Tag: Charismatic Catholics

God is speaking about a reawakening through the following dream. But, most importantly, the past repeats itself. And we are at the jubilee of the last great awakening of 1972, so the timing could be much closer than we think. In this post, we discuss the following:

• Dream April 20, 2021 – The Reawakening in the cloister
• An astonishing discovery
• Charismatic Catholics Awaken
• The Redesign of the Reawakening
• Dream Symbols and Interpretation
• Jawbone Mischief
• 1972: A Dark Year
• Grab Your Flashlight and Sunglasses

Dream April 20, 2021 – The Reawakening in the cloister

Scene One:  I was on the upper level of a cloister (definition) watching a meeting in progress in the quadrangle (ground level). After the meeting, I followed the balcony to the other side of the building where I met some Catholics.

I accessed one of the rooms from the balcony. To my amazement, pictures of Catholic Saints decorated the walls all around. Even more surprising was the strong anointing I sensed, and said, “I do not know why, but I feel the Presence of the Lord in this place!”

An astonishing reawakening

Later, there was an even more astonishing discovery. Hanging from one of the balconies was the body of a young man who went missing in 1972! As explained (in the dream), he was involved in some mischief before he vanished. Some men recovered the body and brought it to the room of saints where we were. Then, unexpectedly, the young man suddenly came to life!

Scene 2 (a vision):  I “saw” the same young man walking outside, very much alive, smiling and wearing sunglasses. He was in the company of some priests wearing black cassocks. I wondered if he was up to some kind of “mischief” again. (END)

Resurrection dreams are rare for me. Out of hundreds (thousands) of dreams, I may have seen no more than five in twenty years. So this rare sighting piqued my interest. At first, I thought about the Jesus People Movement that started on the West Coast (California) in the 1960s and attracted huge gatherings in 1972. However, the dream symbols (cloister, saints, meeting Catholics, priests in cassocks) point to the Catholic Church. Thus, I began to research the topic.

Charismatic Catholics Awaken^1,2,3

At a weekend retreat, two Catholics from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, a graduate student (Ralph Keifer) and a history professor (William Storey), became acquainted with modern day accounts that mirrored the Book of Acts. Six months later, in February 1967, the Holy Spirit gloriously baptized the two men at a charismatic Episcopalian prayer meeting.² (Please click here for Smith Wigglesworth’s testimony of his own Baptism experience).

Later, as Keifer and Storey lay hands on others the Baptism spread to Duquesne, then to the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana) where they had previously been students.² Accompanying the manifestation of speaking with other tongues, healings and other spiritual gifts, the spread continued to Michigan, other states and eventually to Canada. Prayer and worship covenant communities formed, including People of Praise in South Bend, and the Word of God in Ann Arbor.

Contemporaneous with these events, and also influenced by Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement of the late 19th Century and mid-20th Century, respectively, was the Jesus People Movement blazing on the West Coast. ³.

Charismatic Catholics from Michigan and Notre Dame gathered together for fellowship in what would become the first of many annual conferences at Notre Dame. By the third annual conference (1969), a Communications Center was formed. It served as an information hub for prayer meetings and the theological foundation for what was later called the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR). According to Ciciliot, some traditional Catholics, especially priests, viewed the North American movement with suspicion. Ann Arbor was even labeled the “charismatic Vatican.”¹

The Redesign of the Reawakening

In 1972, as the renewal continued to spread, the International Communication Office (ICO) was established to manage a worldwide administration with benchmarks for all charismatic prayer groups and communities in the Church.¹ (The Jesus People Movement was also in full swing with meetings and concerts drawing huge gatherings in 1972).

By the early Spring of 1973, high-ranking Cardinal Suenens from Belgium (sort of the equivalent of a Chief Operating Officer at the Vatican) curious about the CCR, came undercover as a regular priest. Pleased with what he found, he made his true identity known. Cardinal Suenens became a mediator between the CCR and the Vatican. He participated in establishing guidelines for the Movement before it became organized under the Pope. “The ICO was relocated to Belgium in 1976 where Cardinal Suenens renamed it to the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO) in 1978; this office was transferred to Rome in 1981 and eventually to the Vatican in 1985.” (Ciciliot)¹

Despite its reorganization within the Catholic Church, Charismatic Catholicism continues to this day, quieter, but with an army of 160 million strong.³ For a deeper understanding of these events, please access the links to the source articles placed at the end of this post.

Dream Symbols and Interpretation

A cloister, often the setting of a monastery or convent, symbolizes a covenant or spiritual community. Furthermore, pictures of saints remind us of past holy lives marked by notable signs and miracles, now a part of the “cloud of witnesses.” The young man in this dream symbolizes a Movement “left hanging” (an idiom for unfinished business). Clearly, he was not a corpse, just asleep, reawakening by the Holy Spirit. The sunglasses signify brightness.

Interpretation: The Holy Spirit intends to gloriously reawaken a 1972 genuine (grounded) Move of God, undoubtedly stifled by manmade benchmarks and guidelines.

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)

I also sense that instead of figuring out how to fit Charismatic Catholics into the Catholic Church, the report will be, “Look how the Holy Spirit is transforming Catholic Church!” The reawakening will be broader than the former, to reach college campuses, priests and local churches, and cloistered communities. Even non-Catholics, such as myself, will participate because this will not be a Catholic revival, but a Holy Spirit reawakening. Still, we can anticipate that mischief will also arise.

Jawbone Mischief

While writing this post, I recalled a randomly watched video of Dr. Myles Munroe (a greatly respected Bahamian evangelist and author). I listened keenly to his profound message. The next day, while meditating on the wisdom of his words, news stations reported his tragic death in a plane crash! Because of this it is unlikely I will ever forget his teaching.

Dr. Munroe spoke about how Samson annihilated 1,000 Philistines with a donkey jawbone (see Judges 15:15-17), but “he did not file a patent for the jawbone or trade it (trad-ition) to others as an effective military weapon. He simply threw it away.”⁶

Unlike today’s standards, Samson did not write a book about his Jawbone strategy or establish Jawbone University or host a Jawbone Victory Crusade. This is because Samson recognized the source of his victory as the Power of God, not the jawbone. Similarly, prayer and worship fuel Moves of God, not excessive organizing and planning.

1972: A Dark Year

Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1-2)

While God’s Light was shining brightly, history records many events in 1972 that were quite dark. For example, an Arab gunman murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. His group affiliates were the Black September. In another place, the Irish Republican Army clashed with the British in a bombing blitz called Black Friday. Terror may erupt unexpectedly, but Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

As of this time, 1972 has the worst crash record and was the deadliest year in aviation history: 2,429 deaths.⁷ (Not good. Plane crashes can symbolize the disintegration of large corporations and large ministries.)

The Watergate investigation launched in May 1972. Then, by 1974, President Nixon was impeached and removed from office. Later, evidence emerged that he had knowledge of the break in of the DNC offices in January 1972, and tried to obstruct the ensuing investigation. Will we see another political scandal of similar magnitude?

A convention against the use of Bioweapons was signed in 1972.

In a medical scandal exposed in 1972, U.S. health officials admitted to unethically using African Americans “as guinea pigs. The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” resulted in the loss of many lives. What other unethical medical practices will we discover?

In 1972 thousands lost their lives in natural and manmade disasters. What a year! For a full list of events (see 1972 – Wikipedia)

Grab Your Flashlight and Sunglasses

Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 sums things up wisely: That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.

If the darkness increases beyond 1972, do not become distracted, dear friends. Let us get ready for God to unleash His Glory. Nothing will stop it. Therefore, let us hold on to our flashlights (the Word of God) until we can don our sunglasses! Amen.

To read a message regarding 2022 and how we can prepare ourselves for the reawakening, please click here.