I am sorry, but I don’t understand the purpose of someone praying or speaking in another language that they themselves cannot understand. What is the point? How can one communicate if they don’t know what they are saying? How can one teach, or worship, if they don’t know what they are saying? Does God want people to speak to Him in His own language without knowing what they are saying?
If however, they know what they are saying and speak it in another language to someone who understands that language then it makes sense to me. If they make groans when they pray because the words can’t come to them, then I can understand this.
I know that I am ignorant when it comes to this subject, I hope that no one takes offense to any of my above posts. It really puzzles me and I cannot seem to get a straight answer from anyone.
There is no offense when someone asks questions with the intention of learning.
First of all, there are similarities between the Pentecostal Movement and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal primarily regarding the gift of Prayer tongues. This is because the gift of Prayer tongues is a common gift available to all. I am not familiar with Prayer tongues teaching in other religions. What I am presenting is from the Catholic position.
I realize that there will be Catholics surprised by the fact that the gift of Prayer tongues is not necessarily an outward sign that someone has received the baptism of the Spirit. If it were, then this common gift would become a badge of pride. On the contrary, this gift of Praying in tongues is very humbling. To understand this gift’s purpose, let us call this gift by its rightful names, Praying in tongues or Prayer tongues. This gift is so very different from the gift of speaking in tongues.
The gift of Prayer tongues requires abject humility because we intentionally have to set aside our rational powers of memory or intellect which are used in speaking and praying. The only time that we can do that without embarrassment is when we make baby sounds with a baby. The reason that it is unimportant that anyone, including the baby, knows what we are saying is that we are using a language based on love. When we praise the baby when she crawls forward instead of rolling, does it really matter if we say “good job” or go into an explanation of which muscles accomplished the motion. Our tone of voice, the way we stress the words, and our body language all express our praise. We are using our human speech faculties, lips, tongue, and larynx to express our purpose of loving and praising.
We use the same human speech faculties, lips, tongue, and larynx when we participate at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We sing, we pray the Our Father, we declare “amen” when we receive the True Presence of Jesus Christ under the signs of bread and wine. When it comes to private, personal prayer, we normally use the same speech faculties along with our memory or intellect.
Praying in tongues is like loving and praising God. The difference is that we do not depend on our memory or intellect to form the correct words. In our humility, we turn over our rational control of our speech faculties to the Holy Spirit. This means that we relax and quit worrying about individual words. We know we want to love and praise God and ask Him for His mercy and His help for ourselves as well as others. But instead of thinking about our words, we ask the Holy Spirit to use our speech faculties, lips, tongue and the larynx according to His will.
With the gift of Prayer tongues, we turn over our rational powers regarding human speech to the Holy Spirit. This is known as yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit Who in turn uses our lips, tongue, and larynx in sounds which He, not us, chooses. This is true humility.
Yikes! is usually the first comment from someone learning about Prayer tongues. Please note that “Praying in tongues” from the Holy Spirit is totally under the person’s control. The person absolutely has the power to decide when to Pray in tongues and when to stop. The person has the choice to Pray in tongues out loud or silently within; however, the choice of words or sounds, belongs to the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes, people wonder if the sounds are actually a personal choice rather than the Holy Spirit’s. Instead of worrying about it, the person should renew his commitment to yielding to the Holy Spirit. In practical life, a person does have a reason for Praying in tongues. It can be love, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, contrition, and so on. In yielding to the Holy Spirit, the person is asking that the Holy Spirit pray these prayers.
Caution. One should not get hung up on which is better, Praying in tongues or Praying in one’s native language. The use of Prayer tongues is up to the individual. Personally, I pray in tongues when driving in traffic because I need my mind totally focused on cars ahead, behind, and cutting in front of me. Usually, I do not have any particular intention in mind – I let the Holy Spirit do His thing. Believe me, this is better than road rage.
At this point, I am sure there are questions. Please ask.
Blessings,
granny
O Sacrament Most Holy,
O Sacrament Divine,
All praise and all thanksgiving,
be every moment Thine.
