breath

 O

ETERNAL God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life;  (1928 BCP Marriage)

On the border now they talk of encounters with migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and the desperate wanderers. Encounters. Better perhaps than simply arrests, as many have entertained angels unawares. Today I encountered a man who asked directions to the bus station. I gave them to him. Then I thought, too late, that I could have given him a ride in the heat of the day. In the heat of the day, while he was sitting in the door of his tent, Abram encountered three men, strangers to him, who came to him in the midst of the country, and he offered them hospitality. The hospitality of his tent, his household, his family. Sometimes all someone asks of us is directions. Sometimes we are offered the chance to do much more. If we have eyes to see. The three strangers were indeed grateful for the hospitality they received and in turn gave a blessing only they could give. Your wife will at last bear to you the child you both have sought. And that child - through its descendants - will become the host of the world.

The Holy Spirit is the God we encounter. We have not seen the Father and Jesus, since his Ascension, has left us in the care of the Comforter, the Advocate, the one who comes alongside us as Teacher, and yet remains unseen. Unseen, that is, except through permeance. Permeating through all of our encounters with each other, and, all unawares, with angels. Pervading too all our days, ordinary and especially significant. Look through the prayer book pastoral offices and you will see the Spirit landing upon the Baptized, inhabiting the Confirmed, blessing the Married, consoling the bereaved and accompanying the Sick even unto the death bed. And it is the spirit of God that enables us in turn to comfort, celebrate, cajole, and encourage, the baptized, the married, the bereaved, the sick and dying, the joyous and even the indifferent. For the Spirit is here present among us, and through that invisible permeating influence God is here.