Living in the Spirit

Monthly Fellowship of St. Paul encourages lively praise, spiritual gifts, and active evangelization.

The Fellowship of St. Paul is a group of seminarians, commuter students, and friends of Sacred Heart that gathers once a month during the academic year for a time of praise, prayer ministry, and encouragement in the spiritual life. The Friday evening meetings consist of about thirty minutes of contemporary praise music, a time for personal testimony of the Lord's graces in one's life, a spiritual talk by the main speaker, and small-group sharing and intercessory prayer.

Inspired by St. Paul's challenge to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1), one of the primary purposes of the Fellowship is to provide a setting in which attendees may encounter the Holy Spirit in a deeper way so to receive and practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-11).

Seeking the Divine Life

Sacred Heart alumnus Fr. Patrick Gonyeau, Class of 2013, gave a rousing main presentation on April 10, the final Fellowship gathering of the year. The associate pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower parish in Royal Oak, Michigan, spoke on The Divine Life Within: The Animating Principle of Evangelization to about fifty enthusiastic attendees. Other presentations through the year have included How to Evangelize Anyone by Adam Jenke, program director of St. Paul Street Evangelization, and Practical Wisdom in Praying Over People by Fr. Matthew Thelen, a seminarian formator at Sacred Heart and priest of the Diocese of Lansing.

The Fellowship of St. Paul also hosts a one-day Life in the Spirit seminar at Sacred Heart every year. Attendees participate in a day of teaching, discussions, and prayer, with the opportunity for sacramental confession. The day culminates with the laying on of hands for a fuller release of the Holy Spirit, often referred to as baptism in the Holy Spirit. The early Church experienced the baptism in the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 21-13). Pope Benedict encouraged all Catholics, Let us rediscover, dear brothers and sisters, the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit; let us be aware again of our baptism and of our confirmation, sources of grace that are always present. The Life in the Spirit seminar provides a unique opportunity to do just that.

Calling All College Students

A high point of the Fellowship's schedule this past year happened on November 15, when fifty-three students from Wayne State University in Detroit participated in a Life in the Spirit seminar at the seminary. The university's Newman Catholic Center used various means of communication, including a Facebook page, to promote the event.

For some students, a conversion took place that very day, says Fr. James Lowe, CC, a university chaplain who serves at the center. For others, the Life in the Spirit seminar sponsored by the Fellowship was the beginning of a journey that eventually led to a conversion later. Without a doubt, Father says, it was one of the highlights of the year for many of the students at the center. Lisa Zelfa of the Newman Catholic Center says the Life in the Spirit seminar is one of the most important instruments in bringing about spiritual renewal within the center's members.

The Spirit Still Moves

The Fellowship of St. Paul began in 2004 as an initiative of Dr. Peter Williamson, Adam Cardinal Maida Chair of Sacred Scripture at Sacred Heart. When his winter term Johannine Literature students wondered if the Holy Spirit acts as powerfully today as he did in the apostolic Church, Dr. Williamson responded Of course! He then organized a series of monthly mini-retreats for the students that focused on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. With the blessing of rector Fr. Stephen Boguslawski, the retreats gave birth to the expanded and more formal Fellowship of St. Paul gathering in the fall term.

Dr. Williamson sees the gathering as a complement to the existing programs of formation. We want to equip students, seminarians, and lay students with skills in prayer ministry. He believes the regular Fellowship meetings support the increasing emphasis at Sacred Heart of being a vital center of the New Evangelization, academically and pastorally.

Why Not Attend?

Are you interested in learning more about the Fellowship of St. Paul? Visit its Facebook page or simply join us for one of our meetings during the 2015-2016 school year. Each meeting is on a Friday night from 6:308:30 PM in one of the front parlors of the seminary. Everyone is invited and there is no charge.

Here are the upcoming Fellowship dates: September 18, October 2, November 20, and December 11, 2015; January 15, February 19, March 18, and April 8, 2016. A Life in the Spirit seminar will be held on February 13, from 8:30 AM until 4:00 PM.