The Spirit at Pentecost
Sunday 24th May, led by Petra Griffiths
Cultivating the Cosmic Tree (detail) by Hildegard of Bingen
Gathering
Welcome to everyone, those here in this garden and those joining us on zoom. We take a few moments to centre ourselves, taking space to breath and to connect with the garden around us and all its inhabitants, or with the space we’re in at home.
Introduction
Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit's descent, understood not only as the church's birth, but as the sanctification and renewal of all creation. It symbolizes God’s Spirit descending upon humanity and nature alike, often linked to springtime themes of blooming life, "greening" power (viriditas), and the renewal of the face of the earth. In some traditions, such as in Ukraine (Zeleni Sviata) or Germany, homes and churches are decorated with green branches, birch trees, and flowers to celebrate the life-giving Spirit.
Readings
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
John 3:8
Blow wild and blow freely
O living Holy Spirit.
Come breathe in and through us
With your strength and power.
Prepare here the soil for life in all abundance
And sow your seed that all creation flowers.
Blow wild and blow freely
O living Holy Spirit.
Spanish hymn
We often find that theologies fraught with dualisms - separating soul from body, mind from matter etc. - become barriers to restoring humanity's connection to and respect for nature. Amidst these dualisms the Life-giver Spirit is the one that lovingly holds all Creation together. The Holy Spirit reminds us, that the same breath of God that sustains the woods, the sea, the animals, ignites passion in me. There is continuity between our biological lives and our spiritual lives. In the same way the Spirit is also the community maker, binding the family of God into unity. But we also recognise that this community spreads wider than humanity, it encompasses all created things, binding them to God and each other.
Juanita Greyvenstein, South African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute.
One definition of a sacrament is something that is an outward, visible sign of an inward, invisible grace. All of our interactions with nature can be sacramental, and all the ways nature extends herself to us are sacramental as well. Sacramentality breaks through our surface obsessions in the world and plunges us into the depth of the Sacred at every turn. The more we cultivate intimacy with the natural world, the more we discover about God’s presence. The discovery that every creature and every created thing can be a window of revelation into the divine nature is an invitation to fall more and more in love with the world. The realisation that teachers of grace exist everywhere brings a sense of reverence to the way we walk in the world.
Richard Rohr
Individual contemplative time (15 minutes)
We take time for contemplation in the garden, or with nearby plants and trees if you are at home. An opportunity to experience the revelation of all the forms of life present here.
Regathering
We welcome hearing any responses you have had during your contemplative time.
Concluding reading
I am the Supreme and Fiery Force who kindles every living spark....As I circled the whirling sphere with my upper wings (that is, with Wisdom), rightly I ordained it. And I am the fiery life of the Divine essence: I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And, with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life. For the air is alive in the verdure and the flowers; the waters flow as if they lived; the sun too lives in its light; and when the moon wanes it is rekindled by the light of the sun, as if it lived anew. Even the stars glisten in their light as if alive.
The Holy Spirit as Caritas by Hildegard of Bingen
Prayer
God of wind and fire.
May we recognise your Holy Spirit
In the rush of wind and the flowing of water
And within the life of all living beings.
Amen.
Upcoming Eco-Contemplative Liturgies
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