COME HOLY SPIRIT!
INSTRUCTIONS:
Choose
appropriate hymn or music to begin and end time of reflection. Share
the readings between private, individual readers and group reading.
At Pentecost, the
church celebrates the coming of the Spirit - the outpouring of the
sudden power of God to transform a wounded and disillusioned band
of stragglers into a community that changed the world. It was a
power that was both awaited in obedience, and utterly unexpected in
its energy and urgency. It generated both a deep interior fire, and
immediate compelling, and outrageous public witness ...
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LITANY
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Come
Holy Spirit,
enter
our silences.
Come
Holy Spirit,
into the
depths of our longing.
Come
Holy Spirit,
our
friend and our lover.
Come
Holy Spirit,
unmask
our pretending.
Come
Holy Spirit,
sustain
our weakness.
Come
Holy Spirit,
redeem
our creation.
Enter
our trusting,
enter
our fearing,
enter
our letting go,
enter
our holding back.
Flood
our barren spaces,
make
fertile our deserts within.
Break us
and heal us,
liberator of our desires.
Come
Holy Spirit,
embrace
us and free us. Amen.
Neill
Thew, Oxford 1990 |
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READING:
The Energies of
the Spirit of God
From a personal
point of view, my spirituality is that which from within me and beyond
me calls me to be more authentically human, more fully all that God has
destined me to be. I say it is a call that comes from beyond me because
as a Christian I believe that the Holy Spirit speaks to my spirit,
inviting me to a fulfilment beyond all my imagining. But the call also
comes from within me because the Spirit does not remain outside but
moves and moulds me, so that the voice of the Spirit becomes my own
inner voice as well (cf. Rom. 8:16). This joint call of the Holy Spirit
and of the deepest part of my own spirit is an invitation to me to
respond....
...My spirituality
is more than just a call; it also includes the power or strength to
respond. So it might be described as that which leads me beyond my
present limitations towards what I am called to be. Ultimately, my
spirituality will be the 'shape' of my spirit. For I am confident that,
as I allow myself to be led, I am growing and becoming what I am called
to be. I now experience a wide gap between that destiny and my present
inadequate stance or 'shape'. But my life's task is to allow the gap to
be narrowed by God's grace and my own response, so that eventually I
grow into my destiny. Then this part of God's creation will be complete;
and my every action and response will be that of the person God has
known and loved from the beginning and has led to perfection 'with
leading strings of love' (Hosea).
Donal Dorr:
Integral Spirituality
PAUSE FOR QUIET
TIME, FOLLOWED BY SHARING ON THE READING
SCRIPTURE READING:
Receive the
fruits of the Spirit: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness,
generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
A THANKSGIVING HYMN
We give you thanks,
Spirit of wisdom,
for you speak to us
in ways
that often surprise
us.
You uncover truths
that
we had kept hidden
from ourselves
and support us in
tasks we fear to undertake alone.
We give thanks
for your invitations
to growth and
intimacy and fullness of life,
and for the comfort
you extend
in our often uphill
struggle
to be faithful.
Inspire us.
Encourage us.
Fill us with
enthusiasm
for the mission of
your Church.
Transforming Spirit
of God,
we ask you, create
life anew:
Faith, the
confidence to bear,
Hope, continuously
expectant,
Love, the true
beginning.
CLOSING PRAYER
Spirit of God, you
are the stirring in our hearts. You urge us to get going. You prompt us
to follow. You encourage us not to give up. You call us to open our
minds and our hearts to receive your energizing, transforming radiance.
Make us receptive so that we will follow your loving movement within our
lives. We trust in your powerful presence with in us. AMEN.
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