Weekly Thoughts

What is the Holy Spirit for? That’s a good question seeing that on Sunday we shall celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in the upper room, which is taken to be the birthday of the Church. The gift of the Holy Spirit transformed the disciples, they became apostles, fearless preachers of the faith in Jesus Christ. That same gift of the Holy Spirit was bestowed on us at our Baptism and Confirmation. Indeed, those us in Holy Orders received further gifts of the Holy Spirit when we were made deacons and ordained priests. But have any of these gifts transformed us? Of course, given that we grew up and live in a country with a longstanding Christian tradition means that the transformation was unlikely to be as dramatic as it was in the case of the apostles. But even so, surely there should be some visible sign.

There are two parts to any transformation: there is the gift of the Holy Spirit and there is the willingness of the recipient to allow themselves to be transformed by that gift. And that second part is the part most of us ignore or in fact reject. We don’t want to be transformed – we want to go on as we are. If we are unwilling to be transformed, then we won’t be; we have in fact rejected the gift. From time to time, we sing the Iona hymn entitled “The Summons:” “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name/Will you quell the fear inside/And never be the same?” But how often do we really mean what we are singing? When we pray about a particular situation and ask God to remedy it what we are really asking is for God to bring about what we want to happen. And that may not be right either for the situation or for us. And so, nothing happens and our prayer goes unanswered. I am reminded of St Augustine who prayed: God make me chaste… but not yet. In the end he was moved to let God have God’s way and became bishop and theologian and a saint into the bargain! Who knows what might happen to us if had the courage and the faith to let ourselves be transformed by the Holy Spirit as the disciples were that first Pentecost when they were changed into apostles.

READINGS AND PRAYERS

24 MAY – PENTECOST – Acts 2.1-21 – the first Pentecost – thanksgiving for the gift of the Holy Spirit

25 MAY – The Venerable Bede, Monk at Jarrow, Scholar, Historian, 735 – Ecclesiasticus 39.1-10 – the Lord will direct his counsel and knowledge – for all who work in the media

26 MAY – Augustine first Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 – 1 Thessalonians 2.2b-8 -we speak to please God – Sarah, our Archbishop 

27 MAY – Wednesday -Mark 10.32-45 – James and John seek favours from Jesus – for the gift of self-knowledge

28 MAY – Thursday 1 Peter 2.2-5, 9-12 – come to him, a living stone – the evangelistic work of the Church 

29 MAY – Friday – Mark 11.11-26 – the fig tree – for the increase of faith

30 MAY – Josephine Butler, Social Reformer, 1906 – Matthew 9.10-13 - I have come to call not the righteous but sinners – all social workers