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My Personal Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday is fast approaching. Let me share with you a story that opens with a prayer:

“COME, HOLY SPIRIT, FILL THE HEARTS OF YOUR FAITHFUL AND ENKINDLE IN THEM THE FIRE OF YOUR LOVE…”

I remember saying this together with my schoolmates back in high school as our morning prayer during the flag ceremony every single day. Having grown accustomed to it, it has become a beautiful part of my morning prayers since then. Going back a little further, I remember the first time I was introduced to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. It was about a month or two before I entered high school life when I, together with my sister and our maid, reluctantly attended the Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminar (CLSS) at the loved Flock Charismatic Community in Quezon City. It was a youth seminar actually, and I was even one of the participants who gamely raised their hands when asked, “Sino sa inyo ang pinilit mag-attend ng seminar na ‘to?” It was just an honest reaction of a carefree 13-year old.

Little did I know that it would be the start of my beautiful love affair with the Lord. However, as expected of teenagers, I did not give too much of my time to the Prayer Meetings that we were invited to. Hence, the slow growth of the seed planted in my soul during the said CLSS. Unknowingly, I was being led into something. The Holy Spirit kept knocking at the door of my young heart. Somebody would invite me to another CLSS in another community, and I would oblige. Sometime after, I would visit another community and attend the same seminar (with different set of speakers, of course), and another still without regularly attending Prayer Meetings and not joining any ministry. It went on until the Holy Spirit said, “Enough of the taking, Chic. It’s about time to give.” I believe the Spirit moved me to share myself and my gifts with my brothers and sisters in a community. Something happened along the way and I decided to join the Emmanuel Catholic Charismatic Community at the Sto. Nino de Paz Chapel in Greenbelt, Makati.

The Spirit blows where it wishes. The Spirit moves when it wishes. Actually I realized that we do not need to ask the Holy Spirit to come for it is already here with us since the First Pentecost. It is the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise, that is, to send us a Helper Who will guide us in our journey to wholeness to be with us forever in our spiritual walk. Even if we do not utter “Come, Holy Spirit…”, the presence of the Holy Spirit will always be manifested and felt in our daily life if only we would train ourselves to recognize and listen to His voice in the midst of worldly noise and confusion. We will constantly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit if we would empty our heart of the things of this world. Then we will be able to recognize and use our gifts, thus, generously sharing with our brothers and sisters in Christ the power of the Holy Spirit relentlessly working in and through us.

It is said that the love of the Father and the Son brings forth the Holy Spirit. I am closing this now with a prayer: “By virtue of love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, may we all be a wonderful blessing to one another… in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”