It’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to write up on a personal testimony to the workings of the Holy Spirit and it’s easy to do so when you have Him touch you in such a deep way.
First a little background….you see I was invited to attend two separate Triduums to the Holy Spirit events, one in my own parish and the other in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes where my ‘spiritual father’ of sorts was flying in to lead the event. I was torn a little, however was leaning towards attending it at the latter as I missed Bro. Lalith and his team. Moreover he is truly an anointed and gifted speaker.
As I was praying and discerning which one to choose, I was prompted instead to conduct a neighbourhood LTW session (LTW=Living The Word) to prepare and bring the group to closer to understanding and even perhaps experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit as we drew closer to Pentecost Sunday. The message to me, was use the gifts you already received instead of seeking to further understand and experience what you already know to be true. So I send out invites to the whole group to come on Friday evening. One of my neighbourhood members and his mate from the Warden Ministry were supposed to be involved in the triduum but they were prompted to attend our session instead.
Friday morning, I had just finished my night shift and so sat down to have some breakfast and to do my reflections for the daily Gospel. I then received a call from my wife telling me that she had received a call from my second son’s school. Our son had apparently fallen from the top of the staircase and landed directly on his head. Apart from two of his fingers which were badly hurt, he was also complaining of stomach pains and so had to be rushed to the hospital. My wife informed me that she was on her way and would meet me there. Needless to say it was very upsetting news, yet I felt a calm come over me and a feeling that everything would be okay and that I should continue with the reflections before heading over. After completing and uploading the reflections, I then hailed a taxi and rushed over to the hospital and managed to get there ahead of the ambulance.
When my son arrived he was transferred from the stretcher to the wheelchair and apart from the swell on his fingers he looked generally okay. Eyewitnesses to the accident in school confirmed that he had missed a step and actually fell from five steps down approximately 1.4 metres and landed directly on the right side of his head. However there was no swelling whatsoever on his head except for a slight discolouration which looked to be the beginnings of a slight bruise. His stomach pain had subsided and so his only real complaint were his fingers. Praise the Lord!
When my wife arrived, she thought it best that we postpone the LTW session, however I told her that everything would be fine and that we should proceed. My son was discharged with a cast on his left hand to allow the two affected fingers to heal properly and we are to return a week later for a follow up and that was all there was to it. Praise the Lord!
In the evening during one of the sharing sessions, I asked the young son of a member if there was anything he would like to share on one of the passages we were covering. You see I had asked him on numerous occasions in the past, if he had anything to share and he would always politely turn me down. He would however from time to time ask questions on what the passages meant. That evening, filled with the holy spirit he not only highlighted two sentences which moved him deeply, he proceeded to share why and what it meant. Praise the Lord!
Throughout the session the Holy Spirit moved through almost all the members and we could feel the very strong presence of our Lord among us. The sharings were wonderful and heartfelt.
Then at the end of the session we decided to have a closing hymn which we do not normally do, this was done after the closing prayer. One of the members had prepared the hymn a week before for our session not knowing which Gospel passage we were going to. We decided to do John 14:15–16, 23b–26. And verse 23 of the Gospel reading is ‘Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.’ She had chosen the hymn ‘God is dwelling in my heart’ Praise the Lord!
I thank and praise God for keeping my son safe and sound and for allowing me to participate in His plan, which provided for a powerful testimony to the movement of the Holy Spirit and thereby a witness to His Great Glory! Amen
CatholicJules.net 