BEWARE OF EL SHADDAI
Brother Mike's Mass Appeal (YouTube)
El Shaddai's Miracle Touch
El Shaddai
El Shaddai came to my parish a few years ago. It began with this lady weeping in the vestibule following the 10:30 mass and complaining to anyone who would stop to listen that father was not letting her start up a new prayer group. A few months passed and one day there was a Pilipino priest co-celebrating mass with father. Father introduced him as some kind of renewal guy from Toronto and a friend of the weeping lady. My first thought was, “Oh my God, they got to father!” The visiting priest said a short sermon (I think it was a Saturday) and among other things spoke about accepting the “latter day rain”*. An alarm went off inside me, and just as I thought, the lady had no more cause to weep anymore. Oh goodie, I thought, we needed a second charismatic prayer group in this town like a wet noodle!
It wasn’t long before we had an El Shaddai conference at our parish center. Someone invited me to check it out and of course curiosity got the best of me. And wow!
Big Event
The music was loud and flawless. The singers looked really nice in their matching outfits; they were all young and attractive. I guess they have to be, who would want an unattractive shapeless woman swaying her hips on stage. The audience, excuse me, the congregants could really worship. They waved scarves, jumping up and down, dancing in the isle. It was happy - clappy worship! The band leader was hollering things like “I wanna be David so I could dance naked for God!” There were two keynote speakers; two masculine women, one of them revealed that she used to be lesbian, but that the Lord healed her. Well this is just great, I thought, I come to church, and I get a sordid tale. Then the real entertainment began. The keynote speakers came to the center and people began to file out for anointing with “holy” oil. This is not good, I thought, I got to leave! But instead of getting to the back, I was swept forward and there I was getting a “hot” oil treatment. So I stayed around for the closing mass, I wanted to see if the band would tone it down for Father, (it didn’t), but most importantly, I thought that the mass could redeem an otherwise wasted Saturday. I went home with a throbbing migraine and I never get migraines. During the night I had the worst satanic attack imaginable; I was terrified and just waited for morning. I ran to church and broke down when I saw father. I don’t know what he thought; I was a mess. He held my hands and prayed in silence and told me not to go to a heavy thing like that again and to look into the devotion of the Little Flower instead. Great I thought, great, now he thinks I am mentally unbalanced.
Years passed. The El Shaddai is still in my parish; father is their spiritual advisor. Some of the people who brought this madness into my church are now readers, greeters, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist. Their music ministry often leads the Sunday mass. They sound polished and loud and most of their songs are charismatic. There is a lot of body movement and toe tapping at the 10:30 mass these days. I wish they would at least slow down with a bit of reverence for the Sanctus and the Lamb of God. But the truth is I don’t much care for El Shaddai Sundays.
*
Latter Day Rain doctrines include:
• The restoration of the office of the Apostle and Prophet to head the Church.
• Restoration of all the supernatural gifts with emphasis on prophets and prophecy. Prophecy through the mouth of the prophet or prophetess.
• Women with equal roles of authority in the Church.
• Casting out demons from Christians.
• Rebuilding the physical Tabernacle of David, i.e. continual prophetic praise before God.
• The dominion of the world by The Church.
• The defeat of physical death by ascended believers called Manifest Sons of God.
• Unity of the Body, i.e. all churches submitting the Apostolic and Prophetic authority
