Renew the Face of the Earth
BY ALLYSON PETRY | May 24, 2021
Sunday’s Readings
Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you are like me, a little bit of renewal is welcome right now. The dreary cold of winter compounded with feeling more isolated over the holidays due to the pandemic has made the spring even sweeter.
Every morning this past week, I have been greeted by the calm, cool renewal of a new day. The blue sky has already been waking up for a few hours, and our bird feeders are full of red-winged blackbirds, phoebes, and various wrens singing. I try to stop each day on the way to Nazareth Farm to take in the scene, to start the day with gratitude and awe for creation, to ask the Holy Spirit to descend.
Especially now, after a year of unimaginable difficulty and the hope of some normalcy returning, we need the Holy Spirit to enter our daily lives. We need the Holy Spirit to breathe peace over us so we may go out into the world as Jesus calls us to. Very often this year, I have seen countless ways humanity has not honored Christ in each other. Pentecost may end our Easter season, but it also propels us forward with a reminder the resurrected Jesus is in each of us and in each person we encounter.
- How can you welcome the Holy Spirit this week?
- How can you welcome others into the Body of Christ?
Allyson Petry is the director of Nazareth Farm, a small, intentional Catholic community living and working in rural West Virginia. When not behind a desk, she enjoys joining her staff on home repair projects and visiting neighbors.
Welcoming the Holy Spirit through meditating on His gifts is a great way to start the day. Through wisdom I listen before I speak. Through understanding I believe that the Holy Spirit trusts our direction and supports that. Through counsel I can assist other people in their process of discernment be they big or small decisions by the conversations where He is present. . Through fortitude I show perseverance and strength in carrying out the will of the Spirit. Through knowledge I offer information and formation of how to use knowledge to better assist the society in which we live. Through piety or awe I recognize the many ways the Spirit reveals Himself in our lives: the beauty of the day, the smell of fresh flowers, the colors of all the people we see, the fragility of the weather and many other ordinary aspects of life. Through fear of the Lord I realize that the Spirit within me knows and loves us in a way that can shine through to bring the joy of being at one with the Spirit.
Blow, blow, blow ’til I be – But the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.
In starting the day, I find it useful to read something brief–currently St. Teresa of Avila, Passionate Mystic by Mirabai Starr–in a safe space. This generally gives a thoughtful focus for the upcoming day. Carrying these thoughts in daily encounters and observations provides a true depth and stability. When curve balls come during the day, the morning message is still there. Through both daily traumatic and joyful events the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit holds me and I trust is being spread to others. Peace and all good to you!