Nice Quote!

hi everyone, i found this meaningful quote in one of my old sketch book, thought i should share it with you all.

" At the end of our lives, we will not judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in.'
Hungry not only for bread - but hungry for love.
Naked not only for clothing - but naked of human dignity and respect.
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks - but homeless because of rejection. "

- Mother Teresa

-est.heng

FOA is coming

For those that come to our blog for the first time, do come and join us in our Orientation Camp. This is not a camp for freshemen that are coming to SMU but it is a time for us to orientated ourself back to GOD's Kingdom.

We could be lost in the secular or working world that we forget about him, School is starting soon and we will be back to our endless world or meetings and assignments. Who can we turn to????

Lets take some time off. Lets Reflect. Lets Pray.

HE's GOD the power.

Please refer to our website : http://links.smu.edu.sg/cca/fides

If you want to donate or help us Please email :mailto:fides@smu.edu.sg

OR

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Charismatics

Dear all,

It has been some time since someone last posted on this blog. I wanted to share this with all of you but somehow the opportunity did not present itself and I did not have time to really formulate my thoughts. This summer and especially my ICT have given me time to think about this issue and organize my thinking. This issue is something close to our hearts. Charismatics.

Certain churches have received much flak from certain members in our community and these churches have often become the butt of their jokes. At the same time, there has been an interest in charismatic prayers in our community and resistance to it.

My stand has always been clear. Even if you are not a fan of it, you have to be open. There are many ways to worship and one should not judge which way is the best. One the other hand, even if we have our own favourite way of worshipping, we should not stick solely and stubbornly to it. However, I was wondering, all this talk about Charismatics, do we know what we are talking about? Why should we be for it? Why should we be against it? Do you know that there is a movement called the Catholic Charismatic Renewal represented by the Catholic Fraternity of Covenant Communities and Fellowships and they have received recognition from the Pontifical Council for the Laity?

How is a Charismatic session carried out? It starts out with Praise and worship, scripture, sharing and witnessing. Pretty much what we do. Of course as we know from those Charismatic Churches, their sessions are much more “high energy” and participants often experience a sense of ecstasy. Much like our Praise and worship sessions right? Harmless?

Herein lies the danger if we do not know what we are talking about. To understand the nature of The Charismatic Movement, we have to know its history. The “modern” Charismatic Movement started somewhere at the end of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 20th Century. (Note: I have used the word “modern” because there has been similar movements as early as the late 2nd century and all through the Church’s History. Such movements as the Montanism, the Joachimists, the Convulsionary Jansenists etc. I shall however not delve into that. Good to know. That’s all.) This movement is similar to another movement called the Pentecostalism movement which began in 1867. As we all know, Pentecostalism seperated itself from mainstream Protestantism which in turn seperated itself from the Catholic Church during the Reformation. It later became known as the Charismatic Movement as it began to spread across denominations. First through Baptist and Methodist Churches in a relative short period of time and through some other Protestant Churches and finally to the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. (Note: I have classified all other churches other than the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church under the Protestant Church. It is burdensome if I have to name all 28,000 denominations)

The Pentecostal movement and the Charismatic Movement placed special emphasis, if not most of their emphasis on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is evident as there are many purported faith healings in these sessions, people dancing uncontrollably, supposed possessed by the Holy Spirit and almost everybody could speak in tongues. The reason and aim of this movement is to obtain grace from the Holy Spirit through these “gifts” This is to be expected in the sectarian environment of Protestantism, which cut itself off from the Apostolic succession and became devoid of the revitalizing power of the Holy Spirit which, since Apostolic times, Christians of the true Church receive in the Holy Sacraments. Ordinary prayers and singing during religious meetings cannot give complete spiritual satisfaction to the human soul.

Now that the waters of this movement have reached our shores, how should we as Catholics react to it? There is danger and opportunity. Danger that we must avoid and opportunity that we must embrace.

There are two dangers which we must be wary of. Firstly, as in our Praise and Worship sessions, we seem to seek a “high” at the end of it. If at the end of such sessions we do not weep or feel “a sense of overwhelming joy” the session is deemed to be “not that successful”. This is wrong and this mentality is hijacking the true purpose and intent of the Praise and worship sessions and of prayer. Secular society places emphasis on thrill, delight and ecstasy. We get if from drugs, sexual dissoluteness, wild music etc and now it seems like we want to get this same thrill out of prayer. The true purpose of prayer, be it in any form, contemplative, meditative, song etc is to get closer to God, to repent and to purify our conscious. When communicating with God one should seek not delightful or thrilling feelings but a renewal of one’s sinful soul, and this comes through repentance, humility and obedience to God. We should be on our guard against such deviant perversions of religious feelings. Secondly, the emphasis on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is perverse and dangerous and we have to be careful. This “cult” seems to me to be overly concern with the Gifts of the Giver rather than the Giver of the Gifts. We have to be mindful that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are given for the good of the Church on Earth and not for personal glorification or gratification. We often forget the plentitude of graces and treasures available to us in our Catholic Church through the Sacraments. What about the Eucharist? What about the forgiveness of sins? It is essential to remember the crux of our religion. What are we believing in? At the end of the day, although Pentecost is an important event and great miracles happened that day, is it as important as the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Yet, we should not ignore these Gifts. The Holy Spirit was sent to help the fledging Church. It in turn granted extraordinary gifts to believers in service of the church. These gifts are part of our Apostolic faith and we have seen an outpouring of these Gifts onto the Apostles and the believers. They converted the Gentiles and spread the Word of God to the ends of the Earth. We at FIDES especially need these Gifts and to make better use of the Gifts that we have been bestowed upon by the Holy Spirit. The Charismatic Movement has increased our awareness of these gifts, or rather, made us more aware that we HAVE been given gifts and that now it is time to make use of it. We must always remember that these gifts are meant for the Church and not for ourselves. That is why it is said, “we receive it freely, we should give freely.” The asking and receiving of these gifts is not “wrong”, it only becomes “wrong” when the gifts displaces the means of grace in our lives, such as the Sacraments.

Lastly, this is what our Holy Father; the Late John Paul II has to say about the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement. This is an excerpt from his message to the Catholic Fraternity of Covenant Communities and Fellowships.

“From the very beginning of my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I have considered the movement as a great spiritual resource for the church…Within the Charismatic Renewal, the Catholic Fraternity has a specific mission, recognized by the Holy See.”


The next excerpt basically summarizes everything that I wrote.


“The enthusiastic faith, which enlivens your communities, is a great enrichment, but it is not enough. It must be accompanied by a Christian formation, which is solid, comprehensive and faithful to the Church’s Magisterium: a formation based upon a life of prayer, upon listening to the Word of God, and upon worthy reception of the sacraments, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist. To mature in faith, we have to grow in knowledge of its truths. If this does not happen, there is a danger of superficiality, extreme subjectivism and illusion. “

Pope John Paul II’s message condensed from his June 1, 1998 meeting with the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships at the Vatican as reported in L‘Osservatore Romano, English Edition



God Bless
Nicholas Tan