Breath of the Spirit: The Chaos of the Spirit

May 15, 2024

DignityUSA

The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost both quelled the chaos of our many languages and created the chaos of building a new community. Todays reflection reminds us that the same Love which invites order also prompts the removal of those rigid (and possibly comfortable) structures that stand in its way.May 19 2024: The Feast of Pentecost Acts 2:1-11Psalm 104:1 24 29-30 31 34Galatians 5:16-25John 15:26-27 16:12-15<div><div class=titan__email-divider data-color=#282968 data-thicknessnum=2 data-dividerstyle=solid data-topnum=12 data-bottomnum=12 data-height=1 data-lineheight=1> </div></div><h1>The Chaos of the Spirit </h1>A reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska  <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&&&linkId=104826&targetUrl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZT8jqsc8lQ>Your Spirit</a>-       Tasha Cobbs Leonard and featuring Kierra Sheard Oh Oh Oh!Not by Might not by Power.By your Spirit God.Send Your Spirit God (2X)You are the Fire.  We are your Temple.You are the Voice.  We are your Song.You are Our God.  We are your People.You are our Light.  We stand in Awe.We stand in Awe of You.  We stand in Awe of You.Not by might You called us out out of the darkness.Into Your love into your light.Grace upon grace.  Beauty for ashes.You come to us.  We come alive.Not by might Breathe. Come and breathe on us.Spirit breathe.  Breathe 4XWe stand in awe of You We stand in awe of you.Oh yes we do. Our Easter season is over and for the next three Sundays we will be celebrating three of the central liturgical feasts of Roman CatholicismPentecost Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi. Since Easter Sunday all our first readings at Mass have been taken from the Acts of the Apostles. Pentecost is the final installment of these Sunday readings from Acts. In this reading the Spirit descends as Jesus promised on Mary and the Apostles. They leave the upper room to proclaim the mighty acts of God to people of many nations gathered in Jerusalem each of them hearing the Word in their own tongue. This even though all the preachers were Galilean disciples of Jesus. Here filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus disciples reveal Gods glory by reversing the chaos of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) and reuniting all humankind as the one people of God.       Isaiah 11:1-3 gives us what Christians have traditionally called the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit the final one of which is often rendered fear of the Lord. This phrase is often misunderstood because we continue to hold on to the concept of God as a punishing judge. But far from what we commonly understand as fear this phrase is better understood as awe. We serve an awesome God as <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&&&linkId=104835&targetUrl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38V8jnN1Kpw>the song</a> says a God of power and love. When we realize how much love we are moved to speechless wonder. For the feminist liturgy of our 2019 Dignity Conference I used a combination of two Tasha Cobbs songs <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&&&linkId=104836&targetUrl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKWkYxikygQ>Fill me Up/Overflow</a>:  You provide the fire.  Ill provide the sacrifice.You provide the Spirit.  I will open up inside.Fill me up God. Fill me up.Fill me up God.  Fill me up.  (4X)Fill me up till I overflow.I wanna run over.  I wanna run over. (2X)           In these words we ask the same Love that created us to fill us with love. As we contemplate our journey both as individuals and as a corporate entity many of us in the words of the <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&&&linkId=104824&targetUrl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXkgTG7FEV4>Negro Spiritual</a> have been in the storm so long we ask our Creator just to give us little time to pray. We wonder after years of being in the struggle for justice recognition and human rights what will come of all our efforts all our prayers all our hopes.I have no answers. Instead I only have more prayer another invitation to openness to Gods spirit of love. In words adapted from <a href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&&&linkId=104829&targetUrl=https://enfleshed.com/>enfleshed</a> a digital ministry dedicated to our common liberation I pray: Breathe Oh God come like a mighty wind and fill this place. Let your Spirit wild with creativity be upon us. Through your holy chaos trouble our complacency break open our heartsawaken our senses free us from the need to controland renew our moral imaginations.Make us alive with possibility and rich in dreams of what could be. Come Holy Spirit Come and renew the face of the earth. Amen. <img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/botsannmarie.png'><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full><div class=mobile-full>Ann Marie Szpakowska has been active and in leadership of Dignity/Buffalo for nearly 40 years. She also participates in the Women's Caucus and has been an active contributor to Liturgical planning for Dignity's Conventions Conferences and on Feminist Liturgy Committees over many years. She has presented workshops both locally and at Dignity Conventions.She has also been a member of St. Martin de Porres parish since 4 inner city churches merged and built a new sanctuary in 1993. St. Martin de Porres is a predominantly African American community in Buffalo New York.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>

Breath of the Spirit: The Chaos of the Spirit

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