Whit Sunday

Deus, qui hodiérna die corda fidélium Sancti Spíritus illustratióne docuísti: da nobis in eódem Spíritu recta sápere; et de eius semper consolatióne gaudére. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte eiúsdem Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. ℟. Amen.

God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people, by the sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit; grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Keynote: The Perception of the Christ

The discipline of the master Jesus brings us to the living contact of the Holy Spirit, When our personalities have been purified by this discipline, the light of spiritual understanding illuminates our consciousnesses. If we have done rightly the work demanded of us throughout the period of purgation, if we have shared in our Master's passion and resurrection, then, at Whitsuntide when the great power-tides descend upon the world, we shall receive of the spiritual forces according to our utmost need and capacity. It is for us to prepare our hearts for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; to make them clean and ready; to watch at the door for the first glimpse of the divine visitant, for it is only to the prepared consciousness that the guest comes.

Let us do the best we know and await with eagerness and confidence the coming in the heart of the Whitsuntide power, and we shall not be disappointed.

Often, however, a test heralds the coming, as the old stories so often tell; we have to recognize the divine visitant in strange guises. The beggar asks us for alms; we give what we can, and lo, he sheds his ragged cloak and there is the Prince of Peace! The Christ always comes as the man of sorrows, never as the heralded Messiah. We must be faithful over few things before we are made ruler of many. As the collect so truly says, it is to the "faithful people" that the teaching of the Spirit is given, not to the gifted. The Master values fidelity more highly than great gifts.

Let us, therefore, at the great power-season of Whitsuntide listen mentally for the still small voice of the comforter to speak in our hearts. Let us make ourselves receptive, knowing that the power of the Holy Spirit is pouring through in strong tides upon the earth. According to our faith will it be unto us.

[Dion Fortune, Mystical Meditations on the Christian Collects]