Meditation in Pentecost: Sure'n Up '23

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh,” he whispered.

“Yes,” said Pooh.

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw, “I just wanted to be sure of you.”*

Well, Dear God of all Hunny Bears and Other Sweet Creatures, 

     I’m having one of "those" days and weeks and even a month! It's been such a busy time, so very much stuff going on, some happiness here, a worry or two there, and a few other things. I might not have been paying as much attention to You lately as I could have, but here I am now, just sidling up to You. It seemed like it was past time for us to take a walk together and for me to check in. I just want You to be as sure of me as I am of You ~ ok, that might take some work on my part so here I am sure-ing things up with You. Thanks for being here even when I've wandered a little bit away. I'll try not to let it happen again but in case it does, I promise again to remember You quicker the next time and then I'll be sure to reach up. amen.

*Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet came from the fertile imagination of English-born playwright, author, and child's poet, A. A. Milne [1881-1956], who based the main character, Pooh, on the teddy bear of the same name belonging to Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne.   

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Meditation Moment in Pentecost ~ Conscious Amazement

Amazement

water color by Jamie Winter

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.  Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel* 

God of gods, Lord of kings, Revealer of mysteries ~

     Being amazed when I get up in the morning isn't usually first on my list of things to do although some mornings it's amazing I've gotten that far. But before I know it the day has gone and I've missed it. The way I'm going, my whole life will be gone and I really don't want to wait until that specific moment to discover what true amazement is all about.

    God of Creation, so much time has passed t0o quickly and I want to experience this life and all that is in it as an act of radical amazement. You have hung the heavens, filled the seas, planted the earth and gave us and all living creatures the breath of our lives. Help me see, feel, hear, taste, touch, and know the spiritual wonder in every possible moment...in the moments that are joyful, in the moments when I am lost, and in the moments that are so ordinary they seem to meld into the next without notice. Grant me, each day, the vision to see the splendor, the ability to savor each breath, and the insight to expand my consciousness of amazement as my spirit absorbs and lives into the essence of You. amen.

*Abraham Joshua Heschel [1907-1972], a Polish born American philosopher, theologian, and rabbi  is considered one of the leaders of his disciplines in the 20th century. He authored many books and was a professor of Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. A strong advocate of the American Civil Rights movement, Heschel lost close family members in the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

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Prayers of the People: Two Men and a Bird, Really? ~ Trinity Sunday, First Sunday after Pentecost Yr A '23

For Sunday, June 4, 2023, Readings: Genesis 1;1-2:4a; Canticle 13, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, 

Matthew 28:16-20

  In the beginning...God created the heavens and the earth...God said, "Let there be light...called the dry land Earth and the waters seas...Let the Earth put forth vegetation...and living creatures of every kind...Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness" and God saw everything that he had made, and...it was very good. [Genesis 1:1]

  Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we will praise you and highly exalt you forever…in the high vault of heaven, glory to you. [Canticle 13 ~ additions to the Book of Daniel between 3.23 and 3.24]]

   The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. [2 Corinthians 13:13]

 

    Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them...And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." [Matthew 28:16-20]

       How do you think about the Trinity? Many of us were raised to simply wonder about this enduring mystery or ignore it. A frequent image we’ve been given of the Trinity is two men and a bird within a triangle. It’s past time to think outside that triumvirate. 

      The imagery of the Holy Trinity is as varied as it is old and has always been intended to help us, and all who came before us, attempt to articulate that for which there are no adequate words or images. The Dove of Peace and Tongues of Fire are two examples. God is an old man on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Creation of Adam. Perhaps Michelangelo painted the white bearded God as old metaphorically to suggest God's timelessness that is impossible for human comprehension. Jesus was human as well as Divine so that is maybe a bit easier to grasp, except he is too often depicted as lighter-haired, blue-eyed European rather than the browner middle-eastern Jewish man he was. But how to express pictorially the inexpressible? Perhaps St. Patrick really did use a shamrock to explain how three are all in one. All of history has tried to understand the Triune God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit yet we simply cannot.

      Of course, a mystery explained is no longer a mystery. There is no specific Scriptural reference to the Trinity. The Jews knew God as the Wisdom, the Power, and the Glory and tried to wrestle with ways to make God relatable to humans. It was through Jesus that the Apostles came to know God as their personal “Father” made manifest in the Jesus they knew and came to understand as God’s Son. The Holy Spirit fell upon them with the Gifts that gave them, and us all, the Great Commission in this Gospel ~ to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

     The mystery of the Trinity is nothing if not confounding and controversial. One God/Three Persons ~ separate yet one, equal with different roles that are ultimately the same, belief in one is meant to be belief in all and the One that is the same but different. Got that? That’s probably why we have Trinitarians, Unitarians, and No-tarians.

    Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr tells us that "...Niels Bohr, [a Danish physicist who was a major contributor to quantum physics and nuclear fission] said the universe is 'not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think...' The doctrine of the Trinity is saying the same thing: God is not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think...Perhaps much of the weakness of the first 2,000 years of reflection on most of our doctrines and dogmas is that we've tried to understand them with a logical or rational mind instead of through love, prayer, and participation itself..." Perhaps we are called, as one mystic suggested, to be almost a fourth person in the flow of God...

     If rational knowing all that God is becomes the substance and goal of our faith, are we merely reducing God to our level?

     One of my favorite ways to attempt a kind of explanation/ understanding is through a piece of a 6th century creed from Dublin known as Tírechán’s Creed, albeit with the seemingly eternal and problematic masculine pronoun when speaking of God it says:

He has a Son who is co-eternal with himself;

   and similar in all respects to himself;

   and neither is the Son younger than the Father,

   nor is the Father older than the Son;

   and the Holy Spirit breathes in them.

And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable.

   If we think outside the Triangle that was developed to try to contain and explain, perhaps we can arrive at the beginning where all things are possible with, in, and through God. So, now that the mystery of the Trinity is solved, any questions? Ok, ask around and let me know! Well, at least we have looked beyond the two men and a bird image.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader:  ~ Divine and Holy Trinity, from You is every form of the Creation and its Life, including our redemption and the fire of Pentecost within us. Even with all You’ve given, we beg You yet again, to urge our souls to discard the obstacles of our own making, that prevent us from fully dedicating our lives to You. 

                               Creator-Redeemer-Spirit
RESPONSE:                In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
 
~ Divine and Holy Trinity, quicken our fervor with the intellect, love, and courage You have instilled in us, to exhort the political leaders in this Nation, on this Planet, and in our Community, to immediately turn to principled governing with integrity, mercy, justice, and in peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
 
                                        Creator-Redeemer-Spirit
                                        In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
 
~ Divine and Holy Trinity, infuse an extra measure of the grace of hope upon all who are ill in mind, body, or spirit, along with strength and perseverance for those who give them continuing care. We now join our hearts together to pray for those in need… add your own petitions
 
                                        Creator-Redeemer-Spirit
                                        In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
           
~ Divine and Holy Trinity, in our earthly grief, we cling to the knowing that You carry those who have left our realm, into the warmth of holy comfort and the peace of Your life everlasting.   We pray especially for… add your own petitions
 
                                        Creator-Redeemer-Spirit

                             In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
 
~ Divine and Holy Trinity, we pause in this moment to offer You our other thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add your own petitions
 
                                        Creator-Redeemer-Spirit
                                        In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
                      
~ Divine and Holy Trinity, bestow peace of heart, strength of mind, and courage of conviction, on all You have called and anointed, as guides for our souls in this life. We pray especially for: add your own petitions  
 
                                        Creator-Redeemer-Spirit
                                        In the high vault of heaven, glory to You
                                                                                                      
The Celebrant adds: Eternal Whole, All Who are One, we are each endowed with Your essence to accompany us in all that we pray, think, and do. Enhance and enrich the desire of our souls to seek our ultimate fulfillment in humble service to Your call. We beseech You as our Holy Creator, our Messiah Christ, and our Sacred Spirit, Who together are One God, forever and ever.  Amen. 

 

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Meditation Moment in Easteride: Saturday, Week 7 '23

I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead 

for billions and billions of years before I was born, 

and had not suffered from the slightest inconvenience of it.

 ~ Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain* 

     Of course, grief is for those who are still earthbound, feeling lost, and sometimes more than a little shell-shocked when a loved one dies. Whatever normal was, it is now really gone and, while a new sense of normal will come, it will take time to adjust. In addition to the enormity of the change in everyday life without that person, and the emotion and pain attached to this powerful loss, there's all the bureaucracy ~ the funeral plans, the paperwork, the finances, the notifications, the legalities, the details that come out of the woodwork just when you can’t think straight. More sad is that because some are so fearful of the inevitable, and can’t even think let alone say the word death or worse: dying, they’re too afraid to make the plans that will so very much help those left behind, and it truly is a very heavy burden on those who are grieving. 
    Death is an open-secret usually discussed in hushed tones and quickly diverted to something else. Of course none of us really want to die and so we sure don't want to talk about it. But we really do need to think and talk about the really helpful preparation for the eventual, the definite, the - yeah, THAT. 
    Whether or not I believe in eternity with Jesus at the end of life is ~ for some purposes ~ irrelevant, and is another sort of preparation to think about with a priest or minister. But what is uppermost in my heart is how do I help those who will be left to do all the required paperwork and funeral stuff all in the midst of missing me (they'd better miss me!)? And what if I suddenly can’t talk, or think, and no one knows how I want to be cared for before the end arrives?

     Lead me sooner, Lord God of the Inevitable, into accepting that my life will end at some point. Let me live into the understanding that all will be well for me and wholly better for my family if I, or we together, do the planning, the will, living will/advanced directive, what kind of memorial or service, and whatever other arrangements such as burial or cremation and where to put me in order for things to go as I'd like. And guide me to have the conversations with them to explain it on a sunny day when all is well and everyone is still healthy and not wait until I’m 80 or 90 or... Perhaps if I give it the "matter-of-fact" treatment, we can then move through the cloudy parts quickly and move back into the other reason we got together ~ just to be together because we can, now. By then, if we work on it together, they'll have all they need to know about how to do the necessary stuff in the aftermath more easily and they can just continue to remember the many happy nows we have had. And I will go easily on my way into eternity without the slightest inconvenience. amen. 

*Samuel Clemens [1835-1910], with his pen name of Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist most famous for his The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was known as the greatest American humorist of his day leaving a treasure trove of great quotes and he has been called the Father of American literature.

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Meditation Moment in Eastertide: Friday, Week 7 '23

Life is not the way 

it's supposed to be. 

It's the way it is. 

The way you deal with it

is what makes the difference.

~ Virginia Satir*

                                                                    

    How many times, after something awful has happened, have I heard ~ and said ~ "it's just not fair; that shouldn't have happened; it's not the way it's supposed to be," especially when those something awfuls have happened in my life. But yet I can't remember ever saying ~ or hearing ~ those words when something spectacularly good has happened. How IS life supposed to be? We are born through no fault of our own, we grow up, go to school, work, marriage or not, divorce or not, kids (or not), loved ones die, and there are tragedies...and all the other stuff that happens good and bad until...we die.
                  

  So, God of All That's Supposed to Be, I don't really believe in "Fate," I believe in "Stuff Happens," and that some days, weeks, months, years are better than others, some are less better and some are plain awful. I know what to do in the good times, but I need Your help in the not-so-wonderful moments. I want to be able to quickly accept the reality of a moment, however crazy, difficult, or tragic, and find a practical way forward ~ to have a sort of spare tire plan. I've already had quite a bit of very ordinary, very lovely, and very difficult life experience. Looking back and realizing my initial shock when the sudden blowouts have hit, I can remember only fragments of those first moments, and now I understand that it takes time to find my footing. With my car, having a spare tire gives me a precious first step toward a measured, if shaky, response about what to do next.

   Of course, I can't possibly predict or plan for every eventuality but with Your help, a lot of deep breathing, even more attention to You with a regular conversation like this one (that is really my way of prayer), I'll have a spare tire attitude ready for almost anything. I will work on not blaming myself wondering what I might have done differently when things happen that I cannot control. The best part is that I always have You to lean on through every day.  amen.

*Virginia Satir was an American author and psychotherapist specializing in family therapy. Her role play formats in family reconstruction and family sculpting among other aspects of her work have been widely used and she received many honors within her profession.  She often used meditation and poetry in her written work and lectures. The following, one of her best known pieces, was written in response to angry teen-aged girl but is certainly useful for us all:

I am me

In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me

Everything that comes out of me is authentically me

Because I alone chose it – I own everything about me

My body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions,

Whether they be to others or to myself – I own my fantasies,

My dreams, my hopes, my fears – I own all my triumphs and

Successes, all my failures and mistakes Because I own all of

Me, I can become intimately acquainted with me – by so doing

I can love me and be friendly with me in all my parts – I know

There are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other

Aspects that I do not know – but as long as I am

Friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously

And hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles

And for ways to find out more about me – However I

Look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever

I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically

Me – If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought

And felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is

Unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that

Which I discarded – I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do

I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be

Productive to make sense and order out of the world of

People and things outside of me – I own me, and

therefore I can engineer me – I am me and

I AM OKAY

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ’This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as [you love] yourself.” ~ Matthew 22:37-39

 

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Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Thursday, Week 7 '23

 When I have something to say that I think will be too difficult for adults, 

I write it in a book for children. Children are excited by new ideas; 

they have not yet closed the doors and windows of their imaginations. 

Provided the story is good... nothing is too difficult for children.   

~Madeleine L'Engle* 

Ruler of the Universe We Know, and All the Ones We Don't ~
    It's amazing to watch children at play. They see the wonder, the color, the surprise, and have the imagination to find excitement in a beautifully creative understanding of life. They accept revelation, move boundaries, and effortlessly disentangle enigmas. They ask why a thousand times without caring how many times they get the same answer and never stop looking for another.
    Lord, when did my world become so limited, fixed, and absolute? How did I lose my curiosity and agree to be constrained by imposed and unexplored assumptions?  Please help me find the child in me that my education, life experience, and trying to prove my worth to others has set aside. Open my eyes to possibilities, potential, insight, and a new experience of You. Let me learn how to play again and to expand my inner vision to rediscover delight, joy, laughter, and un-seriousness in my relationship with You. Grant me the gift to know now what I knew then and the non-sense to live it.  amen.

*Madeleine L'Engle,  an author of many books and articles, among other accolades she was a Newbery award winner for her junior novel A Wrinkle in Time. L'Engle was a strong Episcopalian, and later in life she was a "writer-in-residence" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City where she is now buried. Because of some of her theological views such as universal salvation and a limit to divine punishment, many Christian libraries and bookstores refused to carry her books while at the same time she was criticized by secular reviewers as being "too religious." On writing for children, she often said that children could understand very complex topics better than adults and she emphasized the importance of being childlike and not childish. I had the extreme delight and pleasure to have her all to myself for over an hour once long ago and how lovely was the time together.

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Meditation in Eastertide ~ Wednesday, Week 7 '23

The sun is the width 

of a human foot.  

   ~ Heraclitus*

   Well, ok, then, maybe two human feet...and my first reaction is to laugh at an old memory! I remember myself as a child lying on the grass blocking the sun with my foot and feeling powerful. And there you are, Sun, in all your resplendent presence pouring light upon us brightening, dazzling, blinding, warming, heating, wilting, frying us and then suddenly we're chilled by a passing cloud!  

   So much of life is a matter of perspective. Too much of a good thing followed by too much of a bad thing...and here I am trying to find balance, harmony, and just the right measure of objectivity. But when I get swept away in emotion, I can easily lose my perspective and feel overwhelmed. There have been moments when I was so lost in love I could hardly breathe, some moments when anger has sent my blood pressure nearly to explosion. And when the extremes of passion take over, truth is lost.

   Help the soul You gave me Lord of Sun, Moon, and Stars, to find the warming light of You in the darkness, the cooling shade of You in the heat, the balance between want and need, and, the wisdom to check the width of the sun every now and then.  amen. 

*Heraclitus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher born to an aristocratic family in Ephesus in what is now Turkey. He insisted that the "only constant is change" and most famously that "No man steps into the same river twice."  

 

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Meditation in Eastertide: Tuesday, Week 7, '23

It's good to have an end to journey toward; 

but it's the journey that matters in the end.

 ~ Ernest Hemingway*

        

Dear Master Travel Agent ~
       As You already know, I've come a good distance on this journey and sometimes I don't know how I've gotten this far let alone figured out where I'm headed. Oh I know I'm ultimately headed in Your direction and that how I get there matters, it's just that there have been so many twists and turns along the road so far and I'm sort of directionally challenged at times. Am I headed down or up the right road? I'm hoping that effort, spelling, and punctuation count toward my final grade (please, though, not neatness).  In the meantime, I'm just here to ask for the usual traveler stuff ~ please continue as my Guide and Companion along the Way and let me recognize You wherever I go and in whoever I know and meet along the way. I know that Google Maps won't help but I look forward to little hints here and there that I'm on the right track. Thanks for letting me get this far and, if it's not too much of a bother, I'd like to go on for quite a while yet, whatever the bumps and bites and storms are yet to come. amen. 

*Ernest Hemingway, [1899-1961] American journalist and author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, his writings are considered classics in American literature. Multiple marriages and a colorful life led Hemingway down many roads in his fairly short but completely filled journey that culminated in suicide in 1961 but left a legacy of words that will never die. 

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Prayers of the People: Fired Up! ~ Pentecost Sunday Yr A '23

For Sunday, May 28, 2023, Readings: Numbers 11:24-30, Ps 104:25-35, 37; Acts 2:1-21, John 20:19-23

  So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy of the elders of the people…Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied...  [Numbers 11:24-25]

   O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all...You send forth your Spirit, and they are created...Bless the Lord, O my soul. [Psalm 104: 25a, 31a, 37a]   

   When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were altogether in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind... Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability... then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. [Acts 2:1-4, 21]

      ...[Jesus] cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the Scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow the living water.' Now he said this about the Spirit, which the believers were about to receive..." [John 7:37b-39a]

     Fifty Days after Easter, Ten Days after the Ascension, comes Pentecost, the feast of Holy Spirit: the Birth Day of the Christian Church. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek for "fiftieth" and carries much ancient history and tradition along with its place on the Christian calendar. On the Jewish calendar, this ancient feast is Shavuot and follows 50 days after Passover. Although in the Hebrew Bible Shavuot is not explicitly named as the day on which the Torah was revealed by God to Moses who gave it to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, this is commonly considered to be its primary purpose. Today’s passage from The Book of Numbers certainly gives some credence to this celebration. Shavuot may perhaps be another reason the disciples of Jesus were gathered. Being together, comforted by a familiar and venerable ritual, they waited for the unknown sign promised by the resurrected Jesus in his final in-person teachings.

    Remember, that in just in the prior month and a half, the disciples had experienced a confusing “Last Supper,” the arrest and violent execution of Jesus, his resurrection, various appearances to them, his ascension, and their own grief, fear, and uncertainty at these inexplicable turns of events. Here they are gathered together again without quite knowing what was next or when. Suddenly a sound like a violent wind and tongues of fire resting on them, as they began speaking in multiple languages, of course they were bewildered, astonished, and amazed! And then, their ministry began in earnest, taking Christ's message far and wide.

    Today we are blasé. We know the story too well; we are immune to the thrill and amazement of it. The churches are packed at Christmas and Easter yet come Pentecost, all seems routine even if a "Festival Eucharist" is celebrated. Of course, Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter are all critical to our Christian history. We can't have gotten to this point at all without Christ's birth, death, and resurrection. But it was the arrival of the Holy Spirit, on that Pentecost, that fired up the Apostles. That was the moment that sent them around the known world proclaiming Christ, converting, and making the way for us to be the Church here, now, more than 2,000 years later. Without that Pentecost, would we still know about Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter? 

    It is in these current times with fear, frustration, anger, and intolerance swirling around in ever more intense and too often violent levels, that we must take the time to stop and read the texts with new understanding, a fresh awareness of what it must have been like for those in that Upper Room. From the devastation of the Crucifixion, to the confusion and the wonder of the resurrection, to the joy of his return among them, and then suddenly mystified by his ascension, now, only 10 days after his final leaving...they are waiting...and wondering...for what they are unsure.          

   For us, today is the day to move beyond merely knowing the story. Today is the day of knowing that the Spirit IS within US ~ to be as awe-struck, and dazzled and even as flabbergasted [is there such a word in Hebrew?] as the Apostles ~ and to be reinvigorated and excited.  God’s grace, and the love and Salvation of Christ is ours. THIS IS the day that the LORD has made! Let us truly rejoice and be glad and joy-filled, and alive in it! After all, what else is faith for?

    On this fiftieth day after Easter, let us accept and welcome the extraordinary gifts and abilities bestowed on us, chosen for and unique to each of us. Let us be eager and enthusiastic in embracing all that a true life of faith calls us to be and to do, to live fully in the belief in Christ that we claim to have. Let us strive to be all that Jesus and his imperfect disciples have shown us that we can be. We, too, celebrate, with our Jewish heritage, the giving of the Law on Sinai as our rules of life, transformed by Jesus into the Greatest Commandment [see Matthew 22:37-39]. 

    On this Birthday of the Church*, let us begin again to live as Children of God, equal one and all, using the language of love with each other and especially with those who aren't so lovingly inclined. Christmas is wonderful, and lovely, and blessed. Easter is fragrant and joyful, but with Pentecost comes the true gift that brings fire to our souls and lifts our life's journey to a new level! Get Fired Up!

   

    *As the Birthday of the Church, Pentecost marks the official beginning of the ministry of the Apostles beyond their local area and into the world at large. The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire imbued, instilled, and infused them, and each of us, by extension, with extra-ordinary gifts to bring the message of Christ to everyone. This day is known as Whitsun/Whitsunday in Ireland and the United Kingdom, a name descending from a Gaelic celebration of medieval or perhaps even more ancient times, often wearing whit or white robes. 

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader:  ~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, let us breathe deeply of Your sacred fire and the gifts that it brings into us, onto us, and through us, to fuel our desire for faith-filled living and moving and being the Church-in-Action, in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord.  

                                                         Spirit of Goodness and Glory

RESPONSE:                    Fall afresh on us

~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, set our tongues alight to speak in the fervent language of Your Truth to the leaders of this Earth, this Country, and this Community, as the voices of those crying in the continuing wilderness of racism, poverty, intolerance, violence, and injustice. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                       Spirit of Goodness and Glory

                                                       Fall afresh on us                                                      

~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, lighten the burden of pain for those who are weakened in body, spirit, and soul; and ease the worry of all who give comfort and care, if only at a distance. We now join our hearts together to pray for those in need… add your own petitions 

                                                       Spirit of Goodness and Glory

                                                       Fall afresh on us         

~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, soothe the weary hearts of those who struggle in the midst of grief, as You carry those who have left us, into the loving and eternal arms of Christ. We pray especially for… add your own petitions

                                                       Spirit of Goodness and Glory

                                                       Fall afresh on us

~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add your own petitions

                                                       Spirit of Goodness and Glory

                                                       Fall afresh on us                 

~ Most Holy Spirit, Breath of God, grant an extra measure of Your gifts to those who lead us in Your Church, as they steadfastly strive to guide our spiritual journey through these trying and uncertain times. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                                       Spirit of Goodness and Glory

                                                       Fall afresh on us                                                                                                   

The Celebrant adds: God of Creation, Redemption, and Wisdom, though we are many, we are one body in the one Spirit, all equal yet unique by Your design. Set our hearts ablaze again, that we may seek Your will, keep Your Commandments, and use our earthly lives for the common good of all. We ask through Jesus, our Redeemer Christ; and the Holy Spirit, our Wisdom Advocate; who together with You reign as One God, now and for eternity. Amen. 

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