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TESTIMONY Called to Evangelise
Nichola Hurley, who heads up the evangelisation degree course at Maryvale College, shares how baptism in the Spirit changed her life and helped her grow in faith.
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As a child we went as a family to Mass regularly but my real passion became horses and riding and God took a back seat in my life. Every weekend I was off competing and my ambition was to go to the Olympics. When I was 28, however, the Holy Spirit came into my life in a strange way. I was working at a very good equestrian centre and I just woke up one morning feeling very unhappy. This was unusual as I was a happy person. I ended up in tears, sitting on a log in the forest. I heard the Lord say in my heart “Nichola I want you back”. This made me realise that I had become so caught up in my horses and career that I had forgotten the Lord. There was something so compelling about this call that I felt I could do nothing else except surrender my life to him. At the time I didn’t know what it was but I believe I was baptised in the Holy Spirit in that moment. As a result I decided to stop competing and sold the horses and went back home. A short time later my father became very ill and my mother, my family and I looked after him until he died. Healed by the Lord During this time I started going to church as often as I could. I knew God was calling me but I didn’t know what to. I felt confused and unsettled. To make things worse I developed polyarthritis and was struggling to walk. We had a new parish priest at the time, called Fr David Keniry, who was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. When he saw I was in pain he suggested that he pray over me. I felt really embarrassed. He said he would pray for me for 3 Sundays. After the second Sunday, however, he challenged me. “You don’t believe that God wants to do anything for you, do you?” It was true, I realised I wasn’t taking it seriously and I should pray for the faith to believe. So I prayed for a week and really prepared myself and then he prayed for me for a third time. Three days later the pain had totally gone and I was healed. Gave my whole life to God A little after that I gave my whole life to God to do with me whatever He wanted. I made a vow to remain single for the Lord. Fr David helped me to grow spiritually by teaching me how to pray using the Scriptures. I needed serious theological formation so that I could come to a more mature faith. Thus I started a BA in theology at Maryvale. At the same time I worked in the parish with a small team and in the local school. The Spirit of Truth community evolved from the youth prayer group we started in the parish. One year we went as a youth prayer group to the Faith Alive camp. We got so fired up there that we decided we wanted to organise something similar, so the next year we did in the fields at the back of our house. This began as a parish camp for young people, but over the years it has grown and become an annual event. We now have a Chapel, meeting rooms, permanent shower block and kitchen. Many people are thirsty to know how to pray Eventually I did an MA at Maryvale in personal moral and spiritual development. I then joined the staff and helped set up the evangelisation and learning for life course. This is a course to help Catholics realise that we all need to evangelise and how to help people grow in basic skills. Many people are thirsty and want to know how to pray and to know more about the things of God and as they grow they also want to know how to pass on what they have received to others. This course helps people in these areas. It has proved very popular and more and more people are taking it up. About 100 people are doing the course this year. This really underlines the desire people have to evangelise. Being part of the CCR helped me to learn how to pray, to read the scriptures and listen to God. I believe the Holy Spirit often needs to be reawakened in people. The charisms are for everyone, not just certain members of the Church. I wouldn’t see myself as a “Charismatic”. I am a Catholic who tries to use the gifts of the Spirit and this is normal Catholicism, because God gives us all charisms to help equip us to do what He calls us to do.
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