Publication of the National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal PENTECOSTToda y January/February/March 2001 Volume 26, Number 1 NEW COLUMN! Spiritual Formation ALLED & GIFTED Growing in faith .......................................... 7 What is faith and how do we mature in it? In Cooperators in the work of the Lord ........ 3 this new regular feature, Dorothy Ranaghan The role of the laity has shifted dramatically reflects on the basics of our spiritual lives. since Vatican Council II. Walter Matthews takes a look at the impact of the Decree on C the Apostolate of Lay People thirty-five years LEADERS FOCUS after its publication. Gifts for the church or gifts Taking it to the streets ............................... 5 for the kingdom? ................................... 9 Josephine Cachia describes how the Dio- Fr. George Montague invites us to take cese of Brooklyn took the celebration of the another look at what the charisms are and Jubilee from the churches out into the world. why they have been given to the church. The soul of the world ................................. 6 The mission of Christ is carried out not just in Newsbriefs ................................................. 11 parish ministries and programs, but in busi- nesses and social structures as well. Deacon Chairman’s Corner 2 Friends of the NSC 15 Keith Fournier shares his experience of being called to mission in the secular world. From the Director 14 Ministry Update 15 Photo: The Tablet, Diocese of Brooklyn Tablet, The Photo: Renewing the grace of Pentecost in the life and mission of the church. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ PENTECOSTToday Chairman s ○○○○○○ Corner○○○○○ Director by Fr. Patsy Iaquinta Walter C. J. Matthews Editorial Board Fr. Art Cooney, OFM, Cap. Dr. Michele Greischar Sr. Martha Jean McGarry, IHM are to build the kingdom of God. This is much larger than the church for this is the Editor Extending the task and mission of the church. Therefore Ron Ryan we are called not only to minister to those Production Manager boundaries “inside” the church (Christians), but to all Jean Beers people inclusively. All that we say and do is a Life is full of new beginnings. Or is it the witness to unbelievers. When we teach, reach For Your Information evolution/development of what is already out to the poor or dying, pray God’s heal- This is a publication of the National present? I refer not to our birth but to our Service Committee of the Catholic ing, visit the incarcerated, touch the lonely, Charismatic Renewal of the United baptism. It is the fountainhead from which we cannot be limited to the “church people.” States, Inc. The mission of the NSC all grace flows, building to a crescendo that is to stir into flame the grace of bursts out to a mighty river that gives life to I recall a young man who was dying of can- Pentecost within and beyond the us as a part of the church. And still the Spirit cer. He had asked to be baptized and, being church, to broaden and deepen the of the Lord is moving within us before bap- understanding that baptism in the at that time a chaplain with hospice, I was Holy Spirit is the Christian inheritance tism, for it is the Spirit who invites us to the asked to visit. Our hospice people with his of all, and to strengthen the Catholic waters of new life. When and how the Spirit mother had been caring for him. His face Charismatic Renewal. moves, nobody knows; we need only to re- was half-eaten away with the disease. From spond to that which is already at work in us. where an eye and cheekbone had been, I The National Service Committee- As we mature and develop in our response- Chariscenter USA is a 501(c)3 non- could see down into his throat. In this con- profit organization. Contributions to ability, our life in the Lord deepens and in- dition he spoke of Jesus’ love and compas- defray the cost of this publication are tensifies. We more fully experience the di- sion. His mother was reading the Bible to gratefully accepted and are tax vine life of God. him and he was at peace. From deep within deductible to the extent allowed by him the Spirit of the Lord came forth. He law. Please mail to: When the Son of God took flesh (incarna- NSC-Chariscenter USA was ready for his final journey. He died the PO Box 628 tion), he invited all of creation into a unique day after he was baptized. ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Locust Grove, VA 22508-0628 union with God. No matter how the human Tel. (540) 972-0225 person is defined (body/soul/spirit; body/ By our baptism we have the right, the honor mind/soul/spirit; physical/spiritual/emo- and the privilege to share the fire of the Holy National Service Committee tional/intellectual/moral), Jesus calls us to members: Spirit with all people. We extend the bound- Fr. Patsy Iaquinta (Chairman) wholeness. From within the created world, aries of church when we go beyond church Dcn. William Brennan the Uncreated transforms humanity. He chal- to minister. The mission of the church is to Josephine Cachia lenges us to live a life in the Spirit as we “make disciples of all the nations.” If we have Fr. Art Cooney, OFM Cap. walk this earth. He sets aside his perfection learned anything from Jesus, it is that God’s Lois Doyle and becomes susceptible to sin, even to the Dr. Michele Greischar love is not limited to a religion, a nation or Sr. Martha Jean McGarry, IHM extent of death. Ultimately, Jesus is born any one person or group of persons. That Aggie Neck again when he enters into the bowels (womb) being the case, we should become more ac- Dcn. Ron Ochner of the earth. His resurrection is not resusci- tive in the affairs of the civic, national and Rudy Pruden tation but a new way of existence. He is trans- international communities. There is no dis- formed from mortal to immortal. Death can © 2001, National Service Committee tinction between the sacred and profane since of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal no longer contain him, nor can locked doors Jesus came to transform all creation. Through of the United States, Inc. Not to be (Jerusalem) or open areas (Emmaus/Galilee). us everything is to be transformed by the reproduced without permission. The world cannot contain him. Jesus enters love of God.◆ into a new way of living. A limited amount of advertising space is available. For information call Jean Beers, (360) 331-4860. Through our baptism Jesus invites us to share Fr. Patsy Iaquinta is chairman of the National in his resurrected life. We become a new cre- Service Committee. He is pastor of Sacred Heart Advertisements for events not ation, members of the body of Christ, the Parish in Bluefield, West Virginia. sponsored by the National Service church. As we journey through this life we Committee do not imply endorsement by the NSC/Chariscenter USA. 2 PENTECOST Today January/February/March 2001 We did not see or under- stand the seemingly limit- less possibilities of service as laymen and women… Thirty-five years after the Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People: Cooperators in the work of the Lord by Walter Matthews few weeks ago my family and I re- It would not be true to say that, by itself, the priest or bishop, but by the fact of our bap- membered the thirtieth anniversary Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People turned tism (and confirmation) each member of the A of my father’s death. When he was the church upside down or caused the Catho- church is called to mission and this mis- alive my father was an usher in the two par- lic Charismatic Renewal to be birthed. How- sion is not limited. “Lay men [and women] ishes in which we lived. He was also a fourth ever, along with the earlier Dogmatic Consti- have countless opportunities for exercising degree Knight of Columbus and served for a tution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), the the apostolate of evangelization and sancti- time as Grand Knight. I grew up thinking Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy fication” (n. 6) which involves “witness of that, if I wanted to serve the Lord in the (Sacrosanctum Concilium) and the then soon- life,” witness by word, and “renewal of the church, I could either become a priest or to-be-issued Pastoral Constitution on the temporal order” (n. 7). follow in my father’s footsteps and become Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et an usher and possibly a Knight of Colum- Spes), it did initiate a wave of renewal that Second, since “Christ, sent by the Father, is bus. Other options were simply not clear to continues to this day. In fact, our current the source of the church’s whole me nor presented to us as students. We did Holy Father has clearly stated that “the best apostolate…the fruitfulness of the not see or understand the seemingly limit- preparation for the new millennium…can apostolate of lay people depends on their less possibilities of service as laymen and only be expressed in a renewed commitment living union with Christ” (n. 4). A dead or women both within the church’s interior life to apply, as faithfully as possible, the teach- dormant faith will not accomplish the goal. and within her mission of extending the ings of Vatican II to the life of every indi- Only a living faith in Jesus renewed by “ac- kingdom of God in our society. vidual and of the whole church” (Tertio Mil- tive participation in the liturgy” and “divine lennio Adveniente, n.