In  the mid-1960’s the Catholic Church was pretty much in a period of transition.  People were still adjusting to the changes from Vatican 11, and especially with the Church’s new attitude on the role of the laity.  Instead of being called simply to pray, pay and obey, our role was now to be active participants.  A lot of people really didn’t know what this meant and many people left the Church altogether.  But many stayed and tried to figure out what their new role meant.

     From this quest developed some bible studies, discussion groups and intercessory prayer meetings.  One of the groups to come from this about 1966 was   a coed group of college students at Duquesne University.  They called their group the Chi Rho fraternity.  In February of 1967 this group planned on having a retreat based on Pentecost.  The selection of this theme had been recommended to them by their two faculty advisors; William Story a history professor and Ralph Kiefer a theology professor. 

      A friend of theirs from Notre Dame University, Ralph Martin had sent them a copy of a book called They Speak with  Other Tongues  by John Sherill.  While reading the book they discovered an experience that many Christians in denominational churches were having called the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This was an experiential awareness of God’s presence and His love and the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and other places in the New Testament.

      This piqued their curiosity, and they found out about a local, interdenominational charismatic prayer meeting that met at the home of a woman named Flo Dodge who was a Presbyterian.  At the prayer meeting they received this baptism in the Holy Spirit, and they felt this was just what their students needed. 

     During the retreat with the Chi Rho fraternity most of the students received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. They had been praying that the Holy Spirit would touch them in a totally new way, but they really didn’t have any idea what they were asking for.

      Patti Gallagher was one of the retreatants, and she was the first student to receive this experience.   While kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel where they were having the retreat, she said, “I’d always believed by the gift of faith that Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, but I had never experienced His glory before.  As I knelt there that night my body literally trembled before His majesty and holiness.  He was there…the king of kings and the Lord of lords; the great God of the universe.”

     Later other students entered the chapel and they all had a similar experience. The interesting thing was that the experience didn’t end as soon as they left the chapel, but the awareness of God’s presence, His love and His joy stayed with them for some time afterwards. 

     News of this experience spread like wildfire among the Catholic Church, and prayer meetings started popping up not only in this country but all around the world.  (Go to a 20-minute video on the birth of the Renewal.)