Life in the Spirit Seminars

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARS

(First published in New Pentecost Magazine, January 1987 – February 1989)

“Excellent articles” (Ralph Martin, Ann Arbor)

1.   FOUR BASIC TRUTHS

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Roman soldier who was earnestly desiring to find truth, and approached a Jewish Rabbi and asked him what his faith teaches.  Just as the Rabbi reached out to pick up a rather large and bulky scroll of the Old Testament, the soldier gently placed his hand on the Rabbi’s arm to constrain him and said, “Please!  I haven’t got all day.  Just tell me in a few words what your faith is all about.  In fact, stand on one leg and tell me – that should encourage you to be brief!”

How many of us have been perplexed as Christians to explain the beautiful treasures of our faith in a few words!  Our Bible is so much longer than the Rabbi’s, and as Catholics we have the extra Deutero-Canonical books as well!

As Assistant Novice Master, I have often asked our novices over the years to answer this question:  “Why is the gospel good news, and what’s good about it?” Answers have not always been particularly short or lucid!  Also, as a pastor, I have often been bewildered by the vast amount of catechetical literature produced today.  When we wade through it with our people, they have forgotten the beginning before we reach the end!  People often cannot see the wood for the trees.  Also, we Catholics have such a rich tradition produced over many centuries that seeing the essentials from the often fascinating peripherals can be difficult.

St. Therese of Lisieux apparently had these difficulties.  She wrote in a letter to a missionary:  “Sometimes when I read books ... with the goal obstructed by a thousand obstacles, my poor little head is quickly fatigued.  I close the learned treatise which tires my brain and dries up my heart, and I turn to the Sacred Scriptures.  Then all becomes clear and full of light...  I am looking for a means to go to heaven by a short cut, by a quick, straight and simple route.

As a missionary, I could wholeheartedly concur with her words.  Oh, for a short cut – a quick, straight and simple route to lead people to heaven!  I was convinced that our faith can be put very simply and that difficulties shouldn’t arise so much in the presentations as in the putting of it into practice!

Then I was invited to a ‘Life in the Spirit Seminar’* in another parish.  I decided not to participate but to apply for “observer status”!  It was well worthwhile.  Each night, over a week, I heard the essential message of the gospel and our faith put with attractive simplicity, but without being simplistic.

The four basic truths were clearly spelt out – these are a four point summary of the basic elements of the gospel! – the core message.  They are as simple as ABC and D to state, and like the great mysteries of our faith, inexhaustible in their import.

I was very taken by this presentation of our faith by a young and dedicated Catholic lay person.  The promises of Christ to us, as well as His demands on us, were succinctly and powerfully put.  There was no room for compromise, for in the case of Jesus’ own presentations, no one remained indifferent when Jesus preached – they were either moved to teeth-rattling, or worship at His feet!  Nobody remained unmoved.

During the Seminar a large number of participants, moved to repentance, went to the Sacrament of Reconciliation – some for the first time in years.  I was very impressed!  I drove home wondering how I could incorporate these basic truths into my own evangelisation and catechesis.

The next morning at the community Mass in the friary, the chief celebrant chose Eucharistic Prayer No. 4.  This new prayer was specially written after the Second Vatican Council to give an overview of salvation history.  As the celebrant took up this lovely prayer again after the “Holy, Holy, Holy”, I was struck by the reappearance of the four basic truths I had heard the night before at the Seminar!  Again at the evening prayer of the community, the third canticle from Ephesians repeated the same message.  Liturgically and scripturally the four basic truths were well based!  (See appendix)

I wondered why I had not noticed them before.  I decided to look up my trusty old school catechism – there they were again, but slightly obscured by the traditional language used, viz. Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation and the Redemption.  I looked up an American Catechism and the splendid Mariannhill Zulu catechisms – the “Elikhulu” and the “Elincane”.  Again the four truths were followed in the classification of the material presented.

So for the next few weeks I was busy tearing up catechisms, snipping away with scissors and pasting out on A4 paper (what else!) a whole catechism clearly subdivided into four units corresponding with the four basic truths, and faithful to the General Catechetical Directory’s list of the “more outstanding elements of the Christian message”.  This was then photo-enlarged onto A3 paper and pasted up on the walls of my outstations each week as I gave a catechism class to all after Sunday Mass.  During the Mass I had used Eucharistic Prayer No. 4 to prepare people for the four truths to follow.

It was a great success and I sold more catechisms in a few months than in many years – even adults wanted to buy them.  The catechism teachers were delighted.  “It’s so simple”, they said!  And so it should be.  The gospel is meant to be light not fog!  Christ brought a gospel that even children can understand.  The four truths are Christ-centred and scripturally based and they are meant to affect our whole lives and our morality.  Every decision we make, every judgement we render, every action we propose to take has a moral dimension and also a religious dimension if we think of religion as having to do with the value centre on the basis of which we value everything else.  Good life-centred catechesis this!

All the church members wrote down the four truths in their catechisms and many learnt them by heart.  One teacher, on her own initiative, got all her class to act out two of the truths, and a leader, using a glove of four colours, gave a delightful presentation of them to all.  I told my people that these four truths should be the starting point if anyone asks them to give an account of our Catholic faith.

So what are these wonderful four truths?  They can be found beautifully summarised in that most sublime of all the apostles, Paul’s writings – the letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 1, Verses 3 to 14 (Jerusalem Bible).  They are very simple to express and fathomless in scope and can be an endless source for meditation and prayer.  Here they are with the traditional term in brackets:-

1.         First Basic Truth (Creation)

            God loves us and has created us for a special purpose and has a wonderful plan for         our lives so it can be full and happy with meaning and purpose.

            But many people are not experiencing this abundant life.  Why is this?

2.         Second Basic Truth (The Fall)

            Man is sinful due to the Fall and separated from God, and therefore he cannot know          God’s love and plan, nor share in God’s life with other people.

3.         The Third Basic Truth gives us the only answer to this dilemma (incarnation):              Jesus is the only one who can give us power to live this life free from sin.  Through   Him we can know God’s love and plan for our lives.

4.         Fourth Basic Truth (Redemption)

            But more is needed than just knowing this – our response must be to accept Jesus          into our lives as our Saviour and enter into a personal relationship with Him.  Then   we will receive His Holy Spirit and experience the power to live a new life according       to God’s will and plan for us.

What could be simpler and more sublime?

Over the next few months we shall develop these truths one by one.

*           The Life in the Spirit Seminars Team Manual (Catholic Edition), 1979,

            Servant Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

2.   GOD’S LOVE

God loves us and has created us for a special purpose and has a wonderful plan for our lives so they can be full and happy with meaning and purpose.

At Van Reenen, on the N3, between the cities of Durban and Johannesburg, there is a little church.  The sign outside proudly boasts to the thousands of visitors that it is the smallest one in South Africa.  As the priest in charge of this little church, I often said Mass there since it lies in our parish of St. Joseph’s.

It was built in 1926 to commemorate a very brave man.  When the coal mine collapsed in Glencoe, many people were killed and many others were trapped deep down in the hot, humid earth.  To attempt to rescue them would be very dangerous as tons of earth was still poised ready to collapse.  But one young man decided he was going down in a rescue bid as his friends were trapped.  His father and friends strongly advised him not to go.  But he insisted.

Slowly, in the dark pit, he made his way down to where he could hear miners groaning in pain.  Many were trapped under large rocks.  Carefully he assisted the first man out, and, carrying him on his shoulders, made his way to the top where the cool breeze and bright sunlight welcomed them.  Eight times he went down the mine, saving eight badly injured miners.  On the ninth trip the mine collapsed and the brave young man was killed.  He saved his friends and gave his life for them.  His sorrowing father decided to build a memorial to his brave son, and that is the origin of the Catholic Chapel at Van Reenen’s Pass.  It has only eight seats – in memory of the eight men saved.

Holy Scripture tells us that God loves us and created us as unique individuals for His own special plan and purpose.  To convince slow-to-believe mankind, God sent His Son, Jesus, to suffer and die for us, for no greater love can be shown than by a life freely laid down for friendship’s sake.  Scripture informs us that God is love and has a plan for each one of us.  The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God’s plans are for our welfare, and to give us a future full of hope, not misfortune (Jer. 29:11).  Through His Son, Jesus, God’s plan is not only made known to us, but brought about, we learn in Ephesians (Ch. 1:9-10).  Christ stated that He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10)

One of Satan’s greatest weapons, after discouragement, is making us despair of God’s goodness and love – making us think that God is a harsh policeman crouched ready to spring and punish the unwary who break His laws.  When we want to see what God is really like we have to examine Jesus in the gospels, for He said: “To have seen Me is to have seen the Father.” (Jn. 14:9)

Jesus, in his parable of the prodigal son, tells us that God is a loving Father who scans the horizon eagerly for the return of His lost children (Luke 15:11ff).  In His kingdom He is joined by angels who seemingly keep watch, like the two kind-hearted old gentlemen in the Charles Dickens story who, well concealed behind lace curtains, rejoice at the least sign of goodness and kindness in the crowds milling in the street down below their window.

Jesus tells us that all the angels in heaven rejoice when there is a soul saved (Luke 15:10) – a heavenly explosion of joy that must put sun, moon and stars in the shade!  The angels, or “morning stars”, that rejoiced in God’s act of creation, (Job 38:7) rejoice still, it seems, at the spiritual progress of God’s creatures.

A few years ago a little book appeared in Catholic bookshops with just these words on the cover: “We Believe – by a Priest”.  The anonymous person responsible was a Father A.N. Gilbey, chaplain to Oxford University graduates for many years.  Over a period he had instructed many in the faith and given many talks based simply on the “Penny Catechism”.  He believed a child should be able to understand our faith and, throughout life, never cease to grow in appreciation of its depth and height and breadth.  In tribute to this humble priest, his students at Oxford tape-recorded his talks and had them published as “We Believe”.

Fr. Gilbey believed that the first two questions in the catechism were the most important:

            Q.1 : Who made you?

                     God made me.

            Q.2 : Why did God make you?

                    God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, and to                               be  happy with Him forever in the next.

He believed these were so important because so many people are tempted to think of life as a haphazard series of events with no meaning or purpose – a hopeless, futile life of despair, as the famous French atheist, Jean Paul Sartre, described in his writings.  Interestingly, it is little known that Sartre disavowed his entire writings and life before he died, subscribing instead to the idea of a loving God who created us individually for a special purpose and plan.

It is unfortunate that so many Christians do not know God’s love personally, for the Bible is quite clear that God can be personally experienced by us, His creatures.

Let me give you one example I know well.  A young man was converted to Christ, after reading the gospels and being moved to the depths of his heart by Jesus, God Incarnate, weeping for human beings.  This love of God touched him very deeply.  Later on he felt abandoned by God, but still kept on praying.  Lent was approaching and he decided to keep it fervently by greater prayer and fasting in the hope that God would fill his dry and empty heart.  He remained faithful to his Lenten resolution and avoided the usual pitfalls of fasting – bad temper and self-righteousness!  One night as Lent was drawing to a close, he had an experience of God’s love which assured him beyond doubt that God was a real father who loved him personally.  He felt as if God had cradled him in his arms like a baby.  After his experience he could confidently say like Job, “I knew you by what was said of you, but now I have really known you!” (Job 42:5), and “I know that my Redeemer lives.” (Job 19:25)  This experience gave this young man a new sense of confidence and poise, a feeling of self-worth – that he was a unique being personally created by a loving God.  He was gradually changed from being an unhealthy introvert to an outward-going, self-confident person.

But why do so few Christians seem to experience this new abundant life and love and remain ignorant of God’s plan for their lives?  Many live lives of quiet desperation and joylessness.

We shall answer this in the next article which will look at the second basic truth, sin, as presented in the Life in the Spirit Seminars.         

  

3.   SEPARATED FROM GOD

Man is sinful due to the Fall and separated from God and therefore cannot know God’s love and plan, nor share in God’s life with other people.

Before coming to South Africa in 1980, I studied at a large missionary institute in London.  I decided as a matter of policy that as a missionary I would stress in my preaching only the attractiveness of virtue and avoid ‘negative’ things like sin, hell, judgement, suffering, the wrath of God and so on!

But after a few years as a pastor I was not very impressed with the level of faith among my converts, as some had returned to their old pagan customs even though at their baptism they had specifically renounced these things.  However, I was very impressed by some of the older Catholics who were brought into the Church by priests regarded as very strict and who did stress the ‘negative’ things I mentioned above!  Though strict, these old priests were greatly loved and admired.  They had demanded a total break with the old ways without compromise or use of the old with the new, just as the first missionaries in Europe had done among the barbarians.

One day I had the good fortune to see a T.V. programme about Kwasizabantu, a remarkable interdenominational centre for healing and evangelisation in Zululand.  The programme mentioned that the traditional moral standards and codes of the Zulu people are in many ways extremely close, if not identical, to scripturally dictated norms.  Strong traditional family and tribal discipline and obedience among the Zulu probably explains why it is easier for them to accept and observe what the Bible says.  The programme went on to say that the Zulu respect strict moral codes; probably one of the great barriers to their acceptance of Christianity is the seemingly weak discipline in the white social system.  Kwasizabantu demands a complete commitment to Christ, and gets it – as a new runway and superbowl testify to the increasing number coming for help.

I remembered back at the Missionary Institute that one of our lecturers, the famous writer, Douglas Hyde, had stated that “Christianity without high ideals, which makes no call for sacrifice, which stresses that it demands only the minimum of men and not their whole lives, will be something which makes no impression on them.  Why desert the easy ways where sin is no problem and eternity does not exist for a lukewarm creed practised in a half-hearted fashion?”

I decided I had a lot to learn from other missionaries longer in the field than I – especially those who had demanded greater sacrifices and had produced such excellent people of integrity and fidelity.  So I went off for three months to pray and look at the experiences of other missionaries and at my own conversion experience.

First I looked at the founder of my own order, St. Francis of Assisi, who was a fiercely uncompromising follower of Jesus Christ.  He advised his missionaries just to preach on the vices and virtues, punishment and glory, for as he said, “The pleasure of sin is fleeting, but its punishment is eternal.  Suffering is light, but the glory to come is infinite”. 

I had often wondered what missionaries had taught the Martyrs of Uganda that had produced such an extraordinary harvest of souls – some of them no more than little boys.  “Severe conditions” were imposed before admitting a candidate to baptism, I read.  The Catechumenate was normally four years.  Nobody was baptised unless he was prepared to live a good Christian life and had to be ready to die rather than renounce his faith.  Before Baptism the missionaries also considered whether or not the catechumen lived in surroundings where he could practise his faith without hindrance.  The small catechism produced in Uganda contained the four basic truths and the essentials of the faith.  Death rather than sin was strongly stressed.

I began to see that in my misplaced desire not to tax people too much and avoid “negative” things like sin, hell, judgement and so on, I had done people a great disservice and had not been true to the Bible or our tradition.  If people are dying of cancer and the doctor refuses to tell them because the word “cancer” may shock, they may die when they could have had treatment and lived.  Padre Pio said it is better to shock people when they are still alive than for them to be shocked when they die!  Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul, has declared that we must call a sin a sin, and not something else.  Unfortunately, we allow psychology or anthropology to dictate norms to us instead of letting God’s word.

The Bible makes it very clear that there is a great battle going on in the world and that “we are not fighting against human beings, but against wicked spiritual forces” (Eph. 6:12).  In line with Holy Scripture the Second Vatican Council has stated that “all of human life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness” and that “a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man.  The battle began with the very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested.  Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good.  Nor can he achieve his own integrity without valiant efforts and the help of God’s grace.”  (Gaudium et spes 13, 37).  This needs to be stressed in Catechisms, even for children who have to face an increasing and sustained attack against their innocence.

Of course, as a good liberal with an over-optimistic view of the world and human nature, I had questioned and avoided things that I took exception to – like angels, and the greatest of them, Satan.  Since Leviathon in the Old Testament was “a personification of the evil forces of the primeval chaos”, I thought Satan perhaps could be similarly explained away, even though Pope Paul VI had warned that Satan is “a living spiritual being, which is perverted and which perverts.  A terrible, mysterious and fearful reality, this hidden and disturbing being truly exists, and with unbelievable cunningness, still is at work.  He is the hidden enemy who sows errors and disasters in human history”.

But no matter how hard I tried, I could not dispose of Satan without doing grave damage to sacred scripture like Marcion, whom Tertullian attacked for doing “exegesis with a pen knife”!  Marcion did not like the idea of a God of wrath so he decided to cut out all references in scripture to God’s wrath, anger or justice, and was left only with Luke’s gospel and a few chapters from Paul!    I had a hang-up about God’s wrath and took exception to Niehbuhr’s famous statement:  “His God (the liberal) will be a God without wrath who brings men without sin into a kingdom without judgement, through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross”.

But we can’t dispose of God’s wrath just because we find the concept unacceptable.  It is only from the Bible that we discover that God is a God of love, as it is not a self-evident truth and neither nature nor mankind reveal this.  Now the same Bible teaches that God is also a God of justice who always punishes sin (1 Thess. 4:6).

My own conversion was an inseparable compound of attraction to the God of Jesus Christ and fear of offending His love.  I remember the first time I read those disturbing words of Jesus that challenged my complacency:  “Because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).

I have come to see that God’s character is like a coin ... on one side love and on the other justice.  Both of these I now see have to be stressed in evangelisation.  If we stress love and ignore punishment, it can lead to presumption.  If we stress punishment without love, it can lead to despair.  Cardinal Newman said that the fear and love of God need to be constantly stressed and that it is love which makes Christian fear different from servile dread, and true faith differ from the faith of devils.  Yet in the beginning of the religious life, fear is the predominant evangelical grace”.”

Reflecting on my own conversion and that of others, I see that conversion seems to work like this:  A good presentation of the horror of sin seems to convict people of their evil and brings on a crisis.  “How can we be saved?”  They become aware of the vast abyss of sin between the God of holiness and man (Divine Office).  Awareness of sin’s real nature leads to a terrible fear that it could be mortal.  This “salutary fear” leads to a search for a way to be saved, and God says. “If you seek Me, you will find Me, if you seek Me with all your heart!” (Jer. 29:13).  God reveals His precious love to those who really seek His face.

But if we trivialize sin, tell people not to worry about it, try to relieve the mental pressures that play on the mind, people will remain complacently where they are until it is too late.  The greater one’s plight when one is saved, the greater one’s chance of remaining faithful and true to one’s conversion until the end of one’s life – so deep is the gratitude and love for the One who did so much for us.

To trivialize sin is to trivialize the whole drama of salvation which took place to rectify the damage caused by sin.  It is also to trivialize the great drama of Christ’s passion and death and reduce it to a futile and senseless melodrama.

To trivialize sin is to trivialize life.  Rosemary Haughton gives an example of this in the culture of the Samoans before Christianity.  Premarital sex, she says, was “everyone’s favourite sport”.  The result of all this was a free and easy, permissive atmosphere in which nobody felt very strongly about anyone else, and sexual “passion” or “being in love” was just not done.  In this situation, she says, sex is used to defuse emotions and passions – to unbend the springs of action and enervate the soul.  So the art of the Samoans was crude and limited and rather dull.  There were no passionate love songs like the “Song of Songs” which shows the passionate love of God for man.  God is a passionate lover who is jealous of infidelity.  It is no accident in the “Song of Songs” that love, strong as death, is inseparably connected with jealousy hard as hell.

To trivialize sin is to trivialize culture.  Arnold Toynbee, one of the greatest experts on culture, studied at great length why European culture and civilisation was so rich and advanced compared to other world cultures.  He dismissed racial factors and concluded it had a lot to do with the strong discipline that Christianity brought to Europe, which had the good fortune of receiving the gospel first.  Discipline and a strict morality meant chastity and purity before marriage, allowing children to imbibe a good all-round education before the awakening of disorderly sexual urges.  Free gratification of men’s instinctive needs is incompatible with civilised society: renunciation and delay in satisfaction are the prerequisites of progress.  For culture to flourish there must be discipline and self-control.

By evangelisation, by calling sin sin, by calling people to repent and lead a new life in conformity with God’s plan and purpose, this is one of the greatest things we can do for others.  We help them attain the power to be good, pure, chaste, work for justice and not lose hope easily, do acts of compassion for the needy, to love and forgive enemies and avoid the temptation to revenge.

St. Catherine of Sienna has said that: “the death of God’s own Son is no joke.  Something awful happened to require it and something awful happens if we reject it.”  Newman says that so great a price (the atonement) as was paid for the remission of sin supposes an unimaginable debt.  If the need was not immense, would such a sacrifice have been called for?  The early martyrs give us their sense of it; they considered their torments as a deliverance from their full deserts, and felt that, had they recanted, it would have been at the risk of their eternal welfare.

A gospel of compromise and expediency produces compromising and expedient Christians.  A gospel with no backbone will produce spineless and insipid Christians.  Law seems to be disparaged today.  But “the law was given that grace might be sought and grace was given that the law might be fulfilled” (Aquinas) and St. Augustine: “What God commands (by 10 Commandments etc), he makes possible by his grace”.  (CCC.2082)

The Holy Spirit is the ‘Spirit of Grace’ (Heb. 10:29) and by watering down the law on say, divorce and marriage, we are ignoring the power of the Holy Spirit who comes to help us in our weakness again and again.  (cf. Rom. 8:26)

But the world, the flesh and the devil, aided and abetted by the communications media, have eroded the sense of sin.  Years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger, the famous writer and psychiatrist, wrote in his book, “Whatever Became of Sin?”, that our prisons are bulging because modern man cannot discover his sin.  Menninger pleaded that we have to make the healthy discovery that we are sinners, because a sinner is one who says: “I am responsible for my unloving actions and I can change.”

But long before Menninger, Pope Pius XII said: “the sin of our century is the loss of the sense of sin”.

This was recently repeated by Pope John Paul II.  He said that to understand the true meaning of salvation we must understand the meaning of sin.

This we hope to do in the next article when we look at sin in concrete detail.

4.   SALVATION

“Refreshingly Candid” (Dorothy Ramoghan)

Reprinted in NSC Chariscenter U.S.A., March 1988, and in Telis Magazine (U.S.A.) 14(1990)5S

Jesus is the only one who can give us power to live a new life free from sin.  Through Him we can know God’s love and plan for our lives.

“She is to have a son and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

God himself became incarnate in flesh and blood to save us from the terrible plight we had got into by our sin.  Salvation from sin comes through Jesus alone.  He is the true liberator who liberates us from sin.  But acknowledgement of sin is essential to salvation.  If we don’t recognise sin how can we be saved from sin?  St. Gregory said, “Perhaps my very recognition of failure will win me pardon from a sympathetic judge”.  Our recognition of failure and of the “vast abyss of sin between the God of holiness and man” (Divine Office) elicits the response that God loves so dearly – a humble, contrite heart like King David in Psalm 51.  This Psalm reminds us that every sin can be compared to the sin of adultery because of the tender and loyal love of God which is violated.

So let us have a more detailed look at the thing that God and the Bible have such a “hang-up” about and the world so ignores - sin.  As we saw in the last article, “the sin of our century is the loss of the sense of sin´ (Pope Pius XII).

“Everyone who commits sin is the slave to sin” (Jn. 8:34).  Sin is not only murder and stealing, fiddling and dodging.  We sin when we come short of God’s glory or of the standard He sets for us not our neighbours (Rom. 3:23).  We sin when we live for ourselves rather than for God.  We sin when we say: “I’m my own boss, it’s my own body or life, and I can do what I like with it.”  Even sin committed in secret can affect society.

We sin when we refuse to put our complete trust in Jesus Christ alone and come under the obedience of faith.  We sin when we put our trust in the ancestors or slaughter for them to gain their protection.  God is a jealous God and hates this.  The dead really exist and communication with them is strictly forbidden by the Bible.  King Saul died for his disobedience in these matters (1 Chron. 10:13).  We don’t know why God forbids consulting the dead, but as the Americans say: “You’d better believe it!”  Pope Paul II, on his last visit to Africa, has warned of the danger of mixing the cult of ancestors with the legitimate veneration of the saints.  (Asking the saints to intercede for you is not the same as putting your trust in the ancestors to protect you or change circumstances in your life).  The Bible also has strong opinions against any occult practices like fortune telling, charms, horoscopes, astrology (Is. 47:13) or consulting sangomas (mediums).  It warns too of the danger of “lying dreams” (Jer. 23:32).

We sin when we don’t do the things we should – sins of omission are just as strongly condemned as sins of commission (James 4:17).  So living the Beatitudes is just as important as not breaking the commandments.  Turning a blind eye to injustice, torture or oppression is a serious matter (Exod. 2).  Oppression of the poor is one of the “four sins crying out to heaven for vengeance”.  But we may not take vengeance ourselves instead of leaving it to God, for that is sin too.

We sin when we do not love God with all our heart, soul and mind.  A Christian should be “bananas for Jesus” – one who is preoccupied with Jesus day and night, as with a personal friend.

The New Testament warns that there are certain sins that are deadly or mortal sins (1 Jn. 5:16).  People who commit these without repenting are listed by St. Paul, and in Revelation, as never entering the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8, 22:15).  The same St. Paul who could write so eloquently about God’s love could also write with passionate fury about those who reject God’s love. (See Galatians)  He metes out curses as well as blessings.  For the sake of clarity we could list these people mentioned in St. Paul and Revelation under ten headings corresponding to the Ten Commandments.

1.         Idol worshippers (infatuation with something other than God alone is regarded as                  idol worship in Scripture, e.g. money or sex); dabblers in the occult; people                            deliberately  ignorant of their faith; the proud; moral cowards; sangomas and those                who sacrifice for the dead; those who act against their conscience; giving bad                         example; being flippant and irreverent about holy things.

2.         Those who swear and curse.

3.         The lazy; those who fail to live out their faith; those who do not keep the Lord’s Day                holy.

4.         The impious and disrespectful.

5.         Murderers; drunkards; those who commit abortion or destroy others by gossip; those            consumed by anger; those who show contempt for other human beings made in                    God’s image; condoning euthanasia.

6.        Adulterers; fornicators; those who indulge in homosexual acts; masturbation; child                 abuse or other forms of sexual impurity, including contraception.

7.         Thieves, extortionists; exploiters.

8.         Liars and hypocrites.

9.         Those indulging in obscenities; pornography.

10.       Those consumed by envy, jealousy or selfishness.

Many people who are deceived by Satan, the father of lies, think it is easy to enter the Kingdom, and that nobody goes to hell.  Just because the notion of hell, like the notion of sin, is unfashionable, it does not mean that it doesn’t exist!   Picking or choosing our theologians will not alter the fact that Scripture and the teaching Magisterium of the Church have always been adamant about these things.  C.S. Lewis always wondered “at the selective theology of the Christian exegete who, after swallowing the camel of the Resurrection, strains at such gnats as the feeding of the multitudes”!

You can even get theologians of different denominations who water down the uniqueness of Christ, saying that conversion to Christ’s gospel is not necessary for salvation.  Some theologians speculate about pagans as “anonymous Christians” and other theologians with missionary experience dismiss this as absurd.  Fortunately we have the Church’s teaching authority and it is quite clear about the Great Commission: to go make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Trinity.  Endless speculation about the possibility of salvation of the non-baptised is something best left to God – fulfilling the Great Commission is something He left up to us.  How can we fail to tell the world about the one dearest to us?

Ralph Martin says that “much spreading syncretism in the Church’s Missionary work takes place under the rubric of cultural adaptation of the Gospel to indigenous cultures”.  Jesus warned of the danger of neglecting God’s commands in favour of mere human customs (Mark 7:8-9).  Christianizing paganism can easily become the paganising of Christianity.  Recent statements by the Popes to clear up Second Vatican Council misunderstandings make it very clear that “missionary proclamation has conversion as its goal” and is an urgent necessity.  This is because Christ is the only one who can save us from our sins and give us the power to live a new life – an abundant life – free from sin.  Through Him alone we can know God’s love and plan for our lives.

The lives of many Christians are ravaged by the cancer of sin e.g. greed, race hate or impurity.  But since these are excused or ignored by society, they just carry on being eaten alive by their hates and impurities.  Many try to find happiness by putting their trust in money, drugs, or sexual promiscuity.  There is a God-shaped vacuum, Pascal said, in every heart.  Some try to fill it with philosophy like Jean-Paul Sartre, others by non-Christian religions including the fraudulent Transcendental Meditation, some by activism or good works.  Others seek the answer in politics like Kwame Nkrumah who said, “Seek first the political kingdom”.  Others in Marxism (a pathological form of the search for justice) or in Fascism, now becoming a problem in this country.  But Jesus alone can satisfy our hungry hearts and free us from tenacious feelings of guilt.  It has happened to me.  I found new life, and so can you!

5.   THE GAMBLE

When I was at High School, I went through a difficult period in my life, hating school, as I was not a good student, and fearful of what career I would pursue when and IF I finished school.  Life in ugly Belfast with its drab grey streets and violent hates seemed a useless, meaningless existence, a tedious cycle of rising, working, eating, sleeping.  I was often sick and felt this was a terrible world full of sick and suffering people.  For me, life was miserable and since I was not a convinced Christian, I was really terrified of death.  Though we had to learn big chunks of the Bible by heart, I found it a boring book.  I went to church because I had to.  Jesus meant nothing to me.  I thought He was like the plastic kitsch statues – impotent, meek and mild!

I looked into other religions but only Islam attracted me, perhaps because, like my mother, I loved Arab and Persian literature and romantic Moorish music.  I looked at philosophy which left me cold.  However, one philosopher stuck in my mind.  He said that the good moral life was its own reward and even if there is no heavenly recompense, we will have been fulfilled in this life by a good moral life as opposed to an undisciplined life of debauchery.  I agreed.  But how does one get the power to live a good moral life and overcome temptation?

I decided to give Christianity another chance.  After all, the nuns who taught me as a child were good, sincere people who seemed happily fulfilled and really loved Jesus.  At the beginning of the new academic year we all had to go on a Sixth Formers’ Retreat.  I decided to try and read St. Augustine’s “Confessions”, but it only bored me stiff after a few pages and, like my companions, I wasted the time smoking till I was green in the face!

I got more depressed and used to go for long walks at night, wondering what to do and what life is all about.  At High School we were studying Hamlet and I shared many of his sentiments, though Hamlet himself struck me as a ruthless, self-righteous character.  He complained: “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world”.  Hamlet felt death was not the answer as what lies beyond may be worse!

I took to reading gloomy writers like Sartre and Ibsen, and listening to the gloomiest jazz and the atonal music of Berg and Webern.  I hated life and feared death which I saw as being merged into a cold impersonal universe.  St. Augustine, in his “Confessions”, summed it up well: “For I was sick and tired of living, yet afraid to die... my soul found no peace in song and laughter, none in the company of friends, at table, nor even in books or poetry”.

One wintry Sunday afternoon I was sitting by the fireside at home reading the Sunday papers.  I came across a book review about a famous French scientist who had a great love for the Jesus I had dismissed, and who wrote a critique of Mohammed.  The latter I admired till I discovered he liquidated hundreds of Jews at Medina because they disagreed with his plans!  I bought a copy of the book reviewed in the paper – the Pensees by Pascal.  I hid it carefully as I did not want anyone to think I was “getting religious”.  Someone discovered me reading it and cynically gave me a New Testament which I indignantly threw away

My depression deepened, but I kept searching and reading.  Finally I remembered what Pascal said about hunting: “there is more joy in the excitement of the chase than in bagging the quarry, and when the journey is interesting, it is better to travel than to arrive.  So with cards and with the search for truth.  During a debate we enjoy following the collision of opinions; we are not so pleased with the truth that emerges from the debate”.

I believed in God but did not want to make a commitment or submit to Him “lest having Him, I must have nought besides”.  I wanted my autonomy more than I wanted God.  In all of us there lies a spirit of rebellion preventing us from humility before God, holding us back from bending the knee before the mystery of God and the church He established.

Pascal said that if it turns out that Christianity is true, we have everything to gain, but if it turns out to be false, we have nothing to lose.  We should accept the inevitable risk of faith and gamble on the truth of Christianity.

Pascal referred constantly to the Bible, especially the Psalms. So I decided there might be something in the old book after all.  I began reading the family Bible, beginning with the Psalms of David.  Here was a real soul brother, as was the Preacher in Ecclesiastes – “Vanity of vanities – all is vanity”.  Pascal said, “the heart has its reasons” that the intellect cannot understand.  I found philosophy and other religions cold by comparison with the very human story of a God born in a poor stable and who could weep over the world’s plight.  Here was a religion of the heart, not a warlike religion like Islam.  Yes!  Christians had killed too, but then, as Ghandi observed, it was against everything that Christ had preached and stood for.  Muslims could justify their violence by appealing to Mohammed’s precedent in killing the Jews at Medina.

One cold winter’s night I decided the search was over and to “gamble on the truth of Christianity”.  I knelt down at my bedside and by an act of the will committed my life completely to Christ, using a formula I had come across some time before in reading Dostoyevsky, the Russian writer:

“I believe that there is nothing on earth more beautiful, more profound, more appealing, more virile, or more perfect than Christ; and I say to myself with jealous    love, that greater than He does not and cannot exist.  More than this, should anyone prove to me that Christ is beyond the range of truth, and that all this is not to be  found in Him, I would prefer to retain Christ than to retain the truth”.

I decided to gamble everything on Christ no matter what came along; to put all my trust in Him for good or evil because without Him nothing made sense.  In the words of Job: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him”.  (Job 13:15)

That was in the winter of 1966 at home in Belfast, and was the turning point in my life.  It was the beginning of a great adventure with Christ and the start of one of life’s longest journeys – the one from the head to the heart!

I began to notice that my life was changing, as did others.  I began going to daily Mass and discovered the incredible power in the Sacraments, especially the Mass and Confession.  I went to Confession to an old priest whom I’m sure never heard a word I said!  But, nevertheless, afterwards I felt as if a great burden had been lifted off my shoulders like Bunyan’s Pilgrim.  Subsequent Confessions brought me great joy.  One of the most immediate results of my giving my life to Christ and one that I clearly noticed, was that now I had power over temptation.  The other results were less immediate, but just as life-changing.  I discovered a great desire to know more about the Jesus that I had committed my life to and began avidly reading a paperback edition of the four gospels, which I have to this day.

I read it on the bus or at school as I was no longer afraid of people’s opinions.  Hope became a very powerful thing in my life, which had been so bereft of it before, and the fear of death gradually disappeared with the realisation that “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. (Phil. 1:21)

Prayer was no longer a chore but a need to talk to the one I loved more than anybody else.  I joined the intercessory “Apostleship of Prayer” and began meditating on the fifteen decades of the Rosary each day.  I broke the habit of excessive television watching from test-card to the epilogue!  Time was too precious for that.  I began working with down-and-outs without being nauseated.  I discovered also that I was a Pharisee in many ways, but was constantly pommelled by the word of God as Jesus lambasted the Pharasees!  I also learnt that the ego is expendable and that saying sorry got easier with practice!  This did not all happen overnight, but it did so with the inevitability of live yeast rising in lifeless dough and it eventually led me on a great adventure that got me, in spite of many obstacles, to where I am today.  Praise the Lord!

           

6.   NEW LIFE

Before dealing with this last truth, I would just like to briefly recap on the preceding basic truths.  Firstly, we have seen that God created each one of us as unique individuals loved by God with an indescribable love so that we could have a full and happy life according to His plan for us.  Secondly, many people are not experiencing this abundant new life because of wrongdoing in their lives which separates them from God as by a great chasm.  Thirdly, Jesus came to earth to bridge this gulf and unite us to God so we could live a full and happy life.

But more is needed than just knowing this intellectually – our response must be to individually accept Jesus into our lives as our Saviour and enter into a personal relationship with Him.  Then we will receive His Holy Spirit and experience the power to live a new life according to God’s will and plan for us.

But unfortunately many people miss out on this last and fourth step.  Many Christians are familiar with the biblical and doctrinal emphasis on “knowing God” and many people believe that this refers to intellectual knowledge – the kind of knowledge you would get by studying about Napoleon or Moshoeshoe.  But this is a false notion.  The scriptures were written in a Hebrew society which didn’t have a concept of knowing “intellectually”.  In fact, they did not even have a word for intellectual knowledge.  When the scriptures talk of the need to know God they mean to experience Him through a personal, intimate relationship.  So St. John can say: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 Jn. 4:16).  Or St. Paul can say: “I have come to rate all as loss in the light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ!” (Phil. 3:8).  So a knowing relationship means combining head knowledge and heart knowledge into a real sense of knowing how the Father feels about things in our lives.  In short, we will begin to “put on” the mind of Christ.

Obviously it is impossible for us, using our human strength and intellect, to ever attain such a wonderful relationship on our own.  We need help.  Now Jesus had this intimate knowing relationship with the Father and He promised that all Christians would also have it.  Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd.  I know My sheep and My sheep know Me in the same way that the Father knows Me and I know My Father” (Jn. 10:14-15).  The Jerusalem Bible footnote on this verse says: “Knowledge is not merely the conclusion of an intellectual process, but the fruit of an ‘experience’, a personal contact...  when it matures, it is love”.  But many Christians today seem to know about God without actually knowing Him.

In the movie, “A Man for All Seasons”, Sir Thomas More comes across as a great defender of the supremacy of the Pope and of truth and doctrine, as a man of wisdom with a great mind.  He says to his daughter Meg: “God made angels to show Him splendour – as He made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity.  But man He made to serve Him wittily, in the tangle of His mind”.  Then towards the end of the movie when More is suffering in prison on the order of King Henry VIII, and his family, like Job’s friends, are desperately pleading with him to compromise, stating that he’s done as much as God can reasonably want, More replies with those beautiful words: “Well... finally... it isn’t a matter of reason; finally it’s a matter of love” – love of Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.  More, with his great mind, did not see his religion just as an intellectual matter, but as a question of love finally.  Our doctrines, creeds and sacraments are important, but only make sense when seen in the context of a loving, personal relationship with God.  This is what the Catholic saints have always maintained with their emphasis on right doctrine.  Our doctrines are not abstract questions debated by scholars, but questions about what God and Christianity are all about.

Do we have this personal relationship with God which allows us to see all our beliefs and sacraments as of vital importance in our life with God?  Or do we see them as mere abstract formulas?  For example, the declared aim of the Council of Trent catechism was that the people of God should grow in a personal relationship with God through Christ.  But unfortunately this is not what came across in the many popular catechisms published later – for instance the Penny Catechism (though still superior, I think, to many current ones!)  What came across so often was rather that one gained eternal life by trotting out certain creedal formulae and by following through certain liturgical and moral notions.  Many catechisms, and even preaching pre-suppose a commitment to Christ which is not always there.  You cannot build a second storey where there is no foundation!

Now, obviously doctrinal propositions are important, and it is important to do the right things.  We cannot say that we love Christ if we do not do what He wants and believe what He says.  It is all, however, a question of emphasis.  Emphasis too much on “what I must believe” and “what I must do”, and it is possible thereby to lose the vision at the heart of one’s faith – personal relationship with God in Christ.  Jesus is everything to excite curiosity and everything to satisfy it.

So do we have a personal relationship with Christ, or is our life with God a case of “white knuckle” Christianity: a gritting of our teeth and grimly adhering to abstract formulas instead of a love for a person we are prepared to travel over land and sea for, or to die for, rather than be separated from His love?

Do we see the Sacraments as being things, or as St. Leo did, when he said, “What was visible in Christ passed over into the Sacraments of the Church”?  The Jesus that St. John heard, saw and touched in Galilee (1 Jn. 1) is the same Jesus we meet when we hear the Word, see and touch and receive in the Sacraments.

Pope Paul VI has stated that “today there is a very large number of baptised people who, for the most part, have not formally renounced their baptism, but who are living entirely indifferent to it” (Evangelisation No. 56).  He stated that many in the Church need to be evangelised for the first time!  Cardinal Suenens says that many Christians are over- sacramentalised and under-evangelised, and the present pope said if you are not evangelising others you have not been evangelised yourself!

A few years ago, the 9^th European Catechumenate Conference at Mill Hill, London, had a paper on the possibility of some rite of re-initiation for those already baptised!  This is recognised by that doyen of U.S. Catholic orthodoxy, Fr. James Kilgallon, in his best-seller, “Becoming a Catholic Even if You Happen to be One”.  Reviewing this book, Fr. David Watson, a Catholic priest, said:  “Over the past twenty years, the Catholic Church has rediscovered the nature of Christian conversion.  This has left Church leaders with a major problem; how to communicate the new vision to those people who already consider themselves Catholic”.  There are many socio/cultural Catholics in the Church who are there, not because they freely entered, but because of social or cultural reasons (for instance, “cradle Catholics”).  Fr. David Knight maintains, “It must be personal and deep; not just a part of one’s social identification with others.  We don’t accept Jesus because our family does, or because it is taken for granted in the Church we grew up in.  I believe what is lacking in our understanding of religion is a clear recognition of the need every Christian has, at some point in his or her spiritual life to make a conscious, explicit, radical and affective act of acceptance of Jesus Christ”, Fr. Knight states.  The Second Vatican Council has also stressed that the work of God accomplished in Christ should be received by people consciously, freely and gratefully, and shown forth in their whole lives (P.O.2).  It is obvious, says Fr. Watson, that an individual encounter with the risen Christ accompanied by a reception of His Holy Spirit, has never actually taken place in the lives of many Christians.

The practical demands of the decision to totally surrender and follow Christ in the obedience of faith should, in the vision shown by the New Testament books, lead to a radical change in one’s life.  It is seen as the beginning of the quest for final perfection, a decisive experience of being born again.  This was my experience and it changed my life and was the beginning of a new life of peace and joy as Jesus, always faithful and true, promised.

What happened to me can also happen to you, for we have seen in previous articles that God wants all people to be saved (1 Tim. 2:3-6) and the Bible makes it clear about God’s will in this respect.  But what about us?  Are we really sure that we are in fact living up to God’s will for us in Christ?  St. Louis, king of France, in his testament to his beloved son says, “I teach you that you must love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your strength; unless you do, you cannot be saved!”  Strong words indeed!

For our part, we need to admit that we have sinned and be deeply sorry for our sin.  We should hate sin and be willing to turn from every thought, word, action and habit that we know to be wrong.  We should truly believe that Jesus died on the cross, bearing all the guilt and penalty for our sin.  We should accept Jesus to be the Lord of our lives, to control us, to cleanse us and guide us as a constant friend.

So many miss this last step and so never come to know Jesus Christ personally.  Perhaps no verse in the Bible makes this last step clearer than Revelation 3:20.  Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him”.  Jesus stands outside the door of your life, He will not force His way in, but wishes to be invited.  The handle is on the inside of the door, and so only you, by an act of the will, can open it to Him.  You can be baptised, confirmed, go to Church, read the Bible and pray and still leave Jesus outside the door of your life.  Face the question honestly.  Is Christ outside your life, or inside?  Will you surrender to Him or keep Him out?  You cannot ignore Christ’s invitation forever.  Time is fast running out.  If you ignore Him and reject Him now, at the Day of Judgement, when we must all stand before Him, He will ignore and reject you – “I do not know you, depart from Me”.  Don’t be intellectually dishonest with yourself.  A man who made claims on us as Jesus did was either a self-deluded charlatan or God Himself.  You know in your heart of hearts that He was not the former.  Isn’t it time to choose?

But if you are ready thoughtfully to open the door of your life to Christ, then find a place where you can be quiet and alone.  Think of Christ’s love for you, the cross, the shame, and the pain, His body nailed to the cross, His precious blood shed on the ground and crying more eloquently than Abel’s – but for mercy, not vengeance.  Think of what He saves you from; eternal destruction, separation from God forever, which is what hell is.  Think of the shortness of this life: after death there will be no more opportunity to turn to Christ, it will be too late.  Think of Jesus Christ knocking now, asking to come into your life.  You want Him to come into your life, or perhaps you want to make sure He has come into your life.  Then it might help you to say this prayer phrase by phrase quietly and thoughtfully, thinking carefully about what you are saying and what you are doing:

            Lord Jesus Christ, I know that I have sinned in my thoughts, words and actions.

           There are so many good things I have not done; there are so many sinful things I                    have done.

            I am sorry for my sins and turn from everything I know to be wrong.

I know You gave Your life upon the cross for me.  Gratefully I give my life back to  You.  Now I ask You to come into my life.  Come in as my Saviour, to cleanse me, come in as my Lord to control me, come in as my friend to be with me, fill me with your Holy Spirit, and I will serve you all the remaining years of my life in complete obedience.  AMEN.

You have said this prayer and meant it.  What you have said is a fact.  You have asked Jesus Christ to come into your life, and He has come.  Don’t rely on feelings, as you may not feel any different at the moment.  We Christians do not depend on feelings or emotions, but place our faith and trust in the trustworthiness of God and the promises of His Word.  Trust in Jesus’ promises, especially Revelation 3:20:  “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him” and John 6:47, “He that believes in Me has everlasting life” and Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”.

By saying this prayer with all your heart, you could learn how much God the Father loves you; you could learn the joy of knowing Christ personally and intimately; you could feel the power of the Holy Spirit working actively in your life; you could learn to love again; you could be healed; you could experience the fullness and abundance of new life; you could forgive and be forgiven; you could learn not to be afraid of anything; your faith and hope could be strengthened and renewed and your life could be changed forever!  God just needs the merest sign of good will in us weak creatures and He is more than willing to meet us halfway.  So why not try?

  

7.   GOD’S GIFT

By Fr. John Randall

I have been a priest now for 30 years.  The first 15 refer to as B.C., and the second 15 as A.D.  It’s not that I wasn’t Christian or even a happy priest the first half of my priesthood; it’s just that the difference between the two periods is so great that it seems like a whole new life.

I can pinpoint the exact moment the change began.  One evening Donald Wilkerson of Brooklyn’s Teen Challenge prayed over me for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my personal life and ministry.  I didn’t understand what it all meant, but I knew that if it were possible to have more of God, I wanted it.

The next morning as I started to celebrate Mass I experienced Jesus right beside me.  The Mass was brand new!  That sense of God’s presence has never left me.

Six months later I was prayed over by a Catholic Pentecostal leader, Paul de Celles.  At that time I taught scripture on the college level and was a member of the Catholic Biblical Association.  I had had excellent academic training.

But in that moment of prayer, by a pure gift of the Spirit, I was lifted to an entirely new level of biblical knowledge and love.  I describe it as a change from the Greek concept of knowledge, which is intellectual, to the Hebrew understanding, which is experiential.  God was right there reading the Bible to me.  I wept for sheer joy.  Again, this gift of God has never left me.

Rather quickly, other things began to happen.

I thought that to love God meant to serve Him.  Now He became my intimate friend.  I walked with Him all the time.  I never tired of praising Him.  I knew, with that experiential kind of knowledge, that God loved me even more than I loved Him.

He seemed to be putting everything at my disposal: His life, peace, joy, love, heart, and mind.  Wherever I went, others who had yielded to the Holy Spirit were having the same experiences.  We rejoiced together.

I began to devour the lives of the saints, taking dusty volumes off the shelves.  Some of their experiences were the same as mine, and I wanted to learn from them.

I began to realise why God had not seemed to hear a lot of my prayers.  I had been trying to sell Him my plans, and He just would not buy them: “Lord, when are You going to move?  When are You going to renew your Church, this parish, this seminary?”

Now I began to seek and discover in prayer His plans, which were much better than mine.  All I had to do was say “Yes” to His ways.  What a relief that was!  I was rediscovering God’s providential care for us.  For me it was like rediscovering the wheel.

The power of the Holy Spirit was so evident as I joined with other Christians in the Father’s love, in praise and in prayer.  We were like the first Christians, coming together to “listen to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to break bread and to pray” (Acts 2:42)

A new power to evangelise – actually an irresistible drive to share the love of God and His word – came over me.  I felt impelled to speak, to write, to sing of the great treasure available to us.

I could summarise it all by saying that I was not working for God anymore.  He was working in and through me.  I was definitely the junior partner.  I could sleep at night now without worrying, and wake up to new adventures with God.  I knew what St. Francis meant when he sang of being the great King’s herald and servant.

As a theologian I was able to identify with Heribert Muhlen, the noted German theologian of the Holy Spirit, after he was baptised in the Holy Spirit.  I recall his testimony at the International Leaders’ Conference in Rome in 1975.  “We German theologians”, he said, “if facing two doors, one of which said, ‘Discussion About Heaven’ and the other marked ‘Heaven’, would go in the door marked ‘Discussion About Heaven’”.  That is what I had been doing too!

Muhlen went on to say that after being prayed over he had made a very long journey – for him the longest journey in the world – the journey from his head to his heart.  I can still hear him crying out at the conference before 10,000 people: “Jesus ist der Herr!”  (Jesus is Lord).

Is God’s gift for all?  Is this experience for everyone?  Is being baptised in the Holy Spirit for all?

I am absolutely convinced it is.  In fact, I think it is a kind of watershed, or better, a bridge that once crossed makes all the difference in the world.  It’s the B.C./A.D. change I spoke of above.  It’s “getting out of the driver’s seat” in order to experience the Lord in charge, taking us on an exciting ride to a whole new world.

If people do not receive this power of the Holy Spirit they will not be very effective disciples, they will not perform signs and wonders, and they will not experience the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  They will not experience what Jesus promised His followers: “You will do the things I do and even greater because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

I distinctly remember a conversation I had with Fr. George Kosicki of Bethany House of Intercession, concerning several days of renewal and retreats we had given.  We had both tried to be diplomatic about introducing the Charismatic Renewal, especially to priests.  Progress would be painstakingly made, and at the end our fellow priests would be genuinely grateful, telling us we had answered their questions and that they were satisfied.  They could see now, they said, that there was theological justification for this movement.

However, from my perspective that was not enough.  Lives were not changed.  Everything remained “in the head”.  We were still in the room marked “Discussion About Heaven”.

So Fr. Kosicki and I decided to take the bull by the horns.  We believed that being baptised in the Holy Spirit was for everyone: abbots, bishops, laymen and women, priests, religious – everybody.  We started to say that and while we met with more resistance we also began to see lives change.  We began to see priests not just talking about a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their lives, but being willing to be prayed with for it.

God wants His people to give up control of their lives, to open themselves to the earth-shaking dimension of a New Pentecost, letting the Spirit lead, guide and empower them.  It makes a profound difference.  It means crossing the bridge to where lives and ministries will never be the same again – where God is truly God, where Jesus is truly Lord, and where we, His people, have the ability and joy to serve the great King with His very power and wisdom.

Often in today’s church ambitious campaigns of evangelism or religious instruction for youth seem to meet with little success.  I believe the reason is that people involved in these ministries are not sufficiently empowered by the Holy Spirit.  There is no substitute for being baptised in the Holy Spirit.  You either cross that bridge or condemn yourself and your programs to being largely ineffectual.  Only what the Lord inspires, leads and builds, will stand.  It is as simple as that!

How can one be baptised in the Spirit?

Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened for you...  What father among you, if his son asked for a fish would give him a serpent? ...  If you, evil as you are, know how to give your sons good things, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:9, 11, 13).

Do you notice the correspondence between good things and the Holy Spirit?  Being baptised in the Holy Spirit is God’s good gift to us.  The way to receive it is by asking the Father in Jesus’ name to send His Spirit.  He wants to do that even more than we want to receive it!  It is simple, not complicated.  We are the ones who complicate it.

At the first Pentecost, Peter very clearly and simply told the crowd what they were to do:  Repent, believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:38).  There is no magic formula, only this.

Repent for your past sins.  If you are presently in a sinful pattern or lifestyle, repent and turn away from it.  God’s love for you is infinite, and for those who turn to Him His provision far outweighs any pleasure we could seek for ourselves.  Take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation for grace and healing.

Acknowledge your need for a saviour.  You cannot live a good or worthwhile life apart from Jesus Christ.  Tell Him you need Him to be your personal Lord and Saviour.  (If you have not yet done so, you could use the prayer we printed on pages18 and 19)..

Receive the Holy Spirit.  God can respond to our prayer privately if He so wishes.  But usually He touches our lives through others’ prayer for us to receive new life in the Holy Spirit.  He wants us to have good fellowship and support in the Christian life.  Look for a strong prayer group in your parish, city or diocese.  Go to these brothers and sisters and tell them you want to have a new life in the Holy Spirit.

God will not hold back from you what He most desires to give.  The great grace of a new Pentecost is upon us.  Those who seek will find.

I believe that once you yield your life to be baptised in the Holy Spirit, there is a bridge you cross after which you will never be the same.  If it has happened to you, you will know it.  If not, it is waiting for you.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Originally published in NEW COVENANT Magazine, P.O. Box 400, Steubenville, Ohio 43952.

Reprinted with permission.

8.   COMMUNITY

In the last issue of New Pentecost, in our series on the Life in the Spirit, Fr. John Randall talked of God’s gift of being baptised in the Holy Spirit which is for all.  Ralph Martin says that a person seeking to receive the Holy Spirit today could easily become bogged down in the diversity of theological and pastoral opinion about how it is done.  Some Catholics think that the Spirit can only be received in the Sacraments (which Scripture and tradition would not agree with), some evangelicals think the Spirit is received only at the moment of conversion, some Pentecostals see receiving the Spirit as a distinct second experience to conversion.  Ralph Martin says that sorting out this theological and pastoral diversity may take ages to solve, but that “it is already possible to find a number of theologians and pastors in almost every church expressing their experience of a fuller reception of the Holy Spirit in a way that conforms to their own tradition”.

Martin goes on to say that for the individual person, Jesus has already shown a way to receive the Holy Spirit that cuts across all theological barriers and the only real criteria is a hunger and thirst that longs for God and reaches out to Him in faith (see Jn. 7:37-39; Luke 11:9-13).

The Life in the Spirit Seminar states that being baptised in the Spirit only means being introduced to an experiential relationship with the Holy Spirit.  It is meant to be the beginning of a new kind of life in a fuller power of God.  “Living in the Spirit has to be the centre of our concern, not being baptised in the Spirit”.

Fr. Francis Sullivan, S.J., in Charisms and Charismatic Renewal says that Luke has used “as synonyms for ‘baptise in the Spirit’, ‘to send’, ‘to pour out’, ‘to give the Spirit’, equivalent expressions for ‘being baptised in the Spirit’ are ‘being clothed with’, ‘receiving’, ‘being filled with’ and having the Spirit ‘come’ or ‘fall upon one’.  To say that Jesus ‘baptises’ in the Holy Spirit then is simply a biblical metaphor for saying that He sends or gives us the Spirit.  To be ‘baptised in the Spirit’ is to receive an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, or more literally to receive the gift of the Spirit”, Fr. Sullivan maintains.

St. Paul commands us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit or go on being filled with the Spirit.  Paul uses the imperative mood – it is a command or obligation to go on being filled again and again by the Spirit all through our lives.  There are many fillings with the Spirit.   Alan Schreck, in his book Catholic and Christian, says that to speak of the “baptism in the Spirit” is misleading if it implies there is only one event in a person’s life that could be properly called by that name.  God can pour out the Holy Spirit in a new and significant way many times in a person’s life if He wishes.  The first time that this happens to a person is often the most dramatic, Schreck says, because it can be experienced by the person as a totally “new thing”.  He says that God can and does pour out this Holy Spirit many times in a person’s life, often in response to faith-filled prayer.  Fr. Sullivan agrees and says he is convinced that “there will never be a time during our pilgrimage on earth when the Lord could not give us a powerful new gift of His Spirit that would really move us into some new act or new state of grace”.

The person who is truly “Spirit-filled” is one who “lives” and “walks” by the Holy Spirit; who has put to death the “works of the flesh” and manifests the “fruits of the Spirit”.  This is what it means to be a “new creation” in Christ Jesus – “the old has passed away – behold, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

But the New Testament sounds a warning note – a rather frightening one about Christians who fall away from this wonderful new life in the Spirit (Heb. 6:3-8 and 2 Pet. 2:20-22).  St. Peter says that we should work valiantly to make God’s call and His choice of us a permanent experience and if we do so, we will never fall away (2 Pet. 1:10).  So, in our spiritual life, if we do not avoid what the Bible calls “occasions of sin” (Ezek. 18:30), we endanger our chances of remaining alive in the Spirit.  In fact, if we do not progress, we regress.  There are four practices we need in our lives in order to grow and persevere:  community, prayer, study, service.  We hope to look at these four practices in the next few issues of NEW PENTECOST.

Supportive Community.  Many Christians are accustomed to viewing salvation in individualistic terms, whereas Jesus intended us to live as community.  It was not for nothing that Jesus lived always surrounded by companions and only sought solitude to be able to return refreshed to the company of His companions.  Hal Miller contends that the Great Jerusalem Commune (Acts 2:42-44) was not just a “freak” thing, but was meant to be an essential way of life for all Christians.  Was it Communism?  No! It certainly was not!  People entered the Jerusalem Commune with complete free will in love with God and with a great desire to share and serve the community, whereas Communism uses force and exploits class hatred to do this.  As Lenin said cynically, “You can’t make an omelette without smashing eggs first”.

Mere communal living does not make a community in the Christian sense.  St. Augustine made this clear a long time ago in his definition of a state (also applicable to a society or a commune): “a state is an assembly of reasonable beings bound together by a common agreement concerning the objects of their love”.  The object of their love or the thing that binds them together can be common fear or hatred or self-interest.  But for Catholic Christians the object of their love must be the love of God, and fidelity to the Pope, the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church and Scripture.

Community is not an optional extra, it is essential to the life of the Spirit.  God’s plan is for us to come to Him with others in a body.  The Holy Spirit works through others to build us up, through fellowship and the gifts of the Spirit.  The result of Pentecost was the creation of a community of Christians, which is the medium for expressing Christ’s presence in the world.

It is dangerous to think that once one has been baptised in the Holy Spirit nothing can go wrong.  We can expect trials and difficulties: that is exactly what Jesus promised and what He meant about counting the cost of discipleship (Lk. 14:28).  John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11).  Jesus said He came to cast fire upon the earth and that everybody will be salted with fire (Mk. 9:49) and He talked also of the Baptism of Suffering (Lk. 12:50) (not sickness, but opposition and persecution).

This can also be called a “fire baptism”.  Jesus clearly stated that if He, the master, was persecuted, then the disciples can expect to suffer opposition as well.  He warned that His coming would not mean peace, but division (Lk. 12:51).  Fire in the Bible stands for judgement and purification.  If we do not undergo the painful fire of purification, we may face the fire that never goes out – hellfire.

Jesus promised pruning (Jn. 15:2; see Heb. 12:12) and testing (Mk. 14:38) – the world, the flesh and the devil (Mk. 4:13ff) will sift us like wheat to test the purity of our intentions.  Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer which we need to say fervently each day.  I prefer the Jerusalem Bible version as it brings out the true meaning: “And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one” (Matt. 6:13).  Testing is defined as putting someone in a situation which involves the possibility of failure.  We pray fervently that we may have the faith to come through all the trials that lie ahead.  “We must enter the Kingdom of God through many tribulations” (Acts 14:22).  But in all our trials we paradoxically experience that peace that surpasses all understanding – the peace Jesus promised.

In a hard-hitting homily to pastors, St. Augustine exhorts them not to promise believers “prosperity” and “the happiness of this world” but “to prepare them for imminent temptations” (Divine Office III, 555).  Jesus certainly did not promise us a bed of roses!  Nevertheless, in our trials we should always keep the following references before us: 1 Pet. 5:6-11; 1 Cor. 10:13.

The point of all this emphasis on trials and tribulations is that they are inevitable.  “Every Christian soul”, the Jerusalem Bible says, “on its journey to God treads Israel’s path: it breaks with the old way of life, it suffers testing, it emerges purified”.  Hence the necessity for a community of committed Christians who can be a great source of comfort and encouragement.  Living the spiritual life alone can be difficult as I know from my own experience.  After receiving new life in the Spirit, I felt it difficult to carry on in the same old way as before.  First I decided to live alone.  After three months I concluded I was not a hermit and that it was not good for man to live alone!  I was living and working in “swinging London”.  I moved into digs with three other good Catholic friends who were wholeheartedly committed to Christ.  Finally, I ended up in a Franciscan community and have lived happily in community ever since.  Scripture compares Satan to a roaring lion prowling round looking for prey.  Solitary Christians can easily be picked off as sheep from a flock.  Unity is strength!

Often we don’t find community ready-made.  We often have to uproot like Abraham and step out in faith, not knowing where God is leading us.  The Seminars warn us that “the Lord does not want us to leave the Church, but to become more active members of it”.  Pray and work with the Holy Spirit to build a community with other Catholics in your parish who are also seeking the same expression of faith.

9.   SERVICE

In a previous article we saw how important it is for us Christians to be part of a group that encourages and challenges us.  Someone has said:  “it is community that assures service”, because it provides a secure base to launch out into a hostile, lonely or apathetic world, which, though desperately needing the gospel, can easily attack it initially as a drowning man does his potential rescuer.

For the sake of our service and apostolate to the world, we should work hard at preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:13).  There will be friction, yes.  We will inevitably suffer from one another, Charles De Foucauld says, but it will help us to love one another without illusion.  The moment there are real bonds between people, there is the risk of friction.  If there is never any friction, it nearly always means that there exist only very vague bonds which allow connections to remain just this side of the closeness which generates difficulty.  Disintegration threatens the community each day, and threatens too, the apostolate to bring others to Christ.  But if we persevere painstakingly we can experience a joy, peace and security that can never be experienced if we drop out and try to go it alone.  We can survive alone, but our humanity is all the poorer for it.

In a community of faith we can experience depths in us that we never dreamt existed until elicited by the joy of community life.  Truly the psalmist is right when he observes: “How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity ... there the Lord gives His blessing” (Ps. 133).  A whole new dimension of festivity, joy and play opens before us, which has tremendous value as a witness to a lonely, apathetic world of nuclear and isolated families.  We know we have passed from death to life because we love one another (see 1 Jn. 3:14).

The Christian can be joyful, not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that in the light of the divine sovereignty they are never ultimate.  To laugh and play is to see beyond the passing nature of events.  Joy is the sequel of faith because the gospel promises us that God provides for all our needs.  But our joy, C.S. Lewis maintains, must be of that kind which exists between people who have from the outset taken each other seriously with no flippancy or idle banter.  Silly joking degrades the joy of the common life and simply creates an illusion of communication in the community.  The healthy tension that is inevitable in community living can help us give more density to our prayer life.  “In everything God works for good with those who love Him” (Rom. 8:28).

When things go well in community, we can enjoy the good times to the full.  When things go badly and tensions arise, we can pray better.  Everything is grist to the mill of (profitable for) Christian community life!

However, one great danger of community life, and one that needs to be constantly guarded against, is the danger of too much security.  St. Francis said that over-great security leads to lessened caution against the enemy – in this case, the enemy is the insular spirit.  When we become too self-satisfied, the vision and ideals pall and our desire to evangelise declines: missionary zeal can drop and mission becomes maintenance of plant and material goods.  We become an introspective, self-serving clique, and forget the great commission to go preach to all nations.  We must never forget that community is for the sake of mission and evangelisation.  A happy community can give great witness by its very presence.

Jesus clearly calls us to service: “Whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all” (Matt. 20:20ff).  We are called to wash one another’s feet (Jn. 13:1-17).  Perfect love casts out all fear and revulsion of others, as St. Francis found when he could embrace a loathsome leper.  St. Paul thanked the Galatians that they were not disgusted at his sickness (Gal. 4:14).  Serving Jesus in the sick and dying, in the poor and destitute, can often be a kenotic experience, that is, a self-emptying like Christ who emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave (Phil. 2).

Every Christian is saved to serve, Norman Warren says.  Faith without good works is dead (James 2:26).  We are disciples and servants of Christ.  Our one aim in life should be to please and serve Christ.  We can serve Him at home by being helpful, thoughtful, patient and loving.  The home is not an easy place in which to be a Christian, because we are known only too well, and so it is the place in which to begin.

Of course, “charity begins at home”, but it does not stay there.  We need to be in active service at work too.  People will watch us like hawks to see if our lives back up what we say with our lips.  We should be prepared to put our body where our mouth is!  We are exhorted by St. Paul over 164 times to do everything “in Christ”, including our work.  “Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:22ff).  As we work at doing everything “in Christ”, we learn to pray all the time as Jesus exhorted us to do.  This can bring a great and abiding sense of joy as nothing seems irrelevant to our life with God.  If we are exhorted to do all our work in Christ, then if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well and efficiently.  We should be honest in all our dealings.  We should keep calm when our faith is attacked or laughed at.  We should be ready to speak out at injustice or racial discrimination.  Obviously, if we live alone we tone down our moral stance as loneliness amplifies our fears and worries, whereas in a community these are minor matters.  We should always be ready to share with others what Christ means to us when an opportunity arises, but always with courtesy and consideration.

We should not only be church members, but also church workers.  We can serve Christ in our local church by cleaning the church, doing the gardening, singing in the choir, delivering Catholic papers or magazines or the church newsletter to the housebound or the lapsed.  We can also serve as church ministers, teaching in Sunday school or catechism class, helping in the youth club, or visiting the sick or imprisoned.  Our catechism sums up beautifully the Christian duties in its listing of the bodily and spiritual works of mercy.  These things are not optional.  As active Christians we should always do what we have committed ourselves to do.  Parishes are full of eloquent talkers and carping critics!

Like community, service is not an optional extra, but an imperative for all Christians.  The church does not want us to be mere passengers and have someone else drive us.  Jesus, in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25) has hard words to say about those who do not use their talents in the service of the church.  Jesus also warns that trees not bearing fruit will be cut down and burnt (Jn. 15).  All are expected to work for the kingdom of God, which is characterised by justice, love and peace.

How can we fail to do everything in our power for Him who has done so much for us?  It can be copping out to say there is nothing we can do.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way!  We may be weak and ill-equipped ourselves, but when we are channels for the Spirit’s power, there is nothing that can limit us “to show that the supreme power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Service also means working out the implications of the Christian message in business, politics, sport, social and family life.  We should not be Christians only on Sunday, but should work to bring every part of the life of the nation under Christ’s control.  We have come under the obedience of faith and under submission to God, and should work to recapitulate all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10), including so-called secular life.  The Vatican Council said that the split between religion and life is one of the most serious errors of our time.

Another danger in our life is activism.  Mere energy is not zeal.  To be working very hard for religion is not necessarily to be religious.  “Take heed to yourself”, St. Paul wrote to Timothy.  Our spiritual expenditure must not be in excess of income.  Where there is no repose, no reflection, no prayer, everything will be shallow and superficial.  Sergius Wroblewski says that activists are self-reliant apostles who put doing before being and have no inner light to radiate.  Neglecting prayer, they have no “breath of love”.  Empty of it, they cannot overflow with it.  So often feverish work is justified on the score that work is prayer.  Work and prayer are two distinct things – related, but distinct, he says.

In our work for God’s kingdom, the New Testament and the Saints of the church warn us of the need to test spirits to discern what moves or motivates us; the spirit of evil or self, or the Spirit of God.  So much of our service can be “self-service”!  Satan is not opposed to our doing good as long as it is not what God wants.  The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola give us excellent guidelines here.  The good is often the enemy of the best.

I would like to conclude with some wise advice from St. Vincent De Paul: “Overwork is a wile of the devil, by which he deceives holy souls, urging them on to do more than they can, in order that they may be unable to do anything at all; but the Spirit of God gently incites us to do whatever good we can reasonably effect, provided it can be done with perseverance, and for a length of time.  Act in this way and you will act according to the Spirit of God”.

10.   PRAYER

When we read the Bible God speaks to us.  In praying, we speak to Him.  God is not someone we talk about, but someone we talk to.  Our life “in Christ” is a two-sided friendship.  Prayer is simply speaking to God about anything, anywhere, at any time.  Norman Warren says prayer is like a lifeline through which our vital air supply comes.  Prayer is to the Christian what breathing is to the human body.  Prayer is our direct link with headquarters.  When our radio telephone is switched on, every word is heard at headquarters where they are constantly listening.  Prayer links us directly with our leader, Jesus Christ.  In prayer, advice, help and guidance are always available to us.

But why should we pray?  Many cannot see the point of praying at all – after all, if God knows everything, He will work whether they pray or not.  By prayer we deepen our friendship with Christ.  The best explanations of prayer have been the ones which express it as communication between two people who love one another.  When we work out the full human implications of this, we will have a very good grasp of prayer.

A Christian should pray for three main reasons.  Firstly, Jesus prayed and if He needed to pray, so do we, His followers.  Secondly, Jesus tells us to pray in the gospels, and as Christian soldiers we should strive to obey Him.  Thirdly, Jesus promises to answer prayer.  Every prayer will be answered, though the answer may not be what we desired.  God’s answer may be, “No” or “Wait”!

Fr. William Slattery says there are many saints in heaven.  Some were poor, others were kings or queens, some were priests, some were married, some educated and others ignorant, some old, others mere children.  Yet he says, no matter what their differences, all the saints were people of prayer.  We are called to be saints, to holiness, and this means prayer.  Leon Bloy said, “Man has only one sorrow – not to be a saint!” ... if we define a saint as one in whom God has more and more His undivided sway.  Like St. Paul we can say, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

These same saints exhort us to pray.  St. Alphonsus said, “Those who pray will certainly be saved; those who do not pray will certainly be damned”.  St. Theresa of Avila stated that there was only one way to God – the way of prayer, and anyone who tells us differently is a liar!  She also stated that if we pray, “God bears the expenses of our lives; if we do not pray we bear these expenses ourselves”.

So prayer is a need and a must for every committed Christian.  At first we may act out of obedience, finding prayer difficult, like ten-finger piano exercises, but practice makes perfect.  Someone defined prayer as the passage from need to desire.  C.S. Lewis said that in our Christian growth “poetry eventually replaces grammar, gospel replaces law, longing transforms obedience as gradually as the tide lifts a grounded ship”.

Longing, desire, hunger or thirsting for God grow as we persevere in prayer to such an extent that, like St. Paul, (in Phil. 1:23) we can long to depart to be with the Lord who is the fulfilment of all our deepest longings and desires.  The famous prayer of St. Augustine is for all times and peoples: “Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You alone”.  The American Negro spirituals are among the finest examples of this intense desire for God in Christian hymnody.

Meditation, which St. Theresa said was nothing else but falling in love with Christ, is an essential part of prayer.  It is mulling over the truths of our faith, especially those Four Basic Truths of the Life in the Spirit Seminar.  As we do this, we will find the desire for God growing more and more in our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit who enkindles in us the fire of God’s love.

Our hunger and desire for God can reach such a pitch that we can, like St. Paul, desire to be gone and united with Christ.  St. Paul, of course, resisted this overwhelming desire so as to work on for the salvation of others.  We too, following His example, can find our desire sublimated into other channels – such as seeing Christ in all creation, especially in the poor and suffering; learning to do everything “in Christ” – our eating and drinking, walking and sleeping, working and recreating.  This obviously raises our humdrum lives to a new dimension as we realise “in everything God works for good with those who love Him” and we can experience in our daily grind a sense of meaning and purpose as well as a joy and peace that cannot be expressed.

So in our prayer we can use the whole of created reality and the mysteries of our faith as a ladder to God and as subject material for raising our minds and hearts to Him (or rather letting God’s Holy Spirit do it for us!).  But our minds can only go so far as God can be touched, and embraced only by the heart in love, but never by thought, according to the writer of The Cloud of Unknowing.  Our minds are very puny and to reach God we need eventually to desist from meditation on sensible things and launch out to God by loving desire, as a laser beam that cuts through all obstacles, like cloud and atmospheric turbulence, to reach its goal.  St. Theresa said, “For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up one’s eyes quite simply to heaven, a cry of grateful love, from the crest of joy to the trough of despair; it’s a vast supernatural force which opens out my heart, and binds me close to Jesus”.

People often see saints and mystics as spending all day cut off from the world in a confined space in undisturbed communion with God.  This would be wrong as the great pray-ers were often the most energetic apostles and reformers, such as St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Theresa, St. John of the Cross.  If they were cut off from the world, it was not their deliberate intention, but the result of the opposition they provoked in carrying out God’s will in a hostile world.  It was in prison that some experienced their greatest mystical experiences because man’s extremity is often God’s opportunity to give the Holy Spirit more abundantly.  Pastor Wurmbrand, in Tortured for Christ, gives a good example of this:

One great lesson arose from all the beatings, torturings and butchery; that the spirit is      master of the body.  Often when tortured, we felt the torturing, but it seemed as   something distant and far-removed from the spirit which was lost in the glory of Christ and His presence in us”.

People often ask how they should pray.  Obviously at morning and evening, and before and after meals – this is the basic minimum.  But we must go on to deepen our prayer – to not long for progress is to fail in prayer.  The early morning is by far the best time for prayer.  We should try to begin the day with our friend and master before all the rush begins.  We should try to find a quiet place – maybe our bedroom, or even the kitchen in winter.  People with families can legitimately pray in bed, because, as soon as they get up, so does the whole family, and the more they move around, the more things they see need to be done!  The more movement, the more distractions seem to arise in the mind.  So it’s sometimes best just to sit up in bed and try to pray there and then.  The Psalmist prayed on his bed (see Psalm 62)!  We should try to be alone and silent, resisting the temptation to switch on the distracting radio.

The devil will do everything to stop you praying.  Someone will call, or the baby will start crying.  Whatever happens, be determined to guard jealously your quiet time with the Lord.  The Jerusalem Bible says, “The morning awakening is God’s chosen hour for granting favours”.

Fr. Cherian, S.J., says that in the classical Christian view, prayer means that we stand in awe and admiration of God (Adoration, praise), that we are gratefully conscious of having received countless benefits from Him (Thanksgiving), that we are sorry for having failed Him sometimes (Contrition), and that we hope for everything we need from His hands (Supplication).  The mnemonic is ACTS!

Rayner D. Torkington, in his very popular book on prayer – Peter Calvay – Hermit – gives a blueprint for prayer which includes these four classical aspects of prayer.  He takes the Latin word for Our Father – Pater Noster – since it is the pattern for all Christians, and he uses this as an aid to memory.

First of all, P is for PRESENCE:  we put ourselves in the presence of God, making an act of faith in His invisible presence.  We probably won’t feel a thing.  But beware of feelings, as they can be very deceptive things.  Prayer is primarily in the will, not in the feelings or imagination so much.  Relevant here is Ralph Martin’s suggestion that “it is good to praise the Lord even when we do not feel like it – feelings sometimes follow our praising from our will”.

A is for ADORATION:  it is of great spiritual benefit, as well as being our duty to forget ourselves and earthly things and soak ourselves in thoughts about God and His glory, says A.J. Cook.  We become like the person we admire, and we grow like God as we spend time worshipping Him.  The popular charismatic hymn puts it so well: “Let’s forget about ourselves, magnify the Lord and worship Him”.

T is for THANKSGIVING.  A thankful heart is a happy heart.  We should thank God for Himself and all that He has given us (1 Thess. 5:16-18).  We should think each day of something new to be grateful for.  Thanksgiving to God separates true religion from false, for it is the mark of paganism to neglect thanksgiving to God (Rom. 1:21).

E: EXAMINATION of conscience over past life: is there any desire, thought, fear, resentment or habit blocking God from us today?  Am I keeping wide margins from sin and occasions of sin?  It is necessary to keep a close eye on the way we treat others, for if we cannot love the brother we can see, how can we love the God we can’t see (1 John 4:21)?  We should ask the Holy Spirit to convict us of areas in our life with others that need to be examined in the light of the gospel, such as racial harmony, Christian standards in business or social life.  1 Corinthians 13 can act as an excellent examination of conscience.

R is for REPENTANCE, which follows as we humbly ask God to forgive us as we forgive others.

At this point in our quiet time we should take up the Sacred Scriptures.  The Bible is the food of our spiritual life.  We should read it and think about it and try to apply it to our lives and the day before us.  If we have a prayer time of 30 minutes, we should spend half of it on spiritual reading and half on prayer to get a right balance.  When we pray we talk to God, when we read the Bible we listen to God in His Word.  We can hear God in the “still, small voice” deep within us, either as the voice of conscience or in the promptings to do good that flash into our minds.  We should try to use our imagination as much as possible and visualise who is speaking – Jesus, Paul or one of the prophets – and imagine the circumstances surrounding the particular event so that they sink deeply into our hearts.  We should stick to the New Testament and the Psalms at the beginning, reading and rereading them.  If there is a warning, measure your life by it.  If there is a command ask God’s power to carry it out.  If there is a promise, claim it there and then for your own life and expect it to come true.  A good slogan is, “Observe accurately, interpret correctly, and apply drastically.

After our Bible reading we should begin praying for the NEEDS (N) of OTHERS (O) – that is, intercessory prayer – first, and then for one’s SELF (S) – that is, petition.  In interceding for others, we can get a small notebook to list people to pray for, family, friends, political leaders (1 Tim. 2:1), church leaders, missionaries and so on.  (It is very useful always to have a notepad at one side to note down urgent items pending, or else they will distract us all the time!)  We should be definite in our praying and not just make vague requests for God’s blessing.  As we pray, we can use our imagination by praying God into a sick-room and expect something to happen at that very moment.  We can pray for the conversion of a friend – or enemy.  In prayer, we know only two classes of people: friends, and enemies, and should make a point of praying for both every day.  So much psychosomatic illness in Christians is caused by a failure to pray for enemies.  All the great spiritual writers suggest the use of our imaginations in prayer and meditation.  After all, God told Abraham to look at the stars in the sky and try to imagine his descendants after him!

T.  THANKSGIVING should follow again as we can never thank God for all the blessings of His Word.  St. Bonaventure said that ingratitude was the source of all sin.  So gratitude should be a constant in our lives.

E.  Once again, there should follow a time for EXAMINATION of conscience, this time for the future, and not for the past as before.  We should think and pray over the day ahead and of particular things to do during the day.  What letters should I write?  Are there any debts I should pay today?  Is there any person needing my friendship, time, help, or money today?  How can I increase the quality of our family life together?  Can I witness to somebody who is ignorant of Christ today?

R.  RESOLUTIONS should finish our prayer time:  I resolve to do this and this today, so help me God.  Amen.

This “Pater Noster” method is of course just a blueprint or guide, not a fixed or inflexible rule to be followed slavishly.  Rayner D. Torkington warns of the danger of “counterfeit” prayer like the “continual repetition of mantras”, and says we need to look to “Jesus himself who never taught the use of mantras”.  (Catholic Herald, 28/5/99).  Centering Prayer is an example of this counterfeit.

Once we get into the rhythm of this prayer pattern, we will soon notice an emptiness in our day if it is omitted, even though we experience perhaps nothing unusual during that hour of quiet.  When we are faithful to it, we will begin to experience an all-round sense of peace and happiness which comes from being obedient children of the Father and is a foretaste of heaven.

Of course, if we have been given the gift of tongues, we should make good use of God’s gift and spend time also praying this way each day.  (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2003)

What did Jesus mean by saying we should pray always?  Prayer is not a matter of words, but a deep desire for God.  If our desire is continual, our prayer is continual too.  St. Augustine says, “Since we have not yet received what God has promised, we sigh in longing desire.  It is good for us to persevere in longing until the promise comes true and sighing is a thing of the past ... the whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire”.  Just as someone in love has a heavy heart in the absence of the beloved, they yet carry on their daily work mentally present, while their heart is somewhere else.

We should not, of course, forget the power there is in praying the Rosary, described “as the most fruitful development achieved by the inventive genius of medieval piety in the West”, lending itself equally well to simple people and adepts at meditation, to bring them to the summits of the life of prayer (Louis Bouyer).  The famous American Jesuit, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., is a great advocate for restoring the Rosary to popularity.  He says that there is “not one mystery of the fifteen that is not a clue to who we are, to where we come from, to where we might go”.

Ralph Martin believes the Rosary is a great intercessory prayer and he makes a point of trying to say it every day (even when jogging!) for world peace and the conversion of Russia, and he says it gets results!  We should remember Fr. Peyton’s slogan, “The family that prays together, stays together”.

Two books from I.C.C.R.O., specially written for those who have done the Life in the Spirit Seminar, look at the deeper aspects of prayer: Spirit-filled Yet Hungry by Fio Mascarenhas, S.J., and Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Robert Faricy, S.J., and Lucy Rooney, S.N.D.  John Michael Talbot’s book, The Lover and the Beloved is excellent also.

  

11.   STUDY

Reprinted in NSC Chariscenter U.S.A., July 1989

Study of our faith is one of the fundamental means of growth, Norman Warren maintains.  If a baby is to grow properly, it must have the right food.  If we are to grow strong in the Christian life, we also need the right kind of nourishment.  God, in His love and wisdom, has given us this food in the Bible – especially in the gospels.  Our knowledge and love of Him will grow as we find out more about Him.

Our friendship with Jesus will deepen as we spend time listening when He speaks to us.  Our faith in Him will grow stronger as we discover more of His power and love.  In the act of surrender to God, we suspend all our previous notions, beliefs and values, and re-think the whole of life according to the mind of Christ and His teachings.

To drive a car at night without headlights would be foolish.  To try to live the Christian life without reading and knowing and obeying the Bible is equally foolish and dangerous.  The Bible sheds light on every kind of problem and speaks with authority on the future, death, eternal life and many other things.  It tells us how we should live our daily life and what God expects of us.  It’s rather foolish to pray constantly, “Thy will be done on earth”, or “Lord, teach me Your will”, when we don’t take time to find out what His will is, as it is revealed in His Word.  God’s will is His Word.  In order to discover His will, we need to study His Word.

The Bible is like a mirror, Warren maintains (see James 1:19ff).  We cannot hide things from a mirror as it shows us what we are like.  If we have a dirty mark on our face, the mirror will show it and then we can do something about it.  The Bible will show us what we are really like.  It will expose any sin or pride, selfishness or greed.  This can be a painful process, this dying to self, but the same Bible reveals God’s love for us and assures us that we have the power in God’s Spirit to change.

The Bible will show us what we should be like.  It gives us the example and encouragement of the great biblical saints to guide us (See Sirach 44).  St. Paul says, “From the Holy Scriptures you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is inspired by God and can profitably be used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives and teaching them to be holy.  This is how the man who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work” (2 Tim. 3:15ff).

The Bible is like a weapon, Warren says, quoting Hebrews 4:12 – “the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword”.  It can penetrate deeper than any merely human psychology.  The Bible is the weapon God has given us to defeat the devil and evil.  The Vatican Council warned that “pressing upon the Christian are the need and the duty to battle against evil through many trials and even to suffer death” (G. and S. 22).

In the Bible we learn to recognise the enemy.  We grow in discernment of Satan’s deceitful ways so that we can say with St. Paul, “We are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Cor. 2:11).  From Ephesians 6:12 and other Scripture passages we learn that Christians are involved in a very serious battle and that this battle is primarily spiritual.  The General Catechetical Directory states that catechisms for children should point out that “the life of Christians on earth is a warfare” (no. 57) – not a picnic.  Though some theologians deny the existence of Satan and evil spirits, the Catholic Church strongly re-affirms their existence and warns of their malevolence.  So we must be prepared for spiritual warfare every day of our lives, and the Bible shows us how.

The Bible is not an easy book.  We need help to read and understand it.  St. Augustine said that he would not have believed the gospel, had not the authority of the Church moved him.  Long before the New Testament was written, the Church was preaching the Word of God and bringing souls to Christ.  Separating the New Testament from church tradition is an impossible task.  But it should not be a problem for Catholics who believe in the great importance of both tradition and scripture and the relationship between them.

But we have to be careful of many non-Catholic Bible commentaries that question tradition or ignore it.  For we Catholic Christians who believe that Church tradition formed the very words of the gospels, there is no problem.  The Church was formed by Jesus, given His full authority to bind and loose and was inspired by His Holy Spirit to write the gospels down for posterity and reject the many false gospels also circulating in the first century A.D.

In Acts, when Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch if he understood the scriptures he was reading, he replied, “How can I, unless I have someone to guide me?” (Acts 8:29ff).  The second letter of Peter states clearly that no one can explain by himself a prophecy in the scriptures and that it contains difficult things “which ignorant and unstable people explain falsely as they do with other passages of the scriptures and so bring on their own destruction” (2 Pet. 1:19; 3:16).  We need the guidance of the Church to truly understand and explain the scriptures and get the full benefit from them for our lives.

The Holy Scriptures comfort us as well as challenge us.  In the gospel of John, Jesus promises that He and the Father, with the Spirit, will come to dwell in us to give us joy and peace.  In John 14:27 Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will remind us of all that Jesus said.  Of course, this implies that for the Holy Spirit to remind us of the words of Jesus, we must spend some time and effort at studying them!

I remember after my own conversion when the Holy Spirit began to work powerfully in my life, I had a voracious appetite for the New Testament.  I read it over and over again.  It was both joy and sorrow because old ways had to change, and yet joy that it is the way to eternal life. 

I remember too that certain words from scripture came to me with the force of an imperative or a guide, such as when I read, “Seek first the kingdom of God”, “Do not worry”, seek “the pearl of great price” or “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”.  Later I was to see that these words were called “Rayma” and are the normal way God’s Spirit reminds us of the words of Jesus.  The Spirit produced the scriptures for our instruction and He wants to teach us through them, Fr. John Randall, the scripture scholar, maintains in his article on the word “Rayma”.  Obviously this calling to mind by the Spirit only applies to Sacred Scripture and so it should have a unique place in our spiritual reading.

Our faith needs the Word to grow.  Pope John Paul II says that faith is born and nourished by the Word, and it is expressed and strengthened by the Sacraments.

An Irish writer, who was born and bred in Dublin, decided to write a whole novel about his beloved city so that if ever Dublin was destroyed, it could be rebuilt, based on his book!  I often think that if every Bible was destroyed, it could be rewritten by studying the lives and values of the saints – those great men and women of faith to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude for their faithfulness to the Word.

Mahatma Ghandi once visited the island where the saintly Father Damien, the leper priest, worked and said that “the world of politics and of journalism can boast few heroes comparable with Father Damien.  But the Catholic Church possesses thousands of men and women who, like Father Damien, have dedicated themselves to the service of lepers.  It is worthwhile trying to discover the source of such heroism”, Ghandi stated.  The source of such heroism is, I think, the traditional emphasis of the Catholic Church on discipline, order and sacrifice.  So it is good for us to study the lives of the saints as well as the Bible.

Often we compliment ourselves on how faithful we are to God’s Word.  Then we come across the life of some saint such as a happily married man and politician like St. Thomas More, or a housewife like St. Monica, or an intrepid missionary like Fr. Gerard of the Basutho, and our self-satisfaction crumbles before their exemplary courage and fidelity.  The lives of the saints confirm Danielou’s remark that “if Christians ever neglected their temporal tasks, it certainly was not due to their preoccupation with loving God”.

Of course, Our Lady is the greatest of the saints.  Ralph Martin says that “at critical times in God’s work He cares enough to send His Mother” – as at Guadeloupe, Lourdes and Fatima.  The messages revealed at these places are worth our study.  We ignore them to our cost, Martin believes – especially the message of Fatima.  “Fatima is the message that Christianity is not a game, that the gospel is true, that what is at stake are eternal stakes, that things are happening now that determine people for all eternity and people are flocking into hell because no one is praying or making sacrifices for them”.

Newman said that history was the teacher of life, and so we should study it as well as our Church history so as to grow in wisdom, because those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.  Alan Schreck has written A Compact History of the Catholic Church especially as a follow-up to the Life in the Spirit Seminars.

Our study should also include the Catechism.  The purpose of the Catechism is to present the teaching of the Church in summarised form, to present it faithfully, and to show how it is rooted in the Sacred Scriptures and in Christian tradition.  I find Monsignor Michael Tynan’s little Catechism for Catholics one of the finest available.

For centuries Christians have used spiritual books to help them grow in the interior life; for example, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.  For St. Therese of Lisieux it was in value second only to the Bible itself.  It was very popular also with John Wesley, C.S. Lewis and Bonhoeffer.  The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola are an extraordinarily perceptive look at the spiritual life – especially the rules for discernment of spirits.  One of my favourite books is The Spiritual Combat by Lawrence Scupoli.  It is known as one of the greatest classics of Catholic spirituality and was the favourite book of St. Francis de Sales.

Obviously study involves work and discipline.  But God has given us a mind as well as a soul and so we should strive to develop it with the same care we take over our bodies.  St. Irenaeus said that “the glory of God is man fully alive”.  We should strive to be fully alive and well in mind, body and soul as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  But sometimes the development of our spiritual side can run into opposition from the world, the flesh and the devil, and so we can face diminishment physically.  But study of the Word of God is again our encouragement, for St. Paul said, “though this outer man of ours may be falling into decay, the inner man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

Study prepares us for every eventuality and shows us how to face it.  Study leads to wisdom, which is one of the most badly needed gifts today.

I praise God for the excitement, adventure and peace that comes from knowing Him – “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!”  

APPENDIX

TRACES OF THE FOUR BASIC TRUTHS IN LITERATURE:

1.         EPHESIANS 1:3-13

            God’s plan of salvation:

            Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.

Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,

to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,

determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ

for his own kind purposes,

to make us praise the glory of his grace,

his free gift to us in the Beloved,

in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.

Such is the richness of the grace which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.

He has let us know the mystery of his purpose,

the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning

to act upon when the times had run their course to the end:

that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head,

everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own,

chosen from the beginning,

under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things

as he decides by his own will;

chosen to be,

for his greater glory,

the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.

Now you too, in him,

have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation,

and have believed it;

and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,

the pledge of our inheritance

which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own,

            to make his glory praised.

2.         In St. Augustine’s City of God, salvation history is divided into 5 acts: Creation, Fall,          Revelation, Incarnation and Resurrection.  (cf. Daniel-Rops, History, II, p.41)

3.         1221 RULE OF ST FRANCIS

           

            CHAPTER XXIII  PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

            1.   All-powerful, most holy, most high and supreme God

                 Holy and just Father

                 Lord, King of heaven and earth

                 We thank You for Yourself

                 For through Your holy will

                 And through Your only Son

                 With the Holy Spirit

                 You have created all things spiritual and corporal

                 And, having made us in Your own image and likeness,

                 You placed us in paradise.

            2.   And through our own fault we have fallen.

            3.   And we thank You

                 for as through Your Son You created us

                 so also, through Your holy love, with which You loved us

                 You brought about His birth

                 as true God and true man

                 by the glorious, ever-virgin, most blessed, holy Mary

                 and You willed to redeem us captives

                 through His cross and blood and death.

4.         LUMEN GENTIUM (VATICAN II) NO. 2

            The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe, and chose to raise up men to share in his own divine life; and when they had fallen in Adam, he did not abandon them, but at all times held out to them the means of salvation, bestowed in consideration of Christ; the Redeemer, “who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” and predestined before time began “to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he should be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).  He determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ.  Already present in figure at the beginning of the world, this Church was prepared in marvellous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the old Alliance.  Established in this last age of the world, and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be brought to glorious completion at the end of time.  At that moment, as the Fathers put it, all the just from the time of Adam, “from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect” will be gathered together with the Father in the universal Church.

5.         EUCHARISTIC PRAYER NO. 4

            Father, we acknowledge your greatness:

 all your actions show your wisdom and love.

You formed man in your own likeness

and set him over the whole world

to serve you, his creator,

and to rule over all creatures.

Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship

you did not abandon him to the power of death,

but helped all men to seek and find you.

Again and again you offered a covenant to man,

and through the prophets taught him to hope for salvation.

Father, you so loved the world

that in the fullness of time you sent

your only Son to be our saviour.

He was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit,

and born of the Virgin Mary,

a man like us in all things but sin.

To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation,

to prisoners, freedom, and to those in sorrow, joy.

In fulfilment of your will

he gave himself up to death

but by rising from the dead,

he destroyed death and restored life.

And that we might live no longer

for ourselves but for him,

he sent the Holy Spirit from you, Father,

as his first gift to those who believe,

to complete his work on earth,

and bring us the fullness of grace.