Pentecost
May 24, 2026
I love Pentecost because it is a celebration of the Holy Spirit, and I find myself relating much more deeply to the idea of the Holy Spirit than to the traditional Christian images of God. In Christianity, God is often portrayed as a distant, judging, male authority figure. The Holy Spirit, by contrast, feels to me like a more intimate and nurturing presence — the divine within us that inspires, guides, and transforms us. Also, to me the Holy Spirit is the female aspect of the Trinity.
In April I had the fortune of participating in Jeanne Marcus’ wonderful School for Christian Growth class on Interspirituality. For those unfamiliar with the term, “Interspiritual” is a word that was coined by Wayne Teasdale, a Christian contemplative and writer, to describe the shared mystical and spiritual core found within all religious traditions, past and present. His classic book, The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, explores this vision of universal spirituality. His interfaith perspective is illustrated by the fact that he asked the Dalai Lama to write the forward to his book,
Because I so enjoyed Jeanne’s class, I decided to approach the subject of the Holy Spirit today from an Interspiritual perspective. This matters especially on Pentecost, when the church remembers not an image of God the patriarch, but an experience of God within and a force that unites people in spite of their differences. Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit on Pentacost, people who spoke entirely different languages suddenly found themselves able to understand one another. The Holy Spirit does not arrive as a distant authority to be obeyed, but as an indwelling presence that moves through us and connects us to others.
So today I want to elaborate on the image of the Holy Spirit as an inner experience, not just for Christians but for people of all religious persuasions. I believe that if we widen our perspective beyond that which is conveyed in Christian doctrine, the idea of a divine or animating “spirit” can be seen as a universal and recurring human insight. It is expressed differently across cultures but always points to a shared sense that life itself is infused with something sacred. I did some research on different notions of the Holy Spirit and will tell you a little about what I learned.
- Many Indigenous spiritual traditions embrace the concept of a “Great Spirit,” or what the Lakota sometimes call the “Great Mystery,” which is a term I really like. How the Great Spirit works is indeed a mystery. For the Lakota and in many other indigenous traditions, this Spirit is encountered through harmony with nature, respect for ancestors, and communal rituals. It is less about belief and more about having the right relationship to the earth and one’s community.
- Hinduism has a term, “prana,” that refers to the divine energy that sustains all living beings. Certain traditions within Hinduism also speak of God’s presence entering the heart, guiding and sustaining in ways that sound similar to descriptions of the Christian Holy Spirit.
- Buddhism, especially in its early forms, does not center on a creator God or a divine spirit in the same way as Christianity. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that it lacks any comparable idea. Instead of a personal spirit, Buddhism emphasizes dharma (the truth or law of reality) and the insight that all things arise in interconnection. In Mahayana Buddhism, concepts like Buddha-nature suggest that all beings possess an inherent potential for awakening—a kind of inner spiritual presence.
- In Islam the Holy Spirit is an agent of divine communication. The aspect of the divine closest to the Holy Spirit is generally understood as a sacred force or messenger through which God acts in the world. This force is described as strengthening and guiding prophets, bringing wisdom, truth, and divine inspiration. In an interspiritual gesture, the Koran also says that this spirit supported Jesus, enabling him to perform miracles and speak truth. In Islamic mysticism, especially within Sufism, the imagery of spirit often symbolizes the intimate nearness of God, the awakening of the soul, and the divine energy that awakens human beings to compassion and unity.
- In traditional Chinese thought, especially within Taoism, the concept of chi plays a central role. Chi is the vital energy that flows through all things—the cosmos, the body, and the natural world. Health, harmony, and spiritual balance all depend on the proper flow of this energy. While chi is not a “spirit” in the personal sense of the Christian Holy Spirit, it is an unseen yet real force that animates and sustains life.
- In Shintoism, the traditional spirituality of Japan, the world is alive with spirits or presences that inhabit natural features like mountains, rivers, trees, and even ancestral lines. These are not abstract forces but particular, localized expressions of sacred presence. While there is no direct equivalent to the Holy Spirit as a single, unified entity, there is the belief that the divine permeates the natural world, creating what we often call thin places where we can catch a glimpse of the divine.
- In ancient Greek thought, particularly among the Stoics, the concept of pneuma referred to the spirit that pervades the cosmos and dwells in the soul. Interestingly, early Christian writers adopted this same word (pneuma) to describe the Holy Spirit.
- In Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, there is a concept that is often translated as the “Holy Spirit” or “Bounteous Spirit.” This represents the creative and life-giving aspect of the supreme God, Ahura Mazda.
- In Sikhism, a more recent monotheistic tradition, there is a strong emphasis on the presence of Godas both transcendent and immanent. God’s essence is thought to dwell within the heart of the believer, guiding them toward truth, humility, and service.
Across these traditions, differences matter, of course. The Holy Spirit in Christianity is uniquely personal, explicitly divine, and rooted in the narrative of Christ and the Trinity. Other traditions do not simply “give the same thing a different name.” Their frameworks, practices, and conclusions are distinct. But the parallels are difficult to ignore. Breath. Wind. Life-force. Indwelling presence. Transformation. Guidance. Interconnection. These themes appear again and again, as if we humans keep reaching for language to describe an encounter just beyond our understanding. Across cultures and centuries, human beings have returned again and again to the intuition that life is animated, guided, or infused by a sacred presence. Each tradition names and describes this presence differently. Some describe something deeply personal and others something more like a principle or energy or an attribute of the natural world. The differences are important but the recurring themes are also important: breath, life, energy, presence, transformation, guidance, and connection.
On this holy day of Pentecost let us remember that the gift of the Holy Spirit was not simply that people understood the different languages spoken. The true miracle was that strangers began to understand one another. People from different nations, cultures, histories, and experiences suddenly recognized each other not as enemies or outsiders, but as fellow human beings gathered together in the presence of the sacred.
Today, we live in a world divided by politics, ideology, fear, race, religion, nationality, and suspicion. People often speak past one another instead of listening deeply and retreat into camps of anger and certainty. But Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit still moves among us. The Holy Spirit still breaks down barriers. The Holy Spirit still teaches us how to hear the humanity in another person’s voice, even when they speak from a different culture, a different experience, or a different worldview. The Spirit still calls us beyond fear and toward love.
So today I pray to the Holy Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit. Breathe upon this wounded and divided world. Move through places torn apart by war, bitterness, prejudice, and fear. Move through our nations, our communities, our families, and our own hearts. Melt the hardness that feeds resentment and suspicion. Quiet the voices within all of us that rush to judge, condemn, or dismiss one another. Teach us all how to listen with humility instead of reacting with anger. Teach us how to see one another not as categories, political opponents, strangers, or threats, but as sacred human beings carrying hopes, wounds, fears, and dreams much like our own. Open our hearts wide enough to hold compassion for those we do not fully understand. Remind us all that every language, every culture, every tradition carries something beautiful and necessary into the human story.
May the fire of Pentecost burn away our indifference and awaken all of us from the illusion that we are separate from one another. May that holy fire purify all our hearts of hatred, arrogance, and fear, and create within us a deeper longing for justice, mercy, reconciliation, and peace. The flames of Pentecost were flames of illumination—lights revealing that God’s Spirit lives within all people and every culture. The Holy Spirit did not erase human differences; it transformed them from sources of division into opportunities for connection and understanding.
And may the Holy Spirit now gather all the people of the earth together—not into sameness, but into a sacred unity that honors diversity while binding us together in compassion and mutual care. And may future generations look back and say that in a time of great division, humanity chose love over fear, understanding over hatred, and hope over despair.
Amen.