I
f you are one of those persons who
think the experience of the Holy
Spirit that naturally transforms the
baptized Catholic to the supernatu-
ral being commonly associated with liv-
ing life in the spirit is limited to the Char-
ismatic groups in the Church you better
erase that notion and face the reality.
This much was revealed on Sunday,
March 8, 2020 by Brother Henry Ezen-
weani, a facilitator at the training of 200
participants who are expected to guide
and care for the over 900 parishioners
who have registered to be part of the Life
in the Spirit Seminar for the year 2020
that formally took off at St. Cyprian’s
Catholic Church, Oko-Oba, Agege, La-
gos.
In his introductory remarks the Parish
priest and Dean of Agege Deanery, Very
Rev. Fr. Augustine Nnaemeka who sees
himself as the general servant and Rev. Fr.
Emmanuel Anyanwu, the Assistant Par-
ish priest as assistant general servant and
the rest 200 participants as servants, said
the programme would not have come at
a better time but now that the Church
is celebrating the Word of God which
invites the faithful to study and read the
Bible more than ever before to the extent
that the Church has declared the Word
of God be marked annually on the Third
Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Taking the servants back to the begin-
ning of time, Brother Ezenweani said life
in the spirit came about during Novena
prayer organized by a group of adherents
at a Catholic University in Pittsburg, US
in 1967 when they experienced the out
pouring of the Holy Spirit. According to
him, the Holy Spirit has been active in the
Church right from the time of Pentecost
when it came upon the believers in the
Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, noting that
the protestant churches did not invent it
neither did the Pentecostals.
The facilitator quoted from the scrip-
tures to encourage the baptized to preach
the gospel with zeal and dispel the spirit
of timidity if only they can die in the flesh
and let the supernatural take over. Men
and women who were hungry for God
experienced it, he noted, great Saints and
Popes such as St. Anthony of Padua, Pope
John XX111 ( the 23rd ) amongst others
institutionalized and developed life in the
spirit among Catholics. He stated further
that everyone needs it to live in the im-
age of God, fulfill the mission of rescuing
souls for the kingdom, and be the light
and salt of the earth and to be spiritually
and morally active in our pious societies.
The programme that would run for
9 consecutive Sundays has as manuals
the team leaders guide and participants
booklet for Life in the Spirit Seminars
where issues that deals with teaching,
counseling, God’s love and care, respon-
sibilities of the servant-leaders who are to
work in groups 1 to 116 are clearly stated.
