Pentecost
Reflection
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-13
The divine encompassing Spirit of God is dynamic energy creating and recreating, continually giving impetus to that which is beyond anything we can ever hope to express. The power of Spirit charged energy will not be constrained by rationality no matter how hard institutions try to limit it by laws. That which is elusive and ephemeral and eternal cannot be contained, cannot be controlled. God’s free-flowing spirit liberates and will not be bound. Spirit is at the heart of all that is, was, and will be, and is in some way one with our own being and becoming. Spirit is the channel of divine energy and that Spirit is within us. There is one Spirit only. The Spirit of Jesus, your spirit and mine, are emanations of the Divine Spirit of God. God is energy in everything, everyone, everywhere.
Miriam Therese Winter
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and kindle in us the fire of your love.
Action
How would your life change if you truly believed you and others are “temples of God’s Spirit” ? What would it be like to live seeing God’s Spirit energizing all things?
Suggested Reading
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
1 Corinthians 6-19
The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission.
Pope Francis
The Spirit of God dwelling in the world with quickening power deconstructs dualism and draws in its place a circle of mutuality and inclusiveness. Instead of matter being divorced from spirit and consigned to a realm separate from the holy, it is an intrinsic part of the cosmic community, vivified, indwelt, and renewed by the Creator Spirit.
Elizabeth Johnson
It is by the Holy Spirit that we love those who are united to us in Christ. The more plentifully we have received of the Spirit of Christ, the more perfectly we are able to love them: and the more we love them the more we receive the Spirit.
Thomas Merton
The word “Comforter” as applied to the Holy Spirit needs to be translated by some vigorous term. Literally, it means “with strength.” Jesus promised His followers that “The Strengthener” would be with them forever. This promise is no lullaby for the faint-hearted. It is a blood transfusion for courageous living.
Paul Hovey
The Holy Spirit establishes the righteousness of heaven in the midst of the unrighteousness of earth.
Karl Barth
Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power.
J. Hudson Taylor
Pentecost is an invitation to dream. For when a community of faith quits dreaming dreams, it has little to offer either its members or the wider world. These dreams involve adopting a new perspective on what’s possible, rousing our creativity to free us from conventional expectations. They help us see that maybe what we thought was outlandish actually lies within reach.
Matthew L. Skinner
The Creative Force is still exploding, expanding our universe in a thousand directions every moment. And so, too, is it exploding in us, turning into creations that bring comfort and joy. It is not always for us to know exactly what this force has in mind, but to be a vessel for its power, a humble servant of its grace and wonder.
Jan Phillips