THE CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND
GIFTS
(An Eight Part Series)
Presented by Father
Bob Hogan, S.M.
Some practical guidelines to help charismatic prayer
groups to function well.
Originally published in the Emmanuel Newsletter.
(From notes taken by Joe Kindel from the March 23, 1996,
Leader’s Day at Incarnation Parish in Centerville, Ohio.)
Part 1
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS
Morning Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M.
The following are some
practical things to help charismatic prayer groups to function well. Everyone
needs to come prepared for the prayer meeting. Preparation is not wrong.
Sometimes we get that idea that preparation will ruin spontaneity. But to
worship in Spirit and in truth, we need to study. Every prayer group member
needs to have a foundation of prayer and meditation built up through the week.
Then the Holy Spirit has a storehouse from which He can bring up themes at the
prayer meeting. Prophecy can then be received at several levels as the Holy
Spirit works with each person’s inner storehouse.
Following are eleven points
to help your prayer meeting grow. Each person who comes to the prayer meeting
should cultivate these attitudes and actions.
1). DAILY PRAYER AND STUDY.
The prayer meeting absolutely depends on the daily prayer and study of each
member. We must have time set aside each day for prayer and study of God’s word
in the Scriptures. Leaders cannot assume that everyone is doing this. We all
struggle to keep our prayer time and need encouragement. There are many good
resources available. Help your group by making these resources available to
your group. Miracle Hour by Linda Schubert is good for people who are learning
how to pray. A series of teachings from this book is recommended. Other good
resources include One Bread, One Body and The Word Among
Us, which contain meditations for the daily Scripture readings at
2). FOCUS ON WORSHIP. Every
person who comes to the prayer meeting must focus on worshiping the Lord. We
have to overcome the “filling station” mentality which focuses on self. Yes,
God does fill us when we worship Him, but our motive in praising Him is not so
that we feel good, but to give glory to God. We come together for one main
purpose: to worship God. We also come for teaching, fellowship, healing, etc.,
but these are not central. We come to immerse ourselves in the life of the
Trinity!
3). RESPECT VARIETY. There
are as many expressions of praise as there are people in the prayer group. We
can regard this variety as a gift or as an aggravation. When the way another
person is worshiping God gets on my nerves, is the problem with them or with
me? Is it the Holy Spirit in me that is disturbed or my flesh? In a good prayer
meeting there can be quite a variety of praise within the common focus of
worshiping God. We should be blessed by the variety in worship, marveling at
how the Holy Spirit builds up a symphony of praise all around us. Of course,
this should take place within a context of order.
4). REPENTANCE. Before
coming to the meeting, each person should ask himself, “Is there anything that will
keep me from being able to worship God?” Is there any anger, jealousy, hurts,
worries or pride? Ask the Lord to send His peace. Be honest about my
tendencies. Do I always tend to become proud or jealous in certain situations?
Has it happened again? Be honest, bring it to God in repentance, and He will
bestow His peace. We will be ready to worship.
5). HAVE A GROUP MENTALITY.
As Christians our worship is communal, not individualistic. Personal,
yes. We each express our worship to God in our own way, but together as
the Body of Christ. Great worship is together. There will be a variety of
expression, but the praise is built together. We must find just the right
balance between individuality of personal expression and the essential
togetherness.
6). EXPECTANT FAITH. Before
we come, we must expect that God is going to be present in a special way—that
“something good is going to happen.” Of course there are times when we will
just barely stagger in and the Lord will refresh us, but we shouldn’t make a
habit of this.
7). READINESS TO SHARE AND
SERVE. Throughout the week each member should be asking, “What is the Lord
doing in my life?” Reflect on this. No one will share all of what the Lord is
doing in their life—just the part that becomes anointed and alive during the
meeting. Each one should ponder and treasure what God is doing in his or her
life. “When you assemble, one has a psalm, another some instruction to give,
still another a revelation to share, one speaks in a
tongue, another interprets” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Good sharing needs
preparation, or we tend to ramble. Our sharing ought to be spontaneous, but
well reflected upon. It ought to fit. It ought to be to the point. It is easy
to start with a genuine word from the Lord and then lose it by adding our own
commentary. Our focus needs to stay on the Lord. But we should be gentle with
each other when we get off track.
8). COMMITMENT. Each group
has a different kind of commitment. It is good to ask the question, “What are
we committed to doing together?” At the very least we should: 1) pray for each
other during the week; 2) pray for the prayer meeting. We must also commit to a
daily prayer life, and commit to sharing the fruit of that personal time with
God. When people feel supported, they become more faithful. It is frustrating
and discouraging when a significant number of people don’t come to the prayer
meeting. We need to have a core of really committed people or the prayer group
will die. We need to talk about commitment. It is important to be realistic and
not bite off more than we can chew.
9). TREASURE AND PONDER THE
WORD HEARD. The leaders should review the theme of the meeting so that the
members have something to take home with them. If the theme is not clear, don’t
force it, but try to find something to ponder in the week ahead. We must act on
God’s word in our everyday lives after we are reasonably sure what He is saying
to us.
10). RIGHT ORDER IN OUR
PERSONAL LIVES. We need to maintain proper relations with our families and
friends, with people of the opposite sex, with our brothers and sisters in the
faith. This frees us for peace, reconciliation, honesty and unity. If our
relationships are not in right order, it means trouble for the prayer meeting.
Married people should let their spouse be a part of the prayer group at least
to some extent. A couple cannot be totally disconnected in such an important
area since their whole lives are related and bound up with each other. This
requires wisdom and guidance from the Lord. Pray about this! Call on the grace
of matrimony. It is a powerful grace! We need to ask if we are over-involved at
church or out of control in our lives.
11). HOSPITALITY. The first
impression is the one that is left on newcomers. Did they feel welcomed? Did
they feel as if they were part of things? Did they feel cared about without
feeling smothered? How we welcome people is very important. We need to listen
to them first. We need to accept them where they are and seek to get to know
them before we tell them a lot. There will be plenty of opportunity for us to
share later. They should feel that we are interested in them. We don’t pry, but
show an interest in them. We should love them first. If we put ourselves in
their place, we will get the right idea. We must teach often how to be
hospitable. We all need to learn this, especially in our culture. Our families
are in such a mess that many have never learned simple Christian hospitality!
Part 2
THE CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 2)
Morning Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M.
The following remarks are
directed especially to prayer group leaders. These are some of the nuts and
bolts of leading a good prayer meeting. Just as the other
members must come prepared, so too the leaders must prepare for the meeting.
1). START AND END ON TIME.
This is especially true if new people are coming to your meeting. It is
important to respect their expectation of the meeting time. This is not to be
interpreted rigorously, but with some flexibility according to the leading of
the Holy Spirit. Starting and ending on time gives a sense of consistency and
order to the prayer meeting.
2). LENGTH OF MEETING. A
prayer meeting will generally last from 1 to 2 hours. This depends on the size
and maturity of the group. A small group, for example, may have a hard time
sustaining 1 1/2 hours. If there are new people coming, you can’t go on
forever. On the other hand, a mature group flowing in the gifts may go longer.
If you have regular teaching, you will need extra time to fit it in.
3). LEADERS MUST MEET AND
PRAY BEFORE THE MEETING. There needs to be a core team of leaders who meet
together before the prayer meeting to pray for the prayer meeting and plan
things such as teachings. The core team should listen in prayer to see if the
Lord is giving a specific focus to the prayer meeting. It is better for a team
of two people lead the meeting together. One serves as the presider
of the meeting and the other serves as a partner who especially helps discern
what is going on.
4). GROW INTO LEADERSHIP. It
is a mistake to rise to leadership too quickly. When people are put into a
leadership position without growing into it, they tend to feel overly
responsible, which leads to burnout. It is hard to remember that the Lord Jesus
is in charge and let go. Be who you are. Don’t try to take more authority than
you have. We need to be prayerfully humble about this, asking the Lord, “What
is my authority in this group?” This will depend on our background, our
maturity, and how well people know and accept us. Don’t try to be more than you
are. Let God raise you to the kind of leadership and authority you should have.
5). LEADER NEEDS TO LISTEN MORE
THAN TO SPEAK. A good leader will listen well to what is being said. He will
ask, “What is the Lord saying in this?” The leader must exhort the people to be
open to God’s word, to ponder it and treasure it. He will lead the group in
responding to the Word in an appropriate way; perhaps by a song, or by kneeling
down, or by a time of silence. He may direct the group to focus on a particular
image and allow it to move their hearts. The leader needs to use wisdom and
prudence to pace the meeting, allowing enough time to ponder God’s word, not
jumping from one thing to another too quickly. But when one prophecy or word
builds on another, it is important to allow this to happen, too. But, in
general, we want to avoid the “charismatic smorgasbord” where we get a wide
variety of things without really digesting them. Then we come away with no idea
what the Lord has said. Again, the leader must use the wisdom that comes from
the Holy Sprit to regulate the flow of the meeting. But a rule of thumb is the
following: early in the meeting, the focus is on the praise and worship of God.
So if there is a prophecy, etc. at this time, you would normally go right back
into praise. But if prophecy, etc. is received later in the meeting, it would
be more appropriate to invite people to be quiet and let the Word of God soak
in.
6). REMIND ALL OF THE ABC’s.
We need to regularly remind each other of the ABC’s in speaking at a prayer
meeting:
A—Anointed
and Audible.
Be aware of your tendencies.
If a lot keeps coming to your mind and you tend to have quite a bit to share
with the group, be slower to speak and longer to discern. Is this really for
the whole group? If, on the other hand, you dread speaking up, you should be
quicker to decide that it is the Lord calling you to speak. Everyone must be
discerning and not just shoot from the hip. What do we mean when we say the
word is anointed? It could be a sense that the word comes from God. It could be
a thought that comes into our mind and persists and we sense that the Lord is
present to us in that thought. A sense that it fits.
For someone who is new to prophecy, there could be a very powerful urge to
share the word, even physical manifestations such as a pounding heart,
etc. Usually the “anointing” becomes more subtle with maturity. This is a very
subjective area and you can never be 100% sure that a word is from God, but
usually a word is “more certain” or “less certain.” If a word is “less
certain,” we usually don’t share it with the group.
B—Brief.
At times someone may be led
by the Holy Spirit to lead the people in a longer meditation, etc., but
normally we should be brief and to the point. This gives everybody a chance to
speak. Again, there is need for wisdom here. For instance, if a new person goes
on and on, let them go, but say something to them after the meeting.
C—Christ-centered
The focus should be on
Jesus. We’re not just sharing our story; we’re giving glory to God and Jesus
Christ. This does not mean we suppress our personality and sound like clones of
one another; it means we unite our personality to Jesus Christ. We allow Jesus
to shine out through our personality.
7). PLANNING. Being
charismatic doesn’t mean just being spontaneous without any planning. In fact,
there is a great need in the Charismatic Renewal in the Greater Cincinnati area
to pray for more people with gifts of administration. We need people to help
bring organization and order within our individual prayer groups. We also need
to organize leaders city-wide and regionally. We need to get them together to
do some long-term planning. We need people with the charisms to organize this.
Where is God calling our prayer groups to be in half a year? What teachings do
we need to give then? When will we visit with our neighboring prayer groups?
Will we do a whole series of teachings? We need to get together a team to
consider these longer range plans.
Resources used to prepare
this teaching:
1). Bringing Prayer
Meetings to Life by Fr. Chris Aridas and John
Boucher. Excellent!
2). Prayer Group
Leadership Development by Ron Ryan. Excellent! The core group in each prayer
group should go through this book at least every two years. Some of the chapter
titles: “The Role of Charismatic Renewal”; “Understanding Baptism in the Holy
Spirit”; “The Role of Prayer Groups”; “Praise and Worship”; “Leading a Prayer
Meeting”; “The Role of Music Ministry”; “Understanding and Fostering the
Charismatic Gifts”; “Developing a Core Group”; “Dealing with Problem
Situations.”
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 3)
Morning Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M.
SONG AND
PRAISE. It is good to teach the
group about this topic often, since it is central to the Charismatic renewal.
The very essence of the renewal is to enter into deep worship of God, to be
immersed in the Holy Spirit. How we worship is not so
critical as that we worship. It is not natural for people to vocally praise
God. If we are not praising God in our personal prayer life, we will probably
not do it very well at the prayer meeting. It is tempting for most of us to
believe God is calling us to spend our personal prayer time in quiet. But there
is a tendency to get caught up in our own agenda if we have not focused on God.
But when we enter into praise, something changes in our inner spirit. All of
the other stuff we are filled with is cleared out and we open up and are really
able to hear God. Now the Holy Spirit is able to speak and act in a way that
really changes us. On our own emotions, we are able to praise God for about
three minutes. We need to develop a conviction about worshiping God that will
propel us beyond this. We need to develop a vocabulary of praise. We need to be
able to stay with the praise until we come into the very presence of God. The
Miracle Hour by Linda Schubert is really good for developing praise in our
personal prayer time.
DO REGULAR TEACHINGS. A
teaching series on praise from the Scriptures or from praises in the Mass helps
Catholics to see that praise is already part of their heritage. The praise
psalms (e.g. Psalms 95-104, 113-118, 135-136, 145-150 to name a few) are an
inspired source of exalted praise. We can use them to joyfully recall what God
has done for us personally and for His whole people in salvation history. It can
be helpful to go through the Most Holy Trinity, thanking each Divine Person in
turn: “Father, I praise you for your personal love for me, for my identity as a
child of God because You are my Father, for sending
Your Son; Jesus Christ, You are my Lord and Savior. You have given Your life on the cross for me. Thank You for being my
Brother and Companion. Thank You for my identity as Your
disciple and that I can live with You. Holy Spirit, You are the fountain of new
life welling up within me. You have made me a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
PRAISE IS EVANGELIZING
YOURSELF and giving praise, worship, love, and honor to God. Because praise can
be foreign to many people, it is useful to start with something they are
already familiar with. For Catholics, we can unveil the tremendous praise
contained in the Gloria: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people
on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father.
We worship You, we give You thanks, we praise You for
Your glory! Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,
You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; You are seated at the
right hand of the Father, receive our prayer. For You
alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, YOU
ALONE ARE
THE MOST HIGH, JESUS CHRIST, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the
Father!” The Gloria is a
tremendous teaching on praise. Quote it! Let it sink in! Do the same with the
Holy! Holy! Holy!, with the acclamation before the
Great Amen, with the Lord’s prayer.
A HEART
FOR PRAISE. In addition to
teaching our people to grow in a language of praise, perhaps by teaching them
phrases such as “Jesus, I trust in You,” or “My Lord, and My God,” we need to
teach them to be open to the Holy Spirit Who gives us a heart for praise. It is
the Holy Spirit that makes praise come alive for us.
IN YOUR DAILY PRAYER TIME
spend at least 10 minutes in song and worship and praise. This will focus you
on God. Then, when you go to quiet, it will be an anointed quiet. You will be
open to what the Lord is saying and doing. We need to help people to understand
that this is why we worship. When we go to quiet prayer too quickly, we are
filled with our own thoughts and concerns, worries and cares. Praise and
worship helps us to be open to what God is saying. It moves the center of our
attention to God and opens our hearts to Him.
LISTEN. After opening our
heart to God, we should spend some time listening to God. To help treasure what
God is saying to us, some people may want to keep a prayer journal.
Some may just occasionally jot down inspirations or note how God is working in
their lives, while others may produce a whole written dialogue every time they
pray. This depends on the person. We should do whatever is helpful to genuine
prayer.
LIVE IN THE PRESENT. We need
to develop recollection, that is, living in the
present. God doesn’t speak in the past or the future, but in the present. This
is often hard for us, since we may be worried about the future or upset about
the past! Worship helps us put this aside so we can hear God speak in the
present. We need to keep developing that sense of God in the present. SILENCE. We need to help our prayer groups be OK with
silence. Generally it is good to begin the prayer meeting with everyone standing.
This gives us the idea that we are standing before the Lord! (Of course this
depends on the age, etc., of our prayer group members—we don’t want to keep
them standing forever.) But after a time of good praise, the leader may invite
the group to quiet. For example, the leader may say something like, “The Lord
has said a number of words to us; let’s take an extended time for quiet to let
them sink in.” The leader needs to give permission to the people for this so
they aren’t uncomfortable with the silence. Otherwise they could be wondering,
“Are we supposed to be silent or not be silent?” Other times the quiet flows
quite naturally and no one needs to announce it, but there
are times when it helps to say, “The Lord is calling for us to be quiet now.”
We also need to help people know how the Lord works in that quiet.
WORSHIP OPENS US TO THE
SPIRITUAL GIFTS. We need regular teaching on worship in the context of a
charismatic prayer meeting. The book by Ron Ryan, Prayer Group Leadership Development, is good for this.
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 4)
Morning Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M.
TEACHING AND TYPES OF
SHARING
Without REGULAR TEACHING,
the prayer group is in trouble. We need a foundation to grow from. Be humble
and use resources that are available. We need to plan our meetings. For
instance, when we will have a series of meetings on praise and worship, or on
the role of the Holy Spirit and the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Fanning the
Flame is a must for all Catholic charismatics. It
shows how the baptism in the Holy Spirit relates to the sacraments of
initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It is the best explanation
available to place the charismatic renewal into the Catholic context. Fr. Hogan
has developed a modified Life in the Spirit Seminar which heavily uses the four
following resources:
1) Fanning the Flame,
mentioned above.
2) Miracle Hour by Linda
Schubert, mentioned previously.
3) Coming to Life: Being
Baptized in the Holy Spirit by Fr. Robert DeGrandis.
This is very helpful. It goes through the basic themes of the Life in the
Spirit
Seminar with simple
explanations and stories.
4) An Introduction to
Catholic Charismatic Renewal by John and Therese Boucher. This is a new
pamphlet that came out just a couple of years ago.
OTHER RESOURCES:
Fr. Hogan’s own modified seminar, Renewal in the Spirit Seminar, has more
teaching than the traditional Seminar, while
maintaining the same basic outline. He has included 45 minutes of teaching for
each seminar, more thoroughly showing how the baptism in the Holy Spirit fits
into the Catholic setting. He also has made an outline of reading assignments
from the above mentioned four books for each of the seven weeks of the Seminar.
Charicenter Newsletter is available from Charicenter
SPECIAL
MEETINGS. It is good, after
listening to the Lord, to plan special meetings from time to time.
EMPOWERING
FOR SERVICE MEETING. Every two
months or so, even if the prayer group members do not minister together but
individually, it is good to meet for this purpose. Start out with praise as in
a regular meeting. This is to come into the presence of God, to immerse
ourselves in the Holy Spirit, to put on the mind
of Christ. Then each person is invited to reflect in quiet for 15 or 20 minutes on his life of service, whether in family, at
work, in the parish, or in the prayer group, etc. We allow the Lord to speak to
us about this service. Is He calling us to let go of some area, or to focus on
another? Believing that we have indeed heard the Lord, we then break up in to
small groups to share what each person has heard. Then we pray over each other
to receive God’s power in that area. A spiritual gift can be any area of
ability or responsibility that we surrender to God and begin to experience His
guidance and power.
PUTTING
OFF THE OLD SELF, PUTTING ON THE NEW SELF MEETING. Again, start with praise and worship to focus on the
Lord. Then spend some time in quiet, after reading, perhaps Galatians 5 or
Romans 8 which tells us that the Spirit puts to death the deeds of the flesh.
We want to get the old self off of us and put on
the new self in Jesus Christ. We want to be formed in the fruits of the Holy
Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, etc. What deeds of the flesh is God trying
to put off of us? What is my struggle now? Bring it to Jesus, Who took all our
sins and all our wounds and our old self to the cross. If we bring it to Him,
He has the power to free us and create a new self in us. After time for
reflection and listening to the Lord, we again break into small groups, share
what we have heard, and pray over one another for the graces of inner
transformation.
FELLOWSHIP
FOCUS. Once in a while, have
praise and a party! This gives us a chance to share what’s going on in our
lives. But we must make sure we pray first and are centered on Him.
YEARLY
RETREAT. It is good to have a
special day when we all get together other than the normal prayer meeting time.
Again, we may need to be humble and take advantage of resources provided by
other groups. INTERCESSORY AND HEALING PRAYER. The
focus of the prayer meeting should not be on intercessory or healing prayer,
even if you are a healing ministry. Worshiping God is what opens us to what God
wants us to do. What is more important to deal with in my life: my hurts or my
self-centeredness? Even though our hurts are more immediate, and may lead to
self-centeredness and fear, etc., the biggest healing we need is to be freed
from our self-centeredness. Then we can be God-centered and other-centered. If
we pray over people too often, it may lead to an increase in self-centeredness.
This could be happening if we do not witness any growth after repeated prayers.
It is true that we all need support and prayers, but that should never be the
only reason to come to the prayer meeting.
MORE RESOURCES:
New
Covenant Magazine. Write Our
Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll Plaza,
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 5)
Afternoon Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M. and Obie
Nicolini of the Incarnate Word Community in
Questions and Answers
Q: I have been asked to
present a program for Confirmation parents but it cannot be explicitly
“charismatic.” What should I do?
A (Fr. Bob): First of all,
the Holy Spirit works in other ways than just the charismatic renewal. We need
to realize this and be humble about it. At the same time, we need to be honest
and tell people our own background. We do not have to apologize for being
charismatic. The pope has shown his support for the charismatic renewal and the
International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office is under the
1) we
all need a power and guidance that is greater than ourselves;
2) we
all need to be able to enter into God’s presence in prayer. Praise and worship
are important! People need to hear this even if they are uncomfortable with it.
We need to help them enter into this life of prayer, into the presence of God
in deep worship. This does not mean that we have to promote a particular style
of worship (hands in the air, tongues, etc.);
3) we
must help them to understand salvation in Christ and then help them make a
personal commitment to Jesus. These basic truths are the same for all
Christians, not just charismatics. We all need to be
open to be empowered and guided by God, or we are just humanists.
Q: The women in our group
seem to be more open to the gifts of the Spirit than the men. Is this true in
general? What can I do to help the men?
A (Fr. Bob): Women seem to
have a more intuitive sense that helps them to be more open to inner
inspiration. Sometimes the problem with men is a real lack of openness, and
they need to get over that. But even if they are willing, men are more task oriented. They will need more specific teaching and
encouragement. Men more than women need to understand what
they are supposed to be doing before they will act. Sometimes it is
helpful to have small groups of men only. Then they may participate in a way
they never would in a mixed group. While it is good for men and women to meet
separately, it is also important for married couples to pray and share
together. Also, while men need more encouragement to share their inspirations,
women need more discernment. They are intuitive to things from many sources and
need more to identify what is from God before sharing their inspirations.
(Obie):
Men’s nights are a good idea. You have to talk to men differently. You have to
appeal to the way they are. You have to call them forth. It is true that women
usually respond much easier than men do. But men can respond. Their emotions
are just as deep. It’s just that their wall is thicker. You man need to break
through that wall, and not so delicately as you would
with women. It takes a special gift, a special wisdom to do this. It takes the
right person so speak to them. We also need to encourage the men who are
exercising the gifts and hold thm up as role models
to the other men.
(Fr. Bob): To sum up:
1) men
need more specific teaching. They need to understand more before they’ll be
open to it;
2) men
need a more specific calling: “It’s important for you to be open to this.” “We
need you as part of this.”
Q: What would cause a prayer
group to lack the gifts? How do we correct this?
A (Fr. Bob): The gifts don’t
come out of thin air. The prayer group members must have a life of personal
prayer and praise. Each member must have regular daily prayer time, read
Scripture daily, and ponder the Word of God, taking it in. Then you have a
storehouse that the Holy Spirit can draw from during the prayer meeting. You
also must be trying to grow in the gift of worship. Worship clears you out
enough to be open to what God is saying inside. Then the gifts are manifested
when the Holy Spirit pulls something out of your storehouse during the prayer
meeting—prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge, etc. By the way, let’s not
emphasize prophecy so much that we neglect the word of wisdom and the word of
knowledge. These gifts come out as small teachings. The word of wisdom could be
an insight into some aspect of the faith. The word of knowledge could be an
insight as to what God is doing in the group right now. You don’t generally
speak in the first person as you would when giving prophecy. Prophecy usually
encourages or lifts up the group, gets your attention, or sets a direction. It
usually doesn’t give a whole teaching. Once again, it is essential to the
prayer meeting for people to have prayer and study and reflection as a
consistent part of their lives.
Part 6
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 6)
Afternoon Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M. and Obie
Nicolini of the Incarnate Word Community in
Questions and Answers
Q: Should prophecy be
written down? Is prophecy just for the people who are present, or for the
parish, etc.?
A (Obie):
You have to look at the context the prophecy is spoken in. Usually it has the
purpose of encouraging us, building us up, freeing us to respond to God. This
type of prophecy is probably just for the prayer meeting itself, helping us to
recognize what God is doing. Sometimes prophecy is more specific and directive.
This kind needs a lot more discernment. Prophecy is both the Word of God and
the word of man. This mixture is in all prophecy. As
(Fr. Bob): Discerning
prophecy takes great prudence. I recall a woman in a prayer group who had
psychological difficulties. There was no doubt that her prophecies were mixed
with her human need, but if we listened well, there was something from the Lord
in it. The core group felt that it was not our job to tell her to stop
prophesying, but rather to help her, since there was this kernel of God’s Word
in what she said. Since all prophecy is imperfect to some degree, it is better
to work with what we receive. People prophesy on different levels. Someone
without a consistent prayer life may still receive inspiration from God, but it
tends to be about the same thing all the time. Yet God will work through them
in what they are able to receive. Prophecy is often deeper with a person who
has a real ongoing life of prayer, study, and worship. If someone says, “God
told me to tell you this,” be careful. I would never say this. Rather, I may
say to someone, in prayer, “You know, it just struck me that if there’s any
area in your life where you’re lacking forgiveness, I
encourage you to be open to God working in that way in your life.” Then, its up to them. If its a true word,
it will strike home. God will already be preparing the person to receive such a
word. I don’t need to tell them, “God told me to tell you this.” I need to
share what I sense, which is imperfect. The goal is not that I get out my
word—the goal is that the word is taken in and changes a life. But it is true
that at times we feel, “I’ve got to tell them. God wants me to say it!” On the
one hand, we must be open to what God wants, but on the other we must be
reasonably sure that God is the one urging me to speak. It is best to give more
specific prophecy more time, to discern it on a wider basis. (Obie): In a group where the gifts are not operating,
sometimes expectations are larger than life. Then we need to make the group
aware that its OK to do this wrong. If we’re growing
in the Lord, we’re going to make mistakes, especially at the beginning. Our
attitude should be, “Lord, we lay this in your hands and we want to grow in it.
Now help us.” The whole group needs to work together on this. It is freeing to
give people permission to be imperfect and know that we will stand by them and
support them, especially when they give us permission to correct them, and we
give them permission to correct us, too! Some teaching along these lines would
be good. It can be very freeing in opening up the gifts to ask, as you pray,
“What are you sensing right now?” “What’s going on right now in your heart?” We
often just need prompting to speak what is in our hearts! God is giving all
kinds of stuff, but people are afraid to speak out because nobody ever gave
them permission!
(Fr. Bob): Sometimes people
just need to be comfortable enough with each other to open up. Sometimes its helpful to break into small groups just to share. You
don’t need to have an inspiration—just share what God has been doing in your
life. This allows people to become comfortable enough to speak. While we’re on
this subject, we also need to teach them the difference between small group
sharing and whole group sharing. It is legitimate in the small group to tell
anything and everything that is going on with you and the Lord, but in the
larger group we need to be more discerning. Does what I have to say fit in with
what God is doing in the group? You don’t want to be too rigid about this,
either, but people shouldn’t just throw out whatever’s hitting them. As
leaders, pray for the gift of wisdom! You have to sense when things are getting
out of hand, but correct gently. Treat people as people. Again, avoid extremes.
But these ways of getting people to share can open them up to share
inspirations in the prayer meeting.
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 7)
Afternoon
Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M. and Obie Nicolini of the Incarnate Word Community in
Questions and Answers
Q: A lady in our prayer
group has a prophecy for nearly everybody. She’ll say, “I’ve written down a
prophecy for you.” Do you think this is really from God?
A (Fr. Bob): There may be an
influence from the Marian movement where people are writing down inner
messages. God can do that. But most of what God says is to me. He wants me to
hear something that will change my life. If we think God is always giving us
something for someone else, but not for us, we’re probably not hearing God. God
knows we need to be changed first. We need to take the plank out of our own eye
before we take any specks out of anyone else’s eye. We need to be very humble
about this. Some people do have specific insights. But we must still present
the insight in a way that will be fruitful. Unless we know the person very
well, it is best not to give a direct message. Even if we are absolutely sure
it is from the LORD, it is better to pray, “LORD, if this is meant to be
shared, give me the opportunity.” Then share it if He gives the opportunity.
Alternately, simply suggest to the person, “Did you ever think about it this
way?” and give the gist of what it’s about to them and see if it strikes home. Usually
the people who give these kinds of messages give you the message and then you
never see them again, so there’s no opportunity to discern it in the Body of
Christ. We need to be careful with any prophecy that’s not somehow tied in to
the wider Body of Christ to be discerned. Would this person be willing to sit
down with me and with some other people to see what the LORD God is saying to
me? If they are not willing to do this, it makes their prophecy very
questionable. If the person just approaches you and says, “I’m an empty vessel
that does God’s work and here’s God’s message for you” and then leaves—that’s a
misunderstanding of how God works. We’ve got to be careful. When someone does
give us a message like this, don’t just dismiss it outright. It is better to
pray, “LORD, I look at this, I take it in, I put it into the storeroom of my
mind and heart. If it is something that is meant for me, I trust that you will
bring it back.” Whether through other circumstances or events, or through our
prayer time, God will confirm the things that are meant for us and make them
lasting. We put it in that storage room and if the Spirit wants to use it, He
will bring it back. We need to trust that He will bring it back at just the
right time. We in the Charismatic movement need to be careful of giving
prophecy to others. We get a bad name when we have people running around giving
messages to their pastor, their priest, etc., about everything. Then we wonder
why they’re not open to the Charismatic renewal! Remember: we have to deal with
people first, message second. The message is essential, but God loves people
first. We need to have an involvement with people. Within that involvement, God
will sometimes speak to us for each other to build each other up, to help each other.
In this context we want to be open. For example, during a Life in the Spirit
seminar people on the team will come up and report what they believe the LORD
is saying. I just try to take it in and, sure enough, frequently it comes back
at just the right moment. This was something I needed to hear, I needed to know
and because they shared it with me, the Holy Spirit showed me the right time
and the right way to use it. So, don’t quickly dismiss everything, but put it
in the storeroom and ask, “LORD, if it’s meant to be, I trust you’ll bring it
back.” And if the message is something really specific, get more people
involved to discern it.
Q: [inaudible]
A (Obie):
In that kind of prophecy, ask “What is the connection of the person who gives
it to the people?” Is there some form of commitment, some form of
responsibility? Is this person teachable? Are they connected somewhere? Are
they flighty, that is running from one prayer group to another? Sometimes it is
just a misunderstanding of the role of prophecy. If they’re not grounded
somewhere where they can get the kind of teaching or correction they need, they
may mean well, and in fact may be getting something from the LORD, but the
effect is not usually good. If we have responsibility for the group, we need to
do whatever is necessary; to talk to this person, to find out what we can, to
help them get connected, etc.
Q: I left a prayer group
because there was so much emphasis on miracles, the Blessed Mother, the Blessed
Sacrament, the Rosary, etc. and not much time for praising Jesus. How does Mary
fit into a charismatic prayer meeting?
A (Fr. Bob): I can’t do this
justice here since my doctoral dissertation is on Mary and the Charismatic
Renewal and I can give you 600 pages worth. I love the Rosary! In the leaders
meeting before the Renewal in the Spirit Seminars, we pray the Rosary and then
we go into a time of worship. Mary is our companion. She opens us to the grace
of the Holy Spirit. Mary was the first person to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
So Mary is companion who helps us enter into praise. Her Magnificat
is a prophetic praise prayer! So, we need to enter in to the spirit of Mary in
praying, but our focus is not mainly talking about Marian apparitions or
events. Mary helps us to be receptive to the Holy Spirit. She was among the 120
at Pentecost. Mary is a woman of praise, filled with glory! “My soul proclaims
the greatness of the LORD. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. . . . ” We need
to re-teach praise, and one way that can help some Marian people is to
understand Mary’s praise. For a change of pace you might want to devote part of
a prayer meeting, from time to time, to a different kind of prayer. Begin with
a time of worship as usual, and then perhaps have a more meditative kind of prayer,
for example, the Rosary. But the major focus of what we are about is entering
into worship. Mary can help us enter in to that. Charismatics have a tendency
to want the instant inspiration, which sometimes can be superficial. Be honest
about it! We need to have a real life of prayer. In our personal prayer we need
to worship so that God brings us into anointed quiet. Then when we read
Scripture, it really moves us. Or we can just be in a more contemplative
presence of the LORD. We need both contemplative prayer and prayer of praise.
They work hand in hand. In that contemplative presence, the LORD can give us
deeper insight. He can immerse us in His love. Praise opens us up, prepares us
for good quality contemplation. Sometimes we need to teach our people that each
kind of prayer has its place. I love the Rosary. I say it every day. I believe
that by treasuring each of the Mysteries, I’m constantly letting the main
themes of the Christian life sink into me. Many of the inspirations I have
their source in the Rosary. It’s powerful! But we need to help people
understand the role of worship, which is the focus of what we’re doing in a
charismatic prayer meeting. This we need to make sure we keep clear.
Q: I can get so caught up in
spiritual books that I neglect the Scriptures. Then I wonder what is the right balance. Tell us exactly what you read!
A (Fr. Bob): [Laughter]. I
have to do a lot of reading because I’m a theologian and I have to keep up with
things. But some things move me and change me more. Some particular book or
thing I’m reading may strike me. It hits me and I keep going back to it. I read
it two or three times. I underline it and I mark it. I spend time and prayer
with certain sections. For me, much of what I teach comes from the book called
The Life Changer (published by Servant Publications) by Fr. Francis Martin, who
is a priest in the Charismatic Renewal and a Scripture scholar. There’s also a
new book on the Holy Spirit by Alan Schreck called
Hearts Aflame. Excellent! It talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in the
Church and the charismatic movement. It just came out from Servant Books. Alan Schreck is from the
Q: Do we have to limit
ourselves to Catholic books in a Life in the Spirit Seminar, etc.?
A (Fr. Bob): Again, you’ve
got to use prudence. It depends on the audience you’re dealing with. It depends
on the situation. It depends on good order with your pastor. If your pastor
doesn’t want anything but Catholic material, then don’t use anything but
Catholic material. You may still take inspiration and ideas from other books
and use them. My own approach, which is the wider Catholic teaching, is that we
believe in an ecumenical Church. We see gifts in others and should be able to
use them. The
1) It can make you feel like
you’ve already got it all; you’re wrong if you do! But the Spirit can have
touched certain areas of your life and other areas are totally under the
control of the flesh. That’s why Paul is writing all these people about the
flesh and the spirit. These are all baptized-in-the-Holy-Spirit people,
friends! These are people so-called “filled with the Holy Spirit,” but whole
areas of their lives haven’t been transformed yet because they haven’t
submitted those areas to the Holy Spirit;
2) “spirit-filled” can
impede a true understanding of the Holy Spirit. As Catholics we believe that in
Baptism everyone receives the Holy Spirit. God gives fully. We may not have
received fully. That’s what baptism in the Holy Spirit is about—preparing you
to receive more fully God’s gift that He has already imparted through the
sacraments. We need to realize that Jesus loves us before we love Him! Jesus
chooses us before we chose Him! I have no problem baptizing little children
into the household of the faith. God is telling them, “I love you before you
love Me! I choose you before you choose Me!” But at some point, you need to personally appropriate
that through faith and hope and love so it becomes alive for you. But God has
given all that He wants to give in the sacrament. God is never incomplete in
giving what He wants to give. We are incomplete in receiving. That’s the Catholic
understanding of this. That’s why you need that Fanning the Flame document.
Read that to understand it in a Catholic context, which is much better. I think
Pentecostals would do much better if they stopped using the word
“spirit-filled,” too, not just the Catholics. It sets up a dichotomy—what is it
saying about the person who is not “spirit-filled”? But the word is trying to
say something. It is saying, “I have had an experience of the Holy Spirit
helping me know Jesus in a deeper way.” We need to be able to say that—to not
deny the experience—to not deny the importance of it. But not
to act as if the Holy Spirit. . . . I know that the Holy Spirit was
working in me as a little kid. I got up early every day and went to daily Mass
from the second grade to the seventh grade because I knew “that’s Jesus Christ
there.” I wouldn’t have known that except by the Holy Spirit. However, my
senior year in high school, I also gave my life more personally to Jesus and
experienced the Scriptures becoming alive, experienced Jesus present right
there with me and had a new ability to pray and a desire to serve that freed me
in a new way. But that experience is not an end in itself. The Holy Spirit
wants to be poured out on you in a continual way. We need to continue to ask
for those gifts. So, yes, we need to be open and learn from all the faiths. Be
careful that you try to understand what might not be consistent. You’re going
to run into problems because some priests just really don’t know what the
Catholic Church says about the Holy Spirit. But you’ve got to be prudent and
loving with that situation.
THE
CHARISMATIC PRAYER MEETING AND GIFTS (PART 8)
Afternoon Session, presented by Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M. and Obie
Nicolini of the Incarnate Word Community in
Questions and Answers
Q: [inaudible]
A (Fr. Bob): It all depends
on the person that’s involved and how they’re going to react to it. There’s
nothing in the Catholic Church that says we shouldn’t be learning things from
other Christian faiths. But we need to be discerning.
Q: When I tell people from
other faiths that I’m a Catholic, they say, “You don’t talk like one!” How can
I explain it to them if I can’t use the term “spirit-filled”?
A (Fr. Bob): If I get the
opportunity in the right way I explain to them why I think that “spirit-filled”
is inappropriate. First of all, it’s not Biblical! It’s not Biblical! Do you
realize that? There is nothing about a “spirit-filled” Christian anywhere in
the Bible! It’s not a Biblical term. It’s a creation of us. The Bible talks
about being filled with the Holy Spirit, but it doesn’t talk about that just as
an end in itself. We know they received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, but in Acts
4 the early Church begins to be persecuted and they gather together and pray,
“Lord, now we’re under persecution. We have a new thing we’ve got to deal with
that’s different than we had before.” They pray and it says, “They were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and the place shook.” They Holy Spirit continues to
be imparted for each new challenge; we need to bring the Holy Spirit into every
situation, every part of our lives—our pride, our prayer, our family—it’s an
ongoing process. So that’s why I think you just need to be able to ask, “Have
you experienced the Holy Spirit making Jesus personally real for you?” That’s
the heart of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Fr. Francis Martin says it like this:
the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a grace of revelation by which we come to understand
Who Jesus Christ is, that we realize Him truly as Lord and Savior, and we begin
to have an experiential knowledge of that inside. This does not mean I’m
perfect! But something new is there, so there’s nothing wrong in saying, “it’s
a new experience of the Holy Spirit making Jesus more real and alive for me.”
But to give it the general term “spirit-filled” causes problems. If I call
myself “spirit-filled” then it means there must be others who aren’t
“spirit-filled.”
Q: Could we say
“born-again”?
A (Fr. Bob): We can’t say it
too short—we Catholics are long-winded! A good starting basis for explaining
what has happened to us is: 1) “I’ve had an experience of the Holy Spirit being
renewed, awakened and made alive in me in a way that made Jesus more personally
real”; 2) “I now experience God as someone Who actually is guiding me”; and 3)
“I experience God’s power and strength to follow His ways, a strength that I
know is more than myself.” A simplistic example may help: we’re like a glass of
milk. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, chocolate syrup (Jesus and the
Holy Spirit) is poured into us, but it needs to get stirred up. As we exercise
faith, hope, and love through prayer and the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit begins
to affect more and more of us, just as a spoon stirs the chocolate syrup into
more and more of the milk. That is what being open to the Holy Spirit is meant
to do.
Q: How do we encourage a
person who is new to the gift of prophecy to exercise their gift? What if they
are too shy to come up to the microphone in a large meeting; how can their gift
be discerned and encouraged?
A (Fr. Bob): In any large
gathering you need to have a discerner. You need to have someone to go to. At
any big National meeting there are always one or two people on the team who are
discerners. A person goes and shares at least the gist of what they’re saying
and those people discern if this fits, how it fits, when it should fit. . .
Q: That’s not what I’m
asking. Let’s say a person has just gone through a Life in the Spirit Seminar
and they feel they have received the gift of prophecy. But they feel too
bashful to go up to the microphone. Should they just speak it out from where
they are in the prayer group body? Or should they be told to wait until they
can come up and share it with everybody?
A (Fr. Bob): It depends on
the order of the group. If the order of the group is that we always speak in
the microphone, then they all need to speak in the microphone. If the group’s
order is that they can speak from their place or from the microphone, then they
can do either. We can encourage people by once in a while bringing together
those who feel they have been receiving gifts of prophecy, or who feel the Lord
wants them to be open to prophecy. Those who are more experienced with prophecy
can teach the less experienced. It even talks in Scripture about prophets
discerning prophets, so they can get some teaching and can be open to how the
Holy Spirit works.
May God Bless You,
Fr. Bob Hogan, S.M.