Pentecost Sunday Service:
Spirit Breath Wind
By Sharon Grussendorff
Since today is Pentecost Sunday, this online Sunday service will focus on the theme of the Holy Spirit. To begin with, listen to this opening music Veni Sancte by the choir Libera
Lyrics:
Veni Sancte Spiritu (Come Holy Spirit)
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
You are everywhere, anywhere I go
You are everything, anything I know
Sancte Spiritu (Holy Spirit)
Veni Sancte Spiritu (Come Holy Spirit)
I am everywhere,
Anywhere you go
Emite-coelitus lucis cordium (Shine your radiance into our hearts)
Sancte Spiritu (Holy Spirit)
Veni Sancte Spiritu (Come Holy Spirit)
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
For the wonder of who I am
In every moment of life
You are with me
Sancte, Sancte, veni Spiritu (Holy, Holy Spirit come)
Sancte veni, Sancte (Holy, Holy)
Sancte, Sancte, veni Spiritu (Holy, Holy Spirit come)
If I take to the wings of morning
Or climb to the heavens
Sancte veni, Sancte (Holy, Holy)
Or fall to the darkness
Or fly to the sunrise you are there
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
You are everywhere, anywhere I go
I am everything, anything you know
Sancte Spiritu (Holy Spirit)
Veni Sancte Spiritu (Come Holy Spirit)
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
Dator munerum (Giver of radiance)
Emite-coelitus lucis cordium (Shine your radiance into our hearts)
Sancte Spiritu (Holy Spirit)
Sancte, Sancte, veni Spiritu (Holy, Holy Spirit come)
If I take to the wings of morning
Or climb to the heavens
Sancte veni, Sancte (Holy, Holy)
Or fall to the darkness
Or fly to the sunrise you are there
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
Veni Sancte Spiritu (Come Holy Spirit)
O Lux creator optime (O Blessed Creator of the light)
For the wonder of who I am
In every moment of life and death
You are with me
Opening Prayer / Chant: Come Holy Spirit
When we pray "Come Holy Spirit", it's a prayer that we pray with our whole beings - mind, heart and body, opening in receptive surrender to the fresh gift of the Spirit. A helpful way of involving our bodies, minds and hearts is through singing, so our opening prayer will be in the form of a chant, and I encourage you to join in with the repeated chorus which has a very simple tune:
Lyrics:
Veni sancte spiritus (Come Holy Spirit)
Come, Holy Spirit, from heaven shine forth with your glorious light.
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Come, Father of the poor, come,
generous Spirit, come, light of our hearts.
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Come from the four winds, O Spirit,
come breath of God; disperse the shadows over us, renew and
strengthen your people.
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Most kindly warming light!
Enter the inmost depths of our hearts, for we are faithful to you.
Without your presence we have nothing worthy, nothing pure.
Veni Sancte Spiritus
You are only comforter, Peace of the soul.
In the heat you shade us; in our labour you refresh us,
and in trouble you are our strength.
Veni Sancte Spiritus
On all who put their trust in you and receive you in faith,
shower all your gifts.
Grant that they may grow in you and persevere to the end.
Give them lasting joy!
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Length: 10 minutes
The following is a guided time of prayer using your breath:
This beautiful chant, titled A Feather on the Breath of God, was composed by Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century:
As you read the Rumi poem below, you could listen to this piece of music as background:
This windy mountaintop trough is ours.
It sustains and protects, and you do not arrive here
by just straining your neck to look at the mountain.
You must start out and continue on.
You have to leave the place
where everyone worries about rank and money,
where dogs bark and stay home.
Up here it is music and poetry and the Divine Wind (Ruah).
~Rumi
This song by John Michael Talbot is a beautiful prayer of welcoming of the Holy Spirit:
Lyrics:
Breathe on me, Holy Spirit of God
Breathe on me, fill me anew
Breathe on me, Holy Spirit of God
To love what You love and to do what You do
Breathe on me, breath of God
Make my heart pure
Conform my will to Your holy will
To choose a life of virtue
Breathe on me...
Breathe on me, breath of God
So I shall never die
But live in the Spirit eternally
Live in the Spirit of life
Breathe on me...
For deeper reflection on the Holy Spirit:
I encourage you to spend some time in your own reflection and prayer of welcoming the Holy Spirit. You could choose one of the following passages to work with more deeply, or you could work with all of them over a number of days.
John 20:21,22
Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit."
Extracts from Prayer to the Holy Spirit by Fr Thomas Keating:
Come, Holy Spirit, pour out of the depths of the Trinity a ray of Your Light--that Light which enlightens our minds and, at the same time, strengthens our wills to pursue the Light.
You are the best consoler! What a charming Guest You make! Your conversation, though all in silence, is sweetness itself. How refreshing Your consolation! Soothing like a caress. In an instant You dissipate all doubt and sadness.
In the labor of fighting temptation, you are there promising victory. Your presence is our victory You gently coax our timid hearts to trust in You.
In the greatest of labors, the struggle of self-surrender, You are our repose-our peace in the depth of our souls.
In the heat of battle; Your breath is cooling, calming our rebellious passions, quieting our fears when it looks like defeat. You dry our tears when we fall.
Oh deliriously happy Light! Fill to the uttermost recesses the hearts of Your faithful children!
Without You, there is no divine life in us, no virtue at all. If Your breath is cut off, our spirit perishes; nor can it live again until You press Your lips to our mouths and breathe into them the breath of life.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18:
Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into God's image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Psalm 139:7-12:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
John 14:25-27:
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
Ending prayer (by Gerald May):
My hands are as open as they can be,
my heart as willing as it can be,
my soul aching to be your love,
my mind all too ready.
This is who I am: wanting, fearful, bullheaded, defended, dulled, blocked, weak, willful… and beautiful to you.
Blow your Spirit through me now, O God.
Just now.
Just this moment, and the next.
If I am not for you, I want to be for nothing.
Amen.
To conclude this morning's reflections, listen to the following song called Breathe, by Marie Barnett:
Song lyrics:
This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence living in me
This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word spoken to me
And I I'm desperate for you
And I I'm lost without you
This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence living in me
This is my daily bread
This is my daily bread
Your very word spoken to me
And I I'm desperate for you
And I I'm lost without you
For the full podcast interview with Jack Levison, go to this link: https://castbox.fm/vbb/243007440
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