Pastoral Message to the Members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Kuwait

WELCOME TO THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC OF KUWAIT

8th August 2008
Pastoral Message to the Members of
the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Kuwait

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This is the first time that I am addressing you personally and I thank God for this opportunity to write to you.
As you are preparing for the First Gulf Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Leaders’ Conference, which will be held later this year in the UAE, I would like to take advantage of this occasion to express my wishes for so important a movement.
I whole-heartedly appreciate the prayer meetings that you conduct. Prayer is an essential part of our Christian life. Jesus Himself said that without Him we can do nothing: “Cut off from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15,5).
Nevertheless, Jesus also said: “It is not anyone who says to me: Lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt.7:21). My wish, therefore, is that besides your prayer there also be a concrete revision of your life. We should often ask ourselves: “Where am I? How is my Christian life? How is my relationship with my husband/wife, children, neighbors, collaborators, enemies, persons in charge? Since I entered the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, did my life change, at least sometime? Do I see the resurrection of Jesus Christ in my life, i.e. did I leave behind the sins that I used to commit before joining the CCR?
We know that we are always ready to justify ourselves and have a partial judgment of our behavior. So, my wish is also that the CCR be able to provide persons who may verify if the life of the members of CCR is changing or not, if their presence in the CCR is useful or if it is something routine with no practical influence.
I wish that more catechetical formation be given to the members of CCR. Prayer is important, even necessary, but we have to also transform our mentality, our way of thinking and judging, so that we can grow up and have the same mentality and the same Spirit of Jesus Christ. Besides prayer meetings, other meetings for formation should be conducted and suitable resources persons should be provided.
I also wish that the so called “training” not only have a technical aspect, like “We train people and they train others”. We should not only train people, in the technical sense, but we should especially communicate to them our personal experience of Jesus Christ in our life, so that their lives be always nearer to Him. This requires that the persons in charge of training have a mature experience of Christian life in the CCR.
I also wish that the terminology “Healing Prayer Service” be understood in the right way, or it should be simply omitted. When people hear about “Healing Prayer Service”, they come very willingly to it because they want to be healed from an infirmity they have. However, the main purpose of our prayer is not the physical healing as such, but to obtain from God the grace of doing His will in our life. Sometimes people are misled by the “Healing Prayer” because when they see that they are not healed, they leave the meetings, the prayer and the Church, as well. I wish that the term “Healing Prayer Service” be replaced by “Intercessory Prayer”. We intercede so that we are ready to do the will of God.
I also wish that some expressions be avoided. Exempli Gratia: “God told me, God revealed to me, God spoke to me”, etc. Of course God can speak personally to anybody, but we have to verify, through the Church, if what seems to be a message of God for an individual personally is what it truly is, a message. If we stress very much on personal inspirations from the Holy Spirit, there is a danger that we could abandon the Church, as we may feel that we don’t need the Church any more, we now have our personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and this is more than enough.
Finally, I wish that a plan of formation of the members of CCR be common in the entire Gulf, so that we all walk together, we form an enlarged family inside the Church so that anybody who emigrates to another Gulf country, might continue his formation without interruption or surprises.
God, send us Your Holy Spirit and the face of the earth will be renewed!
Bishop Camillo Ballin, mccj
Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait

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