At 5:00pm yesterday, the Holy Father, Pope Francis went to the Olympic Stadium in Rome to meet with participants in the 37th National Renewal in the Spirit Convention, taking place in Rome from June 1 to 2, 2014). This event was organized by Renewal in the Spirit in collaboration with the International Charismatic Catholic Renewal Services and the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship.
During this encounter, a series of testimonials were presented to the Pope, and he in turn commented on each one before sharing his own thoughts with those who were present.
To the priests:
To you priests, I want to say only one word: stay close. Stay close to Jesus Christ, in prayer and in adoration. Stay close to the Lord, and close to his people, close to the people of God who have been confided to your pastoral care. Love your people, always be close to them. This is what is asked of you, this double closeness: closeness to Jesus and closeness to his people.
To young people:
It would be sad if a young person were to keep his youth locked up in a safe: that's how young people grow old, in the worst sense of the word: they become rags, useless. Youth should take risks: risks taken for good, risks taken in hope. Risks that might pay off with wonderful things happening. Youth is meant to be given, so that others will come to know the Lord. Don't waste your youth: use it for good.
To families:
Families are the domestic Church, where Jesus grows, grows in the love of spouses, grows in the life of children. This is why the enemy attacks the family so much: the demon doesn't want families! He wants to destroy them, he wants us to believe that there is no love in families. Families are the domestic Church. Spouses are sinners, just like everyone else, but they want to grow in their faith, in their fertility, in their children and in the faith of their children. May the Lord bless your families, make them strong in the midst of this crisis in which the devil wants to destroy them.
To the disabled:
Our brothers and sisters who suffer, who are sick, who are disabled, are brothers and sisters united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. They are like Jesus in the difficult moments of his life, when he hung on the cross. This unity in their suffering allows them to be witnesses for the whole Church. Thank you very much, dear brothers and sisters; thank you for having accepted the call to be instruments of suffering. Thank you very much for the hope that you demonstrate, the hope that you bear witness to as you seek the caress of Jesus.
To the elderly:
I was saying to Salvatore that perhaps we were missing someone, perhaps the most important person: we're missing grandmother! We are missing the elderly, and they are the assurance of our faith, the old. Look, when Mary and Joseph were taking Jesus to the Temple, they were two; and four times, if not five - I can't quite remember - the gospel says that they were guided by the Holy Spirit. Mary and Joseph, believed though that they were being guided by the Law. Young people should follow the Law, the elderly - like fine wine - have the liberty of the Holy Spirit. So it is that Simeon, who was very courageous, invented a liturgy when he praised God, praised ... and it was the Spirit who inspired him to do so. The elderly are our wisdom, they are the wisdom of the Church; the elderly who we too often ignore, the grandmothers, the elderly ... And that old woman, Anna, did something extraordinary in the Church: she canonized gossip! How did she do that? Instead of gossiping against someone, she went from one place to another saying (about Jesus): This is the one, this is the one who will save! This is a good thing. Grandpas and Grandmas are our strength and our wisdom. May the Lord always provide us with the wisdom of the elderly. Seniors who provide us with the memory of our people, the memory of the Church. And we also give them a sense of what is spoken of in the Letter to the Hebrews: the sense of joy. It says that the elderly, these elderly, keep the promises from the past: and they teach them to us.
Prayer of the Holy Father:
Lord, keep your people who await the gift of the Holy Spirit. Watch over our youth, watch over our families, watch over our children, watch over our elderly, watch over our priests, our consecrated men and women, watch over our bishops, watch over us all. And grant us holy inebriation, that we may be inebriated by the Spirit, able to speak every language, the language of charity, always close to our brothers and sisters who need us. Teach us not to fight among ourselves in order to have just a bit more power: teach us to be humble, teach us to love the Church more than we already do, to overcome our petty squabbles; teach us to have open hearts so that we can receive the Spirit. Send your Spirit upon us O Lord. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters!
Thank you very much for your welcome. Surely someone must have told the organizers that I really like this song: Vive Gesu, il Signore ... When I used to celebrate Mass in the Cathedral in Buenos Aires with the Charismatic Renewal after the consecration and after a few seconds of praying in tongues, we would sing this song with such joy and with so much strength, like you sang it today. Thank you! I feel right at home!
I thank Renewal in the Spirit, the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity for this meeting with you; it makes me so happy. I also wish to thank you for the presence of the newcomers who have had such a good experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit; I think that Patty is here, who .... You, the Charismatic Renewal, have received a great gift from the Lord. You were born of the will of the Holy Spirit, like a current of grace in the Church and for the Church. This is your definition: a current of grace.
What is the first gift of the Holy Spirit? The gift of knowledge of self, which is love, and it helps us to love Jesus, and this love is life-changing. For this reason, we are said to be born again to life in the Spirit. Jesus told this to Nicodemus. You have received the great gift of a diversity of charisms, the diversity that leads to harmony in the Holy Spirit and to service in the Church.
When I think about you Charismatics, I have the same image of the Church, but in a particular way: I think of a large orchestra, where every instrument is different from the others and even the voices are different, but they are all necessary to create the harmony of music. Saint Paul speaks about this in chapter twelve of the First Letter to the Corinthians. So, like in an orchestra, no member of the Renewal Movement should think that he or she is more important or greater, please! Because when someone of you thinks that he or she is more important than another or greater than another, a plague begins! No one can say: I am the boss! You, like the entire Church, have only one leader, only one Lord: the Lord Jesus. Repeat it with me: who is the leader of the Renewal Movement? The Lord Jesus! Who is the leader of the Renewal Movement? (all present) The Lord Jesus! We can say this with the strength that the Holy Spirit gives us, because no one can say: Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit.
As you are no doubt aware - because the news is spreading - in the early years of the Charismatic Renewal in Buenos Aires, I didn't really love the Charismatics. I used to say of them: It looks like a Samba school! Their method of praying was not mine and I didn't agree with many other new developments in the Church. After, I began to know Charismatics and in the end I discovered the good that the Charismatic Renewal does in the Church. This story that begins with the samba school ends in a particular way: a few months before participating in the Conclave, I was named by the Episcopal Conference as the spiritual advisor to the Charismatic Renewal in Argentina.
The Charismatic Renewal is a great strength in the service of proclaiming the gospel, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. You received the Holy Spirit who has helped you to discover the love of God for all his children and also a love for the Word. In the early years, you were said to be Charismatic if you always carried a bible with you, a New Testament ... Do you still carry it with you today? (the crowd) Yes! No, I'm not so sure! If not, you should return to this first love, always carry the Word of God with you in your pocket or in your purse! And you should read a few lines. Always live with the Word of God.
You, people of God, people of the Charismatic Renewal, be attentive that you not loose your freedom, which the Holy Spirit has given you! The danger for the Renewal, as our dear Father Raniero Cantalamessa has often said, is that of excessive organization: the danger of excessive organization.
Yes, you need organization, but don't lose the grace of letting God be God! However, there is no greater freedom than to let the Spirit lead, refusing to calculate and control everything, and allowing Him to enlighten us, to guide us, to direct us, to lead us where He desires. He knows what is needed in every age and in every moment. That is what it means to be called mysteriously fruitful (Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 280).
Another danger is to become controllers of the grace of God. Many times, the leaders (I prefer the name servants) of some group or some community become, perhaps without realizing it, administrators of grace, deciding who can receive the outpouring of prayer or the grace of baptism in the Spirit and who cannot. If anyone does this, I beg you not to do it any more, don't do it any more! You are dispensers of the grace of God, not controllers! Don't attribute habits or customs to the Holy Spirit!
In the Documents of Malines, you have a guide, a safe path to lead you on the right road. The first document is: Theological and pastoral orientation. The second is: Charismatic Renewal and ecumenism, written by the same Cardinal Suenens, a great promoter of the Second Vatican Council. The third is: Charismatic Renewal and service to mankind, written by Cardinal Suenens and by Bishop Helder Camara.
This is your path: evangelization, spiritual ecumenism, caring for the poor and for those in need and welcoming the marginalized. All of this is based on adoration! The foundation of renewal is the adoration of God!
I've been asked to specify what the Holy Father expects of the Renewal Movement.
The first thing is conversion to the love of Jesus that changes lives and transforms Christians into witnesses of the Love of God. The Church is waiting for your witness to the Christian life and the Holy Spirit will help you to live the wisdom of the Gospel for the sake of our holiness.
I expect you to share with everyone, with the Church, the grace of Baptism in the Holy Spirit (an expression taken from the Acts of the Apostles).
I expect you to evangelize with the Word of God that proclaims that Jesus is alive and loves everyone.
That you bear witness to spiritual ecumenism with all those brothers and sisters from other Churches and Christian communities who believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
That you remain united in the love that the Lord Jesus asks of us for all men, and in prayer to the Holy Spirit so that we achieve that unity, necessary for evangelization in the name of Jesus. Remember that Charismatic Renewal is by its very nature ecumenical ... Catholic Renewal is tied to that which the Holy Spirit accomplishes in other Churches (1 Malines 5:3).
Stay close to the poor, to those in need, in their flesh you will touch the wounds of Jesus. Please, stay close!
Seek unity in Renewal, for unity comes from the Holy Spirit and is born of the unity of the Trinity. Where does division come from? From the demon! Division comes from the devil. Flee from internal strife, please! May such things never exist between you!
I want to thank the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity, the two organisms of Pontifical Rite granted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in service to worldwide Renewal, entrusted with the preparation of this gathering of people, priests and bishops which will take place in the month of June next year. I know that you have also decided to share your office space in order to work together as a sign of unity and in order to better manage your resources. I am very pleased to hear this. I also want to thank them because they are already organizing the great jubilee of 2017.
Brothers and sisters, remember: love God the Lord: this is the foundation! Adore God. Seek the health of a new life in the Holy Spirit. You are dispensers of the grace of God. Avoid the danger of excessive organization.
Go out into the streets and evangelize, proclaim the gospel. Remember that the Church was born by going out on that first morning of Pentecost. Stay close to the poor and touch their flesh, the wounded flesh of Jesus. Let yourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, with full freedom; and please, don't limit the Holy Spirit! Do everything with full freedom!
Seek unity in Renewal, the unity that comes from the Trinity!
I'm waiting for you, Charismatics of the world. Together we will celebrate, you and the Pope, your great Jubilee of Pentecost 2017 in Saint Peter's Square! Thank you!
During this encounter, a series of testimonials were presented to the Pope, and he in turn commented on each one before sharing his own thoughts with those who were present.
Comments of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
about the testimonials
To the priests:
To you priests, I want to say only one word: stay close. Stay close to Jesus Christ, in prayer and in adoration. Stay close to the Lord, and close to his people, close to the people of God who have been confided to your pastoral care. Love your people, always be close to them. This is what is asked of you, this double closeness: closeness to Jesus and closeness to his people.
To young people:
It would be sad if a young person were to keep his youth locked up in a safe: that's how young people grow old, in the worst sense of the word: they become rags, useless. Youth should take risks: risks taken for good, risks taken in hope. Risks that might pay off with wonderful things happening. Youth is meant to be given, so that others will come to know the Lord. Don't waste your youth: use it for good.
To families:
Families are the domestic Church, where Jesus grows, grows in the love of spouses, grows in the life of children. This is why the enemy attacks the family so much: the demon doesn't want families! He wants to destroy them, he wants us to believe that there is no love in families. Families are the domestic Church. Spouses are sinners, just like everyone else, but they want to grow in their faith, in their fertility, in their children and in the faith of their children. May the Lord bless your families, make them strong in the midst of this crisis in which the devil wants to destroy them.
To the disabled:
Our brothers and sisters who suffer, who are sick, who are disabled, are brothers and sisters united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. They are like Jesus in the difficult moments of his life, when he hung on the cross. This unity in their suffering allows them to be witnesses for the whole Church. Thank you very much, dear brothers and sisters; thank you for having accepted the call to be instruments of suffering. Thank you very much for the hope that you demonstrate, the hope that you bear witness to as you seek the caress of Jesus.
To the elderly:
I was saying to Salvatore that perhaps we were missing someone, perhaps the most important person: we're missing grandmother! We are missing the elderly, and they are the assurance of our faith, the old. Look, when Mary and Joseph were taking Jesus to the Temple, they were two; and four times, if not five - I can't quite remember - the gospel says that they were guided by the Holy Spirit. Mary and Joseph, believed though that they were being guided by the Law. Young people should follow the Law, the elderly - like fine wine - have the liberty of the Holy Spirit. So it is that Simeon, who was very courageous, invented a liturgy when he praised God, praised ... and it was the Spirit who inspired him to do so. The elderly are our wisdom, they are the wisdom of the Church; the elderly who we too often ignore, the grandmothers, the elderly ... And that old woman, Anna, did something extraordinary in the Church: she canonized gossip! How did she do that? Instead of gossiping against someone, she went from one place to another saying (about Jesus): This is the one, this is the one who will save! This is a good thing. Grandpas and Grandmas are our strength and our wisdom. May the Lord always provide us with the wisdom of the elderly. Seniors who provide us with the memory of our people, the memory of the Church. And we also give them a sense of what is spoken of in the Letter to the Hebrews: the sense of joy. It says that the elderly, these elderly, keep the promises from the past: and they teach them to us.
Prayer of the Holy Father:
Lord, keep your people who await the gift of the Holy Spirit. Watch over our youth, watch over our families, watch over our children, watch over our elderly, watch over our priests, our consecrated men and women, watch over our bishops, watch over us all. And grant us holy inebriation, that we may be inebriated by the Spirit, able to speak every language, the language of charity, always close to our brothers and sisters who need us. Teach us not to fight among ourselves in order to have just a bit more power: teach us to be humble, teach us to love the Church more than we already do, to overcome our petty squabbles; teach us to have open hearts so that we can receive the Spirit. Send your Spirit upon us O Lord. Amen.
Reflection of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
shared with participants at the
National Renewal in the Spirit Convention
Thank you very much for your welcome. Surely someone must have told the organizers that I really like this song: Vive Gesu, il Signore ... When I used to celebrate Mass in the Cathedral in Buenos Aires with the Charismatic Renewal after the consecration and after a few seconds of praying in tongues, we would sing this song with such joy and with so much strength, like you sang it today. Thank you! I feel right at home!
I thank Renewal in the Spirit, the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity for this meeting with you; it makes me so happy. I also wish to thank you for the presence of the newcomers who have had such a good experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit; I think that Patty is here, who .... You, the Charismatic Renewal, have received a great gift from the Lord. You were born of the will of the Holy Spirit, like a current of grace in the Church and for the Church. This is your definition: a current of grace.
What is the first gift of the Holy Spirit? The gift of knowledge of self, which is love, and it helps us to love Jesus, and this love is life-changing. For this reason, we are said to be born again to life in the Spirit. Jesus told this to Nicodemus. You have received the great gift of a diversity of charisms, the diversity that leads to harmony in the Holy Spirit and to service in the Church.
When I think about you Charismatics, I have the same image of the Church, but in a particular way: I think of a large orchestra, where every instrument is different from the others and even the voices are different, but they are all necessary to create the harmony of music. Saint Paul speaks about this in chapter twelve of the First Letter to the Corinthians. So, like in an orchestra, no member of the Renewal Movement should think that he or she is more important or greater, please! Because when someone of you thinks that he or she is more important than another or greater than another, a plague begins! No one can say: I am the boss! You, like the entire Church, have only one leader, only one Lord: the Lord Jesus. Repeat it with me: who is the leader of the Renewal Movement? The Lord Jesus! Who is the leader of the Renewal Movement? (all present) The Lord Jesus! We can say this with the strength that the Holy Spirit gives us, because no one can say: Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit.
As you are no doubt aware - because the news is spreading - in the early years of the Charismatic Renewal in Buenos Aires, I didn't really love the Charismatics. I used to say of them: It looks like a Samba school! Their method of praying was not mine and I didn't agree with many other new developments in the Church. After, I began to know Charismatics and in the end I discovered the good that the Charismatic Renewal does in the Church. This story that begins with the samba school ends in a particular way: a few months before participating in the Conclave, I was named by the Episcopal Conference as the spiritual advisor to the Charismatic Renewal in Argentina.
The Charismatic Renewal is a great strength in the service of proclaiming the gospel, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. You received the Holy Spirit who has helped you to discover the love of God for all his children and also a love for the Word. In the early years, you were said to be Charismatic if you always carried a bible with you, a New Testament ... Do you still carry it with you today? (the crowd) Yes! No, I'm not so sure! If not, you should return to this first love, always carry the Word of God with you in your pocket or in your purse! And you should read a few lines. Always live with the Word of God.
You, people of God, people of the Charismatic Renewal, be attentive that you not loose your freedom, which the Holy Spirit has given you! The danger for the Renewal, as our dear Father Raniero Cantalamessa has often said, is that of excessive organization: the danger of excessive organization.
Yes, you need organization, but don't lose the grace of letting God be God! However, there is no greater freedom than to let the Spirit lead, refusing to calculate and control everything, and allowing Him to enlighten us, to guide us, to direct us, to lead us where He desires. He knows what is needed in every age and in every moment. That is what it means to be called mysteriously fruitful (Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 280).
Another danger is to become controllers of the grace of God. Many times, the leaders (I prefer the name servants) of some group or some community become, perhaps without realizing it, administrators of grace, deciding who can receive the outpouring of prayer or the grace of baptism in the Spirit and who cannot. If anyone does this, I beg you not to do it any more, don't do it any more! You are dispensers of the grace of God, not controllers! Don't attribute habits or customs to the Holy Spirit!
In the Documents of Malines, you have a guide, a safe path to lead you on the right road. The first document is: Theological and pastoral orientation. The second is: Charismatic Renewal and ecumenism, written by the same Cardinal Suenens, a great promoter of the Second Vatican Council. The third is: Charismatic Renewal and service to mankind, written by Cardinal Suenens and by Bishop Helder Camara.
This is your path: evangelization, spiritual ecumenism, caring for the poor and for those in need and welcoming the marginalized. All of this is based on adoration! The foundation of renewal is the adoration of God!
I've been asked to specify what the Holy Father expects of the Renewal Movement.
The first thing is conversion to the love of Jesus that changes lives and transforms Christians into witnesses of the Love of God. The Church is waiting for your witness to the Christian life and the Holy Spirit will help you to live the wisdom of the Gospel for the sake of our holiness.
I expect you to share with everyone, with the Church, the grace of Baptism in the Holy Spirit (an expression taken from the Acts of the Apostles).
I expect you to evangelize with the Word of God that proclaims that Jesus is alive and loves everyone.
That you bear witness to spiritual ecumenism with all those brothers and sisters from other Churches and Christian communities who believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
That you remain united in the love that the Lord Jesus asks of us for all men, and in prayer to the Holy Spirit so that we achieve that unity, necessary for evangelization in the name of Jesus. Remember that Charismatic Renewal is by its very nature ecumenical ... Catholic Renewal is tied to that which the Holy Spirit accomplishes in other Churches (1 Malines 5:3).
Stay close to the poor, to those in need, in their flesh you will touch the wounds of Jesus. Please, stay close!
Seek unity in Renewal, for unity comes from the Holy Spirit and is born of the unity of the Trinity. Where does division come from? From the demon! Division comes from the devil. Flee from internal strife, please! May such things never exist between you!
I want to thank the ICCRS and the Catholic Fraternity, the two organisms of Pontifical Rite granted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in service to worldwide Renewal, entrusted with the preparation of this gathering of people, priests and bishops which will take place in the month of June next year. I know that you have also decided to share your office space in order to work together as a sign of unity and in order to better manage your resources. I am very pleased to hear this. I also want to thank them because they are already organizing the great jubilee of 2017.
Brothers and sisters, remember: love God the Lord: this is the foundation! Adore God. Seek the health of a new life in the Holy Spirit. You are dispensers of the grace of God. Avoid the danger of excessive organization.
Go out into the streets and evangelize, proclaim the gospel. Remember that the Church was born by going out on that first morning of Pentecost. Stay close to the poor and touch their flesh, the wounded flesh of Jesus. Let yourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, with full freedom; and please, don't limit the Holy Spirit! Do everything with full freedom!
Seek unity in Renewal, the unity that comes from the Trinity!
I'm waiting for you, Charismatics of the world. Together we will celebrate, you and the Pope, your great Jubilee of Pentecost 2017 in Saint Peter's Square! Thank you!
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