Reviews (3) Community

Book and DVD Review

Article in Renewal Journal 3: Community
Renewal Journal 3: Community -_PDF

Also in Renewal Journals bound volume 1 (Issues 1-5)
Renewal Journal Vol 1 (1-5) – PDF

Viva Cristo Rey!

Book by Rene Laurentin, Waco: Word, 1982. Video/DVD/YouTube originally by Catholic Charismatic Renewal, USA.

The book by Rene Laurentin, Viva Christo Rey! (Word, 1982) tells the amazing story of God’s work among the poor of El Paso and Juarez on the border of Mexico and Texas.

People there who live in cardboard homes without electricity or running water, without employment, have found in the Holy Spirit an abundance of joy, grace and riches which few people today enjoy.

A charismatic Catholic prayer group took the gospels seriously, and decided to provide a meal for the people who scavenge their living from the city dump. They were prompted by Jesus’ command to share food with those in need. They provided food for 150 people at Christmas, but over 300 turned up, and then brought their friends. The food did not run out and there was enough left over to give to various orphanages.

So began a ministry of love and care which has grown for over forty years. The sick are being healed, both medically and through prayer. The hungry are fed, and food has never run out in twenty years. Employment has been provided in cooperatives. Better housing has been built.

Fr Rene Laurentin writes that ‘most importantly, they have found in the Holy Spirit the source of the spiritual conversion that has made for more humane living through converted action. The Holy Spirit, too, has given them a capacity for renewal, a capacity rarely found among intellectuals, who are so often lost in things, in learning, and in the orchestrated power and influence that earned the rich the reproach of Jesus. The gospel is still the good news proclaimed to the poor.’

One prayer group decided to do something in obedience to Jesus. Miracles have followed.

The one hour enthralling DVD (copy of a video) of the same name, Viva Christo Rey! (Hail, Christ the King) provides a stirring documentary of early beginnings and recent developments. It was produced jointly by the Catholics and Assemblies of God.