A Testimony to the Holy Spirit

How The Word Among Us Came About

As we celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary, I want to tell a story that has two roots-one global and the other personal. The global story has to do with the winds of renewal that have been blowing in the church since Vatican II. And the personal story has to do with my mother, Edie, without whom I am convinced there would be no magazine.

Since I can't tell two stories at once, let me begin with the global one and then move to the personal.

The Global Story: Vatican II. In 1959, the newly elected Pope John XXIIl announced his intention to convene the second Vatican Council. The inspiration lor the Council came, Pope John said, as a revelation from the Holy Spirit-a sense he had in prayer that the Spirit wanted to bring a fresh wind of renewal upon the church and the world.

Over the forty years since the Council ended, the winds of renewal have been blowing very powerfully. Parishes have seen a dramatic increase in prayer groups, in Bible studies, in lay ministries, and in social and evangelistic outreaches. In addition, spiritual movements like Opus Dei, Focolare, the Charismatic Renewal, Marriage and Engaged Encounter, Cursillo, and the Neo-Catechumenate have touched countless Catholics.

On a worldwide level, the winds of renewal are still blowing. The past forty years have witnessed the fall of Communism, a dramatic evangelization of the Third World and Eastern Europe, and even the massive gatherings of the World Youth Day.

As a result, millions of Catholics have come to a deeper, more personal relationship with Jesus and are rinding new meaning for their lives through prayer and Scripture. More people talk about Jesus with a sense of intimacy, love, and worship-all because of the Holy Spirit's work in the past few decades.

The Personal Story: One Woman's Faith. My mother, Edie, has been a Catholic all her life. However, her faith took on new meaning in 1968, when she herself had a deep conversion experience. With a faithful husband and five wonderful children, Edie should have been happy with her life as it was. And, on one level, she was happy. However, on a more spiritual level, Edie knew she was struggling for meaning in her life. This struggle led her to search for Jesus, and she found him in a very powerful and life-changing way through the Charismatic Renewal.

After her conversion, Edie began praying, reading Scripture, attending daily Mass, and reading every spiritual book she could find. She eventually began a prayer meeting in her parish and spent much of her time helping other people come to know Jesus in the intimate way that she had experienced.

Edie's love for the Lord and desire to tell people about him wasn't limited to her prayer group. She devoted a lot of time to evangelizing me, along with my brothers and sisters. She taught us-along with a number of other young men and women-how to come to know Jesus and how to yield ourselves to his Spirit. For years, she poured herself out, helping us to grow in our faith.

Along with the transformation that we all experienced in our own lives, many of us also felt a desire to imitate Edie and give of ourselves to spread the gospel and build up the church. And that desire ultimately led me-along with some other brothers and sisters in the Lord-to begin The Word Among Us.

At eighty-two, Edie is still a living testimony to the power of God. So whenever you read a meditation or an article in our magazine, know that somewhere in the background of what you are reading is the heart of a woman who has faithfully served the Lord for nearly forty years.

I said at the beginning that the story of The Word Among Us had two roots, but it is probably more accurate to say that these roots themselves were intertwined. Having been so deeply affected by the grace of the Charismatic Renewal, Edie stands in the stream of grace that has been Bowing since Vatican II, a stream that continues to water the whole world.

My Own Story. In 1971,1 attended a Life in the Spirit seminar and was prayed over to experience baptism in the Spirit. For those who are unfamiliar, baptism in the Spirit is a New Testament term that is used to describe the way that the Holy Spirit wants to immerse us in his life and love and reveal Jesus to us in a deep, intimate way (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33).

This powerful spiritual experience gave me a new purpose for my life. Before I encountered Jesus, my faith was characterized more by the moral teachings of the church than the spiritual teachings. I always attended Mass. I tried to live a good life so that I wouldn't end up in hell. But at the same time, I was immersed in my life and in my plans to become a professional golfer. I didn't know Jesus, and I had no desire to serve him or to live my life to please him.

But that all changed after I was baptized in the Spirit. Attending the prayer meetings that Edie had founded, I began to feel a strong desire to serve the Lord with my life. I was still in college when my selffocused dreams began to give way to a desire to give something back to the Lord.

The Foundation. Shortly after I was baptized in the Spirit, I moved into an apartment with a few young men who were also in college and with Fr. Theophane Rush, a Franciscan priest. Through Fr. Theo's guidance, we grew in prayer and learned how to love each other as brothers. By the time I was married in 1975,1 had decided to serve the Lord with my whole life. So I spent the next few years studying Scripture, developing my spiritual life, and pursuing a doctoral degree in theology.

During these years, I kept sensing the Lord telling me the same thing he told his disciples at the multiplication of the loaves: "You give them something to eat" (Matthew 14:16). So I began to put together a plan for a magazine that would help people pray and read Scripture every day, taking what God had shown us and giving it away to others.

It was a twofold plan: Part one focused on offering people insights into the daily Mass readings through a short and inspiring meditation. Part two involved a series of articles that took an in-depth look at a specific theme each month. Today, twenty-five years later, we still use this format.

Eager to get started, I presented my plan to Fr. Francis Martin-a Scripture scholar who was guiding me in my doctoral studies. In fact, he is the one who came up with the name The Word Among Us. While Fr. Francis, Fr. Théo, and a few other priests joined me in writing the main articles, other members of our group focused on writing the daily meditations, the saints stories, and the personal witnesses. We also learned the ins and outs of distribution, production, and marketing of the magazine.

So while it was my idea to start this magazine, it was a team effort by many people: skilled and generous theologians and committed lay people. Together we prayed and tried to help each other grow closer to Jesus, and together we shared with our readers what we were experiencing and learning with our readers.

The Early Years. We had no publishing experience when we produced our first issue for December of 1981. We printed it in a garage; and we collated, stapled, and labeled all one thousand copies in the cafeteria of a local public school. Amazingly, the magazine sold out, and demand increased every month.

In those early years, the computers we used were slow and fragile. Building a database of names and making sure our subscribers received their issues, renewed when their subscription expired, and paid, was a difficult and at times disastrous affair. Who knows how many copies were lost, never sent, or sent to the wrong locations? Fortunately, our subscribers were patient and forgiving.

Over time, we improved in every area. Now, The Word Among Us is printed on a huge four-color press. Our customer service, editorial, and marketing teams are all made up of men and women who are deeply committed to helping people come closer to the Lord through prayer and Scripture. But for those of us who were there at the beginning, the early years can never be replaced. We will never forget the haphazard, inefficient, and chaotic ways we did things-and how God used our meager efforts to touch people's lives.

Time Goes By Fast. Twenty-five years is a long time-about onethird of an average lifespan. And yet it can go by so fast! It is hard to believe that it was that long ago when we printed our first issue in a garage and stapled it together in a school cafeteria. I don't think that anyone who was "present at the creation" imagined that it would grow as dramatically as it has.

And that's why, as we begin our twenty-fifth year, we feel very humbled. We know that the Holy Spirit is the true founder of The Word Among Us, and we know diat this is his work, not ours. We are all very grateful to have the opportunity and the honor to serve the Lord in this way, and there are times when we feel overwhelmed by this responsibility. Now, as we look to die next twentyfive years and beyond, we want to keep asking the Holy Spirit to remain with us and to keep blessing you, our readers, with a deep outpouring of divine life and love.

Copyright Word Among Us Jan 2006
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