Gifts and Fruits Of The Holy Spirit

A Pentecost Poem from Hildegard De Bingen here.

and this one from R.S. Thomas  

Pilgrimages

Fingal's Cave, Staffa near Iona


 "There is an island there is no going
to but in a small boat, the way
the saints went, travelling the gallery
of the frightened faces of
the long-drowned, munching the gravel
of its beaches. 

So I have gone
up the salt lane to the building
with the stone altar, and the candles
gone out, and kneeled and lifted
my eyes to the furious gargoyle
of the owl that is like a god
gone small and resentful. 

There is no body in the stained window
of the sky now. Am I too late?
Were they too late also, those
first pilgrims? 
He is such a fast
God, always before us, and
leaving as we arrive.

There are those here
not given to prayer, whose office
is the blank sea that they say daily.
What they listen to is not
hymns, but the slow chemistry of the soil,
that turns saints' bones into dust,
dust to an irritant of the nostril.

There is no time on this island.

The swinging pendulum of the tide
has no clock; the events
are dateless. These people are not
late or soon; they are just
here, with only the one question
to ask, which life answers
by being in them. 
It is I
who ask. 

Was the pilgrimage
I made to come to my own
self, to learn that, in times
like these, and for one like me,
God will never be plain and
out there, but dark rather, and
inexplicable, as though he were in here?"

"Pilgrimages" by R. S. Thomas

The poem by Thomas may sum up some of the the fears that we can never live up to bearing the fruits of the Spirit , but in a way, it dissolves in its own doubts to provide the answer when it says : " He is such a fast God, always before us, and leaving as we arrive. 

This is the elusive and playful Spirit of God that beckons me in Pentecost , that I desire to trust and follow, that is untamed and free.

This is a beautiful reflection on Pentecost
The Call to Holy Surprise here by Christine Valters Painter. 

Nine  Fruits of The Holy Spirit