Novena for Pentecost: Baptism in the Spirit and Evangelisation

The liveliness of worship often associated with those who have experienced Baptism in the Spirit is matched by a similar liveliness in efforts to make known the person and teaching of Jesus, that is, in evangelisation. It combines a confidence in the content of evangelisation and a boldness in announcing that content. People transformed by the Spirit come to speak of Christ from their own personal experience of the encounter with Him, and from an understanding of the Gospel that is rooted in that experience. Schools of evangelisation equip their members with both the knowledge of the Gospel and an understanding of techniques for preaching the Gospel, the Sion Catholic Community for Evangelisation being one example. Street evangelisation, processions, city missions (in London, Spirit in the City, affected in recent times by the COVID pandemic, is an example) and the use of internet media are fruits of this renewed commitment to evangelisation.

A feature of the Renewal is that many of its initiatives - city missions, new communities - are led by lay people, and often inspired by a particular charism among the laity. That having been said, events such as missions typically manifest a strong collaboration of lay people, priests and religious. The harmonious nature of this collaboration does not reflect the more common relationship of hierarchy - that is, of the religious or ordained providing the leadership - but might be better described as a relationship of communion in which each individual vocation is able to fulfil its own purpose alongside the others. The spiritual dynamism unleashed by Baptism in the Spirit takes on a particular importance in the context of the "new evangelisation" in countries now less imbued with the Christian culture that was in the past a feature of their societies.

A last observation of significance with respect to evangelisation, seen as a fruit of Baptism in the Spirit, is that it is undertaken with respect for Church authority. It is not unusual for training on matters such as doctrine and methods of evangelisation to be based on the documents of the Popes and of the dicasteries of the Holy See. At the level of principle, it is this that enables the experience of communion on the ground that is typical of the Charismatic Renewal.