A violent wind

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Veni Creator Spiritus

Juliano Ravanello

Today is Pentecost Sunday, the 24th of May.

Juliano Ravanello sings Veni creator spiritus: Come, Creator Spirit. On this Pentecost Sunday, you might like to invite the Holy Spirit to bring a fresh experience of the God of love today.

2:57

Today’s reading is from the Acts of the Apostles.

Acts 2:1-11

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’

5:10

Have you ever had the experience of being in a foreign country, or a place where people speak differently, and unexpectedly hearing someone speak your mother tongue, or your local dialect? Can you remember what that felt like? The surprise? The strangely familiar words and cadences? That moment of feeling a little bit “at home”?

Is that, perhaps, one way that God speaks to you? When you feel you are being told something that somehow, and perhaps a little strangely, is not alien, not foreign, but from deep within you, “at home” in you, already in your mouth and in your heart?

And have you ever had the experience of managing to communicate with someone even though you don’t speak their language? By pointing, perhaps, or signing, or by the expression on your face? ....managing to understand each other because there are basic human experiences we all share – and needs, and desires, and hopes – so that we easily recognise them in others?

Might that too be a way in which God communicates with you? Speaking to you not in words, but in your experiences, in your needs, your desires and hopes, stirring feelings in your heart – or, less poetically, in your gut! – reaching you in a way that you just instinctively recognise?

The Pentecost scene described here is a vivid and colourful one – tongues of fire, a powerful wind... As the passage is read again, how does the scene play out in your mind’s eye? What did it all look like, and sound like?

8:53

Acts 2:1-11

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’

10:47

Our day-to-day lives, on the whole, are probably a little less spectacular than that dramatic scene, but the Holy Spirit is no less present to us now than it was to them, then. There may not be tongues of flame and the sound of a powerful wind, but God’s Spirit is present here now, present in this place, present within you, because you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Knowing that God’s Spirit is with you right now, what do you want to say to him?

13:01

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. Amen