“Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of you faithful and kindle in them the fire of your life. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.”
Do you remember that prayer? Many of prayed it as children on our Confirmation begging the Holy Spirit to come into our hears and change us. This is not just a pious prayer but a call for radical transformation for ourselves and the whole world. It’s a prayer that invites the Spirit into our lives and calls us to be vulnerable to the power of that love. On this day, we say this prayer and invite the Holy Spirit to fall upon us. What we’re saying is change us, mold us, form us in your image. Do what you must, Holy Spirit, so that we can be a living sign of your presence in the world. To truly invite the Holy Spirit into our lives will mean that we will have to give up our upper rooms of fear, grief, prejudice, self-righteousness, apathy, pride, and you can name the upper room you find yourself in this year. We all get stuck in upper rooms and they can often become quite comfortable allowing us to “settle in” and not challenge ourselves to go any further. When we allow the Spirit into our upper room, the Spirit will blow open the door and help us to see the world around us. The disciples, after receiving the Holy Spirit, could see their kinship with all peoples. They were connected to the world in a new way because they saw with the eyes of God. All understood their words, regardless of what language they actual spoke because the language of the Spirit transcends our dialects and customs and all that seems to separate us. The language of the Spirit is compassion and mercy for all our brothers and sisters and the realization that we are all connected by the Divine. Our diversity is a reason to celebrate and not divide. We don’t have to stay fearful in upper rooms any longer but can come out and enjoy the beauty of all God’s children. May this Pentecost be for all of us a reawakening to the power of the Spirit in our lives. Come Holy Spirit and fill us so that we might be bold disciples in our world!
Do you remember that prayer? Many of prayed it as children on our Confirmation begging the Holy Spirit to come into our hears and change us. This is not just a pious prayer but a call for radical transformation for ourselves and the whole world. It’s a prayer that invites the Spirit into our lives and calls us to be vulnerable to the power of that love. On this day, we say this prayer and invite the Holy Spirit to fall upon us. What we’re saying is change us, mold us, form us in your image. Do what you must, Holy Spirit, so that we can be a living sign of your presence in the world. To truly invite the Holy Spirit into our lives will mean that we will have to give up our upper rooms of fear, grief, prejudice, self-righteousness, apathy, pride, and you can name the upper room you find yourself in this year. We all get stuck in upper rooms and they can often become quite comfortable allowing us to “settle in” and not challenge ourselves to go any further. When we allow the Spirit into our upper room, the Spirit will blow open the door and help us to see the world around us. The disciples, after receiving the Holy Spirit, could see their kinship with all peoples. They were connected to the world in a new way because they saw with the eyes of God. All understood their words, regardless of what language they actual spoke because the language of the Spirit transcends our dialects and customs and all that seems to separate us. The language of the Spirit is compassion and mercy for all our brothers and sisters and the realization that we are all connected by the Divine. Our diversity is a reason to celebrate and not divide. We don’t have to stay fearful in upper rooms any longer but can come out and enjoy the beauty of all God’s children. May this Pentecost be for all of us a reawakening to the power of the Spirit in our lives. Come Holy Spirit and fill us so that we might be bold disciples in our world!