Greetings one and all. I have missed blogging and reading blogs, catching up on the latter is daunting and I will do what I can after having been in a not-able-to-blog place from Tuesday-Thursday and then again yesterday. Next week will be much of the same.
Today is Pentecost, which comes 50 days after Easter and is the official end of the Easter season. On Pentecost we celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I suspect that by now I have lost a bunch of readers. Do feel free to carry on, no conversion is necessary and you may learn something.
Or feel free to leave. Return to blog soon for bawdy, ridiculous or irrelevant posts soon.
Pentecost is associated with the Jewish celebration of שבועות, also known as Shavu'ot, which celebrates the gift of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
You see, this is about the gifts of wisdom given by God.
In 1995, I went to visit my Jewish cousins in Rockford, IL. My Jewish cousins- the Reform rabbi who gave a blessing at my wedding to be precise. Now as you can imagine, Rockford was not some hotbed of Judaism, but he really made a huge name for himself. I would have to google it, but he came up against some pastor of a mega-church saying anti-semetic things in the later 90's and wow... What a thing resulted from that. Another post for another day.
In any case, I did not really know my cousins yet for various and sundry reasons, but we had been in touch from about 1991 on. Talk about nature v. nurture- this one and I are so much alike it is fecking scary.
So off I went and our calendars were more in sync that year (this year not so much!) and it was Shavu'ot. So what delight I had in celebrating both of my heritages and really beginning something that is deeply embedded in my faith today... taking all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, regardless of denomination and bringing them into my faith life.
What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Well one reason that I love Pentecost is because it is a reminder of Shavu'ot, at the time just beyond the crucifixion. All the Jews were gathered in Jerusalem. In Luke's Gospel this timing is not the same, but the idea is right there... All of the disciples in the Upper Room (might I say they were fearful and living in their head-upper?) and the Holy Spirit came upon them, bringing wisdom, healing, consolation and peace.
In Acts chapter 2, we are shown the scene of this busy, crowded Jerusalem and the idea of all the Jews, from all over, suddenly hearing in one voice is amazing.
That is unity. Religion aside if you will, imagine that we can hear in one voice- one voice of healing and of peace.
Right now we live in times, as pretty much has been the case for most of time - living in Babel. It is sad, but we must work from within to bring forth any collective understanding - no? I think so anyway.
One last note before I run off to church... If you are a spiritual type or seeker, I must ask you to RUN, run do not walk, to your closest magazine buying place and buy the current issue of Parabola magazine.
Christian, Jewish, Muslim thought AND a Mary Oliver poem. Really, you so need to get this publication and I kid you not.
It is completely mind blowing in so many ways. I read it in the car on our long trip yesterday and talk about a gift of Pentecost. Unbelievable stuff in there.
So that is my two cents for today, bidden or not Fran is blogging.
Ciao kids!
11 comments:
What a lovely way to start this Sunday.
Happy Mother's Day, FranIAm!
Lovely, indeed. Blessed Pentecost!
Blessed Pentecost to you, dear Fran! And thanks as always for the thoughtful writing.
Beautiful. Peace to you both in your parenting!
Oops, I posted this (or thought I was) at TCR's place! I'd better go there to see if it disappeared.
wow, thanks for the tip. I'll try to get ahold of the Parabola. And Happy Pentecost AND Mother's Day, Fran.
I guess my sense had always been that the Spirit is where we experience God in all Her Trinity (not that God is female just that She is not male) And Mary Oliver is awesome and channels all that is good. Thanks, Fran.
Lovely post, Fran. If I went to my nearest newstand here in the boonies, I would not find "Parabola". Just sayin'.
I've been thinking a lot about the Shavu'ot connection too. The law of Moshe,the law of grace... the written word, the incarnate word... two gathered communities... Also, and tell me what you think about this, how do Christians count the Omer? Should we? I mean, it's 50 days, we measure it. And it IS a mitzva to count the Omer. I know how to count the Omer, several ways. But, how do you count the days between Easter and Pentecost? Don't know.
That is unity. Religion aside if you will, imagine that we can hear in one voice- one voice of healing and of peace.
Right now we live in times, as pretty much has been the case for most of time - living in Babel. It is sad, but we must work from within to bring forth any collective understanding - no?
Truer words have never been spoken. I couldn't agree with you more, my dear. I love this post Frannylish and I adore you for writing it.
Healing, wisdom, consolation and peace. We could use some of that. I wish I'd seen this on Sunday. Very good post.
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