As Catholics we are blessed in having as pope John Paul II, who has given the Church such clear prophetic leadership. At the beginning of this summer he brought out the very prophetic document, the Apostolic Exhortation, "Ecclesia in Europa". A key theme of the document is "Hope". This is hardly surprising as this has been one of the Pope's strongest messages to the Church. As the Archbishop of Cracow, he was one of the main contributors during the Vatican II Council, to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World "Gaudium et Spes" (Joy and Hope).

Later as Pope, his opening words to the world in 1978 in his first broadcast were "Be not afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power". He then gave us "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" in October 1994.

Interestingly his biographer, George Weigel, entitled his book about John Paul's life and thought "Witness to Hope". Then again in his seminal document "Novo Millennio Ineunte" published in 2001 the Pope reminds the Church "Let us go forward in hope".

The call to hope

This encouragement to hope, is I feel a prophetic word to us all, and a necessary one, faced as we are with so many sufferings around us. The Pope is reminding us that we are not alone and we can trust in our loving God. This can give us hope for the future.

This call to hope is key if we are going to have the courage to step out in the new evangelisation, which the Pope reiterates once again in "Ecclesia in Europa". In it he calls us to "Rediscover the enthusiasm of proclamation." For me this is not simply a fine teaching, but also a prophetic word which we must respond to and act on.

For many years the engine that drove Charismatic Renewal to exciting pastures new was the prophetic word at our weekly prayer meetings and national conferences. As St Paul says in 1 Cor 14.1 "You must want love more than anything else but still hope for the spiritual gifts as well, especially prophecy." Paul seems to be saying that whereas love is the primary fruit of the spirit, so prophecy is the most important gift of the spirit. The reason for this, I feel, is that the prophetic brings with it a sense of the power of God breaking through into the natural order and giving direction to us for action to advance the kingdom of God. The prophetic word can be directed to a community, or a nation or an individual. I remember 30 years ago when I was discerning marriage, I was prayed with by members of a prayer group in Providence, Rhode Island. One of the members, Dan Neighbour read to me a word from 2 Peter.1.19, which gives me joy even today.

"So we have confirmation of what was said in prophesies; and you will be right to depend on prophecy and take it as a lamp for lighting a way through the dark, until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds."On returning to Ireland I experienced the morning star of a new dawn of great peace about my decision to marry the girl I loved. Authentic prophecy liberates, sets free, corrects, instructs and encourages.

Importance of listening to and acting on the prophetic word

This importance of listening to and acting on the prophetic word has been important throughout my life and played a key part in the setting up of the Irish School of Evangelisation in 1994. At the time I was a member of a community and a very active Catholic. The family were going on holiday to the south of France, and we were driving down England when I suddenly had an urge to go to Medjugorje. Stopping at a petrol station we ran into a priest and I asked his advice about this. He said if I had the means and time, it would be a good place to go and maybe God would have a word for me there.

I put the suggestion to the rest of the family. My eldest daughter and son were keen to go, but my wife and youngest daughter were against it, so we continued as planned to our campsite in France. A few days later, my wife in her prayer time received a word from the Lord in the Scriptures from John 10:9, which said, "[You] will go safely in and safely out and be sure of finding pasture." This reassured her, as part of her concern about going was the war situation raging in the former Yugoslavia at the time. A few days after that my youngest daughter had a conversation with someone outside church, and this made her keen to go as well. Having total consensus among us now we all travelled to Medjugorje. And it was here, while in front of the blessed sacrament in the chapel of adoration that I felt the Lord say to me "I want you to start a school of evangelisation", something that had never crossed my mind before, although I had always been keen to spread the good news on an individual level before.

The Lord continued to guide us, and on our way back home, we called in to Paray Le Monial and visited the School of Evangelisation run by one of the New Ecclesial Movements to see the way they did things. This inspired us so much that we decided to step out and gradually, we learnt the way God wanted us to work, and how he wanted us to evangelise.

I have noticed over the years, however, that prophecy, particularly in prayer meetings and conferences seems not to be given as much importance as formerly. If you ask people what the prophetic word at a conference was they usually can't tell you. I still remember one of the prophetic words from the early days of the Charismatic Renewal which said, "I call you to praise and to worship me. By your praise and worship I will till your hearts and clear your souls of brambles and briars, thistles and thorns and in this new ground I can sow my word which will bear fruit." This prophecy really resonated with people and encouraged us to praise more and this in turn brought more prophetic words and more of this sense that God was truly among us in our meetings, speaking a direct living word to us.

Praise and prophecy are inter-twined

For me praise and prophecy are intertwined, because it is praise that makes us more aware of the presence of God and this in turn makes us more open to hear what God is saying. Linked to this is the importance of us spending time reading and meditating on the word of God. The more we do this, the more God's word becomes part of us. If we are not feeding our minds and hearts with His Word, we make it more difficult for God to speak to us, as the ground of our hearts won't be prepared.

I find God speaks the prophetic word very often through the scriptures and we should always be open to this, particularly during the Mass, when we listen to the readings of the day. The more open we are and the more expectant of hearing God speak to us the more we will hear him. I believe the Pope is so prophetic because he is a man of the Word of God and his love of the Scriptures empowers what he is saying.

Recently the Irish School of Evangelisation (ISOE) was invited to South Africa on mission. We went for three weeks at the invitation of a priest from the diocese of Pretoria, who interestingly was called Fr Victor (Victoricus being the guardian angel of Ireland). He said that he felt he had brought his group as far as he could bring them and asked if we could help. When we left at the end of our trip he told me "Now I know where we are going and how we can get there."

The key to this had been, apart from the evangelisation courses we had taught, the way that we had helped them get back in touch with the power of the prophetic through times of praise and worship and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In several places we had also felt called to pray for a new anointing of prophecy. We hear the groups we visited are continuing to practice and develop this gift since we left. To grow in prophecy you have to practise it, for it is within the community that we learn to discern what is of God and is upbuilding to others and what is simply personal enthusiasm that falls to the ground.

Respect for the prophetic word

Part of the power of prophecy, comes not simply from prophetic words in themselves, but the respect that is given to the word and the way that they are acted on. This was brought home to me once again when we saw in Africa the video, "Viva Cristo Rey". Many of you will know the story of how a prayer group from El Paso in Texas during one of their prayer meetings received a prophetic word from the gospel of Luke, Chapter 14. 12-14.
"When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours for fear they repay your courtesy, by inviting you in return. No when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind… you should be pleased when they cannot repay you."

They responded to this by visiting the rubbish dump in Juarez, Mexico across the Rio Grande river on Christmas morning in 1972. Here 250 people were scavanging a living by recycling the trash they found there. Although they only had brought enough food for 120 people, in celebrating a Christmas meal there with the people they found the food was miraculously multiplied and they had more than enough for everyone and to distribute to others afterwards. The work of evangelisation and social transformation which followed, is still bearing fruit today.

Are such miracles still possible?

Do we believe that such miracles continue to be possible or have we settled for what we can achieve in our own strength? Is the loss of emphasis on prophecy connected with a loss of emphasis on reading and acting on God's Word in Sacred Scripture? The Scriptures themselves remind us "Never try to suppress the Spirit or treat the gift of prophecy with contempt" 1 Thes. 5.19. The author of Proverbs also reminds us. "Where there is no prophecy the people cast off restraint". Moses corrected Joshua 'If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets' Num.11:29. If we are going to be able to proclaim the word of God with power in the New Evangelisation, do we not need to rediscover the gift of prophecy and God's living and fruitful word to us today?

If you are interested in finding out more about the Irish School of Evangelisation and their visit their web site http://www.esatclear.ie/~isoe