Last weekend we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. It is a beautiful feast day celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives and world. The Spirit of God has always been present, even before Pentecost Sunday came to be. It was present in creation, in wisdom, in love, in courage, in compassion and in lots of other beautiful ways for many thousands of years. Many of the scripture stories are simply stories about the Spirit of God working quietly in people’s lives.

Most importantly this week we celebrate the Spirit of God present in the here and now. We celebrate the Holy Spirit working in our lives and also guiding us through sometimes difficult and challenging times.

But for the early followers of Jesus, Pentecost was a whole new beginning. They were gripped with fear and locked away but they were given courage to start again. They were scattered and isolated but they became a community. They found renewed hope and energy to work together and they let God’s spirit guide them in new beginnings.

In our Celtic tradition, the Holy Spirit is not represented as a peaceful dove but as a wild goose. The wild goose reveals the Holy Spirit as passionate, protective, full of courage and determination. What a beautiful collection of different images to describe the Holy Spirit. If you were to narrow it all down, it means that the Holy Spirit works in many different ways through each of us. It also means that the Holy Spirit is especially with us in the very ordinary moments of our everyday lives.

As we celebrate Pentecost, we pray for an outpouring of God’s energy and God’s spirit into our lives. We pray for courage, hope, resilience, light, determination, protection, healing, peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and so much more.