That’s the Spirit

Come as the dove, and spread your wings,
The wings of peaceful love;
And let your Church on earth become
Blest as the Church above.

The symbol of the dove is both international and timeless and readily identified as an employ of peace. But what sort of peace does it signify.

In Christian terms there fare several biblical pointers to help us.

In John 14:7 we find Jesus saying to his disciples “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

In Philippians 4:7 we find Paul advocation, that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

However it is often our anxiety, our disturbed peace that impedes our Christian journey. We may well ask, in what way do I see myself frustrating Jesus and in what way do I console him? Would my understanding of this passage be a source of consolation or of frustration?

We need to be very humble and patient about embodying the presence of Jesus in the world as we have so much false conditioning to shed, we are in constant need of purification, we are always a work in progress. Each day we need to invite the Spirit of Jesus to take us over. We could start each day with the following morning offering and then in the evening time go back over the day to see how we have lived out our offering and how much more we need to grow into it.

We may well need to  pray the 13th century prayer, which was refreshed in the musical Godspell in 1971:‘Dear Lord, three things I pray: to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.’ Then perhaps we shall know you in the scriptural meaning of the word peace.

A Prayer 

Lord Jesus, I give you my hands to do your work. I give you my feet to go your way. I give you my tongue to speak your words. I give you my mind that you may think in me. I give you my spirit that you may pray in me. Above all, I give you my heart that you may love in me your Father and all humankind. I give you my whole self that you may grow in me, so that it is you, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me. Amen (The Grail Prayer).