Great joy in that city

0:00

Adjutorium meum intende

The Monks of Pluscarden Abbey

Today is Sunday the 10th of May, beginning the sixth week of Easter.

The monks of Pluscarden Abbey sing: Deus in adjutorium meum intende: 'O God come to our aid, O Lord, make haste to help us.'

2:11

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

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralysed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

3:54

Fire, Sleeper

Dear Gravity & We Dream of Eden

One of the interesting things about this short passage is that it describes a two-stage process that the people of Samaria go through: it doesn’t all happen in one go. First, with Philip, there is a kind of preparatory stage, a preparing of the ground, and then, when the people seem ready, Peter and John arrive to pray for them to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Does that reflect, in any way, your own life, and your own experience of God? - the way “conversion” does not happen all at once? - that God does not come upon us all in one go, but leads us through stages, gradually preparing the ground in us?

For the sacramentally-minded, there’s a very explicit connection here, too, with Baptism and Confirmation – Baptism, an initial stage in accepting God’s offer of new life, and Confirmation, the receiving of the fullness of God’s Spirit. If you have experience of those sacraments – your own baptism or confirmation, or one you remember attending – did you make that connection with the preparing of the ground and the receiving of the Holy Spirit in its fullness? Can you make that connection when you reflect on it now?

As you hear the reading again, see if you can make that connection with what is described here and the sacraments, or conversions, or Christian initiations that you have witnessed.

7:38

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralysed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (for as yet the Spirit had not come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

9:07

It’s striking how straightforward and effective Peter and John’s prayer is here – they pray for the people of Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, and it happens. For us, too, if it is our desire to be filled with the fullness of God’s Spirit, we only have to ask. Is that your desire? Whatever it is you want to ask, whatever it is you want to say to God, whose Spirit is present here now, just say it.

11:36

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

World without end

Amen