Most powerful Holy Spirit
come down
upon us
and subdue us.
From heaven,
where the ordinary
is made glorious,
and glory seems
but ordinary.
bathe us
with the brilliance
of your light
like dew.
- From Celtic Daily Prayer, Book 1, by the Northumbrian Community
It’s only in the last year that I’ve begun to use prayers written by others. I suppose the Psalms and songs in the epistles would count as prayers written by others, but apart from those I have had a deep-rooted sense of Charismatic independence when it comes to My Prayers™️. Another word for this is pride. If the Spirit won’t speak it straight to me or through me, is it really authentic? Isn’t anything else just dead Religion? This kind of thinking seems like it might be a uniquely American brand of spiritualism, but I’m not widely traveled enough to know for certain.
Then this year changed things. I went several months barely uttering or even thinking an original prayer, and my prayer life has paradoxically never been richer nor more consistent. It started after I read Resilient Faith by Dr. Jerry Sittser. That plunged me into a fixation on early church history, particularly the branch that led to Celtic Christianity. I got the prayer book cited in the poem above, and used it for my daily devotions. I memorized the Daily Office prayers. I lit candles. I was almost full-on smells and bells—except incense and scented candles give me a headache, and Kristina and the kids wouldn’t have appreciated me ringing bells at 6am.
This led me to look more closely at the traditional Christian calendar. I observed Lent, which coincided with The Jesus Fast. I used readings from the prayer book for our daily communion observance. Kristina and I would take turns reading portions, and some portions we would read aloud together. Once we were over the initial awkwardness of this, it was quite powerful. Sometimes so powerful we couldn’t get the words out.
I haven’t kept up with the Daily Office as much lately. I am back to more free-flow prayer and Bible reading. But as special occasions arise, I still go back to the prayer book looking to see what might be written down for blessing a home, helping someone grieving the loss of a loved one, or general prayers for difficult times. There’s something for just about any occasion. Rather than dull my sense of being able to seek the Spirit’s guidance in prayer, I find my spirit sharpened.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on the Body of Believers—the Church. While we experience Him individually, I think what I’m discovering is that there is power in contextualizing my experience of the Holy Spirit within the larger picture of The Church—both present-day and for the two millennia preceding. He has faithfully taught us to pray when we don’t know how we ought to.
This Pentecost my prayer for you all is that you have a deeper, wider, fuller experience of the Holy Spirit than ever before, and that God surrounds you with others in your local community who are on the same journey. May your ordinary be made glorious, and my Glory become ordinary in your life.