
Photo: Kelley Mooneyham
Perhaps more than any other year in recent memory,
our senses are primed and attuned to the changes in nature
announcing the coming of spring.
It can feel as if our life depends on the new life
that is awakened by shifting winds and greater light.
The changes in nature are often subtle at first
perhaps unrecognizable as we walk our familiar paths.
A bud here, an absent shadow there..
both the result of a change in warmth and light.
In the early days on the precipice of great transformation,
one must listen carefully
to the whispers of the wind
that invite the bud to blossom..
rising from its enclosed and sheltered appearance
transformed and transfigured by a light and warmth
that draws it into new life leaving behind a former way of being.
The Spirit of Life
calling the bud gently forth in the warmth of a new season
whispers that its only job is to blossom into the beautiful flower
it was created to be
playing its part in the symphony of God’s creative process.
Easter Season,
the endless invitation to live into new life,
appropriately ends with a beginning..
“On the day the Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And there came a sound like the rush of a wind.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak
in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered,
because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each”.
(Acts 2:1-2,4,6)
The Spirit of God filled
empowered and transformed
those who patiently waited
and carefully listened for it.
The Spirit gave the apostles,
those entrusted to embody
the Spirit of Love,
new words, phrases and images
to relate to people in a new way
that they could hear and understand.
The Spirit of God
opened eyes and hearts
to a new way of seeing and relating.
This new way was astonishingly personal
and above all it was inclusive.
The Spirit of Christ taught them
that “God shows no partiality” (Rom 2:11),
for God needs all to bloom in love for God’s love to transform the world.
God did not require those seeking
the Spirit of love, forgiveness and hope
to learn a new language
or to change who they were
to hear and experience
the Spirit of encouragement and transformation.
They simply needed to open their hearts and minds
to a God that wanted to whisper gently in ways and words
they could understand
and to provide the warmth and light needed
to seek and bring forth something risen, transformed and transfigured
within themselves.
The Spirit arrives to encourage transformation
to draw us forward ..
to bloom and become more fully
who we are meant to be
so that the Spirit of new life and love may blossom everywhere.
“The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within
the souls of people when they realize
their relationship
their oneness
with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize
at the center of the universe
dwells the Great Spirit
and that its center is really everywhere
it is within each of us”
– Black Elk
Get New Reflections from Chris Donovan... Subscribe here
© Chris Donovan
Chris Donovan is a frequent speaker on Scripture and Spirituality. She holds a Master of Theology (Th.M.) and a Post-Master's Certificate in Spiritual Formation from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, as well as a Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) from Weston Jesuit School of Theology. Chris is an associate member of the Catholic Biblical Association and of the Carmelite Contemplative Community of Reno, Nevada.