One of the concrete ways in which we live the call to Christian Unity here at St. Monica’s is through the practice of “receptive ecumenism”. This means being willing to value, learn from, and make use of ideas, insights, and resources coming to us from other Christian churches. In her Coffee and Conversation series, our adult faith coordinator Anna Diodati sings the praises of NOOMA: short films with reflection guides, created by Evangelical Pastor Rob Bell. We also use them for our parents’ meetings for sacramental preparation. They always lead to a most fruitful discussion!

In today’s Gospel, “Jesus, filled with the Spirit”, returns to his hometown in Nazareth. He opens the scroll of Isaiah, associating to his own ministry the fulfilment of the prophet’s words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for God has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives, new sight to the blind, and a year of the Lord’s favour.” In Jesus, we too receive the promised Holy Spirit. We know that in Baptism and Confirmation, God’s Spirit is implanted deep within us, filling us with gifts that contribute to the building up of the community. But how conscious are we of the Spirit’s movement within us?

In our meeting this week with the parents of the children preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation, we used the NOOMA video “BREATHE” to help us address this question: Is our physical breath actually a picture of a deeper spiritual reality?

With everything that we've got going on every day, how many of us ever think about our breathing? Yet, for thousands of years, people have understood that our physical breath is a picture of a deeper spiritual reality. In the Bible, the word for "breath" is the same as the word for "spirit." There's an inherent dilemma at the core of what makes us human. We've all been created in the image of God and possess immense power and strength. And at the same time, our lives are incredibly vulnerable and fragile. Maybe if we had more insight into the meaning of breathing, we would better understand how God created us as human beings.

Some pronounce the Name of God ‘Yahweh’,’ although in many traditions the name isn’t even pronounced, because it’s considered so sacred, mysterious, and holy. The ancient rabbis believed that these letters actually functioned as vowels in the Hebrew language: that they were breathing sounds, and that ultimately the name is unpronounceable because the letters together are the sound of breathing. Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh. Is the name of God the sound of our breath?

May you come to see that God is here, right now, with us all of the time.

Like Moses, may you come to see that the ground you are standing on is indeed holy ground.

And as you slow down, may you become aware that it is in ‘Yod,’ ‘Heh,’ ‘Vav,’ ‘Heh’ that we live, and we move, and we breathe.