Testimony on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
(by Angie Lake)

The term The Baptism of the Holy Spirit triggers all kinds of questions because the first thing that comes to a Catholic’s mind is, “Didn’t I get the Holy Spirit when I was baptized?”  The answer is, “of course.”  When you were baptized, you were baptized, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Every good Catholic knows that!

What we have come to understand is this.  Though, we have received the Holy Spirit at baptism and received Jesus in the Eucharistic meal at Holy Communion as well as the Confirmation of our faith, a lot of us didn’t understand what it all meant or what it means for us today! 

I’d like to share a little of my own personal story and you may find some common ground or something that resonates within your own heart as a Catholic wanting more of God in your life.  I was baptized as a baby and I can recall receiving my first Holy Communion with a lot of fanfare as a child. (I still have my First Holy Communion dress!)

I remember being confirmed in my faith at the age of 12, but I had no spiritual understanding.  All I remember was that I got a new dress and a new name!  Even though it was an important memorable event in my life as a Catholic I sadly had no understanding of what God was doing for me.  As a child, I had a child’s faith to believe that God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die on a cross for us and that when He rose from the dead and went back to Heaven, He made a way for all of us to “go to Heaven” when we died.  Two of the things I thought my Catholic faith taught me was that if I wasn’t good or I didn’t do enough “good things/works” I wouldn’t make it to Heaven! One thing was very clear to me from the time I was a little girl.  I knew for sure that I was a sinner and didn’t deserve God’s wonderful love and so that meant if I wanted to go to Heaven, I had to do a lot of good things; things like help people, be kind to them, bake cakes for the Church Bazaars, make food for people when they were home ill,