Baptism in the Holy Spirit - Part I

A charismatic group that I follow was inviting people to send in their testimonies of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Excitedly, I decided to submit my story to them. However, it could only be 2 or 3 paragraphs long, which they would edit so it could be posted on social media. How could I limit one of the defining moments of my life, whose effects continue to ripple through my encounters today, to such a short account? So, I wrote and edited, and wrote and edited some more, and tweaked and slashed until it was down to about 200 words. I hit ‘send’. The next day I was excited to find out that they had accepted my submission and would publish it, though I don’t know when that will be.

As much as it pained me to leave details out, I realized I could paint a more complete picture of this event right here on the blog. I could write a book if I wanted to! Because really, what happened wasn’t something that took place over the course of half an hour 6 years ago. It’s still happening today.

When I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I was at a retreat, but there was a significant event that happened before that, where I was driven squarely into the presence of the Holy Spirit and I fought against Him.

A priest came to our parish to celebrate a healing Mass and pray over the attendees afterward. At that time, I was very wary of anything with the slightest whiff of charismatic worship connected to it. To me, this behaviour was driven by overactive emotions and was undignified and unbecoming. But I was curious about it and I mentioned it to my friend. She said she was going so I asked if I could join her. She agreed on the condition that I wasn’t going to gawk and scoff at what I thought of as more of a show than a religious event.

The Mass that evening was nothing out of the ordinary. Afterwards the priest invited the “catchers” to come forward. I thought, oh boy, here we go with the weirdness! Then the priest began the prayer time and one by one every single person he prayed over fell back into the waiting arms of the catchers and was placed gently on the floor. They would lay there for some time. I was really out of my element but still curious.

When it was my turn the priest prayed over me and I think he said something about receiving the Holy Spirit. I felt an inexplicable rippling go through my body. I had never felt anything like this before. It was not painful just really unfamiliar. I struggled to stay upright but the waves undulating through me made it a challenge to remain standing. The priest moved onto the next person and I was left standing there going, what just happened?! I looked for the friend that had accompanied me and there she was, on the floor, peacefully resting in the Spirit. I wasn’t angry with myself that I had resisted but I could clearly see I had wasted an opportunity to become closer to God.

Next time I’ll share how I finally did open up to the Spirit.