During
the Vigil of Pentecost and
ecumenical prayer on the occasion of
the Golden Jubilee of Catholic
Charismatic Renewal on June 3rd
2017, Pope Francis was joined by the
leaders of Catholic Charismatic
Renewal and the representatives of
the Evangelical and Pentecostal
Churches and other religious
confessions. The encounter was
preceded by hymns, readings and
testimonies, and introduced by
meditations by Fr. Raniero
Cantalamessa, preacher of the Papal
Household, and Pastor Giovanni
Traettino of the evangelical Church
of the Reconciliation.
Pope
Francis’s outreach to Pentecostals
and evangelicals has been marked his
insistence that the “current of
grace” represented by the renewal is
fruit of the Holy Spirit calling
Christian Churches into unity, not
through proselytism or purely
intellectual dialogue but in
revealing their oneness in
diversity.
The
following is the text of the reflection
by Pastor Giovanni
Traettoni on the occasion
of the Golden Jubilee:
God's Passion of Unity, Intimacy,
and Love
Greeting and good
evening brothers and sisters! I greet
with affection all the bishops, pastors,
and leaders! Good evening beloved and
dear Papa Francesco / Pope Francis!
Thank you for having conceived this
[ecumenical] event! Thank you for
inviting us to this vigil of Pentecost.
Thank you for inviting us evangelicals
and Pentecostals on this 50th
anniversary of the birth of the
charismatic movement that also coincides
with the 500th anniversary year of the
Reformation.
And lastly, thank you because the mere fact
of having called us here at Circo Massimo,
the first site of Christian martyrdom in
Rome, stresses the relationship that you see
between our movements, their membership
– despite
the diversity
–
to the same current and source of grace,
“the root and ecumenical vocation”of the
entire Charismatic and Pentecostal movement.
God’s dream
I am here “transfixed” by a dream. I speak
of the dream imagined before the Foundation
of the world; the dream that captured
– I am sure – even your heart. That of God
who is a relationship, that of God who is
“loving communion” (
koinonia) in its
deepest essence. That of a God , who is love
before loving! Because he lives –
inside before outside - in an incessant
movement of love. Paraphrasing the beginning
of the Gospel of John, we could say: in the
beginning it was the communion!
The Gospel of
desire
At this point, I would speak about this
Gospel of desire! God wanted every time to
extend his interior movement of love, this
communion to his creatures. He wanted to
migrate into the human heart and made
it his house in the fullness of time!
And he came! He visited us in Christ. He
visited us personally. He blew upon us!
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who was given to
us.” (Romans 5:5). And it was Pentecost! The
irruption of God in our hearts. Love! Desire
for love! In dwelling as for a new
incarnation, desire for intimate and
profound communion, passion of unity,
intimacy, love! So it is written: “he who is
joined to the Lord is one spirit with him”,
and: “do you not know that your body is the
Temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have received from God?”
(1Corinthians 6:17.19). Because he wanted a
temple / house / dwelling made of flesh
instead walls of stone. Because he wanted to
experience us from within each of us!
The visitation of
God
On Pentecost, the inner life of God, has
visited us. It finally came and broke in
that day through our pierced hearts. And
Ezekiel’s prophecy was fulfilled: “I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you; I will remove the heart of stone
from your body, and give you a heart of
flesh. I will put my spirit within you and I
will make sure that you will walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments,
and do them practice” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
He initiated an “internal dialogue” with
each of us, made us capable “from inside” to
a fraternal embrace between us. Now that
life is engaged. An essential part of the
very nature of God is conveyed to us. Now,
watered by the river of the Spirit, we can
fall more and more in love with the Lord,
and grow in love for the brethren more and
more every day. This revelation leads to
revolution! Now, rooted and grounded in
communion with God, we can grow together in
unity and community with God’s children.
The vocation of
the Pentecostal movement
So I continue to be convinced that the
movement of the Spirit, known as Pentecost,
the Pentecostal or charismatic movement, has
in its genes – for the shared experience of
the Spirit - not only the call to renewal,
upon awakening, to “life”, but has also in
itself, in its mandate, the vocation to
build unity among God’s children. And it
shall not finish to give all its
contribution to God’s purpose for having
stirred up to that, appropriating its (the
movement ) whole vocation, until it becomes
also a movement of reconciliation for the
Lord.
Pentecost is life
and peace
Because Pentecost is life and peace! Not
only life. Peace! I am thinking of the
Pentecost and of the Acts! Spirit and life
for the person. Spirit and peace for
relations. I think of the Valley of dry
bones in Ezekiel 37. Spirit and life to the
resurrection. Immediately after the
reconciliation. Or at the Pentecost of
Caesarea. The spirit descends on Cornelius,
the wall of division falls between Gentiles
and Israel. Life and peace. Resurrection and
reconciliation. A combination that is always
accompanied with the action of the Lord.
A personal
Pentecost
I had this revelation on my personal
Pentecost. During a Cenacle of prayer in the
living room. One winter evening forty years
ago! We were looking for the presence of
God. We were invaded by rivers of joy and
great harmony. Fresh outpouring of life, a
deeper revelation of the embrace of God for
all his children. Regardless of geography,
race , confession or liturgy. That ‘ deposit
‘ grew in me for several years. Until the
real turning point upon the invitation of
Matthew to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the birth of the charismatic
movement. The Lord surprised us. He
opened a door in vision and encouraged us to
enter. Once in Bari we had a word: “Tomorrow
you will wash the feet of a charismatic”. We
obeyed and there was the washing of the feet
of Friar Antonio. The process had started. I
never imagined then, what the Lord would do
in later years. Glorious springs but also
sudden frosty ones. Dissent and resistance
on both sides. But in the autumn of that
year, in Terlizzi the Lord had prepared us.
With a vision: “a path that ran, as no man’s
land, between two fields separated by barbed
wire. A man was advancing along the path and
hurt himself here and there... at times his
clothes, but at others his flesh was
strapped . He fell, then got up again, then
continued. Down the trail a cross. After the
cross only one field and no more barbed
wire. ”
In the spring of 1996 at the gathering of
the renewal in Rimini.... again the cross.
After asking for forgiveness for the
persecution of the Pentecostal charismatic
movement by the Italian leaders, back in my
room, a voice. It was the Lord behind my
back. Asking me to give him my arms. He
stretched them in the shape of a cross.
Asked me for my feet and held them so, for a
short and infinite time… And I cried, I
cried, I cried... I realized then that all
vocations of the Lord go through the
verification of the cross. This will be
followed by a fruitful season. The CCI in
Italy and CRECES in Buenos Aires.
Several meetings and relationships, so
many contacts. Until the 2006 meeting
between Catholics and evangelicals, and the
meeting with Cardinal Bergoglio, at Luna
Park in Buenos Aires. Prepared by the
fruitful relationship of communion and
prayer between the Cardinal and our
Pentecostal pastors. Some of them are with
us tonight: Himitian, Mraida, Saracco.
Another important prayer meeting between
Catholics and Pentecostals will follow in
2007 in India with father Cantalamessa,
prepared by Bishop Komanapalli and the
Catholic Archbishop of Hyderabad. In 2013,
to our great joy and surprise, the election
of Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope.
A new season
With the election of the Pope as Bishop of
Rome, a new season has clearly opened. In
particular with regard to the relationship
with us. The unprecedented development of
relationships with many pastors, the visit
to the community of Caserta with the request
for forgiveness to the Italian Pentecostal.
The encouragement to drive initiatives, in
the United States and elsewhere, between
Catholics and Pentecostals. Up to this
amazing day. Dozens of pastors are present
here tonight, as evidence of the
fruitfulness of the road traveled in just a
few years. For me, who has been walking for
forty years in the Pentecostal experience, I
think it is legitimate to speak of a real
Kairos [moment] of God!
Our responsibility
If this is true, we are certainly
encouraged. But we’re together challenged to
get even better in the historic vocation of
our spirituality. To contribute to the
awakening and the unity. It seems to me that
the method suggested by the Apostle Paul in
Ephesians is for us. Pursuing the truth in
love, we start from the Foundation of the
unity of the spirit, to walk with confidence
in the unity of faith, towards a full
realization, also visible, of the unity of
the body of Christ. Jesus is the Lord!
A Prophetic Word
Given at the Pentecost Vigil - 2017
“Brothers and
sisters as we were praying in
the Spirit the Lord gave me a
[prophetic] word
and it was this:
Lift up your eyes and see,
that the fields are white
for harvest. And if you
would obey me, and if you
would obey the prompting of
my spirit, you will yet see,
infinitely more than you can
ask or imagine. You will yet
see the power of my Spirit
descend upon the human race.
I tell you, the fields are
white for harvest, but I
need your obedience, I need
your docility, I need your
faith, and you will yet see
marvels that will astound
you, infinitely more than
you can ask or imagine, for
the glory of my name.”
– Patti Gallagher
Mansfield, vigil of
Pentecost 2017
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