Riot of Whites and Reds
“When you send forth your Spirit, they are made, and so you renew the face of the earth.”
This is a rich, untitled Pentecost image from the Korean artist, Kim Young Gil (1940-2008). There’s a lot going on here. We see notes, perhaps, of Jesus’s pre-Ascension gift of the Spirit mentioned in John 20:22, when the risen Jesus breathed on his Disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” However, when we consider the Trinitarian juxtapositions of the Bird above and Lamb beneath, the central luminous, humanoid figure, from whose mouth radiant light proceeds begins to evoke more the Father than the Son. Regardless, it is lovely to consider the Trinitarian operation of the descent of the Spirit.
Beneath, we see a masculine figure in repose, a sleeper, on whom this light shines: evoking Christ, rising from death, or Adam, asleep in the Garden, with Eve emerging from his side. Perhaps there are notes also of the Valley of Dry Bones from Ezekiel’s vision. In the shadows, animal figures flee: creation trembling with its disrupted renewal; and notes, perhaps, of the chaos of the Apocalpyse. A human figure looks up from the half-light — a prophet? A figure of the contemplative Christian soul? — and in full view, the dim but shined-upon people of God, opening their faces to this Sun of Righteousness.
Here is the full weight of grandeur: light shining in the darkness; life bursting forth from death; all of creation renewed and animated by a fresh spirit, a new life, an abundant light.
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
— The Holy Apostle and Evangelist St. John (John 14:16-17)
Pentecost Sunday
Texts for This Week
Prayer
O God, who taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
An EPIC Venite Creator from South India
Priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Verapoly in South India sing the classic 9th C hit song to the Holy Spirit from Rabanus Maurus. The Venite Creator is still sung today at many occasions when the Spirit is bidden — not only Pentecost, but confirmations and ordinations as well often feature this ancient hymn.
But never before with such pizazz and production value.
A bonus for the feast, here is an old Sacred Harp hymn, Abbeville. It brings forward some of the themes of the ancient invocation into a newer dialect:
Come, Holy Spirit come,
With energy divine,
And on this poor, benighted soul,
With beams of mercy shine.
Melt, melt this frozen heart;
This stubborn will subdue;
Each evil passion overcome,
And form me all anew.
Mine will the profit be,
But Thine shall be the praise;
And unto Thee will I devote
The remnant of my days.
