Dear Friends,
We wish you all good things this weekend when we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, feast of the Coming of the Spirit which brings to a close the several weeks of Eastertide. We hope one or other of our attachments which focus on the Spirit will be good material for your reflection. There are countless blessings we can be open to receiving from the Spirit but the ones that are traditionally recognized are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of God. We hope you will receive the gift that you most need – one of these or something else.
Our musical blessing this week is Marty Haugen’s ‘ Hand of God’. Let us pray that our political leaders will grow in Wisdom that is so much needed at this time.
With love & prayer for you all, and wishing you a good week
Come Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit comes when we are receptive. She does not compel. She approaches so meekly that we may not even notice. If we would know the Holy Spirit, we need to examine ourselves in the light of the Gospel teaching, to detect any other presence which may prevent the Holy Spirit from entering into our spirit. We must not wait for God’s Spirit to force herself on us without our consent. She respects and does not constrain us. It is amazing how God’s Spirit humbles herself before us. She loves us with a tender love, not haughtily, not with condescension. And when we open our hearts to her we are overwhelmed by the conviction that she is indeed the Spirit of God.
Adapted from writings of Archmandrite Sophrony
The Coming of the Spirit
With the power of the green leaf
unfolding to spring-time sunshine,
unfold our souls to the radiance of Your light.
With the power of the life of God
made incarnate in the womb of Mary,
make in the depths of our souls
a place where the life of God can be planted.
With the power of wisdom,
of understanding
and the knowledge of God,
fill our souls with awe in the presence of God.
With the power of counsel and of might,
Empower our words and our actions
that we may be prophets for our age:
With the power that holds all creation in being,
hold our lives in the safety of Your wings:
With the power that shook the disciples out of their fear and complacency,
shake our lives free of our fears, our doubts and our uncertainties:
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created
and You will renew the face of the earth.
The Gift of the Spirit
The Spirit does not re-make us. The apostles at Pentecost were not turned into new people. Rather they became fully themselves for the first time. The Spirit called out of them that which was most creative, most courageous, most generous, most fully & completely human; and he does that to us too. The Spirit broke through the barriers of the apostles’ petty ambitions, their blind materialism, their cowardly fears; and he does that to us too. The Spirit did not transform Peter & James & John & the rest into totally new human beings. She liberated that which was best in each of them. She did not attempt to create a new kind of person but spoke to those depths of the personality of each apostle who had already heard their call but feared to respond. St Paul tells us that the Spirit speaks to our spirit. The God who calls speaks to that spark of divinity that is in each one of us. God’s Spirit touches that finest, sharpest point in our personality, the very core of our identity, that tells us that we can be far more than we are. We are free to respond or not.
Andrew Greeley
Walking With the Spirit
We walk together,
You & I,
Talking sometimes,
Often in awesome silence.
Wandering & wondering with you,
Holy Spirit,
Unrestrained as the wild winds,
Ever-moving as the tides.
Fire of passion,
Still small voice.