27 March 2026 Moving into the Mystery of the Spirit

Welcome

Opening Prayer

We come to you this morning, Lord, in thankfulness for this opportunity of putting time aside with each other and with you. Open our hearts and minds to feel the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our reading, our quietness and in our sharing. We are aware of the ways we try to contain you, God, in rules, in routines, in what feels safe. But your Spirit moves where it will. Unseen. Unexpected. Free. Amen

Reflections

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8: 36)

In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, full of question, asking how he can understand Jesus’ teachings, and how he can be born again. Night can be a symbol of fear, secrecy and perhaps spiritual searching. Nicodemus is a man of ‘form’: a Pharisee, a teacher, someone steeped in religious structure.   But Jesus speaks of the Spirit – of a power that transcends biology, of wind that blows where it will.

Perhaps we are wrestling with new questions like Nicodemus; like Nicodemus, we are called to open ourselves to transformation that doesn’t follow a formula. The Spirit may surprise us in unexpected places: in conversation, in silence, in change.

Lent is a time to notice those moments, and to respond – not with fear, but with faith that God is present and active, even when the path ahead is unclear. In our quiet time, listen for any movement of wind or sound. Pray: “Spirit, blow where you will. Help me notice.”

God is Spirit and those who worship, worship him in Spirit and in truth   John 4:24

God moves freely, surprises us, and invites us into a living, breathing relationship. Let us loosen our grip on what is fixed and familiar, and to trust the unpredictable movement of the Spirit.

The Mystery of the Spirit

The mystery of the Spirit is not a puzzle to solve – more like an ocean to step into.

Jesus describes the Spirit like the wind – you can’t see it, but you can feel it, you can see its effects in the trees, and flowers, and waves, and flags flying, and washing on the line… But there are deeper effects - changed hearts, courage where there was fear, peace that doesn’t make logical sense.

Instead of humans striving upwards to reach God, God moves inward to transform humans from the inside.  The Spirit doesn’t override personality or will, yet somehow, mysteriously, empowers and reshapes them.  The spirit sets us free.    The Spirit is mysterious because it blurs boundaries -  it responds to openness, surrender, listening; it can be unsettling but beautiful at the same time.

Why is the Spirit a Mystery?

In Christian theology, a “mystery” Doesn't mean something unknowable - It means something revealed, but not necessarily comprehended

The Holy Spirit is mysterious because:

He is fully God, yet distinct.

He acts invisibly but powerfully.

He indwells believers.

His nature transcends human categories..

The Holy Spirit is central to salvation, scripture, and daily Christian life.

The Spirit enables us to understand scripture.

The Holy Spirit brings about new birth.

The Spirit dwells within every true believer.

The spirit empowers personal prayer and relationship with God

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of god and the FELLOWSHIP of the Holy spirit

The fellowship of the Holy Spirit connects believers to Christ. The spirit connects believers to one another, so that the Christian community is spiritual not merely social.

Believers share together in what the spirit is doing.

Believers are not alone, they participate in the very life of God through the spirit.

John 14:26

“The helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you”

1 Corinthians 6:19

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own?”

Romans 8:14

“For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”

The Holy Spirit is a presence. The presence of God

But the Holy Spirit is not just the presence but the power of God in your life

The spirit is our counsellor, companion, guide, teacher, and source of wisdom, and it is through the Spirit within us that we can live the words of Jesus “I am with you always to the end of the age.”

When we move into the mystery of the Holy Spirit, we step beyond the desire to control and into a place of surrender. The spirit does not force; he invites. He does not shout over our will; He whispers within it. Entering his mystery begins with stillness - the quiet decision to become attentive.

“Spirit Of the living God, fall afresh on me.”

“Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew”

Entering the mystery can mean accepting vulnerability, it can mean living with expectancy and it invokes the ability to trust.

Fruits of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, are not achievements, they are evidence of his quiet indwelling.

To move into the mystery of the Holy Spirit is simply to say yes until your whole life becomes a quiet steady response to his breath

Quotations

Theologian David Ford describes this moment as an opening into mystery: a God who is free, who overflows our categories, who cannot be harnessed or predicted. The Spirit, like the wind, is unseen yet effective: it moves us in new directions, springing endless surprises.

Author Rob Bell explores this tension between form and spirits in “Everything Is Spiritual.”

He writes that forms – rituals, words and structures – are essential, but they are not the goal. They are the scaffolding, not the substance. He compares it to learning to ride a bike. At first, you rely on instructions – ‘keep pedalling, steer…’ – but eventually, something shifts. “Those words have become flesh.” The form becomes embodied. The spirit animates the structure. 

Introduction to Silence

In our quiet time, listen for any movement of wind or sound. Pray: “Spirit, blow where you will. Help me notice.”

Blessing

May the Blessing of the Spirit be upon you

May the Spirit who moves like the wind stir your soul today

May you be open to mystery, surprise and the gentle breath of God.

Amen 

FOR PEACE

As the fever of day calms towards twilight

May all that is strained in us come to ease.

We pray for all who suffered violence today,

May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace,

May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war

Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other

A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace

Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

And no hurt or harm be done

Anywhere along the holy mountain.

John O’Donohue, Benedictus, Kindle p222

Thoughts to ponder:

1 Kings 19:11-13 - The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Patriarch Ignatius the 4th -Without the Holy Spirit God is far away, but in the Holy Spirit the cosmos is resurrected and groans with birth pangs of the Kingdom.

Henri Nouwen, throughout his work and lectures, speaks deeply and pastorally about the Spirit’s presence in the Christian life. For Nouwen, The Holy Spirit is intimate, gentle and transformative; less a concept to define and more a presence to receive. Nouwen often describes the Holy Spirit as the one who reminds us of our true identity as beloved children of God. The Spirit speaks not in noise or force but in a quiet inner voice that calls us “Beloved.”   For Nouwen, the spiritual life is learning to listen to that voice. 

Nouwen emphasises that the spirit works most powerfully not in strength but in weakness. The spirit does not remove our brokenness he enters it and transforms it from within.

The spirit likes to dress up like this: ten fingers, ten toes, shoulders and all the rest. It could float, of course, but would rather plumb rough matter. Airy and shapeless thing, it needs the metaphor of the body. – Mary Oliver 

Deep in the Heart every mystery of spirit is hidden...  Rumi

Our spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, expecting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination or prediction. This, indeed, I,s a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.

Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

Be with him and listen. Listen to the One who invites you. Be quiet. Like a child dwells in the house with her mother and father. Just dwell. Play around. Be there. A half hour a day. Is it possible? Is it possible for half an hour? Just be there. Sit there and do nothing. Waste time with Jesus. That is what love does.

Henri Nouwen, https://www.henrinouwen.org/daily-meditations/5jbca45skymkb4m-phwrg

We cannot force God into a relationship. God comes to us on his own initiative, and no discipline, effort, or aesthetic practice can make him come. All mystics stress with an impressive unanimity that prayer is “grace,” that is, a free gift from God, to which we can only respond with gratitude. But they hasten to add that this precious gift indeed is within our reach. In Jesus Christ, God has entered into our lives in the most intimate way, so that we could enter into his life through the Spirit.

Henri Nouwen, https://www.henrinouwen.org/daily-meditations/kcfpl7snd8bmtk6

Without a conscious living in the flow of the Spirit—through us, within us, and for us—and those are the three movements—I think prayer can become merely functional. But if we live within that flow, prayer can become an experience of mystical communion. There is no problem to be solved; it’s simply enjoying what is, learning how to taste it, learning how to receive it, learning how to see God in it, and knowing that this now—whatever it is—is enough……  

…..I think the simplest way to discern the presence of the Spirit is to look for where there is unity, where there’s movement toward reconciliation, for two becoming one, for enemies becoming friends. The Spirit self has no need to think of itself as better than anyone. We just live with an energy and aliveness that Paul called the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). Our job is simply to stay inside the flow of the Spirit which is love. 

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance: Exploring the Mystery of Trinity

The Spirit is always a gratuitous gift. It’s always an unmerited favor. It’s always pure grace. Like wind, it cannot be seen. Like smoke, it cannot be controlled. The Spirit is elusive, blowing where it wills. Yet like fire, the Spirit can be felt. The Spirit is experienced as the warmth of God’s love. And like blood, it is experienced as an inner vitality. The Spirit is supremely intimate, yet supremely transcendent.

To enter into relationship with the risen Christ, we have to let go of ourselves, surrender control of our lives, and let the Spirit be given to us. We think that we might lose our individuality, yet surrendering to God actually increases it. For once in our lives, we’re truly free to become ourselves rather than what others want us to be. The highest form of self-possession is the capacity to give ourselves away. By giving ourselves completely to God, we come to be possessed by God and in full possession of ourselves at the same time.  

Adapted from Richard Rohr and Joseph Martos, The Great Themes of Scripture: New Testament (Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1988), 72, 76–77, 87, 93, 94.

Lectio with the Wind

God’s Soul is the wind rustling plants and leaves, 

the dew dancing on the grass, 

the rainy breezes making everything to grow. 

Just like this, the kindness of a person flows, touching 

those dragging burdens of longing. 

We should be a breeze helping the homeless, 

dew comforting those who are depressed,

the cool, misty air refreshing the exhausted, 

and with God’s teaching we have got to feed the hungry:

This is how we share God’s soul. 

Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Incandescence: 365 Readings with Women Mystics (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2005), 173. Butcher’s verse is based on Hildegard of Bingen, Liber Vitae Meritorum (The Book of the Rewards of Life), 2:43.

Christine Valters Paintner guides readers through an experience with wind and how the Spirit might be speaking through it. This practice is best experienced outdoors or near an open window.

Sit or lie down comfortably, shifting your body so you feel relaxed and open. Take as much time as you need to turn inward and settle into stillness. It is often helpful to notice your breathing: with the in-breath, breathe in an awareness of the presence of the Spirit; with the out-breath, breathe out all that distracts you from this time of prayer. 

Become aware of the way wind is present in the world around you—through a breeze blowing, through birds flying, butterflies fluttering, seeds being scattered by the wind, your own breath. In this initial encounter with the element of air, listen for one of its manifestations. Notice if the birds, the butterflies, the breeze, the seeds, your breath, or some other form invites you or stirs you. Listen for the way God might be calling you to deeper attention to wind this day. Listen until you have a sense of which manifestation of air is inviting you, and then spend some time savoring it….

Allow the Spirit to expand your capacity for listening and to open you to a fuller experience of the element at work in the world.  

Christine Valters Paintner, Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2010), 38. 

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of wonder….”

Dag Hammarskjold

The Great Spirit Prayer

Oh, Great Spirit,

whose voice I hear in the winds

and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.

I am small and weak.

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes

ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made

and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand

the things you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden

in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be superior to my brother,

but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you

with clean hands and straight eyes,

so when life fades, as the fading sunset,

my spirit will come to you

without shame.

Translated by Chief Yellow Lark

Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 24 April 2026 at St Anne’s Church. The theme is Spring Renewal