How do Catholics experience the Holy Spirit?

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Abira

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This may sound like a silly question :)… but when I was growing u I got taken to quite a few praise festivals and saw things there that I have never seen anywhere else…except on some tv channels 🙂

Do Catholics experience the holy spirit…do they speak in tongues or faint? I’ve only ever heard or seen this in evangelical or pentecostal situations.

How do you feel about the whole tongues/fainting thing? Do Catholics feel ‘close’ or in touch with this aspect of the trinity?

Take care x
 
This may sound like a silly question :)… but when I was growing u I got taken to quite a few praise festivals and saw things there that I have never seen anywhere else…except on some tv channels 🙂

Do Catholics experience the holy spirit…do they speak in tongues or faint? I’ve only ever heard or seen this in evangelical or pentecostal situations.

How do you feel about the whole tongues/fainting thing? Do Catholics feel ‘close’ or in touch with this aspect of the trinity?

Take care x
 
yes, we all believe in the Trinity. Many also believe in the gift of praying in tounge, healing, etc…Others also think this gift has been ceased.

In Catholic, we also have a sacrament called “confirmation”.

If you search on “praying tongue”, you will find many results.
 
We experience the Holy Spirit every time we come across the Sacraments!!! Sometimes daily in the Eucharist.

If you’re talking about the Charism’s of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and such, their are Charismatic movements in the Church throughout the world that would remind you of these church services you mentioned.

My problem with this type of worship is that some people think they can call on the Holy Spirit at their convenience. The Holy Spirit blesses us with these Charisms at His Will, not ours.
 
i suppose a wider idea here is that these people feel a direct connection…whereas I always used to feel that Catholics were seperated from God by other people, or rituals…

do you feel a personal connection even without having these kinds of personal experiences?
 
Abira said:
This may sound like a silly question :)… but when I was growing u I got taken to quite a few praise festivals and saw things there that I have never seen anywhere else…except on some tv channels 🙂

Do Catholics experience the holy spirit…do they speak in tongues or faint? I’ve only ever heard or seen this in evangelical or pentecostal situations.

How do you feel about the whole tongues/fainting thing? Do Catholics feel ‘close’ or in touch with this aspect of the trinity?

Take care x
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Catholics received the Holy Spirit during their baptism and their first confirmation.

Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we receive the Holy Spirit to make us strong Christian soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Confirmation brings an increase in the grace given at Baptism. It makes an indelible spiritual mark, which is characterized by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Confirmation also strengthens the Christian so he or she can profess their faith openly.

Confirmation makes someone a full member of the Catholic Church.

There is no receiving of tongues, or faints. There is a sense peace once one received the Holy Spirit.
 
Abira said:
do you feel a personal connection even without having these kinds of personal experiences?
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Amen and AMEN!!!

More personal than you can ever imagine! I experience Jesus: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, nearly every day at daily Mass. My day is not complete without spending some time at Mass.

Do I feel that I am filled with the Holy Spirit while this is going on? Ohhhhhhhh Yes!!!
 
Abira said:
do you feel a personal connection even without having these kinds of personal experiences?
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Keep in mind, that these gifts, what we call Charisms, are not gifts that bless the individual that is gifted with them. They are meant to share with others. The Church teaches that the priesthood is a Charism. The priest does not gain in Graces when he consecrates the Bread and Wine for Communion, nor when he baptizes someone, nor when he cleanses us of our sins in Confession. The Graces bestowed are on the recipients of the Eucharist, the Baptized, and those that are forgiven in Confession.

The same goes for those who are faith-healers and Tongue-speakers (?).
 
Abira;1765663]i suppose a wider idea here is that these people feel a direct connection…whereas I always used to feel that Catholics were seperated from God by other people, or rituals…

do you feel a personal connection even without having these kinds of personal experiences?
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The Catholic Church has, since its birth in the upper room, always stressed that our purpose in life is to develope the most intimate relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior as possible. toward that end He made it possible for us to partake of His flesh and blood in a real way so that, in so doing, we actually become one with Him.
to ask if we can feel a personal connection without having personal experiences is to show how much you misunderstand the Sacraments. You cannot, in any way you can imagine, get more personal than to actually have God enter into your very flesh! Even the marital act where a man enters his wife and the two become one, with all the intimancy that that brings to mind, is but a dim shadowy image of what and just how personal Holy Communion is!
 
rciadan said:
The Catholic Church has, since its birth in the upper room, always stressed that our purpose in life is to develope the most intimate relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior as possible. toward that end He made it possible for us to partake of His flesh and blood in a real way so that, in so doing, we actually become one with Him.
to ask if we can feel a personal connection without having personal experiences is to show how much you misunderstand the Sacraments. You cannot, in any way you can imagine, get more personal than to actually have God enter into your very flesh! Even the marital act where a man enters his wife and the two become one, with all the intimancy that that brings to mind, is but a dim shadowy image of what and just how personal Holy Communion is!
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Listen to John Martignoni’s “Marriage and the Eucharist” which you can download from this site:

Although, looking at your post, I have the feeling you already have.
 
NotWorthy said:
My problem with this type of worship is that some people think they can call on the Holy Spirit at their convenience. The Holy Spirit blesses us with these Charisms at His Will, not ours.
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May I share my spiritual experience with you?

1st I truly believe I can call on the Holy Spirit at my convenience, NW I pray, my prayers are answered sometimes the way I like sometimes not. I can honestly tell you I see the Holy Spirit working in me daily.
One evening after some intense scripture study, I fell asleep early and my beloved Jessica was reading next to me and said that my spirit prayed in the form of tongues for over 5 minutes,then ended with the most clear in english praise to our heavenly Father, this experience moved her beyond belief.

It was only the 2nd time I recieved tongues but it tells me that the HS does most certainly dwell within me and if ask in His name I will receive, like I said it may not always be to our liking but all prayers are answered.

He is worthy to be sought!!!
Simon
 
Hello,We do recieve the Holy Spirit at Confimation(the sacramental bestowing of the Holy Spirit).Please refer to the CCC.799,800,801,and 2003.You may be interested in the folloging web site(Disese of Rockford,Il.)www.dpsrfd.org:) May the Lord be with you.
 
myfavoritmartin said:
May I share my spiritual experience with you?

1st I truly believe I can call on the Holy Spirit at my convenience, NW I pray, my prayers are answered sometimes the way I like sometimes not. I can honestly tell you I see the Holy Spirit working in me daily.
One evening after some intense scripture study, I fell asleep early and my beloved Jessica was reading next to me and said that my spirit prayed in the form of tongues for over 5 minutes,then ended with the most clear in english praise to our heavenly Father, this experience moved her beyond belief.

It was only the 2nd time I recieved tongues but it tells me that the HS does most certainly dwell within me and if ask in His name I will receive, like I said it may not always be to our liking but all prayers are answered.

He is worthy to be sought!!!
Simon
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You tell this to a Fundamentalist Baptist and to many other Protestant Christians and they will tell you that was not the Holy Spirit. In fact, they will tell you that you are not really saved. Speaking in tongues, they say, ended with the completion of the Bible. Any supernatural experience like the one you’ve just described is, they argue, of the devil.

God Bless,
Michael
 
NotWorthy said:
Listen to John Martignoni’s “Marriage and the Eucharist” which you can download from this site:

Although, looking at your post, I have the feeling you already have.
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Actually, I never heard of him. I will check it ou though. Thanks!

HAPPY MEW YEAR, EVERONE!
 
myfavoritmartin said:
May I share my spiritual experience with you?

1st I truly believe I can call on the Holy Spirit at my convenience, NW I pray, my prayers are answered sometimes the way I like sometimes not. I can honestly tell you I see the Holy Spirit working in me daily.
One evening after some intense scripture study, I fell asleep early and my beloved Jessica was reading next to me and said that my spirit prayed in the form of tongues for over 5 minutes,then ended with the most clear in english praise to our heavenly Father, this experience moved her beyond belief.

It was only the 2nd time I recieved tongues but it tells me that the HS does most certainly dwell within me and if ask in His name I will receive, like I said it may not always be to our liking but all prayers are answered.

He is worthy to be sought!!!
Simon
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Yes, the Holy Spirit may have visited you like this, but to say you can call on the Holy Spirit at your whim is stretching it a little. The Holy Spirit will come and visit you when He deems it necessary, not you.

As Catholics teach, the Holy Spirit does dwell within each of us at Baptism and when we are in a state of Sanctified Grace.
 
I participated in the “New Life in the Spirit” charismatic Catholic experience through my Parish this past Spring. It was a 7 week program that included weekly meetings focused on singing and informal, spontaneous prayer; fellowship and home Scripture study. It culminated in a beautiful Mass where we received an anointing with oil and were prayed over with the laying on of hands. I was the first one in line and really had no expectations. I experienced the charism of the Spirit known as being “slain in the spirit”. There were about 60 people in attendance and more than half received this gift. It was quite comical as the young priest had to keep changing locations to accommodate those approaching the altar who were blocked by those who had “rested in the spirit”.
 
There is a short article on the “Catholic Charismatic Renewal” at wikipedia.com. It began in 1967 at Duquesne University when several faculty members and students experienced the so-called “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” By 2003, worldwide, there were about 119 million members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. If that figure is accurate, that would seem to indicate that roughly 10% of all Catholics “speak in tongues” or manifest other extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.
 
Each time I am called upon to defend the faith, when I go visit pastors and people from other Churches, I experience this.

Since Jesus promises to always give us the answer when we trust in Him in defending the Christian faith.

As a Catholic then I can always trust in the Holy Spirit to give me the right response, when I am talking to someone attacking the faith.

This always works and I have talked to pastors from Calvary Chapel, Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc…
I have always been able to rely on the Holy Spirit to defend the faith, since I started doing this.

Now about the tongues, I have been to Pentecostal services at my brothers church and it didn’t sound like any real language to me, more just like repetative babbling.
I would hesistate to trust in tongues unless someone was there to interpret the words and it actually was a real language.

“Hadda madda fadda” over and over again is as far as I know nonsense.
I have heard that demons do allow for possession of people to speak in tongues to blaspheme God in other languages if no-one is there to interpret. (but that is just what I have heard)
Anyone else hear that?

In Christ
Scylla
 
Abira said:
This may sound like a silly question :)… but when I was growing u I got taken to quite a few praise festivals and saw things there that I have never seen anywhere else…except on some tv channels 🙂

Do Catholics experience the holy spirit…do they speak in tongues or faint? I’ve only ever heard or seen this in evangelical or pentecostal situations.

How do you feel about the whole tongues/fainting thing? Do Catholics feel ‘close’ or in touch with this aspect of the trinity?

Take care x
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Abira,
The Catholic tend to view the reception of the Holy Spirit as a very personal experience. A joyous and deep feeling, yet nonetheless solemn and very deeply personal. We receive Christ himself (body, blood, soul, and divinity) in the Eucharist at least once a week, usually more for most of us. We feel the HS in many ways, not just in the speaking in tongues thing as you describe, although we do that too at times.

Protestants tend to view Catholics as not inspired or filled with the HS because we do treat it as a wholly (and holy) personal experience. I think it is funny that we are viewed this way at times because I have so totally felt the HS in some very private personal ways that Protestants will never understand such as after a very complete and honest confession.

The day my divorce was final for instance… I went to reconcilliation and as I waited to see my confessor I was filled with rage… I have never been so angry in all my life, this wasn’t supposed to happen to me! As soon as I confessed, all that anger disappeared and the most wonderful feeling filled me, I was happy for the first time in years, my spirit was filled with his… it was an absolute and beautiful filling of the spirit within me… for years the only person I told about this was a religious friend of mine (a nun). She just smiled that knowing smile…

Truthfully, most non-Catholics don’t understand the joy of truly giving it all over to God and letting him fill up your emptiness with the HS! They tend to sneer at the thought of confessing to a “man” but we confess to a priest acting “in persona Christe” which is just like sitting there with Christ as your best friend and telling him your hurts and feeling him touch your heart and heal it.
 
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