Pentecost Links Around the Blogosphere

Still under the weather, so for now here are a few quick Pentecost links. I’ll try to post some of my own reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit within the next few days
- Karen:

Pentecost Blog Carnival (I’ve tried not to duplicate too many links. The blog carnival has several EXCELLENT links I have not posted.)

Splendor in the Ordinary: Ideas for Celebrating Pentecost as a Family (FANTASTIC! Don’t miss this…)

Anglican Mainstream has a collection of reflections on Pentecost from various saints & Church Fathers – Must reading! : Pentecost: the living water of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us

Fr. Tim Fountain at Northern Plains Anglican has Come Down O Love Divine, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Reflections on Pentecost and a prayer of preparation for Pentecost

Pat Dague at Transfigurations has Pope Benedict’s The Gift of God is the Holy Spirit

Ten O’Clock Scholar: Pentecost: Reignite Your Ember

At A Hen’s Pace: Pentecost Sunday

Cruciform Life: Preparing for Pentecost and Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart

Kingdom People has a Pentecost Prayer

Victor Hoagland has two reflections on Pentecost and the Holy Spirit

Amy at On a Joyful Journey has posted St. Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit. I’ll close with that:

Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Saint Augustine of Hippo

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
Amen.

Pentecost blog carnival

So much I want to blog, but I’ve been sick in bed a few days this week, plus we’ve had major electrical problems (thus no internet) at our office for a few days.

For now, head over to On A Joyful Journey for the link to the Pentecost Blog Carnival.

Hope to catch up with a few Pentecost blog entries over the weekend.
-Karen

Actually, come to think of it – I better not take having electricity over the weekend for granted. So in case I don’t get to post, here are some of the blogs to check out for Pentecost reflections, prayers, poems, etc.

Splendor in the Ordinary
A Ten O’Clock Scholar
At A Hen’s Pace
StoryFormed
Godspace

Happy reading!

More links for Ascension Day

Been in meetings all day… so blogging is difficult, but here are some quick links to some excellent Ascension devotionals, and ideas for a family celebration of Ascension:

Anglican Mainstream: Two Meditations on the Ascension (Meditations from Leo the Great and St. Augustine)

Splendor in the Ordinary: Ascension Hymn

Splendor in the Ordinary: Ascensiontide (ideas for a family celebration)

Enjoy!

Update: Fr. Tim Fountain chimes in with some thoughts about Christ’s Ascension here.

Prayers for Ascension Day

Christine Sine at Godspace has a nice compilation of Ascension Day prayers.
Go check it out

Apologies for curtailed Easter devotional blogging. I ran out of “easy” material and time to dig up additional things to share has been at a premium lately. I’ve seen some good “Thinking About Pentecost” type blog entries and prayers recently – there’s going to be a Pentecost “blog carnival” at another blog. I’ll try to post those links on Friday… (Karen)

Easter Quotes: Maximus of Turin – The Light of Christ is an Endless Day

A great Easter Season Quote found yesterday at Victor Hoagland’s blog.

“Yes, we have the light of Christ, but it is a light that shines in darkness. The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night. Christ is this day, says the Apostle; such is the meaning of his words: Night is almost over; day is at hand. He tells us that night is almost over, not that it is about to fall… This is why John the evangelist says: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to overpower it.

And so, my brothers and sisters, each of us ought surely to rejoice on this holy day. Let no one, conscious of his sinfulness, withdraw from our common celebration, nor let anyone be kept away from our public prayer by the burden of his guilt. Sinner he may indeed be, but he must not despair of pardon on this day which is so highly privileged; for if a thief could receive the grace of paradise, how could a Christian be refused forgiveness?”

– Maximus of Turin’s reflections on Jesus Christ, “Light from Light.”

Read the full entry here.

Thine Be the Glory

Peter Ould has posted the text of a specially-commissioned hymn that was sung at the ACC’s Opening Eucharist. It is painfully forced and hard to read, and I can only imagine it was horrid to sing.  The tune is reported to have been Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, but if that is correct, what a very odd choice indeed for a tune as the meter is wrong, and there is, in fact, no joy in this hymn.

Peter Ould has aptly titled his post “Horizontal Hymn Singing,” (taking the lead from commentary in an AAC report on Day 2 of the ACC meetings) – this is a song all about us and our relationships. While the words of the hymn are perhaps valid as a prayer of intercession, voicing at least some people’s hopes as to what will happen at the ACC meeting, it seems to me that worship should help us lift our eyes to focus on God and glorify Him, and this hymn fails at that.

The other day I was reading John 4 with some friends and I was struck afresh by what Jesus tells the Samaritan woman:

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the hour for true worship had now come, meaning because Jesus was on the Earth, fufilling God’s eternal purpose, revealing the Father to us, we could begin to worship the Father in a new way, in Spirit and in truth. True worship centers around Jesus and opens our eyes to who He is.

We’re still in the Easter season,  and one of my favorite Easter hymns is Thine be the Glory.  It makes a good prayer as well for the ACC meeting – may Jesus be exalted and glorified through the outcome of the ACC meeting, may His victory be seen and celebrated.

Listen Here to the Choir of Kings College Cambridge singing Thine be the Glory. (From the album “Best Loved Hymns” – iTunes link here)

Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son,
Endless is the victry Thou o’er death hast won;
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded grave-clothes, where Thy body lay.

Thine be the glory, Risen conquering Son,
Endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life;
Life is nought without Thee: aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conquerors, through Thy deathless love;
Bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above.

Easter Prayer: Vivify, Justify, Save

Raise us, O good Jesus, from the death of sins, that we may walk in newness of life. Let your death destroy the old Adam in us and your resurrection call our inner man back to life. Let your blood cleanse us from sins and your resurrection clothe us in your righteousness. We, dead in sin, long for you, O true Life. We, lead astray by sin, yearn for you, O true Righteousness. We, lost because of sin, sigh for you, O true Salvation. Vivify, justify, save. Amen.

Thanks to the Pietist

Another Easter Poem by Emergent Kiwi: Tree of Life

The original illustrated post is here.

tree of life

- He saw and believed. They still did not understand.
Easter text by John 20:8-9

The leaves are not yet grown
The colour is not yet shown
The fruit is not yet formed
Yet this is enough

The clothes still are scattered
The disciples still asleep
The gardener still prowls a sin-stained garden
Yet this is enough

Held by you, Who is not here
Who has gone ahead of me
For the life and love, of the world

- Easter words by Steve Taylor

An Easter Poem: Resurrection Door Kicker

resurrection door kicker

Jesus, door kicker, strides out the tomb
hinges swinging
door banging
in Spirit’s breeze

Jesus, walks our world,
loving on sandy beach, gathering on grassy knoll,
calling “Followers, to me”

If you walk away, will we follow?

Church,
inside 4 walls,
contains, confines,
holds, hoards
doctrine?

Or

Church,
jogging through city street,
laughing, listening,
stretching through house and home,

Til Kingdom come

– by Steve Taylor at Emergent Kiwi blog.  Found on Story-Formed blog.

An Easter Praise Litany from New Zealand

The risen Christ meets us at the tomb, and turns our tears to joy.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ comes through our locked doors, and turns our fear to courage.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ comes to daily life and work, and turns our failure to new vision.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

Christ breaks the bread, and turns our despair to hope.
For your love and goodness
we give you thanks, O God.

from a longer Easter service, found here.

An Easter Prayer by Helen Steiner Rice: May this Easter Grandeur Awaken Faded Flowers of Faith

God, give us eyes to see
the beauty of the Spring,
And to behold Your majesty
in every living thing -
And may we see in lacy leaves
and every budding flower
The Hand that rules the universe
with gentleness and power -
And may this Easter grandeur
that Spring lavishly imparts
Awaken faded flowers of faith
lying dormant in our hearts,
And give us ears to hear, dear God,
the Springtime song of birds
With messages more meaningful
than man’s often empty words
Telling harried human beings
who are lost in dark despair -
‘Be like us and do not worry
for God has you in His care.

–Helen Steiner Rice

found here

Easter Quotes: Trevin Wax – our coffins will not stay closed!

When people put their trust in Jesus, His resurrection power is released in their lives. We may die physically, but we cannot die spiritually. And what’s more, even physical death will be overturned by God on the Last Day.

The Resurrection of Jesus teaches us a vital truth: matter matters. The body is important. The Greek thinkers who believed matter to be evil and the spirit to be good were promoting a mindset foreign to the Jewish and Christian worldview. It is precisely because the body is valuable and God’s creation good that God has chosen to reclaim and redeem it, to stomp out the sin and destruction unleashed upon His beautiful world in the Garden of Eden.

We may taste death before Jesus returns, but one thing is certain: our coffins will not stay closed. Just as on Easter morning the grave could not hold Jesus, at the trumpet call of the Last Day, neither will the grave be able to hold the remains of those who are “in Christ.”

From a fantastic Easter reflection by baptist pastor Trevin Wax at Kingdom People.  Go read it all!

St. Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

It is only right,
with all the powers of our heart and mind,
to praise You Father
and Your Only-begotten Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ:
Dear Father, by Your wondrous
condescension of loving-kindness toward us,
Your servants, You gave up Your Son.
Dear Jesus You paid the debt of Adam
for us to the Eternal Father by
Your Blood poured
fourth in loving-kindness.
You cleared away the darkness of sin
By Your magnificent and radiant Resurrection.
You broke the bonds of death
and rose from the grave as a Conqueror.
You reconciled heaven and earth.
Our life had no hope of eternal happiness
before You redeemed us.
Your Resurrection has washed away our sins,
restored our innocence and brought us joy.
How inestimable is the tenderness
of Your love!

– Saint Gregory the Great’s Easter Prayer

found here

Victor Hoagland: The Thomas in All of Us

Victor Hoagland had a good meditation on the Apostle Thomas and a prayer for the renewal of our faith at his blog last week.  Here’s an excerpt:

That’s why Thomas, the apostle, whom we remember on the 2nd Sunday of Easter, is such an important figure. Far from being a lonely skeptic, an isolated dissenter, he represents the slowness of heart and mind, the recurrent skepticism, that affects us all.

His story, rather than raising doubts, is a reminder that the Risen Jesus offers, even to the most unconvinced, the power to believe.

Lord Jesus,
you showed your apostle Thomas
the wounds in your hands and side
and called him to believe in you,
as Lord and God.

Risen and present everywhere,
bless those who have not seen
and renew our world of doubt
and weakened faith.

Bless us, Lord, with the love
that flows from your wounds,
Renew our faith
and help us to grow
in believing in you.

Easter Quotes: God’s Resounding “Yes!”

James Gibson has this excellent Easter post at his blog, Sanctus:

The New Testament is the answer to all the questions posed in the Old Testament. Psalm 88:10-12 asks,

Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you?
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

What is the New Testament’s answer?

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5)

[Jesus said,] “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25a)

In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:9-10)

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13).

The Psalmist asks, “Do you work wonders for the dead?” Jesus Christ, in dying and rising again, answers with a resounding, “YES!”