Evangelizing Catholic Culture with Father David Tickerhoof
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April 06, 2021 11:52pm
17m
The next two podcast shows are probably the most important ones that will appear in my podcast listings or shows (evangelizingcatholicculturepodcast.com). The overall topic I will be discussing in this show is the Church’s Grace of Renewal. I would like to start by reviewing a bit of history of this topic. Immediately after the close of Vatican Council II in 1965 a wonderful spiritual grace began happening in the Catholic Church. This grace manifested itself in various renewal programs which provided individuals the opportunity to receive a powerful transforming grace of spiritual renewal. The one approach that I am most familiar with is the happenings in the Charismatic Renewal. In the 1960’s some of the young leaders in the movement wondered what to call this movement. After consulting with several Catholic theologians, they decided to call it the Charismatic Renewal. The reason for this title resided in the fact that what was manifested experientially was some of the charisms listed in the scripture. The anointing that individuals were powerfully experiencing they entitled the “Baptism of the Spirit”. This experience initiated a tremendous spiritual change in one’s Christian life. This identification of the anointing was probably unfortunate for several reasons. First it easily led to the “haves and the have nots”. This reality led to many negative experiences. Secondly, the word “baptism” led to some confusion between this actual grace of anointing with the reception of water baptism, which is a very different thing. The baptism in the Spirit is simply an actual gift of grace give by God for a current conversion of life. Water baptism is the reality of the Divine indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the gift of eternal salvation. It is easy to see why this tension and confusion arose among Christians.
What seems to be the present situation? About 65 years have passed since the initial emergence of the Renewal appeared right after the close of the Council in 1965. Many years have passed and what was fresh, new, and exciting has waned. At the beginning there was a flurry development of prayer groups all over the world, especially in the United States. Today most of them have discontinued or usually consist in a few older people in the later years of life. Some individuals have left go of the initial empowerment and no longer consider themselves a part of the movement. Many have gone home to the Lord. In short, many things have changed in society in relationship to moral principles and behavior, and in the Church, which is experiencing a tremendous amount of downsizing. Plus, the fact that the neo-pagan social religion of “secularism humanism” has brought a huge amount of “spiritual darkness”, moral confusion, and unfaithfulness among Catholics who were formerly committed to their religion and its pra
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