Night Out on the Town with the Charismatic Catholics

Last night, Joelle and I “snuck out” after Chorale Cool to take the subway downtown. We headed to the Sacred Heart Basilica, where our friend Marie had invited us. We met Marie at the service for prayers for Unity a couple of weeks ago, and she had invited us to her prayer group. Marie is Catholic, and her prayer group consists of Catholics “who pray with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” When my church talks about “praying with the Holy Spirit” we mean being unusually perceptive of someone else’s need for encouragement or being led to a Bible verse with a message we needed to here. I expected something similar from Marie’s group, especially considering that she was 1) Catholic and 2) over 70 years old.*

We arrived on time for the mass. The Basilica is huge. The first four rows were filled with members of this prayer group, wearing white and blue, and behind us were the regular Tuesday night church going crowd (the size of the group wasn't very impressive but I am impressed to find even 20 people in the Tuesday-night-churchgoing-crowd.)

The priest's sermon was on Christian martyrs, including a martyr buried in the Basilica’s crypt. (Our meeting was in a crypt, but I didn’t see any bone-burial markings.)

After the mass, we descended into the crypt, and then it got funky. There was a drummer, a guitarist, a flutist, a pianist, and about 40 people who joined us. The bread, the body of Christ, was placed on a pedestal before us. We then proceeded to sing. In between songs, people would spontaneously offer prayers or give testimonies (“today, I gave a poor person something to eat, and shared the love of Christ!” or “two weeks ago, I met these two young girls at the Prayers for Unity service, and they came with me tonight.” That would be us). One woman shared visions and their interpretations.

The worship was very lively; some members of the crowds had tambourines, people were raising their hands and dancing in place all around us. There was a very festive feel to the worship, like the ark of the covenant had returned to Jerusalem, or like we should have all the time. The crowd was mostly in their ‘60’s and up, but there were a few persons in their 30’s and 40’s. I’d say we were the youngest.

Joelle and I had a good time until the end, where almost everyone went up front to get down on their knees before the the body of Christ itself up on the pedestal. Joelle and I didn’t go down and at least 2 members of the community came and asked us to go forward and ask for prayers, applying quite a bit of pressure that made us start counting the minutes until the end.

After the service, Marie drove us home (she lives in our neighborhood) and explained a little more about the movement to us. Marie has been a member of the Catholic Charismatics since the beginning. A priest was healed by some Pentecostal Protestants in America in the early 80’s, and so he started this movement within the Catholic church to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He came to Marseille and started the communities here. Marie says that her group is still a part of the Catholic Church, though they strongly resemble the Protestant charismatics.

Joelle and I are at the same time encouraged (by the fervor of the love of Christ we saw displayed by our Catholic brethren), confused and a bit creeped-out (because of the altar call and the atmosphere of the crypt). I don’t know if we’ll go again, but now we know that the Charismatic Catholics exist and what they are about.

*No offense meant to anyone in one or both of these demographics. But I'm sure you too have preconceived notions about how someone in this demographic would comport themselves at a prayer group. Mainly, that they don't dance around and see visions.