Complete Service - May: Praying with the Wind

The Christian festival of Pentecost often falls in the month of May, celebrating the gift of the Spirit to the early followers of Christ. The Spirit is often described as wind. In her book Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements, Christine Valters Paintner offers some insights into praying with the wind. “The metaphor of air or wind offers us a variety of ways to understand our experience of God: as life-breath, as inspiration, as enlivener, as directional guide, as powerful force, or as the current that supports flight… The element of wind invites us to ‘open our souls to Being’ which means opening ourselves to a God who flows in directions we cannot predict. This element invites us to a radical posture of surrender…”