The Holy Spirit at Work in Ireland
By Father Brendan Williams
Fall, 1995 - I sincerely hope you had a good and restful summer and
are prepared for year of prayer and work in the service of the Lord.
The weather in Ireland was really wonderful this summer and to the usual
golf routine we added several visits the renowned beaches of Dingle
Bay. But my stay as not all play. I was invited to celebrate a Charismatic
Mass in Cork City for the communities in the greater Cork area on August
17th. It was the special tonic that made the vacation complete. The
power of praise and worship was wonderful and brought blessings of inner
enrichment and revitalization. My sister, Tina, who has viewed Charismatic
renewal from afar over the years, attended the Mass. A few days later
she shared with me her experience. During the Mass she felt faint and
thought she was going to pass out. I asked if she were ill. "No,"
she said,
"It was the power of the Holy Spirit filling the Church that touched
me." Naturally, I was delighted for her and prayed that her reaction
will be multiplied over and over again among the people of Ireland.
I was also a speaker at the summer Healing Conference in Tralee. My
theme was, Conversion to the Church: Healing Relationships in the Body
of Christ. The talk was well received and seemed to meld into the general
theme of the day. After I spoke, one of the other speakers came up to
thank me for the message. It was Reverend Cecil Kerr, a Protestant Minister
from the North of
Ireland. Given the media releases from the North over the years, he
was hardly the type one would expect from such a bitterly divided land.
Cecil was beaming with love and his eyes sparkled with the joy of the
Holy Spirit. He reached out to me and gave me a warm embrace and spoke
in praises and blessings. His wife, Myrtle, was equally filled with
this spirit of joy and love and felt so at home in such a predominantly
Catholic environment. We all joined hands and prayed in the Holy Spirit
for the healing of our wounded country. It was an
intense moment of reconciliation and healing love that I will not forget.
"While the news headlines have shouted violence and destruction in the North of Ireland for the past twenty five years," Cecil asserts, "behind the headlines bridges of love are being built. Rays of hope are piercing the darkness." With a smile he offered me an autographed copy of his book, The Way of Peace, sub-titled, Peace Amidst the Conflict in Northern Ireland. This book has indeed been fascinating reading.
Over twenty years ago Cecil was baptized in the Holy Spirit and felt the call to establish an interdenominational renewal center in Northern Ireland. This became a reality near the village of Rostrevor, overlooking the Mourne Mountains and Carlingford Lough, in County Down. Today it is a flourishing center of spirituality, reconciliation, healing and intercession for Catholics and Protestants alike. Noted Catholics, such as Father Pat Collins, owe their spiritual regeneration to Rostrevor. This is how Father Pat describes his experience.
"After my ordination in 1971, I knew a lot about Christ, but I
did not know him in a personal way. To me he often seemed distant and
unreal. I found it hard to pray or read the Scriptures with fervor.
I wasn't happy with the situation. I began to have a great desire for
an outpouring of the Holy Spirit
and a spiritual awakening in my life. Eventually divine providence led
me to an ecumenical weekend in Northern Ireland. I heard Cecil Kerr
preaching about Jesus as the source of our peace. His spirit-filled
words sent shivers down my
spine and brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to know the Lord the way
this man did. I approached him and told him of my desire. Then he read
the words of St.Paul, Eph. 3:17-20. These words jumped alive off the
page into my heart... It
was then that Cecil placed his hands on my head and prayed. Something
happened. The Spirit fell upon me. I was flooded with a sense of God's
love.
Jesus became intensely real. It was as though he had walked through
the walls of my body to live within me. From that moment on he has been
my most intimate friend." The Way of Peace, P. 131)
What a wonderful description of the baptism in the Holy Spirit experience!
What is more astounding is the scene of a Irish Catholic priest receiving
this
wonderful grace through the hands of a Protestant minister from the
North of Ireland! How great is our God; how wonderful are His ways!
Today, Father Pat Collins is well known internationally in the areas
of spirituality and evangelism, and was a speaker at the Seton Hall
Institute for Priests this summer.
A few days before I returned, we welcomed Charlie and Jeanie Osburn,
Bill Wegner and Julio Valencia, who began their whirl-wind tour of Ireland
in preparation for next summer's School of Evangelization there. From
what I have heard it was a great success and we are looking forward
very much to next July evangelical experience. My sister, Sr. Mary B.,
is now back in Ireland and will be the national organizer for our future
ventures in faith on the Old Sod. This is really exciting! In March
'96, I will return to Cork for the Youth
Conference where hundreds of young people will gather. I know some of
these young people in Cork. With their faith and enthusiasm for the
Gospel there is great hope for the Church in Ireland.
On the day before my return I had a one- hour meeting with the soon
to be ordained Bishop of Kerry, Msgr. Bill Murphy, who is a fellow parishioner
and High School contemporary of mine. We discussed the challenges of
evangelization in Ireland today and our plans to help the ministry in
the years to come. He was very receptive and offered me some very helpful
insights and suggested some important contacts
to Irish radio and television to publicize our forthcoming schools in
Ireland. Msgr. Murphy was ordained Bishop of Kerry on September 10th.
Please keep him and his ministry in your prayers.
So you can see the Good News is spreading and we are very privileged to be part of this great work. Please continue to pray and fast that the fire of the Holy Spirit will continue to intensify the evangelical flame here at home, so that the mission abroad will be all the more effective.
This article may be reprinted for personal use.