A reflection for Pentecost

This reflection was originally prepared for a church gathering offering a regular response for the congregation to share. You can still use it this way, or alternatively simply read each stanza (perhaps using alternate voices) leaving a short silence after between them.




Spirit of God, you blow where you will,
Free and unpredictable, familiar yet surprising.
Yet often we prefer the comfort
Of plans and strategies that we can devise and contain.

Break us, bend us, mould us, fill us


Spirit of God you work in ways unseen,
And dance to rhythms we have yet to discover.
But our eyes remain fixed on inherited routines and disappointments,
And the endless landscape of your purpose is obscured by their shadow.

Break us, bend us, mould us, fill us


Spirit of God, you make possible
What wisdom alone can neither imagine nor believe.
Yet our boundaries stay fixed to limits of our making,
While beyond them you wait to exceed our every expectation.

Break us, bend us, mould us, fill us


Spirit of God, you renew and restore
That which past struggles have damaged and broken.
Yet we too readily wallow in the hurts and frustrations
That your healing presence invites us to abandon.

Break us, bend us, mould us, fill us


Spirit of God, inspire our imaginations with what you might achieve,
Rather than what we might not;
Accomplish within us, what could never be attempted in our strength alone,
Release us from ourselves, that your purposes might prevail.

Break us, bend us, mould us, fill us