Pentecost: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth”

At Pentecost, communities at worship turn, once again, to Psalm 104, the quintessential creation psalm, with its profound antiphon: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.”

The psalm reminds us that in worship, we join with the whole universe which at heart – and this is the language of faith rather than the language of science — sings to God; our human voices are but a tiny part of a vast symphony that includes not only the birds that might sing in our backyard but also the waves of the world ocean and the movements of the galaxies.

How exactly we conceive of our home, the earth — never mind of our home, the universe – has changed profoundly — not only since Psalm 104 was first prayed, but especially in the last hundred years or so.  A wonderful new documentary film helps us grasp these shifts in cosmological understanding (watch the stunning trailer at http://www.emergingearthcommunity.org/journey-of-the-universe).

Granted, it is one thing to display the story of the universe with a focus on the mysterious, wonderful, awe-inspiring “how” of its origins and development, and another explicitly to confess and name and claim name these as willed, loved, sustained, accompanied, and, ultimately, brought to fulfillment, by God, the ultimate mystery at the heart of the universe.  Yet all the different stories we tell of our universe, and especially of planet earth, are confronting one and the same crisis today:  that of ecological sustainability.  There simply will not be a face of the earth to renew if human beings do not learn to live within constraints. Insatiable is not sustainable (as a bumper sticker rightly says).  So, on this Solemnity of Pentecost, why not ponder how the Holy Spirit might call us, in our small ways, to join in “renewing the face of the earth”?  And why not begin with a check-list for our worship practices and see what greening can be done, right in our sanctuaries, in the heart of the gathered assembly ready to pray, once again, Psalm 104.  A check-list for your congregation can be found at:

http://www.letallcreationpraise.org/liturgy/worship-checklist

Teresa Berger

Teresa Berger is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, USA, where she also serves as the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology. She holds doctorates in both theology and in liturgical studies. Recent publications include an edited volume, Full of Your Glory: Liturgy, Cosmos, Creation (2019), and a monograph titled @ Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds (2018). Earlier publications include Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical History (2011), Fragments of Real Presence (2005), and a video documentary, Worship in Women’s Hands (2007).

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3 responses to “Pentecost: “Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth””

  1. Jordan Zarembo

    veni sancte spiritus is my favorite sequence of the year. The sequence captures the full range of life’s travails and emotions. Particularly important, I would say, is the closing stanza: da virtutis meritum / da salutis exitum / da perenne gaudium, “Grant the reward of virtue / grant death with salvation / grant everlasting life.”

    Virtue, the yearning for a saving death, and the hope of eternal life are intrinsically linked not only with the finite nature of our human lives but also the finite nature of Earth. We cannot recognize the fragility of our environment, and its limited resources, without contemplation on the final mortality of humankind without sacramental grace. Only trust in, gratitude for, and cooperation with the sacraments enables us to be better stewards of our earthly world. We become better stewards after the recognition that He who has created this world also calls us to die in him in Baptism and later live with him eternally. We are obliged to care for earthly creation out of love for the Creator. This blue orb is not our final destination, however.

    There is only one eternally renewable resource of the world, and that is the Holy Sacrifice of the altar. We are helpless to effect environmental change on our own initiative given our necessarily distorted perception of the world. There is no means to save the earthly home without He who perpetually transcends his own creation to renew the world, clarify our vision of the world, and bind creation close to Himself.

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  2. Jack Rakosky

    Psalm 103/104 is chanted at the beginning of Byzantine Vespers. Therefore I encounter it on Saturday evenings when I go to the local Orthodox Church for the Vespers-Matins service which they call the Vigil and the beginning of the Sunday celebration. Their liturgical day like the Jewish liturgical day begins at sundown on the previous day.

    This psalm is particularly appropriate at this location on this day since the Sabbath, the thanksgiving for creation, has just ended and we are beginning the Vigil celebration of the paschal mystery which culminates in one the Resurrection Gospels.

    The Slavic tradition (Byzantine and Orthodox) celebrates Pentecost in green, the symbol of abundant life. A particular vivid example of this is Patriarch Krill’s celebration of this Pentecost posted on the NLM

    http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2011/06/russian-orthodox-patriarch-makes-all.html

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  3. Jack Rakosky

    NLM had an explanation of green as a liturgical color for Pentecost last year.

    http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/05/pentecost-variations.html

    I guess all of us who prefer Sundays after Pentecost to Ordinary Time can think of green is really being for Pentecost!

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