All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2 : 4
Bible reading : Acts 2 : 1 – 21
Bishop Graham’s address 22nd May for the Day of Prayer in the Cathedral. His words reflect our own PCC’s prayerful discernment and for each of us at St Ed’s and St Peter’s:
“We gather in this ancient place of prayer, this place of Benedictine foundation and hospitality, remembering that the very first word that Benedict wrote in his Rule is the word ‘Listen’. And that is essentially what we do today. We come before God to listen. To listen attentively. To listen to have our own ideas changed and transformed. Our egos shaped in another way. We come to listen to what God desires and longs and hopes for the life of this Diocese (church). Because any vision…. Is somehow always incomplete because it’s just a reflection, a fraction of God’s desire for us. So part of our listening today is to listen to the wind of the Holy Spirit at this Pentecost time. St Bede wrote that we simply set our ship and pull up the sails to be filled with the Holy Spirit to guide us where God guides us. So today in a sense is a hoisting of the sails allowing the ship of this Diocese (church) to be guided by God into the future. A future that we do not yet know. That comes to us with hope and joy.
So we are called to listen ever more attentively to the God who seeks to bring transformation in Christ to us. Who longs for us to be a prayerful people, a pastoral people, and a prophetic people. Thus says the Lord, ‘See I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it?’”.
Bp Graham, 22<sup>nd</sup> May 2021
Prayer for this week
Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen