This page last updated on 12.03.2025               
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        THE HOLY SPIRIT - OUR LADY'S LAND                     -  AZUSA STREET REVIVAL & TEARS!

   Note:  This page compliments multiple pages of this website, whereby the Holy Spirit sends souls out, to be small parts of the total Sacred Story of Louisiana.  As this Sacred Story continues in time, and the "The Light", of JESUS CHRIST, returns into this world ... person-by-person, this story of one man, born in Louisiana, can be an example for others to remember!

   












 

   This page will very briefly discuss a well-known protestant movement of the Holy Spirit called the "Azusa Street Revival" and its initiator, William Joseph Seymour, and his very real connection to Louisiana, and his Catholic faith, and how all that might be connected to the Church today, and its openness to the Holy Spirit. 

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   That certain revival occurred on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California from April 9, 1906 until a time in 1915 - soon after the death of Pope Leo XIII.  There is much written about that revival.  The world noticed and was amazed by it.  To see more about that revival, please click here.  

   William, is commonly known as its initiator.  He was humbly born as an African American child in the St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, community of Centerville on May 2, 1870.  What few have recognized is that, as a child he was baptized Catholic in Franklin, Louisiana (the seat of government for that civil parish), a few miles removed from his birthplace of Centerville.  Click here for more on the current Catholic presence there.  As the "movement" has been written about, so to has much been written about William's life.  Research him, and his life, and you will see he was really a Catholic man driven "in mission" by the Holy Spirit.

   Any serious research, and knowing the culture of South Louisiana during his life, would lead one to the conclusion that William was not able to fully practice his faith, as a Catholic African American in St. Mary Parish, in the late 1800's or early 1900's.  Consequently, still strongly driven by the Holy Spirit to mission, his choices led him across America, trying to fulfill a spirituality of healing and deliverance - with a peace that he never truly reached. 

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   After being forced away from the Catholic Church, he did the best he could!  And indeed, he did a lot, and it was in fact a beautiful work for a man to do - in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ!  But, there could have been so much more...and there was a lot more available for William and his work - they were at least the Holy Sacraments of the Catholc Church! 

   As all men and women he was flawed and he experienced many setbacks in that mission journey.  After each failure, he would pick himself up, brush himself off, and push on again.  That persistence eventually and finally led him, late-in-life, to Azusa Street in Los Angeles, CA, where powerful spiritual happenings did occur and where they were seen and acknowledged by many of all faiths. Unfortunately, even after all that, he died an unfulfilled man - always feeling there was more - and indeed there was!
 

   To read a little about William, written by a Catholic priest, and that powerful revival in Los Angeles, see Paragraph 3 of Section II of Chapter I of the 1971 book by Fr. Edward D. O'Connor, CSC (Ave Maria Press) titled, The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church, where it is written:

 
   ...For several years, the Pentecostal message spread erratically and inobtrusively across the Southwest.  In 1906, a new outburst occurred in Los Angeles that was to send this new fire all over the world.  A group of people, both whites and blacks, had begun to hold prayer meetings daily in a private home, asking God to send the Spirit "with signs following."  They set aside ten days for fasting and prayer.  On April 9, a negro boy spoke in tongues, and after him six others did likewise.  Crowds were attracted by the ensuing commotion, and as they drew near, the Spirit seemed to fall on many of them likewise.  Within a few days, it became necessary to move to larger quarters - an abandoned old Baptist church on Azusa Street, near a stable and a lumberyard.  The services were led chiefly by a negro preacher.  W. [S.] Seymour, a man of little education and blind in one eye.  He was not eloquent, and did not preach much.  He used to sit behind two packing cases, one on top of the other, and rest his head in the top one, praying while the services went on around him.  During the next three years, thousands of people from all over the United States, and many from other parts of the world, received the baptism in the Spirit at the Azusa Street mission.  They went home to impart it to others.
 

   It is believed by this author, that the powerful movement of the Holy Spirit, called the "Azusa Street Revival", and the fruits that were ultimately and so clearly seen in Los Angeles, after William's lifetime of traveling across America, were always meant to have been based in Louisiana, as its home.  It is further believed that William's main purpose in life was to initiate and "minister" in and from Louisiana, as his home.  He was not meant to be on a "nomadic missionary" journeying across America - moving his home as he ministered.  It is believed by this author that Louisiana was to be his "homebase" from which the Holy Spirit anointing would send him out to heal and evangelize - as a Louisiana Catholic!  

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   If rightfully allowed to practice his Catholic faith in (and from) St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, at that time, it is believed that he and his mission would have been even a greater example of what Louisiana was created for by God and what the Holy-Spirit had anointed it to offer to all creation, from the beginning.  But, the Catholic environment, for a black man, then and here, did not allow William to do that.  A real opportunity missed. 

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   To express that anointing phenomenon, the composite image immediately above this page purports to demonstrate (in blue) the physical limits of the "dove-like-shape" of the land and water area that naturally formed Louisiana (from the rich soils carried downstream by the "great river" - that we now call the "Mississippi").  The boundary and the shape of the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove is a sign to the whole Church and others to show "Who" really formed the Modern Delta of Louisiana using those "living waters" flowing through the "heart" of America! 

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   Additionally, then prayerfully consider another clear sign, along with the first one, affirming the Holy Spirit's mighty work over eons of time, building this small area of land from this river, the fact that the "western Spainish explorer", Hernando deSoto, in May of 1541, first named it the: ​

                  "River of the Holy Spirit"   

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(See John 7:37-39.)​​​​

37 On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.​​​

38 Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him."​​​

39 He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

 
   Then, to reverse the symbolism of the image above, the red lines flowing upward and outward from Louisiana across America represents God's spiritual power spreading outward from Louisiana, this time, as the "living waters" of a spiritual river, flowing from a Holy Spirit annointing to America and beyone.  Due to the author's inability to fully explain all this in words, the graphic more clearly show what was/is intended by God as a result of the Holy Spirit anointing He has placed upon this Eucharistic Louisiana - as it was assigned, re-confirmed and for all time symbolized by Louisiana's civil laws! 

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         "America Thirsts for Living Water!" 

 

   To hear Fr. Prenctice Tipton help explain this spiritual phenomenon of "rivers of living water", please click here.

   To summarize:
The Power of the Holy Eucharist - that is the symbol of Louisiana, The Modern Delta of Louisiana - a land created by the Holy Spirit     TO MANIFEST THE POWER OF THE  HOLY EUCHARIST!

   As read above, there are undeniable connections between the Louisiana, Africa and the Azusa Street Revival.  What connects all three?  Until 2025, at least one Louisiana black man from the late 1800's, a spiritual revival watched from around the world, and Our Lady's land (St. Mary).  In 2025, the Holy Spirit has begun to reveal more material connections between all of the above.  Although these revelations are just briefly mentioned below, many are yet to be fully seen.  More to come on that in due time!  

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   As stated above, it is this author's opinion that if the Azusa Street Revival would have been a spiritual work based out of Louisiana, it would have been evenmore glorious than it was eventually seen to be in California.  It is proposed for your consideration, that over the last 6000 years (the time it took for the River of the Holy Spirit to create the Modern Delta), God was intentionally forming and placing a spiritual anointing upon the southern portion of Louisiana exactly for the type of spiritual mission that compeled William onward and outward to his mission.  

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   Approximately one hundred years ago, William was born, baptized and anointed for that revival!  But because that movement of the Holy Spirit was not allowed to be rooted and practiced where he was born, "a black Catholic man on a unique mission", was "denied" that right!

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   Note:  Due to this author's last 40 years of activity in St. Mary Parish, it is personally known by this author, individual rights in St. Mary Parish have been (and are still being) denied to certain members of the public.  (For example, widows are thought by many, with power and influence, to be of little value.)  

   Therefore, having been denied his rights, as an secondary alternative, the Holy Spirit compelled William, an obedient African American man, outward into the spiritual desert of America, to try and initiate a "new" spiritual revival across America!  Quite a challenge!  As you will read below, in his memory, maybe the fullness of his past mission is being (and will be) experienced in the "newness" of these times?  

   On the other hand, William's experiences were much like the apostles in the early days of the Church.  Because of the oppression placed upon them in their place and time, they were forced out and away from Jersaleum after the death of Jesus and His precious blood was shed.  Those pressures ultimately resulted in them evangelizing across the earth with their "best fruit" still coming forth after they died and their blood was shed. There is always redemption, forgiveness and riches in the powerful Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:7.)

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7 In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace.

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and as sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13)!

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13 In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,

   At times, that sort of pressured-type of sacrifice is allowed by the permissive Will of God upon His children, and may be in fact exactly what it takes to get one to leave a familiar and friendly venue, so as to move onward and outward, in this valley of tears, for Him!  In the absence of that oppression, the apostles may all have just stayed and died in Jerusalem - without the Church spreading, as it did in those early days and the times that followed!

   In like manner, in the cultured-pressure 1900 years later in St. Mary, Louisiana, William was forced away from his native land to go out and bring to America a "new" type of Holy Spirit revival that was stirring in him.  This author proposes that he lived certainly more than an ordinary life - but, it was always meant to be an extraordinary life - one in full union with the power of the Holy Sacraments from Louisiana! 
    
   It is believed that William (and others like him) was what Pope Leo XIII envisioned and called forth in his 1897 encyclical titled: DIVINUM ILLUD MUNUS!  In particular, click on Paragraph No. 11 of that document to see it directly stated.  Paragraph No. 11 does begin with these powerful words:

Lastly, we ought to pray and invoke the Holy Spirit for each one of us greatly needs His protection and His help.  The more a man is deficient in wisdom, weak in strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to Him who is the never-ceasing font of light, strength, consolation and holiness. 
Using these few words, Pope Leo XII describes the "Louisianawim" of which William was a great example in his time.

   Born in 1870, William was 17 years old when that encyclical was released by the same pope that heard the well-known conversation between Jesus and the devil on October 13, 1884 (William was 14 years old upon the Pope's hearing that fearful conversation during his Mass that morning).  An 1884 conversation, and an 1897 encyclical, both likely unknown by William, impacted him all his life, and is still impacting the Church today.   ​​​​​

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   After hearing that conversation between Jesus and the devil, Pope Leo certainly knew it would take a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the days that were to come.  Was a strongly convicted, Holy Spirit-filled, "William" an example of what Pope Leo and the Holy Spirit wanted to bring forth to confront the devil's plan of destroying Holy Mother Church over the next 75 to 100 years?  In this author's opinion...YES he absolutely was!

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   William was/is a man for all to model!  Eventhough worn down and exhausted over the years, he pushed on!  Never to return to Louisiana, in any meaningful way, to spiritually nurture his earthly mission!  Never to physically see the real fruit from the seeds he sowed across America for so many years!  

   An evening to remember:  This author accompanied the Crucillo Men of Franklin, LA, on a Wednesday evening, during a visit to the Church of the Assumption, in Franklin, LA, years ago, to pray for forgiveness, and to make reparation for the actions taken against William Joseph Seymour and his ministry in those days.  No doubt, a powerful "happening" took place in that church that night to reverse, what could be reversed, by the prayer of those men  - praying with intention and in faith!    
 
   Another extraordinary example of what the Holy Spirit is doing, connected to Louisiana, to confront the devil (that old dragon), in these times is currently being lived out in Rome.  Who could have ever imagined that our Holy Mother Church would now have a Pope Leo XIV - who has African-American maternal roots from Louisiana!  Pope Leo's roots run deep into New Orleans and therefore the Modern Delta of Louisiana.  An extraordinary example of the annointing of that land that is called Louisiana!

   Then, most recently, in the powerful shadow of Pope Leo XIII, Pope Leo XIV, just 19 days after becoming Pope, was led by the Holy Spirit, to appoint a priest of 12 years (who was at the time acting as the Administrator of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, LA) as that diocese's 6th Bishop!   

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   Installed on Friday. September 5, 2025, Bishop Simon Peter Engurait, from Ngora, Uganda, became the second African-born priest appointed as a United States Bishop, and the first for a diocese within the continental borders of the United States. (Bishop Engurait received his telephone notice about being appointed as Bishop on May 27, 2025 - 19 days after Pope Leo began his papacy on May 8, 2025). 

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   The Houma-Thibodaux Diocese is the most southerly natural land area in the Modern Delta of Louisiana.  It is naturally composed of soils from all the lands upriver from it - as far north as Minnesota and elsewhere in all directions.  It is composed of no land of its own making.  Geologically, it was generally created, by the uplands, in the same time period as when Jesus was born - being mostly in the Lafourche Delta Lobe of the Modern Delta.  Geographically located mainly in Lafourche and Terrebonne civil parishes, its chancery is in "Terrebonne" Parish.  Therefore, it is indeed on  "Good Earth"!

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   For more on the above and what it may mean between Uganda/Africa and Louisiana/America in the future, and Bishop Engurait's future vocation and mission, please click here.   The last paragraph of that September 3rd image and word is believed to be connected back to the blood shed by the Uganda Martyrs as well as at least the African martyrs in Louisiana. (William could be considered a "white martyr" due to the oppression of his time upon him.)  For more on the Uganda Martyrs, please click here. 

To view a LifeSite News video on the conviction and courage, of the Uganda Martyrs, please click here.

       

       To pray for Bishop Simon Peter Engurait, please click here.​​

       We pray the Holy Spirit surrounds him with Holy Advisors!

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   Let us also pray for Pope Leo XIV, that he leads the Church into the Jubilee years of its journey, into a "Spiritual Promised Land" by following fully in the footsteps of the earlier mentioned Pope Leo XIII, his chosen predecessor in title and authority, and consistent with the documents Pope Leo XIII published.  

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   We must remember, if Pope Benedict XVI was correct when he prophesied this, about the Church getting much smaller and more holier in the days ahead...or now! 

 

   If so, that means much of the Church is going to leave.  Where is that part of the Church going?  What is happening to it?  Who will remain?  These are the types of questions that cannot be answered today.  Due to their ages, these two men (Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Engurait) may likely have to deal and guide their respective flocks through that upcoming conversion experience.  They will need great prayer!

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   Let us now pause for a moment and pray one

                                       "Our Father"

                                        "Hail Mary"

                                         "Glory Be"

for Pope Leo XIV and Bishop Simon Peter Engurait. 

 

   We pray that each man remain open to the Holy Spirit who will forever guide and protect the true Church through these dangerous times.  To see some of the spiritual protection being carried out recently in Rome, as explained by Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, please click here.

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   Wrapping up...before we move on:  Be aware of a very relevant prophetic revelation and dream for these times, as we sail into these uncharted waters of our faith, that comes to us from the 19th century.  To read and see more about that saintly dream, please click here.

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MOVING ON:

   
   There are so many spiritual possibilities and theories that can be interwoven into all of the above.  Too many...too premature in time to know for sure...and/or too spiritually advanced for this author to fully comprehend, assess and/or even think about describing here.  We shall have to wait, pray, look to the horizon, and listen for that "slight silent sound", proclaimed further below. 

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   Note:  One did not have to wait, pray, look and listen too long to get a hint of something big that is on the way.  One of the official acts of the USCCB - November 2025 General Assembly (the first for the new Bishop Engurait) was to move to consecrate America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 12, 2026!  If one reads this page of this website, one will see why that is so interesting to Louisiana Catholics.    

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   This chapter/page narrative attempts to bring forth issues for meditation and prayer connected to William and Louisiana and each of us today!  Others stopped William from being all he could be!  Who is stopping us from being all we can be?  In most cases, because we tend to be broken, we are generally stopping ourselves! 

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   The Church, being branches of one vine, must always try to answer this personal question:

         What are WE to do to bear much "new" fruit on the vine?

             Fr. Prentice Tipton answers with,  fix yourself first!

   At first glance many may say that all this appears to be coincidental as well as inconsequential.  Faithful believers  will likely say that they are not coincidental but providential. 

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   As far as having a new Pope being so generationally connected to Africa and to Louisiana, and with that new Pope quickly assigning an African-born Bishop to Louisiana (also connecting Africa to Louisiana), we shall soon see how consequential or not all this might be!  All with faith should repeatedly ask oneself:  ​What is God's message to us/me and what is our/my role in it all? 

 
   Good News abounds!  In addition to all of the above, the Holy Spirit is moving in mighty new ways, with consequences, across Louisiana in these times!  Many Catholic healing priests, services and ministries of evangelization are springing up in response to the Holy Spirit's stirring across Eucharistic Louisiana!  "New" movements of the Holy Spirit - for the "newer" times we are in!  One need only visit the events and website page to see that.  

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   In Isaiah 43:19 we read:

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19 See, I am doing something new!  Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  In the wilderness I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers.

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  In Luke 5 (synoptic scriptures Mt 9:16-17 & Mk 2:19), as we move in the river's "living waters" and towards these "newer times", that are now being traveled by the Church, that are connected to the upcoming Jubilee Year and Pentecost Day, June 5, 2033, we read:
 

36 And he also told them a parable. “No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.

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37 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.

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38 Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

   "New wine skins - today!"  From the Slidell/Pearl River/Lacombe area on the eastern side of Louisiana to Lake Charles/Sulphur area on the western side of Louisiana!  From Shreveport to Alexandria to Monroe and all points in between.  Cities and small communities alike.  There is much going on, driven by the Holy Spirit, in this Sacrificial and Eucharistic State of Louisiana! 

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   The Holy Spirit can be sensational but do not always look for the Holy Spirit in the sensational! 

   Remember William, in services on Azusa Street, when "He used to sit behind two packing cases, one on top of the other, and rest his head in the top one, praying while the services went on around him."  

   Remember, Elijah and the "light silent sound" that proclaimed the Lord around him in I Kings, Chapter 19:

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11 Then the LORD said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake;

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12 after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound.

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   Always keep looking for what might be the "light silent sounds" trying to reach out to you?  As a part of that inquiry and search, one can always go to this page of this website and see numerous events, at which we can assemble, that have been submitted for posting - shown by location and event, with details.    

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   Then, on that same page, one can scroll further down the page and see the many websites across Louisiana that will show so much more that is available to one that is searching!  Spend some time on that page and consider becoming involved in one or more of what you see there and always "network-network-network" with others trying to cast out into the deep!  Join the assembly for the Lord!
                                    Come, Holy Spirit! 

   The same Holy Spirit that moved William a hundred years ago continues to flow in and outward from Louisiana today.   A land no longer personally aided by William, in bodily form of course, is led by the same Holy Spirit that earlier inspired his zeal to heal, deliver and evangelize across America!  Today, it can be rightfully assumed that William can pray and intercede for the Church, as it tries to do simular acts of faith that he was not allowed to do.  

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   If you truly believe that William Joseph Seymour can serve as a great example of an intercessory Catholic soul, for all to model and follow, in the face of his personal flaws, extreme sacrifices, conflicts, and hardships he faced in his life, then we must continue to push on in ours!  And always, when facing simular hurdles, remember ...

                     In all things, good and bad, PRAISE GOD! 

   Want to discuss this further, contact me.