Local charismatic community prepares to celebrate 50th anniversary with conference in Ypsilanti

DETROIT — Arlene Apone remembers what initially attracted her to join the Catholic Charismatic Renewal 50 years ago. It wasn’t the way they prayed in tongues, and it wasn’t the dramatic healings.

“It was the deep faith, sincerity, and Bible study that was a big attraction for me,” said Apone, associate liaison for the Charismatic Renewal in the Archdiocese of Detroit and director of the Detroit Catholic Charismatic Renewal Center. “I had a great hunger and thirst for that, and it wasn’t very popular in the Church at the time. We didn’t have Bible studies like we do now.”

Apone has been involved for most of the history of the Charismatic Renewal, which traces its beginnings to 1967, when a group of faculty and students at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh were praying and asking God why the Church no longer seemed to manifest the “signs and wonders” of the Acts of the Apostles.

Their prayer was answered, Apone said, when the Holy Spirit “let fly” and the students began speaking in tongues; a modern-day “upper room” experience.

Fifty years later, the movement has attracted millions across the globe, and Michigan-based charismatics are planning to celebrate with a conference Feb. 17-19 at Eastern Michigan University. The conference, “50 Years of Amazing Grace,” is sponsored by the Detroit Catholic Charismatic Renewal Center and will feature talks by those who have been involved in the movement, including those who were present at Duquesne.

The backbone of the charismatic movement, which draws its name from the “charisms,” or gifts, of the Holy Spirit described in Scripture, is what Apone and others refer to as the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” While all Christians are baptized once, “baptism of the Holy Spirit” refers to the moment when a person takes ownership of the great gifts offered through the sacrament, Apone said.



“As an adult, that happens when we have that hunger and thirst for more of God,” Apone said. “It’s usually the Holy Spirit working in us, drawing us to that understanding that you are a real son, a real daughter of God, and what that means.”

As a result, a person’s prayer life usually deepens, marked by a transition “from being a spectator to being a participant in the mystery of God,” Apone said. And it’s often marked by a greater manifestation of the charisms of the Holy Spirit.

Apone doesn’t deny that the more dramatic gifts — such as tongues and physical healings — are also manifested, and admits it almost drove her away from the movement at first.

“The first time I heard it I walked away for about a year; I thought those people were crazy,” Apone said. “But it’s something you grow into and appreciate only by yielding to it.”

Now, Apone says she prays in tongues — which she calls praying “in the Spirit” — “every day.”

“It’s the way I listen,” Apone said. “I can shut off my own mind when I pray in the Spirit. When I pray the Lord’s prayer and after I do my morning prayer I pray in the Spirit. My own thinking is shut off and I can really hear Him.”

Apone acknowledges it may sound unusual to those not used to hearing it, but she contends praying in the Spirit is not about the person praying, but about an openness to receiving a “truer gift” of the Holy Spirit.

The Detroit Catholic Charismatic Renewal Center provides formation and training for charismatic prayer groups across the Archdiocese of Detroit, as well as hosting Bible studies, discipleship courses and Life in the Spirit seminars focused on charism development.

Apone said the center specifically trains people to pray in the Spirit, “whether we’re with the sick in hospitals or in homes or with our families or a life-and-death situation.”

“For us, the charisms are pretty much an everyday experience because we live in them. They become part of our person,” Apone said. “We use them, because they’re not meant to be hoarded away. They’re not occasional. They’re all the time.”

While healing and tongues are some of the more dramatic examples of a charismatic spirituality, Apone said it’s more about listening for God’s will than man’s — and that’s where the Holy Spirit’s other gifts, such as wisdom, faith and prophecy, come in.

When praying over someone who’s sick or in need of healing, Apone said she doesn’t “give God directions,” but rather seeks to “pray in His mind, not my own.”

Still, over 50 years, Apone says she’s seen “thousands” of healings, and, if that’s not enough, “I’ve even seen the dead raised three times,” she said.

One of the stories she tells is from 2000, when she was at Lowe’s picking up some supplies for a new apartment. Out of nowhere, a woman’s piercing screams filled the aisles of the home-improvement store.

“Everybody started running toward this area where it was coming from. It was a woman whose husband had just gone out, and you could tell he had died. There was a nurse in Lowe’s at the time who took his pulse, and she wasn’t getting anything. I didn’t get too close — I was 20 or 30 feet away — and I just kind of went to my knees and started praying in the Spirit for the guy, figuring he had died. I wasn’t asking God to do anything. I just prayed,” Apone said.

When the EMS showed up 20 minutes later, Apone said, she was still praying quietly.

“All of a sudden his legs started to go up and he started to come to,” Apone said. To the shock of everyone present, “he came back, and he had been dead for about 20 minutes.”

Apone insists any credit for such a healing is to God alone, “because I didn’t give God any directions,” she said.

“Later on, in my own prayer at home, I said, ‘Lord, was he dead?’ And He said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘Then why did you bring him back?’ And he said, ‘His wife was not ready to let him go,’” Apone said.

While Apone says she might have been the instrument of prayer that day, she said if her prayer was effective at all, it was because God willed it. And God’s will is ultimately what the charismatic movement seeks to accomplish.

“I really see it as God giving an understanding of all that He intended for us, giving an order to our life,” Apone said. “Not a worldly order, but His order. I see truth, love and justice; those to me are the things that are hallmarks of living in the Spirit.”

 

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50 Years of Amazing Grace

What: A conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Michigan, featuring praise and worship, speakers and reflection

When: Feb. 17-19

Where: Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center, Ypsilanti

Who: Sponsored by the Detroit Catholic Charismatic Renewal Center

Speakers: Sacred Heart Major Seminary professor Ralph Martin will give the keynote talk. Other talks will be given by Arlene Apone, David Mangan, Patti Mansfield, James Murphy, Bishop Sam Jacobs, Fr. Richard McAlear, OMI, and Charles Whitehead. Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron will celebrate Mass, and several bishops from across Michigan will be in attendance. A youth track is also available.

Register: Cost is $75 per person, $200 per family. Visit www.dccr.info or call (734) 282-6244