The prompt for one of the contests that run on the poetry site I use was to compose a poem that talked about a historic event that had a great impact on our lives. I choose to write about a 1967 weekend retreat attended by college students and faculty from Duquesene University, a Catholic school located in Pittsburgh, PA, along with some other young leaders who had been involved in leading Catholic University youth groups and Catholic marriage encounter weekends.
Events that happened at this retreat triggered what was to become known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a true fresh breath of the Holy Spirit into that church that impacted many millions of Catholics world wide, including myself. Although there had been previous Catholics that had experienced the active working of gifts of the Holy Spirit in their lives and many others who reflected the fruits of a Spirit filled life it was this weekend that provided the spark for an explosive Holy Spirit outpouring throughout the Catholic Church.
The idea for focusing on the gifts of the Holy Spirit began when two professors from Duquesene happened to have dinner with a Presbyterian lady who had been "baptized" in the Holy Spirit. This lady obviously had something that radiated from her about her relationship with Jesus and the professors wanted to examine this Holy Spirit thing further. The people invited to the Ark and Dove retreat house just outside Pittsburgh were told to prepare for the weekend retreat by reading the first 4 chapters of Acts and the books - The Cross and The Switchblade, a story by Assembly of God pastor David Wilkerson about the power of God in his ministry in Harlem and - They Speak With Other Tongues, a story by John Sherill about the baptism of the Holy Spirit being experienced in the main line denominations.
The retreat house had an upper room chapel and one evening various individuals at different times felt a compulsion to go to the chapel to pray. When they got there they each felt the overwhelming presence of God, so much so that they lay prostrate on the floor, and a couple of them started speaking in other tongues. The result of their experiences was awe at the holiness of God and a great joy that filled them and many others that saw, believed and received their own Pentecost.
Because some of these people were involved in campus ministry, prayer meetings soon sprang up at places like Michigan State, Notre Dame and the University of Michigan. These same people created the Life in the Spirit courses and literature and eventually organized renewal book and tape distribution, prayer meeting song books and conferences.
A Life in the Spirit seminar was an hour meeting in a small group once a week for seven weeks with daily Scripture readings in between. The power of this was that the first four weeks were basically going over the same material as does the four spiritual laws of Campus Crusade. These are: God loves us. Even though He loves us there is a real problem and that is that we all sin and fall short of what God desires. The good news is that God the Father has provided through His Son Jesus a way to be united with Him. We need to confess that we sin and invite Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. The course then covers what Jesus has promised for us with His Holy Spirit.
All this is gone over in the first 4 weeks. The fifth week is scheduled to pray with people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Between week 4 and 5 the course leaders try to meet individually with each person to see how they are doing and if they have any questions that they might not want to bring up in a group. All this leads to the best and most powerful part of what is accomplished for an individual.
The first thing done when praying for someone to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their lives is to lead that person in the sinner's prayer. You cannot imagine how huge this is for the average Catholic who has been told all their lives that if they have been baptized Catholic and have gone to confession and are without mortal sin then they will go to heaven. For many Catholics (not all of course) this was when they actually became born again and experienced a personal relationship with Jesus.
The effect of the release of the Holy Spirit then produces a hunger for living a holy life, the words of the Bible becoming alive and meaningful, a desire to share this good news about Jesus to all and of course spiritual gifts that the Spirit has given to build up the individual as well as the faith community. Weeks 6 and 7 then talk about how to live a balanced Christian life and what to expect days, weeks, months and years ahead.
The Charismatic Renewal grew quite rapidly and deeply within the Catholic Church but eventually, like all revivals it cooled down and became institutionalized. And a large problem for Catholicism is that it's structure, devotion to Mary and other like things are substitutes for the Holy Spirit. I left after 10 years when I realized that it was not possible for any of those things to change.
And yet it was through this that I was lead in 1972 from being an atheist to believer and Jackie and I began to experience a wonderful Spirit filled life that still goes strong today. Below is my poem.
Duquesene Weekend - 1967
Catholic retreat
at the Ark and Dove
Holy Spirit
in the room above
those who were hungry
filled with love
late into the night
Spirit's power
joy and awe
new languages
mission's call
ancient church
shook in that hall
late into the night
Pittsburgh on
to East Lansing
South Bend, Ann Arbor
hear them sing
Jesus is Lord
sweet offering
late into the night
Great crowds came
worship and pray
small living rooms
stadiums on display
modern day Acts
was now OK
late into the night
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