"The second easily identifiable element of the Charismatic Renewal prayer meeting following the praising of God was the manifestation of Tongues. Tongues is as old as the apostolic age but is in our day a new way of saying "Alleulia." At prayer meetings, this praising of God in tongues begins when many people spontaneously join together in a speaking tone of voice, then it gently develops into a plain chant-like sound, all of which seems to bring calmness and peace to the participants. Immediatly the tongues cease, invariably there is a deep silence as the tradition has grown that tongues promote yet another gift of the Spirit -- prophecy."
We are incapable of really praising God. God, of course, realises that we alone are unable to praise Him, that our praise is inadequate and so He has given us a Helper, the Holy Spirit who praises God adequately, through us with unspeakable groanings.
Sometimes He gifts us with the wonderful liberating charism of tongues to enable us to actually feel the Holy Spirit within us praise the Lord. This is a great personal grace from God.
We are talking here of the gift as used in the prayer meeting, but the great wonder of tongues to me was the fact that praise in tongues was possible anywhere and everywhere, and that it was a tremendous liberation of spirit. Like the praise of God discussed earlier it is not dependant on us so much as on the action of the Holy Spirit within us. To my mind it is a physical sign of this action which is given to us. Not everyone receives this gift, but I believe we should ardently ask the Lord for it.
When I first started attending meetings, among the worries I had was the orthodoxy of tongues in the Church. The history of the movement seemed not to come from the heart of the Church and thus I was suspicious. I have shared before how I reconciled my faith with this through scripture. Simularly in tongues, the Lord directed me early on to scripture to confirm this gift to me.
Everyone I spoke to on the matter referred to Pentecost and how the Apostles came out of the Upper Room proclaiming the Kingdom in tongues. Yes, this was cetainly a gift of tongues, but to my mind it was not the tongues described by Andy in the above passage. This manifestation of tongues was understood by the various peoples gathered in Jerusalem. "Surely these people who are speaking are all Galileans! How is it that each of us can hear each of them in his own native language?"
No! I think the tongues at the prayer meeting is different.
So we must look elsewhere. I found what I was looking for later on in Acts (Chap 10). Here we have a wonderful story of Peter in the house of Cornelius -- a "devout man, and he and his whole family joined in the worship of God;" in accordance with the Jewish tradition. He was instructed by an angel to find Peter.
This is a wonderful story, which starts in Joppa in the House of Simon the Tanner.
"Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' And the voice came to him again a second time, 'What God has cleansed, you must not call common.' This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven."
"Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men that were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, 'Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down, and accompany them without hesitation; for I have sent them.' And Peter went down to the men and said, 'I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?' And they said, 'Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to hear what you have to say.'"
"So he called them in to be his guests. The next day he rose and went off with them, and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his kinsmen and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying, 'Stand up; I too am a man.' And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered; and he said to them, 'You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.'"
"And Cornelius said, 'Four days ago, about this hour, I was keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house; and behold, a man stood before me in bright apparel, saying, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon who is called Peter; he is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the seaside.' So I sent to you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.'"
"Peter said 'Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.' and went on to preach the word."
"While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God."
"Then Peter declared, 'Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days."
So this was it, tongues as we know it in the Charismatic Renewal. As an added bonus tongues being granted to unbaptised (and Gentile) people as a sign to Peter, the first Pope, who then discerned and acted in the power granted to him by the Lord. What a rich and important chapter this is for our times.
St Paul refers to "the gift of tongues of various kinds" (1 Cor 12;29). My own feeling is that what we are talking about here is what St Paul calls "tongues of ecstasy."
I did not understand the great blessing of gift is until I was given it. It was not at all like what I expected, which was a special using of me by the Holy Spirit over which I had no control. But this is not the way of the Holy Spirit. He has a delicate respect for our will which ensures that we have full control of the use of this gift.
Another problem that I had was the fact that the use of tongues had almost completely ceased in the Church until about 30 years ago. How was this?
I believe that some of the forms of prayer used by the Church effectively supplanted or replaced this form of prayer. These are prayers like Litanies, the Rosary and other repetitive forms of prayer. Basically these prayers give us somthing to do while the real prayer is going on at a deeper level in our souls. This prayer is really the Holy Spirit at prayer within us participating in the eternal life of God.
When we pray in tongues (or the Rosary -- a most powerful and now often underated prayer) the physical activity, tongues, continuous repitition of well known prayers, we can experience an exilerating liberation of the Holy Spirit within us. All we have to do is get behind Him and be with Him and what do we get. Little less than participation in the life of God, a foretaste of heaven.
Thank you Lord for this wonderful personal gift which you have restored to your Church in these days. May we always appreciate it and use it as you intend for the liberation of our minds and hearts from the strains and stresses of modern life.
Teach us also the truth of the words of the Apostle "I may speak in tongues of men or of angels, but have no love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
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