“I am a hole in the flute that God’s Spirit
moves through – listen to this music”.
At this time we celebrate the feast of Pentecost – the culmination of the Easter season and the moment we recall the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the apostles as they prayed together in the upper room in Jerusalem Acts 1:13-14, 2:1-4.
Every culture, every civilisation recognises the presence of this creative and life giving spirit in our world – shakti in India, chi in China,shekinah in Israel, neart in ancient Ireland. In our technologically sophisticated age it is easy to be dismissive of this animating, divine presence among us.
We believe that the Spirit is God with us, actively engaged in our world. As St John says, ‘it blows where it will’. There is a universal, cosmic, dimension to the work of the Spirit. It is no one’s property and will not be confined to any one time or place. It is the breath of wisdom which hovered over the formless mass of matter into which God breathed as he formed the world in the beginning.
Mark Wallace claims that ‘the most adequate response to our current crisis is a recovery of the Holy Spirit as natural living being who indwells and sustains all form of life’.
It is our task is to develop that delicate instinct that can respond to the slightest movement of God’s love in our lives urging us on to fullness of life.
Prayer of Julian of Norwich
Holy Spirit, Spirit of love, Spirit of discipline.
In the silence
Come to us and bring us your peace;
Rest in us that we may be tranquil and still;
Speak to us as each heart needs to hear;
Reveal to us things hidden and things longed for;
Rejoice in us that we may praise and be glad;
Pray in us that we may be at one with you and with each other;
Refresh and renew us from your Living Springs of water.
Holy Spirit, dwell in us that your light may shine through us.
And that in our hearts you may find your humblest home and endless dwelling. Amen.