Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Karen Dietz
Opening Prayer
O most blessed Light divine, shine within our hearts of yours, and our inmost being fill! (Pentecost Sequence)
Scripture
John 20: 19-23
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Reflection
Think of a time when you were in a large crowd of people, particularly a crowd in which all sorts of different languages and cultures were on display. I think of places like Niagara Falls on a beautiful summer day or Grand Central Station or the international terminal of any large airport. If you have been in a place like this and can recall how you felt at the time or even now as you look back, what are some of your feelings? I am remembering a couple of summers ago being in the Gare de Lyon in Paris. We had missed our train, so had some time to kill and were having a bite to eat in the station. All around us in every direction were so many colors, sights, and sounds. Many people were engaged in animated conversations either with companions or on their phones and most were speaking in languages I did not understand well or even at all.
I find that it is at times like these when I become more deeply aware of those things that make us more alike than different. There is the tone of voice and inflections that convey emotions such as joy, anger, peacefulness, and hope. Also, I notice facial expressions and other gestures that are universal; a smile, a touch, crossed arms, a nod of the head, etc. Recently, when visiting a nursing home, I noticed a couple who I did not know, sitting side-by-side in their respective wheelchairs. They did not appear to be talking at all, but the woman had her hand gently on the shoulders of the man – a gesture of love that spoke volumes.
Today’s Feast of Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit, invites us to go beyond the familiar verbal exchanges in order that we might see and feel more deeply. The gift of the Spirit, if fully embraced, allows us to know the presence of God in the world around us. This gift enables the receiver to see and touch and feel across every manner of boundary that divides us. It has the power to open us to the possible and not be bound by the impossible. Jesus’ words give us a gift of peace that is beyond our imagining, a peace that grounds us in the fertile soil of forgiveness and reconciliation. This grounding is necessary for us to be sent out into the world as witnesses to the Resurrection, as bringers of peace and the healing love of God.
As you reflect on the Feast of Pentecost and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, to what and to whom are you being sent? How is this Pentecost different? What are you being called to see with new eyes and hear with new ears?
Closing Prayer
O God, send out your spirit, and renew my heart as you renew the face of the earth. Amen.