Haban R ...me?

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Holy Spirit visited the Catholic Church in a weird and wonderful way. A group of students and professors were on a retreat at Duquesne University, a Catholic college in Pittsburgh. They were all familiar with the Book of Acts, which tells how the early Church gets its start when the Holy Spirit comes on Pentecost and showers it with all sorts of spiritual gifts, healing, prophecy, and tongues being some of the more spectacular ones. The retreatants wondered why these gifts were not apparent in the Catholic Church at present. Could it be that they weren't around because nobody was praying and asking for them? The retreatants decide to lay hands on one another, just like in the Book of Acts, pray and ask, and, yep, that proved to be the way to receive those gifts, just like in the early Church. Those students and professors experienced a profound presence of God as well as all the spiritual gifts the early Church received on Pentecost. This Catholic Pentecostalism, later called the Charismatic Renewal, now spread like wildfire through the Catholic Church. Soon many parishes had charismatic prayer groups where people laid hands on one another, asking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They prayed for the Holy Spirit to give them a closer relationship with God. They prayed for healing, words of prophecy and the related gifts. They prayed in tongues. In short, these charismatic prayer groups resembled the early Church as seen in the Book of Acts. As a high school senior, I became part of such a group in my local parish, renewing my relationship with God and saying yes to all the wonder and weirdness that went with it. (Praying in tongues? Seriously? Yeah...)

Reading this book had a profound impact on me - 1969 edition!

The summer after my senior year in high school, several months after I became involved with the prayer group, I was pumping gas at a gas station when a hippie-esque guy at the next pump with a flannel shirt, long hair and a southern drawl struck up a conversation. He pointed to a copy of the then ubiquitous Good News for Modern Man New Testament I had lying on my dashboard. “Hey, man. Are you saved?” he asked. (Really, just like that...) I wasn't certain how to answer. “Saved” was not part of my Catholic vocabulary at the time. I hesitated, then said, “Well, I'm a Catholic Pentecostal...” The southern gentleman's eyes got real wide and he said, “Wow! Cool, man! I didn't know Catholics were allowed to do that!” (Really, just like that...)

Up until this point, I thought my spiritual renewal/prayer group experience was a uniquely Catholic thing. After my gas station encounter I was left with questions: If the hippie-esque guy didn't know that Catholics were allowed to do “that”, what other religious groups out there did he know that were allowed to do “that”? Was what I was experiencing now in my spiritual life not a uniquely Catholic thing? Two months later I started my freshman year at a state college, rubbing shoulders with all different flavors of Christians. I found out that, indeed, I was “saved”, and I certainly fit the description of being a born-again Christian, having given my life over to Jesus Christ in a decidedly committed way. I remained a Catholic Pentecostal/Charismatic and was accepted as such by most of the other Christians I met on campus, though, like the guy at the gas station, some were puzzled by the Catholic/Pentecostal combo of this Catholic born-again-saved Christian girl.

In reading through the (small) Chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren, Volume II,* I found several entries describing a life lived by the Hutterites in a decidedly Book of Acts manner. They relied on God for everything... just like in Acts; they laid hands on those they sent out to spread the gospel...just like in Acts; certain godly leaders had prophetic visions and dreams...just like in Acts.**
  In Johannes Waldner's introduction to his edition of the Chronicle, he highlights the second chapter of Acts, describing the coming of the Holy Spirit:

“...the power of God's Holy Spirit as it came visibly upon the gathered believers in Jerusalem at Pentecost. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in new tongues, telling in every language under heaven of the great things God had done.”

He then goes on to emphasize the part of Acts 2 that fleshes out the uniquely Hutterite call to hold all things in common, the life they sought to live for God's glory:

“They met constantly to hear the apostles teach and to share the common life, to break bread, and to pray. A sense of awe was in every soul and many marvels and signs were done through the apostles. Those who were now believers came together and had everything in common. They sold their property and possessions and distributed them to all, as the need of each required. All were of one mind, daily attending the temple together, breaking bread together in their homes and sharing their meals with heartfelt joy as they praised God; and the people looked on them with favor. Day by day the Lord added to their number those whom he was saving.”

Prophetic words, like those in the book of Acts, are related in a matter-of-fact manner. In a 1551 entry in the Chronicle, after describing an incident of robbery where the Hutterites did not resist the plundering, the chronicler credited God with both His forewarning and His deliverance.

“Certainly, the prophet spoke the truth when he said, “In all the neighboring places there will be a violent attack on all who fear the Lord. They will be like doves; not one will be spared. Their enemies will plunder and destroy all who fear the Lord. They will take their goods and drive them out of their homes. Then it will be known who my faithful people are, who have stood the test like gold in the assayer's fire. 'Listen, my beloved,' says the Lord, 'understand that the days of harsh suffering are here, but I will rescue you. Away with your fears and doubts, for God is your leader!'” And truly God rescued his people and led them, otherwise not one would have been left. They would have been swallowed up like water on dry earth. But God upheld them and protected their faith.”

In a 1555 entry, a nobleman, pretending to be in sympathy with the local Hutterite believers, asked if the Holy Spirit came to a person through the laying on of hands. The “faithful servant of God” responded firmly, “Yes, but to varying degrees.” The nobleman did not want to hear that, but it was a very Hutterite/Acts/Charismatic answer. And throughout the Chronicle there are references to the Hutterites living a very Acts/Charismatic life. Prophetic words warn and encourage, people are prayed for and have hands laid upon them as they are sent off to be missionaries to the surrounding towns. God is called upon and trusted to do amazing acts of deliverance, quite literally, from prisons, not unlike the apostle Peter's supernatural jail break in Acts 12.*** All in all, the Hutterites were living life with the Holy Spirit.

It's been over 50 years since I first called myself a Catholic Pentecostal/Charismatic. If I had to describe what I am now, I'd say I'm still at heart a Catholic Charismatic, but one who finds herself on what is turning into a long and possibly permanent sabbatical in the Protestant evangelical church. I've come a long way since the gas pump epiphany, going from what I thought was a uniquely Catholic experience to a bigger vision, seeing myself as part of the larger Body of Christ. But as I look back at my Haban/Hutterite family history, I see that I did have a decided hereditary leaning to that Book of Acts life that my ancestors immersed their lives in. I found that Haban R...me.

* My primary source for details on the Hutterite life.  See https://habanrus.blogspot.com/2018/07/imnot-making-this-stuff-up-ihave-love.html

**I personally believe that everyone should read the Book of Acts once a year. Its a great picture of what the Christian life could and should look like in all its wondrous glory and weirdness. No wonder those retreatants at Duquesne University wanted in after reading it...

***You really so have to read Acts. Great stuff...

Written From the Haban Heart

Love of Letters - Sobotište

Part 2

“Blessings from the Heavenly Father!”

“We too thank God for our children and pray he will direct them in this complicated world.”

“The good Lord has taken her to Himself.”

“Easter is coming so I wish you and your dear family joy in the Risen Christ.”

“He keeps well with the help of medication, fruit, tea, cooked wine and faith in God.”

I could probably convince my readers that the above quotes are from some 19th century correspondence, or perhaps, excerpts from some foreign missionary's letters back home. They are, however, a sampling of excerpts from the collection of letters written in the 1990s between my mother and her Haban cousins in Sobotište and Moravský Svätý Ján. In my last post, I mentioned the 40 plus letters my mother had translated from Slovak to English so my aunts and my brother and I could be party to the correspondence. At the time I first read these letters, I saw them as a glimpse into the political workings of the new Slovakia, a country coming out of Soviet control in 1989 (the “Velvet Revolution”) and then the separation of Czechoslovakia in 1993 into two separate countries (the “Velvet Divorce”). There was much in the letters about life now free from Communist rule and the economic challenges of Slovakia and the Czech Republic going their separate ways. Recent readings of these letters, however, revealed a unique emphasis on certain subjects and use of certain language that I would come to see as distinctly Haban.

The above quotes were just a few of the examples of “God language” that naturally occurred in letters from many of Mom's correspondents. But more than the language and phrasing, the subject matter of the letters themselves were often spiritual in nature, church life and missionary pursuits a part of everyday conversation. Part of this natural emphasis on church life I'm sure is due to a new freedom to talk about such things after years of Communist suppression. Still, there is a distinctly Haban vibe in many of the letters, people who are intimately connected to the things of God as they go about their everyday lives.

The return of freedom of religion and the present priest shortage was a frequent topic in the letters, especially the ones from Sobotište, Grandma's hometown. Under Communist rule, religions of every flavor had been persecuted. The Habans in Grandma and Grandpa's hometowns were their own flavor of Roman Catholicism by this time as was the majority of people in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia. From the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Catholics in Slovakia were especially earmarked for persecution, not unlike many of their Hutterite ancestors. Catholic priests and leaders were imprisoned and the few priests that were allowed to remain publicly free were often elderly. Mom's cousin Cilka, daughter of Grandma's brother Josef a.k.a. Uncle Pepi writes:

Here in Slovakia there is a great shortage of priests because under the communist government they did not allow young men to study for the priesthood. Of those that did apply, they only accepted a small number and only those that would be loyal to them (the Communists). They would not accept any recommended by the local priests.

There were also whispers of an underground church, young ordained priests who had secular day jobs and hid their true calling to avoid being jailed. I had a faint recollection, as a child, of hearing about some relative in Slovakia who was a clandestine priest, forced to flee the country when the communists took over Czechoslovakia. I think it was the Father Cerny mentioned in the following letter. Mom's cousin Josef, Uncle Pepi's son and brother to Cilka, wrote in a March 1993 letter an interesting history of the priest shortage and what priest life was like under Communist rule:

...Under Communism even though many young men wanted to be priests, they would not take them. For the whole of Slovakia they only allowed 10-12 priests which was very little. Up until now from Sobotište we only had two priests, Father Baumgartner and Father Rafael Cerny.

...When the Communists came, they locked them all up, together with the rectors and bishop. When they were released they were put to work in factories. After many years he (Father Baumgartner) was assigned to a parish but died at age 64...Father Cerny this year returned from Rome. He was out of the country since 1950. If he had stayed home they would have locked him up as they did his brother priests who were sentenced to 15-20 years hard labor, digging in the mines for the Soviets to make atomic weapons. Many of them never came home but died in those mines. At the time of the sentencing, the Salesians (to which Father Cerny belongs) 43 received sentences of 188 years – 18 of them from Slovakia. Altogether there were 171 priests and religious sentenced, of these five were released and the rest received 756 years and 7 months. Those who were able to leave the country are slowly returning. The young priests are going to Russia. Last week nine of them left for Siberia to work in the missions. We here at home must make the best of it. The ones going to Russia are the young ones and the ones who are returning, like Father Cerny, are mostly old oriests. Father Cerny is working in a Salesian Seminary at Sastin. So many young men are signing up that they cannot even take them all. By us there were many well educated priests who worked as engineers, doctors, etc. These all held civilian jobs. Here in Sobotište two young men used to come to our house to visit. One was an architect and the other a chemist and they worked in Senica. In 1990 when all the changes came, the older one celebrated Holy Mass in our church. The people cried as no one knew he was a priest. The second one will be ordained in Bratislava and we are invited...Even the town of Senica has woken up. In the past 100 years they had no new priests and now they have three priests and two studying. Also two girls have entered the convent as did our Erka and Janka (Josef's daughters).

There were many letters from both Cilka and Josef in my mother's collection, almost all mentioning spiritual topics. The comings and goings of priests and nuns were commonly talked about and what mission fields they had been sent to. Cilka's daughter, Ludka, writes of a spiritual pilgrimage she went on. In later letters, Cilka tells of the pilgrimage she herself goes on. Sadly, Josef's wife dies during this time and his letter, informing my mother that "God called her to himself" also contained a listing of the nuns, priests and theologians that attended her funeral – five priests, two theologians and 30 nuns, a number not surprising since two of Josef's daughters were Salesian sisters. Subsequent letters from Josef talk of his daughters' mission work in Russia and the comings and goings of the young priests in Slovakia. Josef writes with some pride:

Our Republic is quite small but when it comes to religion it's pretty big. We have missionaries all over the world in Japan, Albonshu (Albania?), Modagshari (in Kenya?), Brazil, Equador, Ukraine, China and Russia, in Siberia.

Despite the ongoing priest shortage, there seemed to be a self-sacrificing pride about the number of missionaries sent to countries with an even greater spiritual need. How Haban...