Where can I go then from your spirit
or where can I flee from your presence (Psalm 139:6)

I once got into a lot of trouble with the good nuns. I hid in a chest in the chapel and made ghastly moaning noises. When discovered, I claimed I was the Holy Ghost, which seemed to me a funny idea. I’m not sure my theological understanding of the Spirit has progressed much since then, but my capacity to seek for it has increased as I have grown older. My soul is captured by the mystery when Genesis speaks of the spirit of God moving over the face of the deep: God eternally present, hovering over the world and light and life come next. My loneliness is consoled when the psalmist assures us that no matter where we might stray, the spirit of God is always present.

I find that the concept of the Spirit is curiously acceptable in a secular world. People are more in tune with a creative Spirit than a creator God. There is a greater common recognition of the unknown force that prompts such responses as generosity, kindness, goodness, forgiveness and peacefulness; qualities traditionally taught as the fruits of the Spirit, but widely seen as goodness at work in humankind. What more cogent prayer for today could there be than the plea:

Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created,
and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)