Ken Bogan didn’t know what to expect when he signed up to attend the 40th Anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference in 2007. What happened changed his life.
I was a fairly new parishioner of Christ the King when there was a big charismatic conference at Cobo Center. I decided to attend, even though I had never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Almost all of my experiences with people using the gifts of the Holy Spirit were people speaking in tongues at Mass.
When I got to the conference I found there was a section reserved for CTK folks. I met a CTK parishioner there who I hung out with for the duration of the conference. The conference was an amazing experience with inspiring talks, thousands of people praying in tongues, and dozens of people slain in the Spirit when being prayer over by [papal preacher] Fr. Cantalamessa.
At one point during the conference, everyone was standing and praising God in tongues. It was really powerful to see and hear a few thousand people all worshiping our Lord. Since I had never spoken in tongues and really didn’t know how, I just prayed quietly while listening to all these beautiful languages being spoken around me. I can’t remember explicitly if I asked God if it was real, but I think that was always on my mind. Suddenly, there was an overpowering smell of chrism oil that just filled my nostrils. It was like someone had handed me a newly baptized baby, or smeared it directly under my nose. The smell lasted for quite a while.
When the praying in tongues ended, I said to the guy next to me, “Wow, do you smell that?” He said, “What?” I said, “The chrism oil – it’s really strong!” He said, “Dude, that’s weird.” I said, “That’s weird? You were just speaking in another language.” I couldn’t believe he didn’t smell it too.
I realized that God was supernaturally present, and he wanted me to know it, and he wanted to show me the wonders I was experiencing were real. My faith was made stronger, and my desire to grow in the charismatic gifts was enkindled.
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Today, Ken, his wife Juliet, and their family are very active parishioners at CTK. Ken is on the Senior Leadership Team, and is CTK’s business operations manager.
