This Is A Beautiful Time

The Age of the Holy Spirit

Jessica Powers has written some lovely poems which capture colours of the liturgical season of Pentecost. Allow me to share one as we enter into this summer time of faith.

This Is a Beautiful Time

“This is a beautiful time, this last age, the age of the Holy Spirit.

This is a long-awaited day of His reign in our souls through grace.

He is crying to every soul that is walled:

Open to Me, My spouse, My sister.

And once inside, He is calling again:

Come to Me here in this secret place.

Oh, hear Him tonight crying all over the world

A last desperate summons of love to a dying race.” (Jessica Powers)

The art piece above (by Pacita Abad) portrays the beauty of the coral sea in the region of the Sulu Peninsula in the Philippines. I have dived in this area with its astounding marine life—replete with an incredible diversity of fish, coral, flora and fauna of limitless shapes, textures, patterns and colours. As a fellow diver I echo Abad’s sentiments as she muses, “It is such a peaceful environment down there that one feels like an infidel intruding into somewhere sacred. Every time I dive, I feel like saying, ‘Excuse me, but here I come again!’”

It is indeed a sacred space. A space created by the Holy Spirit, Giver, Designer and Artist of Life. When I am on such an incredible reef I am reminded of God’s abundant creativity and that this is indeed “a beautiful time.”

A Prayer for Pentecost:

Adonai, may I open my heart wide to your enlivening Spirit and allow Your presence to fill up my inner being. May I become a source of life for the hurting even as a giant clam shelters a plethora of underwater friends. And may I become a place of respite for the weary and allow them a place of rest from life’s whirling waves and ceaseless currents.