God's Love Salvation New Life Receiving God's Gift Empowerment Sin in Our Life Growth and Transformation God's Love Salvation New Life Receiving God's Gift Empowerment Sin in Our Life Growth and Transformation God's Love Salvation New Life Receiving God's Gift Empowerment Sin in Our Life Growth and Transformation
	The first session offers a simple presentation of God's life, God's unconditional love and the ongoing personal invitation to a relationship with God. God is love and offers us the fullness of life and holiness. During the life in the Spirit Seminar we will look at God's invitation to enter into this love and to choose the saving presence of Jesus Christ, as well as the life of God's Holy Spirit. God has begun this new life in us through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. During the seminar we hope to rediscover this gift. This presentation will include a witness by the presenter about the discovery of God's personal love in their life.
	God sent Jesus, His Son, to give us new life. Jesus reveals the Father's love for us. Through His life, death and resurrection Jesus is Shepherd, Healer, Lord and Savior. Jesus invites us into a Kingdom, a new way of life, a gift of redemption. We are created in God's image, but fallen and tarnished. We are all affected by original sin. Jesus offers forgiveness and restoration for each of us and for the whole world. We need God and have a choice to make in order to live this new life. Each day, we must answer the Scriptural question Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" We can also look to Mary who is an example of responding to God's love and invitation to accept Jesus into our lives. When we were baptized, no matter how long ago, vows were made as part of the sacrament. We (or our parents) promised to reject sin, to believe in God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to embrace the Church. These vows are also a life-long commitment, a striving for intimacy with God.
	The Father offers new life to all. Jesus came into the world to bring life. Jesus surrendered to the Spirit during His baptism in the Jordan, and gives the Holy Spirit, as the source of this new life for His disciples. Jesus is a model for accepting the Holy Spirit, who is our helper and our strength. When we accept the life in the Spirit, we are given the power to follow Christ and serve as members of the Body of Christ. There is always more of God's life and Spirit. We are constantly invited to experience a new and more vital relationship with God. We have been baptized both in water and in the Spirit. Baptism in the Spirit may be a new idea for some of us. It means an ongoing and ever deepening spiritual life. It means a lifetime of graces, fruits, gifts and charisms rooted in our sacramental Baptism and Confirmation.
	Living the new life God has begun in us through the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist) involves falling in love with Jesus. The word "believe" comes from a German word meaning to fall in love. Just as Jesus abandoned Himself to the Father and the Spirit with complete trust, so must we. Jesus gives us the gifts of faith, surrender, repentance and attentiveness to the Spirit. Following Jesus involves turning toward God and away from all those things that block our relationship with God. Jesus must be our only Lord. God gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us return to God. As we turn toward God and surrender our lives, then the Spirit fills us with new life. There is a new fire that burns within our hearts, and a river of life in our souls that constantly refreshes and sustains us. Mary is an example of surrender to God. The Catholic understanding of receiving the Spirit is based in the events of Easter and Pentecost, as well as a dynamic understanding of the Sacraments of Initiation, especially Confirmation. In this way, we receive the fullness of the Spirit along with the seven gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fear of the Lord, fortitude, knowledge and piety.
	This presentation provides an explanation of what will occur as we pray for the full release of the Spirit. A reminder is given that, in faith, we will ask a God who desires our best, to provide the power to live this new life. Through the Baptism in the Holy Spirit we experience Jesus Christ in a different, often more intimate way. The Scripture and the life of the Church often become more alive for us. The fruits of the Spirit may be evidenced in our life in new and very specific ways. The charisms-- graces of God and manifestations of the Holy Spirit given for the benefit of the whole Body of the Church are experienced. We are equipped to serve the people of God and to be witnesses to Jesus Christ in the world in new and specific ways. We are each members of the Body of Christ, called to serve the Church in special ways; the Holy Spirit empowers us with charisms to carry out our role.
	In order to receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness, it is necessary to remove all obstacles that would block this reception. To prepare as best we can, it is necessary and important to be reconciled to God and to each other. In a culture which denies the existence of sin, many have come to accept or ignore the sin in their life. This presentation emphasizes the importance of the forgotten sacrament of Reconciliation and is a reminder that if there is grievous sin present in our lives, it must be taken into the confessional, repented of and the sin will be forgiven. It gives us the opportunity to look into our lives as the presenter brings forward and identifies sin areas that often need to be addressed . Different kinds of sin will be outlined, as well as the reality that sin is man's rejection of God. The Church's position on original sin will be explained as it applies to mankind's overwhelming misery, which oppresses us, and our inclinations toward evil and death.
	We have several tools to help us grow in the life in the spirit. It is important to choose the basic means to growth in intimacy with God, especially prayer, Scripture, study, community, the sacraments and service. We should spend time with the Lord through prayer, reading the Scriptures and study. We are called to be part of a sacramental, faith-sharing community. A Spirit-filled life includes many ways of sharing what we have found with others through service and evangelization.
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