Psalm-light for Pentecost Sunday, 2021

Psalm 104: 25-35, 37b

 “You send forth your Spirit, and they are created;
and so you renew the face of the earth.”
Psalm 104 V.31

For some people, talk of the Holy Spirit evokes images of charismatic worship and prayer: speaking or singing in tongues, prophecies, fainting, or spontaneous healings of body, mind or spirit. For others, the Holy Spirit may be more associated with a call, commission, and empowerment from God to particular forms of service and ministry, in the Church and/or in the World. For others, the Spirit may be associated with mysterious inner promptings to phone someone you may not have spoken with for a long time (or drop by, in pre-COVID times), and to be an instrument of grace. For others, the Spirit may be a quiet confidence that God is with them, in the very depths of their soul. Others, may see the same Spirit, which moved over the face of the waters in Creation, as active in all forms of creativity and discovery, in the arts and in science; as well as in the ongoing creativity of the natural world to adapt and evolve. Of course, the Spirit of the Living God is all of this and more. On this Day of Pentecost, reflect on where and how you connect with the Spirit.

Walking in the Light
Spend time praying and singing repeatedly verse 1 of hymn 649, “Breath on Me, Breath of God.”
“Breath on me, breath of God;
fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
and do what though wouldst do.”

Take some time to sit quietly. In the imagination of faith, prayerfully imagine God breathing new life into you in your in-breath. On your out-breath, imagine God’s Spirit in you, helping you to breathe out all that has become tired, stale and wearying in your life. Imagine God’s love descending upon you and filling your whole being with love, peace and holy energy, in the same way the Spirit descended upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost. Ask God to show you where the love He is giving you needs to be shared. Ask what it is that He would have you do. 

Submitted by Archdeacon Peter Crosby