Tag: breath

John | The communion of breath

The breath-wind-spirit of God is an invitation to deep communion. (Listen here.)

One thing I learned from my middle child is this: horses greet one another by exchanging breath. Some time later I met Poppy. She gently leaned her muzzle against my forehead. We breathed once, twice, three times, and my whole being filled with an awareness of the goodness of fresh grass and clean hay and the exuberant muscular joy of galloping over a hillside. It was one of the more powerful experiences I have had of communion.

Continue reading “John | The communion of breath” →

Pentecost | God’s holy breath

The breath poured into the early disciples fills the earth even now. (Listen.)

Take a deep breath. The thing is this: The atmosphere which blankets our beloved wounded blue-green planet is a closed system. Nothing goes in; nothing goes out. For millions of years, the exhalations of swamp gas and the inhalations of dinosaurs and the exhalations of leafy plants and the inhalations of Neanderthals and the exhalations of soft mosses and the inhalations of swallowtails have been going around and around and around. Continue reading “Pentecost | God’s holy breath” →

Blow through me, Breath of God

Did you know that, in both Greek and Hebrew, the word we translate as ‘spirit’ means ‘air-in-movement’? In Hebrew, it’s the feminine ruah, or breath, which hovers over the waters of chaos in Genesis. In Greek, it’s the gender neutral pneuma which descends from heaven and fills Jesus’ disciples. You get a sense of the Greek word from the English words ‘pneumatic’ (containing air), and my ten-year-old’s favourite word: ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’, a condition seriously restricting air flow caused by the inhalation of silicate, possibly from a volcano. Phew! Continue reading “Blow through me, Breath of God” →

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