God has done and is doing great things through the Renewal in the Church and the world, so our first response should always be gratitude: Give glory, praise and thanks to God!

My sense of how the Spirit is moving us today is twofold. First, we need to persevere in doing all that the Church has called us, as Catholics, to do. Pope St. John Paul II taught that with the Second Vatican Council the Church rediscovered her charismatic dimension. The Council clearly states that all the charisms (cf. 1 Cor 12, Eph 4 and Rom 12) “are to be received with thanksgiving and consolation” (Lumen Gentium 12) and that “each of the faithful [have] the right and the duty of exercising them in the Church and in the world…in the freedom of the Holy Spirit…” (AA 3). Priests are exhorted to “discover with faith, recognize with joy, and foster with diligence the many and varied charismatic gifts of the laity, whether these be of a humble or more exalted kind…” (PO 9). Our “marching orders” are from the Church, including the many pastoral statements of popes, most recently Pope Francis who exhorts the Renewal to spread the grace of “baptism of the Spirit” to all. Our age sorely needs this; we must be absolutely convinced of the importance of this for the Church and the world (and for each of us personally), especially for the work of evangelization. (As Fr. Cantalamessa has said, “No new evangelization without a new Pentecost!”)

The second thing I sense is that we must not become discouraged. The Lord is in charge! On Palm Sunday of this year (2018), Pope Francis spoke of the joy of those who praised Jesus coming into Jerusalem…yet this joy and praise made some uneasy. “And so the celebration of the people ends up being stifled. Hope is demolished, dreams are killed, joy is suppressed…and charity grows cold.” So he asks: “Where is our heart focused? Does Jesus Christ continue to be a source of joy and praise in our hearts?” Joy and hope are two of the most important fruits of this Renewal. Let us not lose them! Ask the Holy Spirit to stir them up. I’m a Church historian, but (even with prophetic words) I am convinced that no one knows God’s greater plan for the Renewal…none of us clearly sees how the present fits into the “big picture” or how the future will unfold. Our task is to be faithful to what the Lord has given each of us to do in the present—with perseverance, and with his gifts of hope and joy. Thanks be to God!

Alan Schreck is a professor of theology at Franciscan University and a member of the Community of God’s Love charismatic community in Steubenville, OH.  Spring 2018