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Diocese of Orlando Catholic Charismatic Conference

Retreat turned student into charismatic leader

LAURA DODSON | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Published: 11.02.07

An invitation to a Cursillo retreat led to a profound experience for Ralph Martin.

ORLANDO | Forty years ago, Ralph Martin said, he was “just a student with the usual questions and confusion of a young adult.” Now, he looks back on his life and work as an expression of how “we as laity can participate in the mission of Christ today.”

Martin, now president of the international evangelizing group Renewal Ministries, spoke at the diocesan Catholic Charismatic Conference, which took place Oct. 26-28 in Maitland.

Martin’s spiritual journey began as a senior at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, when he accepted a friend’s invitation to attend a Cursillo retreat weekend. That weekend brought him “to a profound experience of encounter with Our Lord.” He explained, “It infused me with a very great desire to be one with him and to serve him.”

The powerful weekend led Martin to eventually establish the first national office for the Cursillo movement, a renewal effort to promote individual and organized apostolic action, in Lansing, Mich.

It became a logical progression for him to accept the invitation of Cardinal L. J. Suenens to move to Belgium to assist him in the fulfillment of the mandate by Pope Paul VI to develop the Charismatic Renewal movement. Martin became the founding director of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office in Rome.

In 1980, he launched out on his own, helping to found Renewal Ministries, now evangelizing in 25 countries around the world, with which he continues to serve as president. He also hosts a weekly program, “The Choices We Face,” which airs on Ave Maria Radio and AOL Television.

A call in the 1990s brought a dramatic change in direction. “Our Lord was saying to me, ‘Don’t stop. I want to give myself to you more fully. There’s more. Keep going,’” Martin said in an interview with the Florida Catholic.

Martin returned to school. His latest book, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints, was published in February by Ignatius Press.

“He’s asking me to help ordinary people benefit from the wisdom of the saints, the doctors of the church,” Martin said.

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Retreat turned student into charismatic leader

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