Prayers of the People: Feel the Fire ~ Pentecost! '24 Yr B

For Sunday, May 19, 2024, Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-21, Psalm 104:25-35, 37; 

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

   I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord. [Ezekiel 37:14]  

   When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house...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.  [Acts 2:1-4]

  You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the LORD endure for ever…Bless the LORD, O my soul. Hallelujah! [Psalm 104:31, 32a, 37]

  Jesus said to his disciples, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth…he will testify on my behalf. You are also to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.” [John 15:26-27]

    We have arrived at the 50th day after Easter, and the 10^th day after the celebration of the Ascension of Jesus. It is Pentecost – the word itself comes from the Greek for fiftieth – and it began long before the time of Jesus. In the Jewish calendar this ancient feast is Shavuot [shav-oo-AHT] and follows 50 days after Passover. It celebrates the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

    This Jewish celebration would have been one of the reasons that the disciples had gathered and it may well have been comforting to be together in the familiar structure of this ancient feast. Of course, they were also waiting with some trepidation, no doubt, for the sign promised by the resurrected Jesus just 10 days before, in his last in-person teachings. He said he would send them the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. What must each day have been like for them, individually and collectively? In only a few recent months they experienced praying ~ and failing to stay awake ~ with Jesus in the Garden, then his sudden arrest, Peter’s denial, the mock trial, the carrying of the cross through the City, and the violent execution of Jesus, followed quickly by his resurrection, time spent with him after he was back from the dead, then his ascension, to mention only a few breath-taking details. I think they would still be reeling in their own shock, grief, and fear trying to cope with these inexplicable turns of events. Now here they are gathered together again without quite knowing what is coming next, let alone when whatever “it” was would arrive. Perhaps in their remembrance of God giving Moses the Law, they also remembered the encounter Moses had with God in the burning bush. They would also have known the words of the Prophet Ezekiel. And, perhaps they were wondering about when and what was coming with each other when suddenly, a sound like a violent wind and tongues of fire resting on them, gave them more than good reason to be bewildered and amazed! 

     Today it's easy for us to be blasé, to know the story too well, to be immune to the thrill, the astonishment. Whatever the planning, hopes, and desires of the Liturgists, sadly and often it seems, that the wonder of it all has been lost, especially when not everyone is physically present in the Church.

     So today is the day to STOP knowing the story. Today is the day to START to have an experience with the Spirit ~ to BE THERE, be amazed and astonished and bewildered!  We have the Spirit within us, and God’s grace, and the love and Salvation of Christ merely for the wanting of it! Peter reminds us in the words of the prophet Joel, that when Christ returns, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And Jesus tells the disciples, from whom we follow on, that they/we are to testify on behalf of Jesus. The Gospels tell us how to do it: God filled our lungs with breath, and the Spirit gives us our voice and strength to make Jesus known through our words and actions.

     Let us rejoice and be glad and joy-filled, and alive in it ~ after all, it's Pentecost, time to feel the fire!

       

      Also known as the Birthday of the Church, Pentecost marks the official beginning of the ministry of the Apostles beyond their local area and into the known world to bring the message of Christ to all.

     In Ireland and the UK, this day is known as Whitsun/Whitsunday, a descendant of a Gaelic celebration from medieval or perhaps more ancient times. 

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY 

Leader:  ~ Lord GOD, Almighty, pour Your Spirit upon us again! Bewilder us out of our distractions and detachment, fling us out of the ordinary into the stunning wonder and exquisite joy of the Holy Spirit within.

                                            Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth

RESPONSE:        Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness

~ Lord GOD, Almighty, awaken our souls in a blaze of faith-filled consciousness. Push us to engage and insist, in ways small and large, that political leaders of our World, our Nation, and our Community are held accountable for basic human rights and needs, justice, mercy, and peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                               Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth
                                               Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness

~ Lord GOD, Almighty, lighten the burden of pain for all weakened in body, spirit, or soul. Fill them, and those who give love and support, with the peace of Your Presence.  We now join our hearts together to pray for those in need… add your own petitions

                                               Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth

                                               Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness

~ Lord GOD, Almighty, Lord GOD, Almighty, our souls and our hearts bless You with great Hallelujahs as You rejoice on the arrival of our beloved into the promise of everlasting life. We pray especially for… add your own petitions

                                               Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth
                                               Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness

~ Lord GOD, Almighty, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add your own petitions

                                               Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth
                                               Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness     

~ Lord GOD, Almighty, as Your Holy Spirit falls afresh upon us all, may those who lead us in Your Church feel quickened to energize and excite us, to live every moment of every day through You. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                                               Holy Advocate, Spirit of Truth
                                               Enflame our Hearts, Embolden our Witness

The Celebrant adds:  Living, Loving, Holy Lord, You put the Spirit within us, filled us with the fire of faith, and gave Your breath to our lungs to power our voices. Let us exhilarate in all Your works and testify to Your enduring glory and the gift of salvation for everyone who calls upon Your Name. Our joyful and unending prayers ascend to Jesus, our Risen Christ; and the Holy Spirit, our Eternal Advocate; who together with You live as One God, now and forever.  Amen.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Monday, Week 7: Ask Them What They Think!

May 13, 2024 ~ Monday, Week 7

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*

O Ruler of the Universe We Know and All the Ones We Don't ~

    It's amazing to watch even very young 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 far more 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 and among other accolades she was a Newbery Award winner for her junior novel A Wrinkle in Time. L'Engle was a devout, learned, and dedicated Episcopalian. 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 accidentally have her all to myself for over an hour once long ago and how lovely was our time together.

 

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Saturday, Week 6: What's Enough?

May 11, 2024 ~ Saturday, Week 6

Aging Baby Boomers aren't the only ones that still rock out with gusto on

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

     Or maybe, we do get satisfaction but it’s short-lived. We need a constant supply of MORE and MORE and MORE of this, that, and several of the other. We're always chasing after satisfying every possible known desire and those soon-to-be discovered through the next advertisement, the next spectator sport, “reality” show, the next extra-large of everything edible especially that over-sized calorie-laden sugar bomb, highly caffeinated and/or alcoholic drinks, casino-video-fantasy game, ever larger TVs with paid streaming services that supply continuous ads for what we must have, see, do, eat, drink, and yet ~ no matter the cost to wallet, health, or life perspective: More is never Enough. 

   A modern interpretation of the 13th century Persian poet Hafiz says: Being so preoccupied as we are with needing to be satisfied, it seems we would be better at it by now. Wow, that was 10 centuries ago and we still haven't found it?!  

   Dear God of Real Life, whether it's Christmas or Tuesday I must stop my head rant of: I need to buy more, have more, and physically exhaust myself more to do more to prove everything I'm supposed to prove. And to whom and for what do I need to prove anything? Maybe I just want to think I am proving myself to be more than I actually think I am. And what about all that stuff I think I need but really just want?

   Ok, I'm taking a breath here...my real prayer is:  Please help me stop thinking of "wanting" as "needing." Let me find the true gift of being in the ordinary, the routine, the everyday. A simple smiley face in a text or email feels as good to give as to get to say "I'm thinking of you." Not only on those "special" holidays and holy-days, but every single day I want and need to remember that less really is more.
   Oh, yes, and Thank You, Lord, sometimes I just need a place to stop, rest, and think about what life can be all about if I just give it a try. You are always there waiting for me to remember.  I'm working on it. And at least in terms of being the Great Listener, You're the best! I really don't have to explain or make excuses.  Even when I don't get what I (think) I want, with You in my heart there is always ENOUGH, always. Amen!

 

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Friday, Week 6: Foot Power

May 10, 2024 ~ Friday, Week 6

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. Seemingly too much of a good thing followed by too much of a bad thing which makes the bad seem even worse than the good ever was...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.     As in anyone's lifetime, there have been moments when I was so lost in love I could hardly think or breathe. There have been those deep and heavy times of grief that plunged me into such darkness, with the weight of all the world pushing me down, that I didn't want to see the sun again or ever just stand up. And then those moments when anger has sent my blood pressure nearly to explosion. When the extremes of any kind of passionate response to life 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 in my heart 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."  

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Thursday, Week 6 ~ The Ascension of Jesus

May 9, 2024 ~ Thursday, Week 6

   ~ Luke 24:50-53:  Then [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple 

blessing God.                             

 

          Forty Days after Easter comes the Ascension of the Resurrected Christ into Heaven. One of the five major milestones in the life of Christ ~ the others are baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, and resurrection.

        The Ascension is professed in both the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds. Whether actual, mystical or metaphorical, it is one of the great feasts of the Christian liturgical calendar. It signifies the completion of his earthly presence as he takes his divine presence seated at the right hand of the Father [Nicene Creed, Book of Common Prayer, 1979]. 

        The readings for today give us a direction for our own earthly lives. In the Acts of the Apostles 1:11, we hear that as Christ's body was being elevated, suddenly two men in robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?" From Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul prays ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ...may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe...

       Holy Jesus, Son of God, as Your Church we are now Your Body on Earth ~ Your Hands and Your Feet, Your Eyes and Your Ears to carry out Your mission in our own time. On this Ascension Day, let us ascend in our hearts, minds, and souls and raise our own continual prayers that we may be fully Yours in our thoughts, words and actions.

      Help us to be mindfully caring for all the People of God ~ all colors, races, ethnicities, genders, all differences and similarities, in every way they and we are created. Embolden us to follow Your command to love one another in the unjudging, compassionate, unselfish, and generous way we are also to love ourselves.

     Guide our steps as we seek to discover You in in every encounter, to understand that ALL, Every, and Each of us are Created by God and worthy of our compassion for as long as we have the Breath of Your Spirit within us. Grant us the wisdom to know the hope to which we are called with the eyes of our enlightened hearts, eager to be Your True Disciples following Your Way for All of Your People.  Amen. Alleluia! 

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Wednesday, Week 6 ~ You DO Want to Know Her!

May 8, 2024 ~ Wednesday, Week 6

That love of God is hard and marvelous.

It cannot and will not be broken 

because of our sins.

Julian of Norwich*

*Julian of Norwich [1342-1416], is celebrated on our Liturgical Calendar on this date. She was an English Anchoress in Norwich, England. She was a hermit of her time when an anchor or an anchoress lived in a small cell attached to a wall of the church, where she had a window into the sanctuary to participate in daily Mass and receive Communion. Her life consisted of daily devotions, prayer, devotional reading, and writing. She is considered to be one of the most important mystics in all of Christianity. Her manuscript of Revelations of Divine Love ~ also known as The Short Text ~ is thought to be the oldest surviving book written in English by a woman. She is probably best known for her words that with God, All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. And while that quote was my first introduction to Julian, many years ago, for me, there are so very many quotes of Julian that resonate within me, such as the one above, that it is very difficult to choose one. Here are a few more that speak to me:

   If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love. 

 

   Our Savior is our true Mother in whom we are endlessly born

and out of whom we shall never come.

      

   In every soul to be saved is a godly will that has never consented to sin, in the past or in the future. Just as there is an animal will in our lower nature that does not will what is good, so there is a godly will in our higher part, which by its basic goodness never wills what is evil, but only what is good.

 

  Pray inwardly, even if it seems to give you no pleasure. It is bringing great benefit, even if you do not perceive it. Pray inwardly, even if you sense nothing, see nothing, even if you think you are achieving nothing. For it is in dryness and emptiness, in sickness and weakness, that our prayer pleases Christ most.

O Great Creator of Me ~ My Nurturer, Comforter, and Soother,

    Some days I want too much from others and they want too much from me. While I’m certainly certain that I try to meet the expectations of them, I often feel that they leave me alone in the dust of frustration, theirs and mine. I can easily dig myself deeper and deeper into the ditch of resentment even though I know ~ deep down ~ that, too often, I am not the accommodating person I like to think I am. 

   Please help me overcome at least some of my selfish diversions and turn me as close to never-ending thanksgiving and praise as possible. Remind me often of Julian’s words to pray inwardly, even if it…isn’t giving me any particular pleasure, and even if I think I am achieving nothing. Just let me stop often in each day to take a long slow deep breath in and on the breath out just whisper a small quiet thank you for all that I have in this life and for knowing, if not always believing in each crazy minute of a crazy day or week or month, that Your love for me cannot and will not be broken no matter what I do or do not do. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You…amen.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Meditation in Eastertide ~ Tuesday, Week 6 '24: THE Journey

May 7, 2024 ~ Week 6

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 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. I do know that I'm ultimately headed in Your direction and, that it is how I get there matters, it's just that there have been so many twists and turns and amazing ups and significant downs along the road so far I often feel directionally challenged. Am I headed down or up the right road? Will 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 help me to recognize You wherever I go in those I know and those I meet along the way. While Google Maps won't help, I look forward to little hints from You 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 but especially the love and glee and joy that are yet to come. amen. 

 

*Ernest Hemingway, [1899-1961] American journalist and author, was the 5^th American winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, for his mastery of the art of the narrative [particularly] in The Old Man and the Sea. His books and stories 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 ended by suicide in 1961, yet left a legacy of writing that will never die.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com