Prophecy and Spiritual Gifts

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AndersonJN

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Hi!

I come from a protestant background in which prophecy and spiritual gifts are held in high esteem.

I was wondering- are spiritual gifts and prophecy exercised as much in the Catholic faith?

Love in Christ-
Jason
 
can you please elaborate more on what you mean?
are you saying that people in Protestant faiths prophecize?
 
yea, at least in the churches and bible studies that I have seen…there is a lot of prophecy, speaking in tongues, and “Spirit leading” emphisis.

Is there any of this in the Catholic faith?
 
AndersonJN said:
Hi!

I come from a protestant background in which prophecy and spiritual gifts are held in high esteem.

I was wondering- are spiritual gifts and prophecy exercised as much in the Catholic faith?

Love in Christ-
Jason
Click to expand...
I find that they are. The gifts of the Holy Spirit don’t necessarily have to be manifested in a prayer group session, although we do have prayer groups and the gifts are manifested.

There are those who have deep prayer lives, and who can manifest these gifts in ordinary settings, because they are open to the Holy Spirit and they desire to do God’s will.

You can be having a cup of coffee with a dear friend and talking about a personal problem, and they will know exactly what to say to you that will be of help, for the glory of God. That is the gift of prophecy at work

A few years ago, in the church parking lot, several of us were greeting one another and chatting. One lady said that she and her husband were in need of an inexpensive used car, and would we pray for that. We said yes, and right then and there we praised and thanked the Lord and asked that they get a car. We prayed for about one minute together. Then we parted.

Two weeks later, after Mass, some of us were in the same spot we had been in before, and chatting together. The friend we had spoken to drove up, stopped and explained to us that word had gotten out about their need, and someone was left an estate that included this car which they did not need. And that is how they got the car they needed!

Wherever people of faith pray together good things happen. And they happen to Christians and Catholic Christians as well!
 
well there have been private revelations to Saints about end times and other things. We are not obliged to believe the prophecies, apparitions, and revelations etc.

There have been St. Malachis prophecy of the popes
crystalinks.com/papalprophecies.html

The apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego was responsible for the conversion of millions of central and southern native americans in the 1500s, the account along with the image imprinted on Juan Diegos cloth is truly amazing. ( read about the image specifically.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe

and there are a bunch of others, but keep in my mind they are not part of the infallible teaching of the Church and catholics are not obliged to believe them.

PM me if you have any questions or want to know more.
 
Prophecy and the other spiritual gifts are also acknowledged in the Catholic Church, but you will find a particular focus for it in the Charismatic movement in the Catholic Church. Its an approved spirituality that focuses on the working of the Holy Spirit. You can find much discussion on in in previous posts on this forum.
 
are there any resources I can investigate to find out more about the charismatic movement within the catholic church?
 
charismatic gifts and the Catholic Charismatic renewal are usually discussed on the spirituality forum, this forum has a more narrow focus

to find out more search on that forum under such keywords, and you will find good links. renewedlife.com is one charismatic webstie, there are other good ones in those discussions. reliable authors include Fr. George Montague or Fr. Killian McDonald.

the so-called St. Malacy prophecy is a hoax that has been debunked on these forums already. OP is not asking about private revelation per se, but the the charismatic or Cornithian gifts, specifically prophesy.
 
If you read the scriptures on Pentecost, It states that the apostles spoke in their language, and the hearers of all different tongues “HEARD” in their own language. So one must conclude, that the miracle was in the HEARING, not the speaking.

It would be easy to conclude that the speaker was speaking in your language as that is how you were hearing him. However the person next to you who spoke a different tongue, also heard him in his.

God is quite logical in the sense it would be easier that way, than having someone speaking 20 languages at once, which is pretty hard to do at the best of times i would assume.
 
AndersonJN said:
yea, at least in the churches and bible studies that I have seen…there is a lot of prophecy, speaking in tongues, and “Spirit leading” emphisis.

Is there any of this in the Catholic faith?
Click to expand...
Yes, Protestants and Catholics work side by side. The first thing to remember is that we don’t all have the same Spiritual Gifts, but generally speaking, those who do, speak in tongues like the Apostles did. My gift apparently is healing, so naturally, when I have free time I volunteer for chaplaincy at VA Hospital.

To give you an example of how it works: The doctors, nurses, or family members put a patents name on a clip board, and the chaplains take them in the order that they are listed. One day I got a patent who was in a deep coma, so I put his hand on my Bible and prayed. The guy woke up for a while and talked to me. I asked him whether he wanted me to read the Bible to him, and he said no. Then, I asked him why he was mad at God, and he told me that when he was a young boy his sister died. I asked him, where did that happen, and he said, Hometown Texas. Then he went back to sleep, and when I returned the next day the bed was empty.

That’s how the gifts of the Spirit work. I didn’t do anything different with that patent than any of the others who I visited. What transpired that evening was between the patient and God. I was only an empty vessel.

Richard
 
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