Clothed with power from on high

Thirty-eight years ago, as a very nervous college freshmen, I attended a young men’s retreat that profoundly changed my life. Though I had attended Mass just about every Sunday of my life and had also attended Catholic school, not once had I ever had what I could call an encounter with God! As far as I could tell, believing in God was a very one-sided deal. You could pray, yell or try to make a deal, but God was far away and silent. I simply thought that God only interacted and spoke to the Mother Teresa’s of the world and not to an average college guy who definitely had some interesting interpretations of the Ten Commandments. On this retreat I witnessed for the first time “normal” men my age that spoke about God as if they actually knew him. God was an everyday part of their lives. He spoke to them and they had experienced his love, guidance and forgiveness in a very tangible way.

My first thought was that these guys were really “Holy Rollers” and never did anything wrong, and so God was close to them. But when they began to share about their present and past struggles, many of which I also struggled with, I was baffled! If these men struggled with sin like I did then why did God speak to them and not to me? As I listened to their personal stories a consistent turning point for these young men was a spiritual grace that they called being “Baptized in the Holy Spirit.” A desire began to grow in my heart for this grace.

As they say, “the rest is history.” On Sunday morning I knelt down and with the prayers and support of the men on this retreat, I received this grace of “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” I had a tangible experience of God our Father’s forgiveness and intimate, personal love for me. This grace has never left me even after 38 years. This year we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Catholic Church receiving this new grace of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In June, I had the honor of representing our community at a gathering in Rome of tens of thousands of Catholics who have experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Pope was highly encouraging in regards to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, calling it “a current of grace of the Spirit…” Furthermore he said, “This current of grace is for all the Church…not just for some…” Remarkably, something that was so new and often misunderstood 50 years ago has now been embraced by well over 100 million Catholics in the world!

Each brother in our community has experienced this “current of grace” and has his own fascinating and wonderful story of how it opened their hearts to Jesus and the Church in a new way. Based upon the Church’s approval, and our own personal life-changing experience, we brothers offer a seminar on all of the campuses that help students receive this “current of grace.” We too have been eye witnesses to literally thousands of students being “clothed with power from on high” through this “current of grace,” the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

As Pope Francis teaches: This grace is for everyone and not for some super-holy elite minority in the Church. Those who receive this grace do not feel as though they are better or holier than anyone. They have been the recipient of a gift that they could never deserve or earn! To all of our friends, family and anyone reading this newsletter. With all of my heart I urge you to find a Baptism in the Holy Spirit seminar and attend it. You will not regret it!

This article originally appeared in our Fall 2017 newsletter.