Hello My Friends,

I hope all is well.

Some of you spotted the typo in my last letter in the section about prophecy.

It is never like predicting lottery numbers, but more like knowing that if we don’t share our understating of faith we young people, they will grow up with some real joys and great meaning  missing from their lives.

Should of course have been
It is never like predicting lottery numbers, but more like knowing that if we don’t share our understating of faith with young people, they will grow up with some real joys and great meaning  missing from their lives.
(we / with)

Apologies for that.

In his list of Gifts of the Spirit Paul goes on to mention ‘distinguishing between spirits’. At the time of writing there was a very strong belief in all kinds of spirits, demons, powers and many different people claiming to have the ability to do strange and or miraculous things.
Paul is rightly saying that we need to be able to discern if something is of God, or not. This is not as easy as it sounds. Churches throughout history have argued about the interpretation of scripture, and felt that they were trying to do the will of God, but that will being almost the opposite of what other churches were doing.
Some people may have a particular charisma and can do great deeds, but are they all of God? Some very evil people have managed to convince millions of people to follow ideas that are very ungodly. Wars have been fought with people believing God was on their side.

The good news is that the Holy Spirit has gifted some people with the ability to distinguish between spirits, and to be able to discern if things are of God, or not.
An example of how this might work is to discern if an idea
Fits with the message of the Gospels
Fits with the teaching of the Apostles
Fits with the teaching of the Church
Fits with the ideas of Scripture, Tradition and Reason
Brings Glory to God
Would build the Kingdom
Can be agreed on by those who are mature in the faith.

A good example would be the process that people go through to test avocation to the priesthood.
It is not enough for someone to say I want to be a priest. Not even to say ‘God has called me to be a priest’. Rather clergy, friends, vocations advisors, selection panels, would all work together to discern whether a calling was true, and would advise the Bishop.
But somewhere during the spiritual journey of the candidate, someone would have sensed that they had a genuine calling, and mentioned it to them. Most clergy, long before they thought of it themselves have been asked ‘Do you think God is calling you to be a priest?’ The person asking may well have the gift of being able to distinguish between spirits.

Sometimes it is not easy to see a particular gift in yourself. We are brought up with a sense of humility, so it may be difficult to see. But we can spot it in others, and our task is to let people know.
‘You are really good at …….(Could be anything, explaining things, sharing faith, music, organising, administration, listening the list is endless..,) in fact you have a gift’.
Gifts are given to us in order to build the Kingdom of God, and to glorify him. Sometimes we do well to encourage folk, so that they use their talents and skills not just for themselves, or for industry or business, but to grow the church and to do God’s will.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.

As ever, Fr Marcus