Förberedelse för Pingsten, månadsbrev april

Pater Cantalamessa om omvändelsens betydelse för att ta emot den Helige Ande.

Fader Cantalamessa tar i månadsbrevet upp betydelsen av omvändelse hos profeterna och hur begreppet utvecklas i det Nya förbundets tid.

Radikal omvändelse betyder att glömma det som är bakom oss och sträcka oss framåt, att inte vila på gamla lagrar. I slutet av brevet varnar oss p Cantalamessa att just det senare är kanske vad vi tenderar att göra inom Karismatiska förnyelsen. Omvändelse gäller i högsta grad också oss:

"I am struck by the example of the apostle Paul described in Philippians 3. Discovering Jesus as his Lord, he had considered all his glorious past a loss, mere garbage, in order to gain Christ and put on justice derived from faith in him. But a little later he comes up with this statement ‘Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead.’ (Fil 3, 13). What past? No longer that of a Pharisee, but that of an apostle. He sensed the danger of finding himself with a new ‘gain’, a new ‘justice’ of his own, deriving from what he had done in the service of Christ. He resets everything with that decision: ‘I forget about the past, I lean towards the future.’

How can we not see in all this a precious lesson for us of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal? One of the many slogans that circulated in the early years of the Renewal - a kind of battle cry - was: ‘Returning power to God!’ Perhaps it was inspired by the verse of Psalm 68, 35 ‘‘Confess the power of God’’ which in the Vulgate was translated as Date gloriam Deo super Israel ‘Render (reddite) to God his power.’ For a long time I considered those words as the best way to describe the novelty of the Charismatic Renewal. The difference is that once I thought that the cry was addressed to the rest of the Church and Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service we were those who were in charge of making it resound; now I think it is addressed to us who, perhaps without realizing it, have partially appropriated ourselves of the power that belongs to God.

In view of a new restart of the current of grace of the Charismatic Renewal, it is necessary to ‘empty one's pockets,’ to reset ourselves, to repeat with deep conviction the words suggested by Jesus himself ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’ (Lc 17,10). Make the Apostle's purpose our own: ‘I forget about the past, I lean towards the future.’ We imitate the ‘twenty-four elders’ of the Apocalypse who ‘cast their crowns before the throne’ and proclaim 'Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power' (Rev 4,10-11). The word of God addressed to Isaiah is always relevant: 'See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? ' (Is 43, 19). Blessed are we if we allow God to do the new thing he has in mind right now for us and for the Church.

My suggestion for the chain of prayer: to repeat several times during the day one of the invocations addressed to the Holy Spirit in the Sequence of Pentecost, the one that everyone feels more responsive to his need:

Wash what is stained.
Water what is dry.
Heal what is wounded.
Bend what is rigid.
Strengthen what is weak
Govern what is wandering."

[Fader Cantalamessa brev för April här]

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