The extract below is taken from Words for today 2009 - Notes for Daily Bible Reading ( N. Slee (ed.), Birmingham: IBRA, 2008)

not seeking after greatness, only rejoicing in friendship with you and with those you love. Acts 2:1-21

What is your Pentecost experience?

There is a worldwide movement called ‘Conversation Café’ that invites people to come together – in a café, or wherever – to share, with their host and those who are gathered, their dreams and longings for a better world. The first time I took part in one of these gatherings we were about eleven people who came in ‘off the street’ into a little café in Bournville, Birmingham. There were eight different nationalities and cultures present, and we each expressed and listened to ideas and suggestions for a better world: a sharing that made our ‘hearts burn within us’

It was for me a Pentecost moment. The signs of the Spirit were there for me in the companionship and welcome of strangers; in hearing the gifts of hope, optimism, compassion, concern for peace, desire for justice and, above all, a willingness to listen.

God’s Spirit blows where it wills and the power of the Spirit can manifest itself in the most unexpected places.

Do I expect to be visited by the Spirit only at Pentecost? - or can I discover my own Pentecost experiences? What are the gifts of the Spirit that are manifest in others around me? – and do I know and acknowledge my own?

Come Holy Spirit,

your Spirit of love can change our hearts.

Teach us to reverence in one another the gift of life that we share,

and let us walk in union with your Spirit all the days of our lives.