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Diana's Testimony

I don’t really know what I expected from the Life in the Spirit seminar I attended the fall of 2011.  I heard Fr. Jim mention, again, the need for a personal relationship with Jesus in his homily, and I decided to sign up.


My faith had taken a new turn it was true.  You see my immediate friends at that time were all Fundamentalist or Evangelical Christians.  I visited their churches with them from time to time, and was frequently moved by the music or the sermons.  I was prayed over by them and they urgently desired my conversion.  These friends and I frequently engaged in spirited debates about faith which consisted mostly of them criticizing Catholicism, and me weakly offering my poorly catechized explanations. 


My faith was not at risk in these debates – I have an abiding faith that the Eucharist is the real presence of Christ - however, the constant criticisms left me feeling ashamed about my faith –these folks all knew the Bible.  So, how could a liberal, live-and-let-live Catholic defend the basic tenants of a religion she didn’t really know enough about?


The tipping point came one night at dinner.  There were four of my most ardent fundamentalist friends all speaking their arguments against Catholicism – Mary, intercession, purgatory, Sola fide, sola scriptura etc. when one of the teenagers came back to the table and stated that it was clearly understood that Christ did not found Christianity on Peter or his church.  Something in me finally had had enough – and I became an apologist that night.  I quoted Matthew 16:18 to my friends, I countered the arguments about “Peter’s conversion not Peter’s church” - I offered no compromise.


Following that dinner, I suddenly couldn’t get enough of Church teaching about our Catholic faith: I listened avidly to the apologists on Sacred Heart Radio and read scripture, especially relying on the easy to understand arguments from John Martinogni’s Bible Christian Society.  A deep shame in me – that my faith contradicted Bible teaching –was answered and even more - healed.


But, here was Fr. Jim, like my fundamentalist friends, telling me once more that I needed a personal relationship with Christ?  Didn’t I have that in the Eucharist?  How did that fly with being Catholic?
So, I found myself at Life in the Spirit.  The seminar was a straight-forward set of teachings on faith.  Each lesson was followed with group discussion. The music at the seminar sounded more like my friend’s churches – more personal (more guitars).  And, sometime in the seminar, I began to know that I wanted, needed something more.  I can’t recall the speaker or the teaching, but I became more and more eager for this something that I don’t remember lacking before.  I wanted more from my relationship with the Lord – I wanted what the team leaders had- I wanted a hope and promise without knowing what it would mean or how that deeper relationship might change my life. 


We prepared for welcoming the Holy Spirit.  Then, in the sanctuary we invited the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives. 


In our groups afterward we discussed the experience:  several experienced being overwhelmed by the Spirit; some suddenly had new insights or experienced strong images.  I can only describe my experience as a quieting – a calm.  Was this the Peace of Christ that surpasses all understanding?


In the many months since that first Life in the Spirit, so much in my life has been made easy - over time, without any effort on my part, my life has been re-ordered.  Work, family, friends, dreams, ambitions have all been re-arranged in ways I would not have considered two years ago.  Where once I reasoned that Jesus, Luke 10:27, was speaking euphemistically when he said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” I now, many days, find myself living just so – and, it is the only way I want to live! And, my desire to “defend” my faith has been replaced – I now hope for ever
y person to know Jesus personally and to receive the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.


My Catholic faith is ever more personal to me now – the Mass more deeply meaningful, reconciliation more merciful, adoration more time with the Lord, scripture alive.


Do you need a personal relationship with Christ – just what do you have to lose?

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