The Holy Spirit (8/26/2018)

What's Your Next Step? Pay attention to your breathing.

We're breathing all the time. Our breathing keeps us alive. As we breathe air into our lungs, vital oxygen is absorbed into our bloodstream, carried to our heart, and pumped to all the oxygen-hungry cells in our body. As we breathe out, the potentially harmful carbon dioxide emissions produced by our cells cycle back through the lungs and out of our bodies. 

• Take a minute and observe your breathing. Notice your in-breaths and your out-breaths. Are they deep? Shallow? Fast? Slow? As you breathe in, imagine your breath carrying energy to all parts of your body. As you breath out, imagine your breath releasing anxiety out of your body and back into the world.

In the Greek of the New Testament, the word English translations render as "Spirit" is  pneuma, a Greek term which does mean "spirit" (an immaterial being),  but it also means "breath" (from which we get the word "pneumatic.") The third Person of the Trinity is the holy Breath of God, the breath of life and love shared between the Father and Son. 

• Take another minute and return to your breathing. Notice how your breath is part of you, never leaving you despite your inhales and exhales. Think of how your breath grows fast and shallow when you get excited; slow and deep as you relax. Your breath is an image of who you are and what you are doing, intimately united to the activities of your soul.

As the incarnate Son of God, Jesus shares the Holy Spirit with the Father as though they were breathing the same breath. He promises this same Holy Breath to his disciples. In baptism, we begin to breath with God, to let God's life be breathed into us, transforming us and giving us courage to make our lives a gift to God and neighbor.

• Return to your breathing for a final minute. Recognize in your breath the very life of God, breathing in you, with you, and for you. Let your in-breaths be Jesus breathing in with you, and let your exhales be Jesus breathing out with you. Let your breathing, united to the holy Breath of God, turn into a prayer of gratitude, a prayer of surrender, a prayer of longing, a prayer of love.