Welcome to our Charismatic website.
We are Catholics who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and we keep helping others and ourselves to experience and cooperate with the Holy Spirit. We provide this website to honor the Holy Spirit.
Archbishop John Vlazny shepherds the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Archdiocese through his Co-Liaisons, Father Peter Smith, Pastor at St. Rose of Lima Parish, and Deacon Jesus Gutierrez of St. Anthony Parish.
Browse a bit now and come back to browse again.
Expect the Holy Spirit to bless you each time!
In a Christian context the word "charismatic" identifies a person cooperating with the Holy Spirit or something initiated by the Holy Spirit.
A New Pentecost!
Like the renewal of the first Pentecost, this recent charismatic renewal was initiated by the Holy Spirit. It is the new Pentecost for which Pope John XXIII and all of us prayed before Vatican II. Since the Vatican Council, over 60 million Catholics worldwide have been touched and transformed by this Pentecostal experience, by the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit". The Spirit is renewing the Grace of Pentecost in the Life and Mission of the Church. Praise our God!
How Do We Experience This Pentecost?
The Holy Spirit will not force His guidance and gifts on us. So Pope John Paul II proclaimed to Latin Americans in 1992, "Welcome the Spirit, so that a new Pentecost may take place in every community!" In 1998 he affirmed, "Whenever the Spirit intervenes, he radically changes persons and history . . . Open yourselves docilely to the charisms of the Spirit." Such interventions of the Spirit do not happen or bear fruit independently of our cooperation. The Spirit does not bless us without our cooperation. Pope John Paul II continually pleaded with all Christians to be docile to the Spirit, to continually invite the Spirit to intervene in their lives, to recognize when He is intervening, to become disciples cooperating with the Holy Spirit, to become charismatic Christians. Come, Holy Spirit!
Our Institutional and Charismatic Church!
The Holy Catholic Church that Jesus established has two dimensions, but Catholics today are most familiar with the institutional or hierarchical dimension. There is also the charismatic dimension. Both the institutional and charismatic aspects are co-essential to the Catholic Church's constitution. Both dimensions are elements contributing to the life and holiness and maturity of the members of the Church! Since the charismatic aspects have been in eclipse, the Holy Spirit has initiated this recent charismatic renewal to renew the grace of Pentecost in the life and mission of the Church! Let's cooperate with His loving plans for each of us!
Our Heritage and Spirituality!
The charismatic renewal brings nothing new to the Catholic Church, but helps all her members to reclaim and experience their Pentecostal heritage, helps all her members to realize that the Pentecostal experiences of the first century are also normal for the 21st century. The spirituality of the Catholic charismatic renewal is not one spirituality among many; it is the spirituality of the Catholic church!
Treasure God's Revealed Word!
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible
is used on this website.
Questions or comments concerning the content
of this website should be directed to:
Fr. Peter Smith
