Månadsbrev maj från CHARIS. Förberedelse för pingsten
F Raniero Cantalamessa: Med Maria i den övre salen i väntan på den helige Ande.
Först vill vi påminna om Rörelsernas Pingst i Stockholms katolska domkyrka:
Reservera Pingstaftonen lördag 8 juni. Då inbjuder biskopen alla rörelserna i kyrkan att fira mässa tillsammans med honom i Domkyrkan kl 17.00
Dessförinnan på eftermiddagen från kl 13.00 inbjuds rörelserna till en eftermiddag i Domkyrkosalen med samvaro, föredrag, gruppsamtal. Vi kommer att fokusera på Evangelisationen och påve Franciskus apostoliska maning Evangelii Gaudium.
Pingsthelgen äger också en ekumenisk Pingstkonferens rum i S:ta Clara kyrka. Bl.a. gudstjänster med lovsång och bön fredag kl 19.00 och lördag kl 19.00 som passar att kombinera med Rörelsernas pingst i Katolska domkyrkan.
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F Raniero Cantalamessa månadsbrev maj 2019 som förberedelse för pingsten.
Som förberedelse för Pingsten 2019 har CHARIS nu publicerat det tredje månadsbrevet från Fr Cantalamessa. Denna gången är temat Med Maria i den övre salen i väntan på den helige Ande. Vi påminner också om Rörelsernas Pingst i Katolska domkyrkan 8 juni med biskop Anders Arborelius.
[Länk till brevet här]
Brevet är en lång begrundan över Maria som en förebild för karismatiskt liv. Ur brevet:
Mary as the first charismatic of the Church
After Jesus, Mary is the greatest charismatic in the history of salvation. Not in the sense that she had the greatest number of charisms. On the contrary, on the outside she appears to have few charisms. What miracles did Mary perform? Of the apostles it is said that even their shadow healed the sick (cf. Acts 5: 15). No miracle is known of Mary alive, nor of any prodigious and sensational actions. She is the greatest charismatic, because in her the Holy Spirit has accomplished the supreme of those prodigious actions which consisted in having raised from Mary, not a word of wisdom, not a government dowry, not a vision, not a dream, not a prophecy, but the very life of the Messiah, the source of all the charisms, the one from whom we received ‘grace upon grace’ (Jn 1: 16)! Some ancient Fathers have sometimes attributed to Mary the title of prophetess, especially thinking of the Magnificat, or by incorrectly applying Isaiah 8, 3 to Mary. But, technically speaking, Mary is not in the rank of prophets. A prophet is one who speaks in the name of God; Mary did not speak in the name of God. She almost always remained silent. If she is a prophet, it is in a new and sublime sense: in the sense that she silently ‘uttered’ the Word of God alone, giving it birth.
What the Holy Spirit has worked in Mary, if it is not a simple case of prophetic inspiration, rather it can and must be seen as a charisma, indeed, as the highest charisma ever granted to a human creature that surpasses that of the very hagiographers who have been inspired or moved by the Spirit to speak on the part of God (cf 2Pt 1: 21). In fact, what is ‘charisma’? And what is its definition? Saint Paul defines it as ‘A particular manifestation of the Spirit for the common good’ (1 Cor 12: 7). Now what manifestation of the Spirit was more singular than that of Mary and what manifestation of the Spirit was more useful for the ‘common good’ than the divine motherhood of Mary?
By placing Mary in such an intimate relationship with the Spirit, first in the Incarnation and then, in a different way, also at Pentecost, therefore, Luke introduces her, in line with the general conception that he has of the action of the Spirit, as the pneumatic creature par excellence, who acts under the influence of the Spirit, and as the place of the manifestation of the creative power of God. All this, however, must not lead us to imagine that between Mary and the Holy Spirit there is an almost only objective and operational relationship, which does not touch the most intimate sphere of the person, with her emotions and her feelings. Mary was not only the ‘place’ in which God acted. God does not treat people as places, but rather as people, that is, as collaborators and interlocutors. Luke is well aware of the sober intoxication that the Spirit of God provokes with his action. He highlights it in the life of Jesus who one day ‘rejoiced’ with joy under the motion of the Holy Spirit (cf Lk 10: 21); he says it of the apostles who, having received the Spirit, begin to speak in tongues and are so out of their mind that some are misled to think they are drunk on new wine (see Acts 2: 13). Finally, he remarks it about Mary, who, after that descent of the Holy Spirit in her, hurries to see Elizabeth and starts singing the Magnificat, in which she expresses all her exultation.
St. Bonaventure, a mystic who knew such effects of the operation of the Holy Spirit, describes Mary at this time: ‘In her came the Holy Spirit as a divine fire that inflamed her mind and sanctified her flesh, giving her a most perfect purity [...]. Oh, if you were able to hear, to some extent, here and how great was the fire that came down from heaven, what coolness brought, what infused relief, what elevation of the Virgin Mother, how ennoblement of mankind, how much condescension on the part of the Divine Majesty! [...] I think that then you too will put yourself to sing, with a sweet voice, together with the most blessed Virgin, that sacred song: My soul magnifies the Lord, and, jumping and rejoicing, you would also adore, with the prophet child, the marvelous conception of the Virgin » 9. Even Luther, in his commentary on the Magnificat, assigns the Canticle of the Virgin to an extraordinary operation of the Holy Spirit. He writes: ‘To understand this holy song of praise well, it should be noted that the blessed Virgin Mary speaks from her own experience, having been enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit; for no one can rightly understand God or the Word of God, unless he is directly granted by the Holy Spirit. But receiving this gift from the Holy Spirit means experiencing it, feeling it; the Holy Spirit teaches in experience as in his own school, except where nothing is learned except words and talk. Therefore the holy Virgin, having experienced in herself that God works great things in her, however humble, poor and despised, the Holy Spirit teaches her this rich art and wisdom, according to which God is that Lord who is pleased to raise this which is humble, and to lower that which is above.’
Mary is the living example of that ‘sober intoxication of the Spirit.’ In the first historic meeting of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal with the institutional Church in St. Peter's in 1975, having finished reading the written speech, Paul VI quoted the verses of a hymn of St. Ambrose ‘let us drink with joy the sober abundance of the Spirit’ (Laeti bibamus sobriam profusionem Spiritus), and said that this could become the motto of the Charismatic Renewal.
Mary as the model of CHARIS
The Second Vatican Council made familiar the expression dear to the Fathers that refers to Mary as ‘a figure of the Church’, its model and its mother. I would like to underline how Mary is, in a very special sense, a model of CHARIS. The very word ‘charis’ refers to her, the ‘full of grace’ (kecharitomene, NdT). But not just for this. Mary is the one who, having, received and experienced in herself the power of the Spirit at the Annunciation, at Pentecost makes herself available to the disciples, so that they too receive the same gift and the same ‘power from above.’
And this is exactly what the Holy Father and the Church wish CHARIS to be: an instrument that, like Mary, has no juridical or ministerial power, but is only of humble service and accompaniment. A ‘place’ where those who have experienced the current of grace of the new Pentecost put themselves at the service of others in the Church, so that they too can have the same renewing experience. A ‘place’ where those who have received freely, give freely.