this, or what are they describing? The moment you stop standing and go into “Ne Waza” ground technique you start not only to use intensively muscle groups you never used, but also areas of you neurology: intense psychomotor like you had never experienced.

The same applies to the linguistic phenomenon you describe. How? You free yourself! Any language is also a set of limitations and rules. The moment you start speaking freely using phonetics (grapheme/morpheme) freely you use psychomotor and entire areas of your neurology you might never use in your native tongue. [Any daily activity can be blessed, sanctified, making Holy something that by it’s nature is not apriori Holy]. And so is this exercise if dedicated to praising the Lord. Simply for being alive, to act, to express, rapture…Gloria.

 

[starlady]

Even so, if this happens spontaneously to someone devoutly praying, so you think it to be such a bad thing?

I don’t understand it either, but I’m not about to judge the authenticity of someone’s spiritual experience. The Church may, but I certainly won’t.

 

[Reuben_J]

Hey there Adgloriam. How is your Katame and Kansetsu Waza?

Praise the Lord. For one who surrenders to the Holy Spirit. Yes, it may make a fool of yourself (to pray in tongue) but if you are a fool, at least it is a fool for the Lord. More importantly it keeps you (your spirit) alive, for the Lord is alive. You are alive in your faith. That can give you the strength to be obedient to the move of the Holy Spirit in yor life; you go where others would not dare to tread.

God bless.

 

[guanophore]

But people never speak in tongues as a spontaneous work of the spirit. They always plan ahead, as it were, and go to prayer groups and churches to do it.

This is not true. While many of us do look forward to meetings where the gifts are active, the gifts function when they are most needed. I find myself experiencing this gift at times when I am close to demons, when something difficult is before me, and especially during consecration and after communion.

How could anyone suggest that Cornelius “'planned ahead” for this manifestation? No, on the contrary, one has an open heart and mind, and is disposed to receive the "wind’ of the HS.

This is not how the holy spirit works.

I agree that the HS is a God of order, and does not brook chaos.

John 3:8 - The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

I think this is a support for the fact that the work of the HS is indeed spontaneous at times. Those who are not able/willing to have an open heart and be able to enter spontaneousness limit themselves spiritually. This is why St. Teresa wrote about many mansions. Some cannot arrive at complete openness able to enter a spontaneous state, but can enter other stories of the mansion.

If what St Paul meant by speaking in tongues is what charismatics interpret to mean, then it is not something you can do by an act of the will. It will come spontaneously by the holy spirit.

Both things are true. God does not work in and through us without our consent, so while He is always willing and able, we must choose to enter the exercise of His gifts. God does not take over or abrogate our free will.

There is no such thing as “satanic” or “demon” tongues – it’s all the same thing produced the exact same way.

On the contrary, there is a manifestation of demonic tongues. Any study of exorcism will demonstrate this.

I think maybe you should focus on debunking Fr. Cantlalamessa too!

https://www.ewtn.com/library/spirit/zfrcantchar.htm

there are no reported true cases of xenoglossy.

It seems your research has been quite limited.

 

[guanophore]

These early descriptions however all seem to point to what we today know as glossolalia.

I agree. It seems like some of the Saints and Doctors of the Church need some editorial comment to keep the faithful from going astray!

I didn’t write the original – in Corinthians, Paul wrote “moreover, concerning spiritual things/matters” I can see why it was translated to ‘gifts’, but unfortunately this translation has led to a slew of false assumptions.

Perhaps you should address the findings of your research to the editorial board of the CCC? Or the Vatican? Or both? Perhaps this “unfortunate translation” can be corrected?

Therefore, “praying in the Spirit” should be understood as praying in the power of the Spirit, by the leading of the Spirit, and according to His will.

Exactly. Which is why, when we don’t know how to pray as we ougth (in conformity with His Will) the Spirit intercedes for us in our weakness!

You will never use a phoneme (sound) in your glossolalia that does not exist in your native language or any other language you have been exposed to. So, a monoglot English speaker who has never been exposed to any other language will never exhibit glossolalia containing say the Welsh ‘ll’, or the Zulu ‘hl’ or ‘dl’, or even the German ‘ö’.

I am relieved that this is not true!

It certainly is for me! I have trouble meditating at all while trying to follow a logical sequence, like Rosary beads. For me, the sides of my brain don’t work together that way. I can pray the Rosary as a discipline (without being able to meditate) or I can meditate on the mysteries and lose track of the Rosary itself.

When I pray in tongues, my mind is unfruitful. That is why it is so restful!

I had trouble getting on. I got the message that my computer was too old.

Please use my e-mail address grannymh@ureach if I disappear.

This new format was designed for kids with mobile devices. Us old timers have been relegated now.

 

[guanophore]

Speaking in tongues is a gift of evangelisation, not a form of prayer.

Yes. We see this form of prayer in Acts on Pentecost, and as Paul writes when the Church meets.

But there are many forms of tongues, and this is only one of them.

The reason people think it does something is because they get worked up into a frenzy by the group they are in.

I am glad this is not true. Many of us that use tongues privately never get “worked up into a frenzy”. Some of the most beautiful, calm, and harmonic tongues I have ever heard are during Eucharistic Adoration, which of course, is never “frenzied”.

I ask, how is it meant to benefit someone’s relationship with God if they don’t know what they are saying? The whole idea makes no sense.

I agree with you! It is one of those spiritual mysteries, like transubtantiation, that just defies logic. The inner experience of connection with the Holy Spirit transcends logic. It is not an experience that was ever intended to “make sense”. How did what happened to the house of Cornelius “make sense”?

Because nobody did it for the first 1900 years of the church. Forgive me for being skeptical of this Protestant innovation.

I think you need to believe this, in order to discount this experience as having validity coming from God.

Because nobody did it for the first 1900 years of the church. Forgive me for being skeptical of this Protestant innovation.

Wow. You really ARE skeptical!

Any examples?

None that would be convincing in the presence of such a level of skepticism. I am sure whatever people might experience subjectively could be debunked by your “not logical” position.

Why do you assume “tongues” is something other than real language(s)?

I don’t. I am just aware it is not a language with which I am familiar. God is outside of the time/space continuum, so they may be dead languages, for all I know!

They have simply fallen into a very widespread protestant error.

I see you have your mind quite made up.

It’s just a bunch of random sounds. If I or an atheist were to make a bunch of random sounds it would sound exactly like someone praying in tongues.

The difference would be that charismatic gifts result in fruit of the Spirit.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Ever done it yourself?