3

THE DESCENT
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Mary was there in the Upper Room
when on the day the Spirit –
a howling wind –
shook the house
where they were staying.

The Upper Room
was the Inner Room
of the Early Church.
There, Mary,
and the other women
and the apostles
hid, gathered, helped each other.

They gathered themselves
in prayer, in poverty, in community, in fear and in love.

Then on the feast of Pentecost,
the Wind, the Breath, the Fire,
the Spirit of God came
and burst and filled the Upper Room.

It was a new day,
the next day of creation,
the Wind sweeping over the waters,
and once again the voice, “Let there be light!”

Come Holy Spirit!

There was a New Pillar of Fire
burning its WAY across the desert
into the Promised Land,
into Jerusalem, into the upper room.

“Let there be fire.”

Come Holy Spirit!

It was the Spirit
whom all the prophets,
especially Isaiah and Jesus spoke about,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
therefore, he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives,
recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners.
To announce a year of favor from the Lord.”

Come Holy Spirit!

And Peter stood up
and began to speak
with spirit, with fire.
The fisherman
began to proclaim glad tidings to the poor,
that their nets can be filled with the Lord.

And cripples walked.
And prisoners were released.
And a new year, a new age, a new people arose.

As Ezekiel predicted,
the dead bones came back to life,
came back filled with Spirit.
Look at the change in Peter.
Look at the change in Paul.
Imagine what could have happened to Judas.

And the crowd thought
these men were drunk with wine.
They were new wine
in new wine skins,
about to ferment,
about to burst
and be poured out upon the earth.

They spoke and all understood them.
The word the seed,
was scattered to the Wind,
to Antioch, to Ephesus, to Greece, to Rome,
yes to the very ends of the earth.
Come Holy Spirit!

Day by day they increased in numbers.

Day by day the poor in spirit
began to inherit the kingdom,
to “inherit the Wind”,
to inherit the gifts of the Spirit.

The fiery hand of God burned their hearts.

The people in darkness have seen a great light.