Spirit & Bride - Newsletter
Download entire Spirit and Bride for December 2011 (PDF - 2.0 MB)
Conferences Call Us Together in Community!!
We have had a wonderful experience of community with those who share the baptism of the Holy Spirit with us at our local conference entitled Holy Boldness. In the following article, Betty Gravlin summarizes the St. Louis Regional conference.
I have returned from the National Leadership Conference richly blessed. At this nationwide gathering, there was an awareness of the blossoming of the Spirit as the need in the world increases. More than 700 attended with more than 75 youth representatives.
Dr. Ralph Martin gave the keynote talk at the National conference and we anticipate his arrival in St. Louis for our Spring Conference in March 2012! We will be richly blessed when he comes to share his wisdom with us at our conference Holy Call Holy Mission.
As we approach Thanksgiving and the Advent season let us give thanks and wait in expectant faith for the ever growing emergence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the lives of others.
Jane
Fall Charismatic Renewal Conference in St. Louis on September 30-October
by Betty Gravlin
Fr. Ed Griesedieck launched the 2011 Fall Catholic Charismatic Renewal Fall Conference Charismatic conference mentioning all the exciting things that are happening in our diocese. He mentioned our new seminary rector at Kenrick-Glennon whose own calling was the fruit of the charismatic renewal. Fr. Ed related the fact that a recent Priests' Meeting focused on Healing and Deliverance, and the services provided by the Catholic Renewal Center. Fr. Ed talked about the Catholics Come Home multi-media campaign that will launch this month and how this all provides ample opportunity for each of us to be an instrument of God for others. These events lay a fertile ground for our Holy Boldness.
Friday evening, Fr. Hogan started with the topic Boldness in Praise, learning how to let the Holy Spirit live in us and with us on a daily basis. He noted that boldness is different for each of us ... some are outspokenly bold and others are introspectively bold - each according to how we have been uniquely created. Fr. Bob challenged us to change our focus from praying "God protect me from evil" to bolding asking "God, where to you want me to serve you?"
Saturday's first talk with by Dr. Gresham talked to use about a Father's delight; how father's delight when the family is gathered together. God the Father is just so delighted when we, His family, are gathered together. God the Father is so delighted that He pours out His Holy Spirit on His children. He taught us a Trinitarian prayer where we ask to be embraced by the Father or to be placed within the Father's hands, then to be resting within the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and then we pray for the Holy Spirit to dwell in our heart. This three-fold prayer is ideal when we pray for others as we place our loved ones and situations totally into the Lord's realm. Worry and anxiety prevent us from being bold and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
We were encouraged to the best of our ability to be available for God, to let God use us however He wishes. We should not hold on to our gifts like "charismatic merit badges." We need to pray that we are hearing what God inspires us to pray or do. Fr. Bob related a story about a parish priest that kept being called to start a youth ministry. The priest kept resisting the prompting because there were few youth in his parish. Finally giving in, the priest started a small scraggly, youth group in Poland. Little did that priest know at that time, that one of the youths would later become Pope John Paul II. We may not know what part we plan in God's great plan but we must listen to our call to do our part nonetheless.
Fr. Bob gave us an acronym for the forms of prayer, PQSCI. PQSCI, which stands for Praise and Worship, Quiet, Scripture, Conversion, and Intercession. He said that we need to get more practical about our charismatic gifts; to be open to the charism to which God is calling us. We need quiet times to listen to what God wants to tell us through Scripture. We need a conversion of heart and intercession for the power to use the gifts we have been given. He reemphasized that that power to do this comes from God and that if we continue to pray for a gift, God will strengthen it. God will work through us if we let Him.
Dr. Gresham then unlocked for us the Scriptures that deal with anxiety, highlighting how often we are told not to be anxious, as in Phil 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6-8, and 2 Cor 4:17. When we give our cares to God, they are His; His unless we take them back again, which we tend to do. Why do we do that? The devil wants us to be in turmoil as a way of disarming us. He tells us the lie that we are all alone in our problems. This is one reason why we need the body of Christ to encourage us in boldly witnessing for the Lord.
In the closing Mass concelebrated by Bishop Robert Hermann and Fr. Ed Griesedieck, Fr. Hogan summed up all the talks over the two days and encouraged us not just to let what we learn be forgotten, but to go forth to evangelize the world.
