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Come, Holy Spirit! 

From the beginning, the breath of the Holy Spirit pours out, bringing life.   The Holy Spirit gives life to smallest microscopic organisms that can be seen only with the help of a microscope, and yet are essential to the world’s food chain.  And the Holy Spirit works in and through the sweeping grandeur of this earth’s magnificent and ever changing landscapes, covered in life, that the earth sustains.

All of this life exists and thrives through the power of the Holy Spirit, uncontrollable, wild, and free.  As Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

We Christians have been given the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives.  I guarantee you that even  when we don’t acknowledge or recognize the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is always at work in those born of the Spirit, and that’s us. 

So today, I’d like to talk about how the Holy Spirit works in our lives so that we can more easily recognize the Spirit’s presence in each of us and among us. 

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What about in 3 minutes ?

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We know what did the Holy Spirit did in Jesus time at Pentecost. It energized them, bound them together gave them a mission to extend the Gospel into foreign lands

Pentecost is a season, not just one day. We have a long time in the church year to work with it ( Pentecost is the longest season. In 2023 it is 27 weeks long from May 28 to Dec 3 (advent) or about 7 months). The celebration should be and is a  part of Pentecost Sunday.

And after that?

We have to know who we are. Based on that what is our mission?

Who are we ?

Luke casts the church as a spirited community of bridge-builders, visionaries, and dreamers, male and female, slave and free (Acts 2:17)

Hopefully, our churches have “visionaries and dreamers” but also those that  can organize to implement the change, work for funding if necessary and report back what we done. (Thank goodness we have no slaves.)

What is our mission? 

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The United Thank Offering (UTO) is a ministry of The Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. Originally it was started in the 1880’s to support missionary work. Through UTO, individuals are invited to embrace and deepen a personal daily spiritual discipline of gratitude. UTO encourages people to notice the good things that happen each day, give thanks to God for those blessings and make an offering for each blessing using a UTO Blue Box. UTO is entrusted to receive the offerings, and to distribute the 100% of what is collected to support innovative mission and ministry throughout The Episcopal Church and Provinces of the Anglican Communion. 

Here is a recent video on the UTO

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“Thy Kingdom Come” is celebrating its 7 year anniversary in 2023. Since May 2016, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the people of Thy Kingdom Come have been bringing the world together in prayer. St Peter’s has been part of this international prayer initiative for several years. Here is the website. Check out their new mobile app.

In the gospel according to Luke, before Jesus ascended, he told the disciples to go to back to Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit. They did as he asked, spent ten days absorbed in prayer as they waited, and the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost.

Through these prayerful disciples, the Holy Spirit brought the Church to birth. Following the example of these disciples, we can spend time in intentional prayer praying for people around the world to be filled with the Spirit and to come to know Jesus more fully.

So what we can do to participate?

1. Review the
2022 Play list

The 2021 Video Series is also available

Here is their Impact Report from 2022 and before.

2. Pray for 5 people

From the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Download the card. This card will easily fit inside your wallet, purse or book. Choose five people you would regularly like to pray for and write their names down onto a list. If you’re not sure who to pray for, ask God to guide you as you choose. Once you have settled on 5 names, commit to praying for them regularly. Use this card as a daily reminder to pray for them.

Once you have settled on 5 names, commit to praying for them regularly by praying the following:
Loving Father,
in the face of Jesus Christ
your light and glory have blazed forth.
Send your Holy Spirit that I may share with my friends
the life of your Son and your love for all.
Strengthen me as a witness to that love
as I pledge to pray for them,
for your name’s sake. Amen.

3. Go deeper with a 2023 Prayer Journal

Each day there are a few things to read, a prayer to offer and then an invitation for you to make your own reflections on what it means to follow in the way of Christ. You don’t have to write anything down, but you may find it helpful.

4. Prayers from Ascension to Pentecost

The nine days from Ascension Day to the Eve of Pentecost are the original novena–nine days of prayer.

Before he ascended, Jesus ordered the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. After his Ascension, they returned to the upper room in Jerusalem where they devoted themselves to prayer. These last days of the Great Fifty Days of Easter can be a time for us to prepare for the celebration of Pentecost. 

They have also published their 2023 Novena and exploration of 1st John

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A Pentecost that can’t be duplicated – 180th anniversary as well as Pentecost, a church altarpiece under construction, new hangings in the church plus 3 priests on hand.

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