FEBRUARY 2024

GUEST COLUMN
My Retreat Experience
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 reexamining
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
SAMIR
JAMIL, MD
SPECIAL
TO THE
CHALDEAN
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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. .
8 CHALDEAN NEWS FEBRUARY 2024