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by Father Richard Bain
Recently
I received a letter from a woman asking why the phenomenon sometimes called
'resting in the Spirit' or 'slaying in the Spirit' but which is best called 'the
falling phenomenon', does not occur when I pray with people at our Mass for Healing. This is a phenomenon of falling
(usually backwards) and it sometimes occurs when a person is prayed over at a
healing service. By observation, one might conclude that the person is
falling or fainting because he or she has been touched by the Holy Spirit.
That is, in fact, what I thought for a long time until I did some reading on
the subject, and some experimenting, and discovered that the phenomenon is
more often psychological rather than spiritual.
For several years the phenomenon of falling occurred when I prayed with
people for healing. I thought I had a special gift. There were times when as
many as ninety percent of the people that I prayed over fell on the ground.
Some people would fall even before I touched them or even before they knew I
was there. Some people fell when I simply walked by them, some fell while I
was reading the gospel, and some fell when I sprinkled Holy Water on them.
One man fell over when I prayed over his picture. He was thirty-five miles
away from where I was, talking to his boss, when he fell over. They took him
to the hospital where his doctor found no reason for his fainting. That
evening he told his mother about it. The mother asked him what time he fell.
It was the exact time I had prayed over his picture.
Even I would fall when prayed over. I could control the impulse and not fall
if I wanted, but I usually let myself go. While resting on the floor I would
experience the deepest form of relaxation and the most mystical prayer ever.
Often, I would say that the 'falling phenomenon' put me in a deeper state of
contemplation in a few seconds, than two or three hours of prayer in the
presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
I felt that it was important to prepare people who were at their first Mass
for healing for the 'falling phenomenon' by announcing that it was going to
take place and why. I knew that it would frighten those who had never seen it
before, and thought that an explanation would eliminate some of the fear.
Also, I understood that some would consider the 'falling phenomenon' to be
bizarre, and I wanted to explain that it was actually part of our tradition,
had wonderful spiritual benefits and was well worth the effort to try to be
open to it. I thought that criticism of the phenomenon came from ignorance.
My very positive attitude about the 'falling phenomenon' began to change when
I was given a draft of a book written by, I believe, Father Theodore Dobson.
As I best recall, Father Dobson insisted that the 'falling phenomenon' is
almost entirely psychological, induced by one's own mind, yet it is
ministered at healing services as though it were purely spiritual, coming
from God. He felt that the phenomenon must be eliminated from all public
prayer.
Father Dobson said when people are told that the phenomenon will occur, or if
there are ushers standing directly behind the person being blessed, or if
just one person goes over, or if someone goes up to receive a blessing
determined not to go over, or if the person giving the blessing wills that it
occur, then a psychological environment is created that produces the
phenomenon.
The late Joseph Cardinal Suenens' book, the sixth Malines
Document, "Resting in the Spirit", Veritas
Publications, gave insight into the mistake of allowing the 'falling
phenomenon' in public worship. Cardinal Suenens was the most authoritative
person in the world in these matters. There would not be an official
Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church if it were not for this most
highly respected Cardinal. He convinced Pope Paul VI in 1975 to give the
Church's approval to the Charismatic Renewal by assuring the Holy Father that
the Charismatic Renewal would have guidelines and theological credibility
(see Memories & Hopes, Joseph Cardinal Suenens, Veritas
pgs. 270 & 276). The Malines Documents
are the fruit of this promise.
In the sixth Malines Document, Suenens points out many of the same
psychological elements of the 'falling phenomenon' as Dobson, and he adds
that the major scriptural and mystical references do not lend themselves to a
claim that the 'falling phenomenon' belongs to a long Christian tradition. He
writes that it is most important to exclude any phenomenon of this kind from
liturgical celebration, and that a mere policy of non-intervention falls
short of what the faithful are entitled to expect of their spiritual guides.
He concludes by agreeing with the Bishops of Ireland that we not invite
ministers whose prayer or teaching is associated with this phenomenon.
What finally convinced me to experiment with taking the 'falling phenomenon'
out of Masses for healing, was learning that David du
Plessis (the representative for the Pentecostal Churches
at Vatican II) beseeched Catholics to avoid the mistake by Pentecostals in
the past, and not to introduce the 'falling phenomenon' which had given them
nothing but trouble.
At the time, August 1988, I had scheduled a three-day parish mission for healing
in Savannah, Georgia. This would be the
perfect time and place to experiment since no one knew me and especially if
the people coming to the mission had never experienced the 'falling
phenomenon'. I tried my best to eliminate all the elements that Father Dobson
had suggested create a psychological environment for the phenomenon to occur.
The church was packed all three evenings. Over 1,200 people were blessed, yet
not one person went over. That proved that Father Dobson, Cardinal Suenens,
Professor Heribert Muhlen,
Father Yves Congar, O.P., and others were correct.
I returned to San Francisco
knowing that I had to eliminate the 'falling phenomenon' from my ministry. I
stopped talking about 'resting in the Spirit' before the blessings, had the
people kneel instead of stand during the blessings, and stopped the blessing
when anyone showed the slightest movement. This eliminated a large percent of
the phenomenon, but it seemed that nothing would completely eliminate it
until a Mass in November of 1988.
Not one helper showed up for that Mass, so there were no ushers. I instructed
the congregation that they would have to come forward, row by row, for the
blessing, and added that those who knew what I meant,
should protect their heads. Not one person who was blessed that day went
over, and not one person has gone over since.
At first, the number of people attending the Masses for healing decreased.
The people who helped with the Masses kept urging me to reintroduce the
'falling phenomenon' into the Masses. It did not matter if not one person
attended the Masses, I was not going to reestablish the practice, having been
convinced that it was psychological and than to reintroduce it would have
been deceptive and dishonest.
Soon attendance began to increase and, in fact, became larger than before.
The best result of eliminating the phenomenon, however, was that the Masses
became much more prayerful. No longer were people being distracted either by
hoping to go over, worrying that they would, or counting which priest was
putting more people on the floor.
Yes, I do believe that the 'falling phenomenon' sometimes can be the direct
action of the Holy Spirit but much, much more often it is not. Therefore, we
should pastorally proceed with caution and always discourage circumstances in
which the phenomenon would occur. The Catholic Church, after all, has a long
tradition of spiritual discernment, caution, and persistent effort in
protecting the faithful from deception and illusion.
This is a final thought: We have seen on television over the years, Pope John
Paul II and Mother Teresa, two living saints in our day, touch and bless
thousands and thousands of people, yet we have not seen one person fall as a
result of their prayers.
Below is an e-mail I received which supports my experience.
Dear Father Bain:
I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusions about 'resting in the
Spirit.' I have been involved with the charismatic renewal since 1968, and
early on had worked as an usher at Kathryn Kuhlman's services whenever she
came to Los Angeles
(once a month). First seeing the 'falling phenomenon' at the Beverly Hilton
Hotel where she came in 1968, along with Oral Roberts and other Pentecostal
dignitaries, including Kevin Ranaghan, I determined
to have this as part of my healing ministry. It began to happen almost
immediately, and continued for many years.
Two years ago, my society (the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy
Trinity) sent me to our mission in Belize. For a year, I attended
all 27 missions across the border in Guatemala by myself. Part of the
program in the mission stations is that after Mass the priest lays hands on
all the people as they come up. Not one in the past year and a half since I
have been here, has rested in the Spirit! Nor have
they been told about it.
Thought this might help.
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