300 plus at St Charles’ Life in the Spirit seminar

St Charles Borromeo Parish, Tunapuna, recently concluded a nine-week Life in the Spirit seminar with 380 participants. Fr Ian Taylor, parish priest, called down the Holy Spirit during a Mass on October 15, from which many are still on a spiritual high.

This seminar, which ran from September 1 to October 27, had participants ranging from teenagers to an 83-year-old. Session presenters were Fr John Theodore CSSp, Keith Patrick, Gregory Quan Kep, Janet Chinnia, Deborah De Rosia and Fr Taylor.

Altar servers and other youth are captured during the praise and worship. Fr Taylor is in the background.

Speakers reminded participants, their team leaders and understudies that, “We are all God’s work of art,” (Eph 2:10) and that we, “Must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt 22:37). We were challenged to be lovers of Christ and not just workers for Him. As Catholics, we are all called to desire Jesus, read the Gospels to get to know Him, and spend time with Him to grow our love for Him.

We may spend time with Jesus through prayer, quiet reflection and time before the Blessed Sacrament and we were also challenged to go to His mother Mary since she always directs us to Jesus and she will always intercede for us. We were made to reflect on our lives and the many ways we hurt God through sin and were afforded the privilege of forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Speakers shared their various testimonies of faith in God as they encouraged us all to not just do a Life in the Spirit seminar but to actually start to live a life in the Spirit. To help us all grow in the Spirit and to be properly equipped to evangelise others, Fr Taylor launched a parish prayer meeting on Fridays.

This means that persons in Tunapuna and environs have the option of Monday prayer meetings with Eternal Light Community, or Friday prayer meetings with the St Charles parish. Both start at 7 p.m. The first parish meeting was November 3.

All are invited to come and hear testimonies from our vibrant youth on how Jesus has changed their lives. – Terrence Caesar