Thank you Edwin. Thank you for the wonderful story of how God Blesses you through your simple life. Once again, some of your advice has made it into my journal. Well, off I go to read again, Romans 14.
I do agree with you to an extent, that we Catholics can sometimes lack that relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is why I encourage people to look into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, so that they can experience the Holy Spirit’s power, and God’s love in a new and “real” way.
, and some other things.
That’s OK. It is not for me to convince you. Only God can do that, in his time. As long as you are open to him to change you (careful not to let prejudice get in the way!), I’m happy.
Nope! Thank God that’s not a Catholic belief!
Hi TTM,I do agree with you to an extent, that we Catholics can sometimes lack that relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is why I encourage people to look into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, so that they can experience the Holy Spirit’s power, and God’s love in a new and “real” way.
However, you must understand that the Holy Spirit works in each and every one of us, regardless of the kind of manifestations of his gifts that you seem to speak of. Remember that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are just that: gifts. Essentially, we do not need them for salvation, but it does help build up the Church. The most important are the fruits:
Gal 5:22-24 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
These are the real measure of how close a person is to God.
Now, I don’t want to disappoint you entirely, so I’ll share a little bit about ICPE (icpe.org/), the Charismatic community I happen to live with
They place a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit, not only because they are Charismatic, but because they can’t possibly evangelize without him (because he is the principle evangelizer). I think the greatest testimony of the work of the Holy Spirit is not necessarily the gifts that they practice, but the love they have for each other, and for each and every person they meet. They are truly the most joyful people I have ever met.
Recently they ran a short (one week) School, and I took part in it. I have to say that I have grown so much more, having gone through this. I think I’ve been given the gift of tongues as well (I’m not sure because it sounds kinda repetitive, so I’d like to seek further confirmation on that). I think the greatest work of the Holy Spirit is that I’m much more aware of the love of God now, and because of this, I’m joyful, and more loving toward God, myself, and other people.
By the way, if anyone here has a desire to get to know God more, and in particular the Holy Spirit, I would thoroughly recommend taking part in the four month school that ICPE runs. You can find out more on their website: icpe.org/.
God bless you all!
Hi,Thanks, that was helpful.
Bless you!
TTM
Hi dcdure,
Yah. The people who prayed over me think that it’s tongues. I just wish there was a person who has the gift of interpretation so I could get definite answers, but there you are.
Sorry, I guess it was an assumption on my part that you would be talking about the gifts. That’s partly because you seem to be asking for witnesses for the Holy Spirit (the pentecostals do this a lot) - usually it tends to be about the gifts, which are the obvious outward manifestations.
If I’m not allowing him to lead me, it would be my fault, but I do the best I can to surrender to his will. I pray a prayer of consecration to the Holy Spirit every morning (if I remember to!).
Well, the fact is, Mary is a part of the Church. So yes, she is a part of the Body of Christ, and Christ is her head too. However, she is also the Mother of Christ, and therefore the mother of Church, His Body.
).. The sick are healed, people speak praise in tongues, prophesy, give word of knowledge, work miracles. Yup, our faith is not just a set of beliefs, rules and requirements. It’s real, and God works in powerful ways, and now is a time of grace where he is pouring out his Spirit among his people (and boy, do we need him at times such as this!)., here are some info’ which may be of some help to those who want to find out more about the Charismatic Renewal:
Since Mary was the first believer, she was the first member of the Church. Thus, she is a member of the Church, and thus a member of the body of Christ. At the same time she is the mother of the Church for the reasons mentioned in my previous post.Yup. It’s a mystery! But no more of a mystery than Jesus, who is 100% man and at the same time 100% God.
Hi dcdure,
Hi therapist45,
Where is it in Scripture? In the first 2 chapters of Luke.
Hi!
Hold on there, don’t be too quick to put him down. Remember that we are in the Rosary thread.
I think she is commonly referred to as “the first and the best disciple”. I hope I’m not mistaken. Like MariaG has said, she believed before the miracle at Cana. She interceded, and Jesus granted her the miracle through which the other disciples believed in Jesus: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11). What an amazing faith! She truly was blessed: - “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). Mary is considered to be the model disciple. I think it is very wise to look to Mary to see what being Christ-like is like for somebody who is 100% human and 0% God, for the reason that we can not act completely like Christ, since we are not God. Also, because the Church is a She, it makes sense to have a female model disciple.
Therapist45, do not give up hope for your wife coming around to Catholicism. I’d recommend patience and prayer.
to recommend some particular shows.