Conversation on the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
Saturday June 7th 6:00-7:00pm (EDT) Zoom Only
(Joel 2:28-32; John 14:15-26; John 16:5-16; Acts 10:44-48; Acts 19:1-7)
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they [the disciples] were all with one accord in one place…And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
…the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled…
Why were they amazed? Because the disciples were all Galileeans and speakers of a single dialect.
Who were the multitudes? They were made up of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.
“We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
How could this be? Is it a resolution of the confusion of languages and scattering of peoples cited in Genesis? Of that chaos brought by the Lord (presumably to prevent a premature return to unity)? Is it a momentary healing return to the primal language out of which all languages have descended?
Rudolf Steiner: “If, even in small numbers, men make solemn avowal of this, the Whitsun Mystery will take firmer and firmer root in many human beings living at the present time and particularly in the future. Then there will come that which humanity so sorely needs for its redemption and salvation; then the healing Spirit will speak to a new faculty of understanding in men — the Spirit by whom the sickness of human souls is healed, the Spirit sent by Christ.”
We will have a one-hour Whitsun/Pentecost conversation. Please bring brief quotes (5 minutes maximum) from Rudolf Steiner or others on this theme. Fred Dennehy will bring selections from Georg Kuhlewind’s Feeling Knowing on Whitsun. Walter Alexander will bring quotes from Sergeii Prokofieff’s Cycle of the Year as a Path of Initiation.
We will close promptly at 7:00pm (EDT) to allow people to watch the CNN broadcast (free) of the penultimate Broadway performance of George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” about Edward R Murrow’s war against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s blacklisting campaign. A fitting Whitsun event—attuned to the battle for the Spirit of Truth.
