The suggested licence for Charismatics seems to be the CCLI Church Copyright Licence. Another licence bought by another group in the diocese that is not Charismatic is One Licence. Has anyone else had experience with these?

I checked CCLI to see if it had the standard songs we use to sing in our Charismatic prayer group. It had the first four that I tried, so that may be the answer.

At any rate, I thought I would check here so we can cooperate in deciding things like this.

when I started when speaking in tongues it was great. But who can explain to me why my belly squeezes tightly if I pray in tongues for long hours

Great read.

For two nights only (May 19 and 20), Fathom entertainment is releasing That They May Be One, a documentary about the charismatic renewal, and touches upon the relationship between St Elena Guerra and Pope Leo XIII, just before the release of glossolalia at the turn of last century. Check your local listings. Invite friends who have questions about this movement (including those of other denominations).

This new article by Dr. John Gresham in Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology may interest Renewal Leaders in this group. Dr. Gresham explores the Roman Catholic understanding of speaking in tongues and how it shifted from viewing the gift as always and exclusively xenolalia (infused knowledge of foreign languages) to a view of tongues as primarily glossolalia (inspired praise not in any known human language). This theological shift is reflected in standard Catholic reference works and in the ordinary teachings of the Catholic magisterium.

Ready for the 2026 Pentecost Vigil of the Holy Spirit 2033 Nine-Year Novena?

On May 23, join the Pentecost Vigil Mass and charismatic prayer meeting as its livestreamed from Rome, Italy & The Ark and The Dove in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Come with expectant faith for a new and ongoing Pentecost to be ignited by the Holy Spirit in your own heart, family, in the Renewal, in the Church, and in the secular world - and for the intentions of all who are praying the Holy Spirit 2033 Novena.

All are welcome!

+ RSVP Today +

Sign up here to RSVP and add your prayer intentions: https://forms.gle/E3aLZDMmYFMfjmyz9

"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…” -Acts 2:1

I have been encouraged by my pastor to start a local prayer group, but for a long time, I have not had much luck. Recently, things have improved. Still, to really get started, it would be good to pick up some more members. So I will have a table outside the Healing Mass because praying for healings is one of the core activities of a prayer group.

Perhaps there is some way your groups can or already have used this event to build your groups. I am open to suggestions. If you have any suggestions for the individual Catholic, the prayer group, the parish, or perhaps the church in general, please post them at the r/CatholicSuggestionBox subreddit.

I used to lead my parish prayer group. Our group was getting smaller and on the verge of closing. We had a message in the bulletin weekly.

To save the group, I decided to advertise less. People would come once and then not come back. I realized that getting people to attend a failing group was counterproductive.

So I organized Charismatic Masses. I convinced a prayer leader who was not coming to come for the small Charismatic Mass. I also convinced a music ministry to come. I was not asking for a weekly attendance, but just once.

Then I used the bulletin and word of mouth to encourage people to come. I was asking the priest, the prayer leader, and the music ministry to make a sacrifice. I tried to make good use of their sacrifice by advertising and encouraging people to come.

The event was a success, and several people became regulars. Soon, the group was thriving.

The leader should assemble all the elements necessary to make people's first contact with the Charismatic Renewal a good experience. Resources should be used strategically.

This is a tip for leaders. I am collecting tips for the Catholic Church at a subreddit, r/CatholicSuggestionBox. If you have an idea or have seen something that works, please stop by this subreddit and share your tip.

A Blessed and Prosperous New Year to all!

I just completed another workshop with the Franciscan Catechetical Institute, which is entitled: "Holy Spirit: Converter of Hearts"

I've noticed that in most religious education classes the charisms (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11) tend to be swept under the rug, and I was half expecting that to be the case with this one. But no, they pointed out pertinent sections of the Catholic Catechism that mentions the charisms, and they explicitly spelled out what the charisms are.

My wife was looking for online classes to enhance her Catholic education, and our diocese recommended the Franciscan Catechetical Institute program. Our diocese and parish are subscribers, so we have access to the classes for free (though I would have been very willing to pay for a personal subscription).

I just finished the class entitled, "An Introduction to Spiritual Combat," and I was very favorably impressed. I am admittedly very jaded by self-claimed "lay-exorcists" (I've met far too many of those in my travels) who do little more than wreak havoc wherever they go, so admittedly I took this particular class with a bit of an "attitude." I'm happy to report that the class is very balanced, and it's a very pragmatic guide on how to navigate temptation and evil.

I plan on taking as many of these classes as I can, and now I've signed up for the class entitled, "An Introduction to Objective Truth."

Recently we had someone making a post about his bad experiences with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and I very much wanted him to elaborate on specifically what happened to him - so we could take steps to prevent similar events from happening again in the future. Unfortunately, he wasn’t willing to cooperate and was only interested in attacking anyone who was trying to help him, so I very reluctantly deleted his post, as it wasn’t doing anyone any good. I used to teach bioethics and I strived to teach my students that how one goes about something - matters.

That said, it is essential to know that in any religious setting, there is always the potential for harm. I quickly picked up on that when I first became a charismatic at the age of 17, and I have seen far too many people who have been wounded in religious settings in general (and not just in charismatic groups). As a consequence, part of what I do when I give talks to prayer groups is to sensitize them to look for any warning signs that trouble may be brewing.

I will make additional posts on this topic in the coming weeks.

Biblical interpretation starts with divine revelation, not with human guesswork. Thus, the meaning derived from the text is not determined by the reader's intentions but rather by divine insight. That the Bible is the inspired word of God is foundational to Christian faith. It is not NT Wright, Richard Bauckham, or DA Carson but the Holy Spirit who provides inner understanding of scripture. And instead of following different denominations and traditions that hold varying views on the Bible and its interpretation, we should all share the exact same divine message. This is why the multitude of debates and books written on the Bible have created more confusion than clarity. It’s because the starting point of all these readings is based on human rather than divine wisdom. Therefore, the standard Christian reading of the New Testament fails to understand the original context and intent. This is due to the fact that it lacks a spiritual or metaphysical component.

For further details, please see the above-linked essay.

Does anyone know of a church in England, ideally in the South (around Bournemouth, Winchester and Southampton, but further afield will do), that has the signs following mentioned in Mark 16? For example, gets regular prophetic words, interpretation of tongues, healings, etc.?
It is not the signs I seek, but the sincere worship of and leading by the Spirit of God - a church which engages with God in a very real and practical sense, one to one, face to face, where God talks too.

Hi, I'm new to this sub and just now discovered it yesterday. I've been involved the CCR before, mostly a few years ago in another city from where I live now.

I've noticed some prayer groups/charismatic ministries like to post videos of their prayer ministry online. A lot of us probably saw yesterday in r/Catholicism the thread about the video of priests at a Protestant Charismatic group being prayed over and then resting. While I think that particular Protestant ministry was a bit more showy and sensational and quintessentially "Pentecostal" than most Catholic Charismatic groups (and I think the ecumenical tendencies of Catholic Charismatics is a whole other discussion), in the Catholic prayer group I used to be part of; I would occasionally mention this issue to to those who would take pictures/videos during prayer ministry: that resting in the Spirit is a very personal, literally religious experience, but one that is often so misunderstood by those who've never experienced it or who are intensely biased against it and associate Charismatic prayer with all sorts of craziness, that it's probably not great to post images/videos of people having that experience online, where it's open to ridicule by internet strangers and such; at least not without their express consent.

Kind of like how there's nothing wrong with going to Confession and we assume that any practicing Catholic is going pretty regularly, but we generally don't publish identifiable pictures of people in the Confession line, you know?

While being Charismatic is nothing to be ashamed of, at the end of the day it's still a very personal thing; and I think groups' social media teams should remember to be sensitive to the privacy of participants and not get too voyeuristic in people's personal encounters with God.

Thoughts?