Jubilation And The Renewal Of Worship

An important aspect of contemporary worship renewal is the recovery of ancient church practice. The tradition of jubilation has much to contribute to the renewal of Christian worship, in both corporate liturgy and personal worship. An understanding of this tradition helps to place the worship of the modern charismatic renewal into its historical context. Our inquiries into the way Christians have prayed in the past have yielded strong confirmation of the authenticity of today's glossolalia and expressive worship as found in the charismatic renewal movement. Until very late in the Catholic worship tradition, glossolalia in a variety of forms was a basic response both for groups and for individuals. Improvised group jubilation was a regular part of the liturgy for almost the entire first millennium of the church. Most major mystical traditions before the seventeenth century actually describe this form of prayer, and records can be found well into the nineteenth century of expressive pr…