Real Power

AM Psalm 140, 142 • PM Psalm 141, 143:1-11(12)
Zech. 14:1-11 • Rom. 15:7-13 • Luke 19:28-40 

In today’s reading of Luke, after the Pharisees told Jesus to hush the crowd that was singing praises to him, he tells them “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Growing up in The Episcopal Church, we called the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost. (And, only the “Holy Ghost”!) Hearing this as a child, you can imagine that this thing that was part of God was a total mystery and lived in cemeteries. 

I left the church in my teen years and came back in 1981 when I was 31 years old. I got sober and St. Paul’s became my home and my sanctuary.

With my newfound ability to have an open heart and mind, I began to know the Holy Spirit in ways that kept me totally blown away most of the time. I shared these times of tremendous gratitude in the fellowship of AA, gathering in the library, the old kitchen and parish hall of St. Paul’s. I am grateful for the times of falling on my knees in St. Paul’s, the tears of pain and the tears of joy. All of this is gift of God, and it is in God that the Holy Spirit moves. I tell you, the Holy Spirit is in every fiber of wood in St. Paul’s. (It’s also at George’s during Happy Hour!) 

I do believe those stones would shout. That is the power of the Holy Spirit. If your heart and mind and soul are open, you’ve felt it, you know it and there is nothing else like it. I got the Ghost out of the cemetery and became aware and grew in faith, but it is still a mystery. A glorious mystery. 

Written by Julie Schultz

Julie is not an academic, is not on the faculty of the University, is not a published writer, and is wondering why in the world she is doing this.