Question on speaking in tongues

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Hi, can anyone tell me something about the Catholic understanding of speaking in tongues… Particularily, is there some examples of saints speaking in tongues? I know Paul speaks about himself, but are there other instances that anyone knows about?

Thanks so much for your help
Linda T
 
My understanding is that it means that a person speaking in one language is understood by people of different languages.

So if one spoke in english it would be undersood by people who only knew spanish, french, chinese, latin, or any other language.
 
My non-Catholic understanding is right inline with what Francis said.
 
I don’t really want to argue with anyone about this. If you like more than this I will continue. Remember all is proved by the fruit that it bears. Thankfully I have always seen positive fruit in my 25 years in Charismatic Renewal.

Pani Rose

To pray with someone that desires to pray in tongues, I always encourage them by having them pray ABBA as we pray with them. A child knows his Fathers voice, and Jesus responds by granting communication between Him and the child that only the Creator knows. It is a language that the principalities of this world cannot understand or interfere with, it is between the Triune God and man alone. Although it does happen that someone will recognize the language as being their own, as with the apostles. Another word that is missed is “tongues”, is it not that God only gives one, one prayer language, but he will give one different tongues for different situations/occassions.

To “speak in tongues”, is one of the 9 gifts of the Spirit mentioned three times in 1Cor.12:10,28,30, and explained again in 1Cor.14:1-33, where the gift to “speak in tongues” or “praying in tongues” is mentioned 12 times. This “speaking in tongues” is also called “glossolalia” or “baby talk” that nobody can understand. It looks apparently opposite to the one that happened at Pentecost… but it is actually the same… because it is the language of joy and of love and of peace.

A story from someone… I had a patient who hit the lotto and earned $15 million. At home everything was shouts of joy, without any specific words, but a language that anybody could understand, and that’s a little of speaking in tongues… the day you live a little more the fact that you are a child of God, that day you hit the lotto with $1,000 million, because your Father is the multimillionaire, and he has all those thousands of millions of dollars for you, and you will shout with joy, without words, a baby talk, but with a language that anybody can understand…
Code: 
… Another day you will speak in tongues, is the day you realize how horrible is Sin: I saw on TV a woman with his 8 year old child just drown in the mud of an avalanche in Colombia. She didn't said words, but her deep sorrow could be understood, and almost felt, by anybody, even by Hindus or Chinese… Sin is the most horrible event that may happen in your life or in the life of your son, and the day you realize it, there would be no words to express it, only shouts of deep sorrow, baby cry, that anybody will understand.
St. Paul mentions both, “speaking in tongues” and “praying in tongues” (1Cor.14:14-15).

Catholic Charismatics believe that God gives the gift of praying in an “unknown tongue” to anyone who seeks it. The person is able to speak this new language of praise to God or repentance, even though the individual does not understand what is being said, it is the Spirit of God within the heart praying. St. Paul says, “the Spirit too comes to the aid of your weakness; for we don’t know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexplicable groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will” (Rom.8:26-27).

con’t
 
For more information, search the forums for

“tongues”
“charismatic”
“baptism in the spirit”

There’s more information/arguing/debating/explaining on this in the forums then could fill a book.

God be praised.
Josh
 
Pani Rose:
To “speak in tongues”, is one of the 9 gifts of the Spirit mentioned three times in 1Cor.12:10,28,30, and explained again in 1Cor.14:1-33, where the gift to “speak in tongues” or “praying in tongues” is mentioned 12 times.
This “speaking in tongues” is also called “glossolalia” or “baby talk” that nobody can understand. It looks apparently opposite to the one that happened at Pentecost… but it is actually the same… because it is the language of joy and of love and of peace that anybody can understand.
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This is the chrismatic understanding of it.

I, and many other Catholics, do not agree with it. No where does the Bible use the word “glossolalia” nor does it really ever say that the tongues in 1 Cor. is a language that no one can understand.

I find it odd that when it speaks of tongues in Acts at Pentecost it tells us that the Apostles spoke in languages that they did not know but where understood. Why then would the tongues in 1 Cor. be a language no one can understand?

“Glossolalia” was something that was practiced by the pagans of the day in Biblical times.
 
Moreover, the one who speaks in tongues should pray to be able “to interpret those tongues”, so the congregation can be built too with it. In fact, Speaking in Tongues plus the Interpretation of them, amounts to Prophecy (1Cor.14:13, 27-28). Sometimes God will give the gift of interpretation to someone that is just beginning interpreting and they will be too shy to speak up. If this happens he will often times make an older person aware tha the new person is not speaking out, and they will respond accordingly, helping the new person to yeild to the word.

The Interpretation of Tongues (1Cor.12:10, and chapter 14):

The Interpretation of Tongues is not a translation of what the other said, but an Interpretation: For example, one may pray in tongues for 2 minutes, and other interprets the message in may be 10 seconds.

When someone in the assembly speaks or prays in tongues, someone should also be there who Interprets those Tongues to build up the Church. Otherwise pray in tongues by yourself for your own edification (1Cor.14:27-28). St. Paul says, that tongues plus interpretation are equivalent to prophecy.
 
Glossolalia is a modern day term, not one from Scripture. One that I am not necessarily fond of, but one that is used none the less.

But, it is funny out of all the verses I give in Scripture, that is what you pick.
 
Pani Rose:
Glossolalia is a modern day term, not one from Scripture. One that I am not necessarily fond of, but one that is used none the less.

But, it is funny out of all the verses I give in Scripture, that is what you pick.
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I thought I addressed it enough when I said that I disagree with you that 1 Cor is not talking about the tongues as spoken of in Acts at Pentecost.

You later post, laying out the “rules” of glossolalia are not found in scripture even though you list verses with it.

No where does it say what you say it does. That is an interpretation of what the Scripture is saying about the gift of tongues.

As for St Paul saying that “tongues plus interpretation are equivalent to prophecy” while this is true, it was necessary in the Early Church as the Canon of Scripture was not present. Public Revelation closed with the death of the last Apostle.

We now have the Scriptures, we do not need this.

I will leave it at that. I do not believe in the chrismatic movement. It creates two class of christian. But I can see that you do, so lets just leave it at us disagreeing as we will not change each others mind.
 
I am not here to argue; just here to share what I have. This issue of tongues has burdened me quite a bit. Anyway, let me share what I have:

Glossa in Greek means literally tongue or language. St. Jerome used the word tongue when he translated the Bible from Greek.

The other type of tongue is the one that cannot be understood, this in Greek is Xenolalia.

I could be wrong but these are my findings. Now, during pentecost, the Greek text does mention Glossai. And if read further, the languages used by the Apostles were dialects that were understood by others. This of course is logically useful since Jesus did commission them to go out and preach the Gospel.

Now I’m not saying that Xenolalia can’t happen. It clearly happened to the Corinthians and sadly, they abused this gift.
And if it happened then, I do believe it can happen now. But I still believe that it is rare. I also think abuses are going on.

Again, I’m not out here to argue this and that but I for one am not seeking such signs from God. There are many more gifts out there such as being a good parent or just baking cookies for church functions. 😛
 
I received the gift of tongues after being prayed over at a Life in the Spirit seminar at my church. I never feel compelled to use it for anything other than private prayer.

I understand those who feel uncomfortable with it. When I started the seminar I decided that if anyone started speaking in tongues I was going to stand up and leave. I cringed whenever anyone even brought it up. So if you’re unsure about it, I really understand how you feel!!! It IS real though. I can attest to that!!

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
As I understand it is an archaic gift given when people of many languages were gathered in the same place. (As in biblical times with the dialects of many gathered in the market, at the temple etc …)

You mention Abba, there is a difference between calling out “Daddy” and rolling on the floor chanting gibberish. Besides “Abba” is Amharic. A real language, the language Jesus spoke.
 
David, the Byzantine Catholic

I am sorry. If you read the bottom of my first post you can see that I was not finished. I had too many words and knew it, sorry for the confusion. I was still writing when I posted the first part, and was supprised to see your post.

Pani Rose
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
I received the gift of tongues after being prayed over at a Life in the Spirit seminar at my church. I never feel compelled to use it for anything other than private prayer.

I understand those who feel uncomfortable with it. When I started the seminar I decided that if anyone started speaking in tongues I was going to stand up and leave. I cringed whenever anyone even brought it up. So if you’re unsure about it, I really understand how you feel!!! It IS real though. I can attest to that!!
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Hi Nanc,
All of the above applies to me…well said! The only thing different for me was that it scared me to death and I didn’t want anything to do with it. Well, we the team began to pray over me I started to babble at first and a complete peace came over me and I was never afraid of it again. Funny thing is, there were some who really wanted it and didn’t receive it…
I no longer go to prayer meetings as there isn’t one available where I live but I know that if I had the chance to, I’d be so happy to sing praises to God in tongues with a prayer community.

For some no explanation will ever be sufficient and for some, no explanation is necessary… I, like you know it is real! Praise God,
Annunciata:)
 
hey guys - esp byzcath - here’s a selection from 1 Cor 14 -

2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.
3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.
4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

i think we see, when we compare this verse with the ones about tongues from acts, that there are two different, but related phenomena going on here.

the first is the supernatural ability to speak in languages you don’t know in order to spread a message. it happened at pentecost, and it can (and perhaps does) happen today, as well.

the second is a prayer language, in which the person speaking seems to manifest the ‘groans of the Spirit’ which we don’t understand. these sound MAY be another language (i’ve heard of tongues being interpreted, not by someone with a gift of interpretation, but simply someone who spoke the language being spoken in tongues) that people today speak, it may be an archaic language, or it may be a language that we don’t know. but from the passage here in 1 Cor, i think we see the validity of ‘praying in tongues’ for personal edification.

i’ve personally never spoken in tongues, or prayed in them. i think it would be interesting to do so, but God chooses when to bestow His gifts.
 
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jeffreedy789:
i’ve personally never spoken in tongues, or prayed in them. i think it would be interesting to do so, but God chooses when to bestow His gifts.
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I would agree with you on this, your last phrase. Might I add, God also chooses to whom the gift is given to. 👍
 
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jeffreedy789:
these sound MAY be another language (i’ve heard of tongues being interpreted, not by someone with a gift of interpretation, but simply someone who spoke the language being spoken in tongues) that people today speak, it may be an archaic language, or it may be a language that we don’t know. but from the passage here in 1 Cor, i think we see the validity of ‘praying in tongues’ for personal edification.
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Hi Jeff,
Your right about the ancient language thing…My “'prayer tongue” always sounded to me somewhat like a Jewish cantor singing…however, after seeing “The Passion of The Christ”, it sound more like Aramaic. Just FYI. In Christ, Annunciata:)
 
CatholicSamurai very interesting post. I appreciate the explanation of the difference and how the word started being used.

The experiences you are sharing are wonderful!

I have found that tongues are wonderful for so many things. One of them is when I don’t know how to pray for someone, which I truly very seldom know what a person really needs. I just pray in tongues and let the Holy Spirit intercede for them. Of course if it is someone not familar with them, I will pray silently. I see the fruit of the prayer for others, it is awesome, to see the peace that people receive, God is so neat! I think we try to put God in a box sometimes, and he has as many different ways of doing things as there are people. And it we can believe that the rest of Scripture is true and is as it says, why do we have trouble with tongues? I don’t understand, all we have to do is look at creation around us to knowt that God’s mind cannot be comprehended, just look at all the languages in the world. Wow and the Russian or Slavic people did’n’t have a written language until ST. Cyril developed one for them, hence Cyrillic. So why are we trying to say can can’t do this or that. He can do whatever he chooses. And he loves us enough to give us a way to communicate that only the Triune God can understand…wow, he protects us from the rest fo the world. What an awesome God we serve!
 
Annunciata I hear some Jewish words in my husbands prayer tongue also. That is neat!

A friend studying for the Diaconate, is an American Indian. Several years had passed since I had seen him and he reminded me of a word had for him one time. In it, he understood that he would know tongues of dialect that he had never heard and would translate. Well, they were at a meeting with a tribe, not his own -his tribe is from Washington State I think, this was in Alabama- anyway after the meeting, they had a pow-wow of sorts I think that is what he said. Anyway, when they began praying, the Indian Chief began praying and Paul began interpreting to the letter what was being said. Now this was an indian dialect he had never heard, they told him he was absolutely correct. So when they entered into prayer again, the Chief started praying in tongues. Well apparently it was an ancient dialect, one the chief didn’t know, but Paul interpreted and many conversions came about from it. So we really shouldn’t try to fit God into our boxes.

Pani Rose
 
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