PRESIDENT’S DESK
SEPTEMBER, 2008

BE TRANSFORMED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend in California with thousands of people of all ages. We took a bus from Tucson on Thursday evening returning at about 3:00 a.m. September 1st with a group of teens, their sponsors and the older group of yearly attendees including Board members Ruben and Cecilia Rodriguez (and their daughter) David and Carolyn Galaz and our veteran healing ministry leader Willie Bean along with various others from our local churches.

I received a phone call from the SCRC (Southern California Charismatic Conference) asking if Tucson would carry the banners at the Friday night liturgy. That was such an honor so we joined with a group from Phoenix and filled in with the prayer group from California.

Our speakers were Charles Whitehead who has been the international Catholic Charismatic Renewal Service President for 10 years; the Chairman of the English National Service Committee and involved in the charismatic renewal for almost 30 years; Deacon Alex Jones who was a Pentecostal minister that found out through his own studies of the bible that St. Peter was the first Pope and that the Catholic Church started from there and that the Eucharist is the true Body of Christ. He is a dynamic speaker and if anyone wasn’t transformed after listening to him they were not listening. He has books and tapes out that are well worth listening to and reading.

One of the other speakers is Mother Regina Marie Gorman O.C.D. who has become a yearly speaker and a joy for all of us as Carmelites as she is has a powerful message.

It was a joy to watch the transformation of the teens from the time we left until the return trip. They were pretty rowdy on the way over but obviously much more prayerful on the way home. The group of teens have their own program on the 3rd floor of the convention center and they were really touched at the special events for them including a healing mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as well as singers that relate to their age group. We are so fortunate as a ministry to assist in getting them there but it will be a lot nicer when we can have on going events here in Tucson when we get the Resource Center to have things like this going on all the time.

There were a lot of other speakers and we had our choices but I was really impressed with Charles Whitehead. I had seen him a few years ago at a National Conference and his willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit and his way of presenting it is very dynamic in his very quiet way. He describes the renewal as “It’s a personal experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who brings alive in new ways the graces of our baptism. The Holy spirit not only sets on fire all that we have already received, but comes again in power to equip us with his gifts for service and mission.”

I think it is important to show that the goals and aims of the Charismatic Renewal (Charism  means gifts of the Holy Spirit and we all have them) are the same as the goals and objectives of the Church herself. It is a Trinitarian Renewal i.e.

• The need to know God as a loving and forgiving Father
• The need for a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour
• The need for the empowering and in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit
• The importance of the Scriptures and the Sacraments
• The call to prayer, and to the praise and worship of God
• The importance of the charisms, or gifts of the Holy Spirit, to help us serve the Church
• The need to build Community
• The commission to evangelize and to be witnesses.                                                                                                       

In this ministry we know that the Spirit is very much alive in us and we are also aware of the need for intercession and spiritual warfare. Through the Holy Spirit we understand that there is a spiritual battle going on and we are part of it…we recognize the presence of the evil spirits as well as the Holy Spirit. We also recognize that there is no competition between us and other groups in the Church. We try to live this grace of the Charismatic Renewal as fully as we can and sharing it with everyone we meet.

Obviously the Renewal is not for all and we have some members of the ministry that are not called to it; however, they all recognize the gifts of the Holy Spirit and believe all that has been said in this article.

As a closure for this month, Charles Whitehead actually closed his conference with the following meditation that he found on a piece of paper once:

NOW IS THE TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION

If all the sleeping people will wake up
If all the luke warm people will fire up
If all the crooked people will straighten up
If all the depressed people will cheer up
If all the estranged people will make lup
If all the gossiping people will shut up
If all the dry bones will shake up
If all the true believers will stand up
If all the Church members will show up to honor the one that was lifted up
THEN WE WILL HAVE THE GREATEST TRANSFORMATION THE CHURCH HAS EVER SEEN.
PRAY UP TO BE TRANSFORMED SO PEOPLE CAN RECOGNIZE JESUS IN YOU
PRAISE UP SO WE CAN BE MORE AND MORE LIKE THE LORD WE SERVE.
KNOW THAT GOD IS WITH YOU AND IT WILL HAPPEN THROUGH
Obedience, Trust, Faith, Courage, Honesty and Hard work.

God Bless You.

Gayle