PENTECOST IS NOT ONCE AND DONE by Rev Frank Karwacki

The great feasts of our faith include Christmas, Easter and Pentecost which we celebrate on May 19 in the year 2024. 

The Lord Jesus on Easter Sunday said to his apostles after breathing on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, and then said to them, ”Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, if you hold them bound, they are held bound”. In this mini-pre-Pentecost event He gave to them who were the first appointed leaders of the early church the power to pass on His forgiveness. How were they to decide whom to forgive or whom to hold bound? Would they use race or nationality? Of course not, but obviously they needed to listen to the sinner to discern if they were sincere.

There was another pre-Pentecost event when Jesus died on the cross. In the gospel of John it says, “He breathed out His Spirit.” He was not simply exhaling carbon dioxide but passing on the Holy Spirit. Then 50 days after His resurrection came the great event of Pentecost. Still huddled in the upper room and still paralyzed by fear even though they had seen the risen Lord, they suddenly experienced the strong driving and purifying wind of the Holy Spirit driving out the fears, and then the fire of the Holy Spirit resting upon them and filling them with the charismatic gifts such as healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy and discernment.

Pentecost is not a once and done event you received at your baptism when you received the Holy Spirit to dwell in your soul. No, as we seek to surrender more and more to the Lordship of Jesus, the work Holy Spirit which had become dormant within us because of our immaturity and complacency, now comes alive and is released in us and we begin to experience more and more the fruit and the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In the 1970’s when I was a school teacher, I attended a “Life-in the Spirit Seminar” at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Mt. Carmel and was “Prayed Over” with the laying of hands on my head for the release of the power of the Holy Spirit within me by the now deceased Fr. Michael Barrett originally from Centralia. Up to that point I, who went to church faithfully and was reading the bible daily, was at the same time shy about sharing the faith with others. After the release of the of the power of Holy Spirit within me, I became the leader of the charismatic prayer meeting at St. John’s and to make a long story short I have been ordained a priest for 41 years and now am the Bishop’s Liaison for Charismatic Renewal. Fr. Michael Barrett who prayed over me was the first liaison for the bishop for Charismatic Renewal for our diocese. Bishop Daley had heard there were these prayer meetings going on in Harrisburg and sent Fr. Barrett to go incognito to the meeting to check it out. Fr. Barrett went and was prayed over and got zapped by the Spirit and began to exercise the charismatic gifts and then Fr. Barrett prayed over on me that 5^th night of the seminar. Pentecost is not once and done!

(Rev Frank Karwacki is the Pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mount Carmel & the Bishop’s Liaison for Charismatic Renewal)