My Retreat Experience

Samir Jamil, MD

By Samir Jamil, MD

Recently, I attended my first silent retreat sponsored by the Eastern Catholic Re-Evangelization Center (ECRC). From the start, I felt that I did not belong to this crowd of mostly young devotees, especially after I noticed how much more spiritual they were. What I hoped for by attending this retreat was a true self-examination and to inch closer to God the Creator.

I must admit that I succeeded in re-examining myself but failed at inching closer to God; however, my soul, my mind, and my heart are still open for the grace of God for a meaningful Metanoia — a true conversion.

It was during this retreat that I discovered how deficient I was in spiritual life.

Also, it was made clear to me that this younger crowd is so far ahead of me in pursuing the holy life. I noticed a great deal of enthusiasm among the attendees, energy that I envied throughout the retreat duration. The day after the retreat was over, it came to me to write down my observations, and it is my hope that what I am saying will not be misconstrued to be an accusation or a judgement.

The Holy Spirit is the third person in our core Catholic Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. He is the fruit of the love between God the Father and the Son (God-man Jesus.) The Holy Spirit also gives us, the people of the Church, a variety of Charisms - 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11. These Charisms (as defined by Catherine of Sienna Institute) are spiritual gifts, special abilities, that are given to all Christians to give them power both to represent Christ and to be a channel of God’s goodness for people.

In 1967, a movement sprung up within the Catholic Church under the name of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement (CCR). It is a neo-Pentecostal movement within the Catholic Church that emphasizes the workings of the Holy Spirit (the Charisms), interprets the Bible literally, and adopts an informal demonstrative approach to religious worship.

It is the last point, adoption of informal approach to religious worship, that I am worried about for our community’s younger generation, because of the ease of falling into it.

The CCR movement is approved by the Vatican, which considers it an authentic movement of the Spirit in our times, and its headquarters are in Rome. The adherents of the movement (about 120 million worldwide) are genuine Catholics and faithful to Mother Church, but its Blessing of the Renewal services (weekly prayer meetings) are heavily Pentecostal in form.

During these services the Holy Spirit is summoned to bless the attendees with Charisms, mainly speaking in tongues and physical healing. The meetings follow this format: gathering song; opening prayer; praise and worship with Scripture reading; singing; prophecy; testimony; Tongues (in song, praise, or prophecy); and ministering the Gifts (Charisms) of the Holy Spirit to the people gathered in healing, miracles, word of knowledge …etc.

This kind of celebration of the Holy Spirit by CCR followers may take over the Mass celebration. More importantly, the Charisms themselves may get misinterpreted or abused by the individuals or groups.

The Catholic Church, however, tolerates the CCR movement for a few reasons: most Charismatics do not leave the Catholic Church; CCR upholds the dogmas of Catholicism; and there is a large audience for the CCR inside the Catholic Church (both clergy and laity).

In any case, I personally am not at ease with this movement that goes far beyond our Church Tradition and Vatican II, and to some extent rides on the wagons of Protestantism, modernism, and postmodernism, but this admittedly is my biased personal view of the CCR. It is my plea to our younger clergy and the younger generations of our Chaldean community to examine the tenets of this movement before trying to imitate some of its non-Catholic practices.