Wednesday, April 25, 2007
My Tuesday Pentecost Reflection - Blog by Pádraig
It is the season of Easter currently in the church calendar. The church calendar always gives us 50 days of celebration from Easter Sunday to Pentecost – it is because the 40 days of reflection, repentance and fasting of Lent are always followed by a more lengthy time of celebration.
And it is timely to consider the Holy Spirit. We are perhaps used to many doctrines about the Holy Spirit – doctrines which are sadly used to divide. The praying in tongues, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit – these are often the things which are used to decide whether one is in or out.
But I want tonight, here at Springfield Road, on the peaceline between the Falls & the Shankill to bring attention to something quite different. The ministry of unity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who, the western theological tradition, is the personified love between the father and the son. The active principle of love actually personified.
No wonder then, that the promise of the Holy Spirit was something that Jesus made, as he was aware that a time of crisis was coming for his disciples. There was nothing more beautiful & encouraging to promise. This was means to be a comfort, and a strength.
Rather than the indwelling of the Spirit being determined by whether one believes in one particular manifestation of the Spirit in the Church or another, I would like to ask a different, but yet, related question: What does it mean for us to have “accessibility” to the one who is living love?
From what I heard while on retreat in Taizé, Brother Roger was a man who had not had the easiest experiences of childhood. He seemed to have a singularity of self-awareness. This level of integration sat well with a man in his advancing years, but my guess is that it would have been a burden for a child who was growing up. One of the themes frequently repeated throughout his prayers is the prayer that puts the words we need into the hands of God. He would say things like:
“God, you have the words we need. In our wordlessness, your spirit groans for us. We rest in this knowing with peace”.
John Paul II said that when a person feels the prompting to prayer they may sometimes feel a distinct awareness of their prayerlessness. This prayerlessness may cause a certain depression of the heart, and a disempowering of courage, and a silent chasm. As an alternative John Paul II proposed that we understand the impulse to prayer as always and everywhere an invitation of the Spirit who is already with us, already groaning in us. Instead of an examination which we always perform poorly at, we should rather understand it as an invitation that is always prompted by, and assured of welcome.
This then, is the ministry of the Spirit that I want to highlight for us in our evening of prayer – the ministry of welcome, of vision, of truth-telling. Of leading us, through prayer of the heart, and through action in the community, to a vision and a loving encounter with Jesus, the one who is truth. This “ministry of the Spirit” rather than being seen as the battleground for divisive doctrines should rather be seen as something closer to the ground of our being, to the love by which each human being lives their lives, the actual principle, the kernel, the nugget and heart of love at the centre of the Trinity.
And it is timely to consider the Holy Spirit. We are perhaps used to many doctrines about the Holy Spirit – doctrines which are sadly used to divide. The praying in tongues, the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit – these are often the things which are used to decide whether one is in or out.
But I want tonight, here at Springfield Road, on the peaceline between the Falls & the Shankill to bring attention to something quite different. The ministry of unity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who, the western theological tradition, is the personified love between the father and the son. The active principle of love actually personified.
No wonder then, that the promise of the Holy Spirit was something that Jesus made, as he was aware that a time of crisis was coming for his disciples. There was nothing more beautiful & encouraging to promise. This was means to be a comfort, and a strength.
Rather than the indwelling of the Spirit being determined by whether one believes in one particular manifestation of the Spirit in the Church or another, I would like to ask a different, but yet, related question: What does it mean for us to have “accessibility” to the one who is living love?
From what I heard while on retreat in Taizé, Brother Roger was a man who had not had the easiest experiences of childhood. He seemed to have a singularity of self-awareness. This level of integration sat well with a man in his advancing years, but my guess is that it would have been a burden for a child who was growing up. One of the themes frequently repeated throughout his prayers is the prayer that puts the words we need into the hands of God. He would say things like:
“God, you have the words we need. In our wordlessness, your spirit groans for us. We rest in this knowing with peace”.
John Paul II said that when a person feels the prompting to prayer they may sometimes feel a distinct awareness of their prayerlessness. This prayerlessness may cause a certain depression of the heart, and a disempowering of courage, and a silent chasm. As an alternative John Paul II proposed that we understand the impulse to prayer as always and everywhere an invitation of the Spirit who is already with us, already groaning in us. Instead of an examination which we always perform poorly at, we should rather understand it as an invitation that is always prompted by, and assured of welcome.
This then, is the ministry of the Spirit that I want to highlight for us in our evening of prayer – the ministry of welcome, of vision, of truth-telling. Of leading us, through prayer of the heart, and through action in the community, to a vision and a loving encounter with Jesus, the one who is truth. This “ministry of the Spirit” rather than being seen as the battleground for divisive doctrines should rather be seen as something closer to the ground of our being, to the love by which each human being lives their lives, the actual principle, the kernel, the nugget and heart of love at the centre of the Trinity.
