I would like to reflect on a particular aspect of the Holy Spirit, on the intertwining of multiplicity and unity. The second reading speaks about this, treating of the harmony of the different charisms in the communion of the same Spirit. But already in the passage from Acts that we have listened to, this intertwining reveals itself with extraordinary evidence. In the event of Pentecost it is made clear that multiple languages and different cultures belong to the Church; they can understand and make each other fruitful. St. Luke clearly wants to convey a fundamental idea, namely, in the act itself of her birth the Church is already "catholic," universal. She speaks all languages from the very beginning, because the Gospel that is entrusted to her is destined for all peoples, according to the will and the mandate of the risen Christ (cf. Matthew 28:19). The Church that is born at Pentecost is not above all a particular community -- the Church of Jerusalem -- but the universal Church, that speaks the language of all peoples. From her, other communities in every corner of the world will be born, particular Churches that are all and always actualizations of the one and only Church of Christ. The Catholic Church is therefore not a federation of churches, but a single reality: The universal Church has ontological priority. A community that is not catholic in this sense would not even be a Church.

In this regard it is necessary to add another aspect: that of the theological vision of the Acts of the Apostles in respect of the journey of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome. Luke notes that among the peoples represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost there are also "foreigners from Rome" (Acts 2:10). At that time Rome was still distant, "foreign" for the nascent Church: It was a symbol of the pagan world in general. But the power of the Holy Spirit will guide the steps of the witnesses "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8), to Rome. The Acts of the Apostles ends precisely when Paul, by providential design, arrives at the empire's capital and proclaims the Gospel there (cf. Acts 28:30-31). Thus the journey of God's Word, begun in Jerusalem, arrives at its goal, because Rome represents the whole world and thus incarnates the Lucan idea of catholicity. The universal Church is realized, the catholic Church, which is the continuation of the chosen people and makes its history and mission her own.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

Pentecost was anything but the privatization of piety. Christians who spent yesterday in a holy huddle missed the point entirely! For Pentecost was anything but that. Out of a prayer gathering sprung a radical egalitarianism. For as the inaugural sermon made it patently clear this movement was to be typified by a fundamental re-alignment of human relationships and concepts of justice. Both old and young would become visionaries; women were included in the movement. And God would pour his liberating Spirit on every culture under the sun.

Yesterday thousands of Christians relived that moment as they met for a Global Day of Prayer in Millwall football stadium joining half a billion people around the world - not just to pray for other Christians, but to celebrate and pray about the problems in our world. They prayed about war and famine and asked searching questions about their responsibility as UK citizens.

In the ecumenical service where I preached yesterday morning there was nothing incongruous about our intercession for teenager, Jimmy Mizen who became the 13th victim of knife crime in London on Saturday night. And it seemed natural to redirect our giving in response to disaster victims in Burma.

As the German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann put it: 'no corner of this world should remain without God's promise of a new creation through the power of the resurrection.'

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost

The drama of Pentecost: mighty wind, flames of fire, the gift of tongues, can distract us from the more profound and lasting effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit: namely, the way this event transformed the apostles' - and through them, our - relationship with the Word of God, empowering these "uneducated and ordinary men" (Acts 4:13) to unlock the meaning of their ancient texts, the psalms and prophecies so familiar on one level but of which the deeper significance had, until then, remained veiled. Peter must have heard the words of the prophet Joel many times and had no doubt listened to many a rabbi expounding them, but on the day of Pentecost those "young men" who "shall see visions" and "old men" who "shall dream dreams" (Joel 2:28) appeared, not as pencil outlines on the faded page of the past but in full technicolour before him. Here we have the essence of lectio divina, to engage with a text in a living, life-transforming way, through the gift of the Holy Spirit; to perceive the Word in the words. This is what makes lectio more like prayer than study, and why we may have to broaden our vision of this term to include all contact with the Word of God. After all, a phone-call or voice message from a loved one is at least as, if not more, welcome than a text message or letter. No one has taught us this better than the Apostle John:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him and without him not one thing came into being" (John 1:1-3).

Today we tend to think of lectio divina as an almost exclusively individual activity; but it's important to realise that such personal reading of the Scriptures grew out of, and reinforced, their public proclamation in the liturgy.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost

The Spirit, the dynamic energy of God, the breath of the divine life, is often associated with random inspiration, with inspired prophets and enthusiasts who do their own thing. But in the Bible the Spirit is also the one who orders. The mighty wind that swept over the waters of chaos in the very opening verses of Scripture brings order and pattern and shaping life. Energy and order are not opposed in the order of the new creation of God’s life-giving Spirit any more than they are in the patterns of energy that make up the order of the universe. The church is to be and to live the order of the new creation. The Spirit is the Spirit of transforming holiness, shaping men and women in the pattern of the divine love in whose image they are made.

St Augustine knew that a fallen world was a world of disordered desire. He went so far as to say that all thefts, all murders and adulteries sprang from disordered love. “Shall we stop loving then?” he asks. “No, if you stop loving you will become a block of wood, a dead thing.”

Our calling is to “set love in order”, to be shaped and ordered, we might say, by the internet of the Spirit, the Lord and the Giver of life, who “alone can order the unruly wills and passions of sinful men”. And that grace and that life is at the heart of the Church’s being, and of what it is to be human, and so at Pentecost we pray: “Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire!” for “the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world. Alleluia!”.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost

We need to remember, as we celebrate Whitsun tomorrow, that progress in the Spirit is by fits and starts. The gift of the Holy Spirit is something we need to get used to, and the Holy Spirit needs to get used to us

The description St Luke gives of the Church in Jerusalem after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is one that has inspired many subsequent reform movements in the Church, and has been very influential in the foundation of many religious orders. It is not difficult to see why. It tells of the whole group of believers being of one heart and soul, with no one claiming private ownership of any possessions, but holding everything in common, and not a needy person among them (Acts 4:32-35).

Commentators describe this passage as a "summary", but it is a very curious kind of summary, for no sooner has Luke given it than he appears to contradict it, at every point. First we hear of a married couple who tried to deceive the community by presenting only part of the proceeds of the sale of their property as though it were the whole (Acts 5: 1-11). A little later we are told of dissension that divided this early Christian community, if not along racial lines, then certainly along linguistic ones. The Hellenists (Greek speakers) grumbled against the Hebrews (Hebrew or Aramaic speakers) because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of bread (Acts 6:1-6). Christians are not supposed to grumble, even when they have something to grumble about, as St Paul told the Corinthians in peremptory fashion (1 Corinthians 10:10). But here we find grumbling among those who have just been described as being "of one mind and one heart". How can these Hellenists have had anything to grumble about if the Jerusalem community held everything in common, and there was not a needy person among them?

The solution the Apostles found to this problem hardly allows them to be seen to best advantage as giving testimony to the Resurrection of the Lord with great power (Acts 4: 33). For whereas Jesus had characteristically attended to the physical and spiritual needs of the people, and had encouraged his disciples to do the same (cf. Mark 6:12-13), here we find the Apostles distinguishing between service to the Word and waiting on tables, and clearly regarding themselves as being too important to be involved in the latter. Nor did their solution address and heal the original division, for the seven they appointed to wait at tables all had Greek names: presumably there were separate soup kitchens for Hellenists and Hebrews thereafter.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Biblical Commentary & Reflection • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost • * Theology • Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)

Three weeks ago I celebrated Mass in the northern Spanish village of Caleruega, in a tiny chapel marking the birth place of St Dominic. This chapel was built on the site of his parents’ bedroom soon after his death in 1221 and became the crypt of a larger church.

Today, at the centre of the crypt, there is a fountain of flowing water, a symbol of new life. Many pilgrims have come to this fountain over the centuries, especially those seeking fruitfulness and fertility in their lives, and they still do so today, for this is a place of powerful prayer and of the gracious action of God.

This weekend Christian Churches throughout the world will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, marking the outpouring of the Spirit of God, which flowed not from the birth of a saint but from the death and Resurrection of the Son of God.

The images of Pentecost are full of energy, freedom and joy. The flames of fire, the powerful wind, the soaring dove, the kaleidoscope of languages – all portray the fruitfulness of this gift of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost the frightened first band of Disciples are transformed into fearless preachers of the Word of God. Our liturgical celebration of the feast gives access to that same gift today.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost • Liturgy, Music, Worship

The concept of the Holy Spirit would eventually be seen as equal with the Father and Son as manifestations of the Triune God – a monotheistic concept in which Christians attempt to explain three ways in which the single God is experienced by and revealed to believers. In modern times, the evangelical movement known as Pentecostalism places deep importance upon a personal experience with the Spirit, and especially upon being “baptized” by the Spirit in the model of the original Pentecost.

Outside of this and similar movements, however, the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian theology and worship is too often misunderstood and underemphasized. And indeed, with rare exception, Pentecost Sunday will go by once again like the crazy uncle at Christmas dinner – forgotten and ignored; it will go largely unnoticed by the global church it helped plant so many years ago.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost • * Theology • Theology: Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)