Song to the Holy Spirit

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36-41 CLASSIC POEM: Love’s Baptism Emily Dickinson I’m ceded, I’ve stopped being theirs; The name they dropped upon my face With water, in the country church, Is finished using now, And they can put it with my dolls, My childhood, and the string of spools I’ve finished threading too. Baptized before without the choice, But this time consciously, of grace Unto supremest name, Called to my full, the crescent dropped, Existence’s whole arc filled up With one small diadem. My second rank, too small the first, Crowned, crowing on my father’s breast, A half unconscious queen; But this time, adequate, erect, With will to choose or to reject. And I choose — just a throne. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Song to the Holy Spirit James K. Baxter SNIPPET: Lord, Holy Spirit, You blow like the wind in a thousand paddocks, Inside and outside the fences, You blow where you wish to blow. [ READ THE FULL POEM ]