Michelle Moran, President of ICCRS, said to the pope and the Synod of Bishops in October: 'the word of God can only be understood through the action of the Holy Spirit', 'if preaching is to come alive and be truly vibrant it requires an openness and docility to the power of the Holy Spirit', 'the Holy Spirit is therefore an essential prerequisite to effective Evangelisation and Mission'
Here is the full text
Holy Father, your excellencies, dear brothers and sisters,
I speak as President of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I know that many of you are familiar with the Charismatic Renewal as we are present in more than 200 countries worldwide. I wish to comment upon the essential relationship that exists between the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. I will do this in three brief points.
1) As Instrumentum Laboris 3 states ‘the word of God can only be understood through the action of the Holy Spirit'. The Charismatic Renewal helps to foster a new openness to the graces and gifts and of the Holy Spirit. Through this many people have experienced conversion or deepening of their faith. Accompanying this renewal is often a thirst for the word of God and the discovery that the word of God is indeed alive and active (Instrumentum Laboris 26). Therefore people from the Charismatic Renewal and other movements are involved in producing resources to help others not just to have access to the Scriptures, important as this is, but to have life changing experiences through encountering the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
2) Over these days there has been much discussion about the importance of the homily. Clearly, when people come alive in faith there is a hunger for the word of God. Sadly it would be true to say that some people fail to have this hunger satisfied due to poor or inadequate homiletic preaching at Sunday Mass. Undoubtedly, there is more to be done in the area of clergy formation and training in homiletics. However, if preaching is to come alive and be truly vibrant it requires an openness and docility to the power of the Holy Spirit. I would like to suggest that seminarians, priests, deacons, catechists and all those involved in the ministry of preaching and proclamation are also offered opportunities to experience a deeper outpouring or renewal of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
3) Turning to part III of Instrumentum Laboris, ‘the word of God in the Mission of the Church' perhaps it is worth noting that before Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee we are told that He was filled with the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit (LK 4:1). As Pope Paul VI reminded us in Evangellii Nuntiandi, ‘techniques of evangelisation are good but even the most advanced ones could not replace the gentle action of the Spirit' (EN 75). The Holy Spirit is therefore an essential prerequisite to effective Evangelisation and Mission , prayerful attentiveness to the Word of God guided by the Holy Spirit will protect us from useless over activism and lead us into fruitful missionary engagement with the World.
Michelle Moran, President of ICCRS 12.10.2008
Taken From ICCRS newsletter |
