Charismatic Benediction for Pentecost

 

Archbishop Lackner at Loretto Festival to youth: nurture your longing

Loretto community's Pentecost festival launched at 32 venues in four countries - Worship, prayers and inspiring talks as central elements of the event until Sunday

The Pentecost Festival of the Loretto Community started on Saturday in four countries, at 32 venues. The aim is to create "a network of praise, prayer and preaching" and to open a space "in which many young people can get to know the Holy Spirit anew", the organisers said in the run-up. Archbishop Franz Lackner appealed at the service with the young people in Salzburg on Saturday morning to cultivate the longing for God over the years. This year, the Pentecost celebrations will take place in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

In the course of life, often not much of the initial enthusiasm for faith or vocation remains, Lackner said, referring to his own experiences. It helped him to trust "in the holy rest". He described this as a longing for God, Jesus and closeness to people. Unfulfilled desires that could sustain the longing for something or someone - such as closeness to God - had also proved helpful for him.

Lackner also reported on his personal vocation story at the age of 23 and his path to priestly ordination, for which he renounced not only smoking but also films that he thought were "not conducive to celibacy" - such as "Life is a cabaret" with Liza Minnelli. He described his decision to live celibacy as a kind of music "that you turn off"; at the same time, "escape scenarios" would never have been conceivable for him. For him as a priest, the longing is now shown in the celebration of the Eucharist and in prayer.

Lackner positively emphasised the prayers of praise during the Loretto Pentecost. He emphasised that these should be a "purpose-free prayer to God". "Let us let God be God and accept the wonder and longing," he concluded at the end of the homily.

Praise, prayers and inspiring talks

"Joy, rejoicing, praise, party, intensive community, new friends, depth - and a whole lot of Holy Spirit": that's what many Loretto Pentecost celebrations in German-speaking countries are supposed to be like this year. "The Church has been celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit for 2000 years. For more than 20 years Salzburg pulsated with ten thousand young people at Pentecost", now it was time to "spread Pentecostal beacons all over the German-speaking area and beyond", the community explained, the decision to hold the Pentecost festival in different places.

In an interview during the live broadcast on Saturday, Archbishop Lackner said that he welcomed the new form of the Pentecost festival, as the idea behind it would be carried out into the world.

In addition to regionally different programmes with lectures and talks, prayers, worship services and leisure activities in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and South Tyrol, the participants will be connected at times via livestream (via www.pfingsten.at). Tobias Teichen, leader of the "International Christian Fellowship" Free Church in Munich, and Lisa Perwein, missionary and leader of the "HOME Church" will be among the speakers.

In Salzburg itself, the Great Assembly Hall of the University will again be the venue for the Loretto Festival. Other venues in Austria are Altenmarkt, Breitenfurt, Feldkirch, Rein Abbey near Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Rechberg, Wieselburg, Vienna and Wiener Neustadt. Many local bishops celebrate Pentecost services with the young faithful, such as Archbishop Franz Lackner in Salzburg (27 May, 11.30 a.m.), Bishop Manfred Scheuer in Linz (27 May, 11.30 a.m., Ursulinenhof) and Bishop Josef Marketz in Klagenfurt (27 May, 4 p.m., St. Egid's main parish church). Pentecost Sunday will be celebrated by Bishop Hermann Glettler with the young people in Innsbruck's Spitalskirche (28 May, 11.30 a.m.) and Bishop Benno Elbs in Feldkirch Cathedral (28 May, 10.30 a.m.). Bishop Alois Schwarz of St. Pölten will celebrate Mass in the parish church of Wieselburg (28 May, 11 am). Vienna Auxiliary Bishop Franz Scharl celebrates Mass with the young people in Breitenfurt (28 May, 10.30 a.m.). "Youth Bishop" Stephan Turnovszky will also organise an "Evening of Mercy" in Wiener Neustadt (27 May, 7.30 pm).

Behind the event is the Catholic Loretto Community, which describes itself as a "union of young Christians committed to a vibrant and joyful Church in Austria and beyond".

Source

Cathcon:  The main speaker was from the International Christian Fellowship, a charismatic group which is emphatically not Catholic. These activities are indistinguishable in most aspects from any number of Protestant sects and amount to emotional and coercive manipulation; in the long term, they lead to resentment and lapsation.