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Hi, James —
The Church recognizes all the spiritual
gifts or charisms including the phenomenal ones. (for
lack of a better term.)
For the most part, these gifts are
manifested by folks in the Charismatic
Renewal. Nevertheless, they are seen
elsewhere in the Church. Prophecy,
for instance, is very common in the
Marian movement; so is healing.
Hopefully you haven't been taught
a prayer language. Rather, the Holy
Spirit gave you one when the gifts
given to you began to be manifested.
Tongues is not something we learn,
it's something we receive. It is
a gift that we use and it edifies
us as we practice it. The best way
I can describe it is, when we pray
in tongues, that which we have learned
with our minds, becomes internalized
in our heart. Head knowledge becomes
heart knowledge. Put another way,
the Logos (logical word or written word) becomes Rhema (Revealed
word). It is this revealed word (Rhema in
the Greek) that St. Paul refers to
in Romans, when he writes faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word
(Rhema, revelation) of God.
That said, Tongues is an important
gift which the Church has always
recognized, even if it didn't always
embrace it. Unfortunately, in some
circles it becomes the, be-all and end-all, and in other circles, it
is rejected because people keep trying
to wrap their minds around it, instead
of embracing it as a gift.
John
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