from Pentecost by El Greco (1596)
OF course, a reflection on the “gift of tongues” is going to stir controversy. And this doesn’t surprise me since it is probably the most misunderstood of all charisms. And so, I hope to answer some of the questions and comments I’ve received over the past few days on this subject, particularly as the popes continue to pray for a “new Pentecost”…[1]cf. Charismatic? – Part VI
Footnotes
| ↑1 | cf. Charismatic? – Part VI |
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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for April 25th, 2016
Feast of St. Mark
Liturgical texts here
AT a Steubenville conference several years ago, Papal household preacher, Fr. Raneiro Cantalamessa, recounted the story of how St. John Paul II emerged one day from his chapel at the Vatican, excitedly exclaiming that he had received the “gift of tongues.” [1]Correction: I had initially thought it was Dr. Ralph Martin who told this story. Fr. Bob Bedard, the late founder of the Companions of the Cross, was one of the priests present to hear this testimony from Fr. Raneiro. Here we have a pope, one of the greatest theologians of our times, witnessing to the reality of a charism rarely seen or heard in the Church today that Jesus and St. Paul spoke of.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Correction: I had initially thought it was Dr. Ralph Martin who told this story. Fr. Bob Bedard, the late founder of the Companions of the Cross, was one of the priests present to hear this testimony from Fr. Raneiro. |
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Revolution: “Love” backwards
SINCE Christianity’s beginnings, whenever revolution has broken out against her, it has most often come like a thief in the night.
Many new readers have come on board in the past few months. It is on my heart to republish this today. As I go back and read this, I am continually startled and even moved as I see that many of these “words”—often received in tears and many doubts—are coming to pass before our eyes…
IT has been on my heart for several months now to summarize for my readers the personal “words” and “warnings” I feel the Lord has communicated to me in the past decade, and that have shaped and inspired these writings. Everyday, there are several new subscribers coming on board who have no history with the over one thousand writings here. Before I summarize these “inspirations”, it is helpful to repeat what the Church says about “private” revelation:
Christ and the Good Thief, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), c. 1566
THERE is so much confusion today as to what “love” and “mercy” and “compassion” mean. So much so that even the Church in many places has lost her clarity, the force of truth that at once beckons sinners and repels them. This is no more evident than at that moment on Calvary when God shares the shame of two thieves…
THERE is a far greater plan behind the Lenten Retreat which so many of you just participated in. The call at this hour to intense prayer, the renewal of the mind, and faithfulness to the Word of God is actually a preparation for Reign—the reign of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
BASKING in the warmth of the charcoal fire Jesus has lit through our Lenten Retreat; sitting in the glow of His nearness and Presence; listening to the ripples of His ineffable Mercy gently caressing the shore of my heart… I have a few random thoughts left over from our forty days of reflection.