Pentecost Prayer

"Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." These were Mary Oliver's instructions for living. In her poetry, her practice of paying attention connects us to the sacred. At Pentecost, the people gathered were filled with a wild Spirit that broke down barriers and moved them into a new dimension of their spiritual lives. Newell, in his book A New Harmony, describes a "new Pentecost" where humans are recognizing, through the inspiration of the Spirit, our unity with creation. He further explains that, "we are discovering that Earth has everything to teach us about the spiritual journey from liturgy, to daily prayer, to sanctuary space, to the scriptures."

As you read the poem below, pay attention to how you respond to Oliver's wonderings about prayer. What would it be like to be so moved by our love for God and the Divine's love for us that we are "drenched in enthusiasm"? Explore the new wild edges of the Spirit moving in you.

I Happened To Be Standing

I don't know where prayers go,

or what they do.

Do cats pray, while they sleep

half-asleep in the sun?

Does the opossum pray

as it crosses the street?

The sunflowers? The old black oak

growing older every year?

I know I can walk through the world,

along the shore or under the trees,

with my mind filled with things

of little importance, in full

self-attendance. A condition I can't really

call being alive.

Is a prayer a gift, or a petition, or does it matter?

The sunflowers blaze, maybe that's their way.

Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.

While I was thinking this I happened to be standing

just outside my door, with my notebook open,

which is the way I begin every morning.

Then a wren in the privet began to sing.

He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,

I don't know why, And yet, why not.

I wouldn't persuade you from whatever you believe

or whatever you don't. That's your business.

But I thought, of the wren's singing, what could this be

if it isn't a prayer?

So I just listened, my pen in the air.

~ Mary Oliver

Resources:

Newell, J. P. (2011). A New Harmony: The Spirit, the Earth and the Human Soul, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Oliver, M. (2017). "Sometimes", Devotions. New York: Penguin Random House.

Paintner, C. V. (2020). Earth: Our Original Monastery, Notre Dame, IN: Sorbin Books