It's the merry month of May! The month traditionally devoted to Mary and ushered in by Morris dancing, in which a hawthorn known as the may blossoms. And I
sooo wanted to illustrate this month's calendar with the may! There's plenty of it, growing along the A40, but impossible to snap photos of it whilst hurtling along at over 60mph! I then had a fruitless wander around University Parks, finding all manner of trees and bushes with white blossoms, but none of them were may. But fortunately, they have a may tree at
Llannerchwen, and Steph, who is an excellent photographer, sent me a few photos, from which I have selected not the usual one, but two, to make up for this month's calendar being late.
This is also the month in which we usually celebrate Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit. So it was very appropriate that this month's Pauline epistle should be Galatians, because it contains a lovely description of that outpouring, at 5: 22-23, 25
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things... If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
We so often refer to the gifts and fruits (in the plural) of the Spirit, that I was struck by the fact that Paul actually wrote about the fruit (singular). So it isn't a case of "the fruits" - a list of qualities, any one or two of which we might acquire... it's "the fruit", an abundant harvest, containing all of the above! A whole package, not a pick and mix. And it does make sense: a loving person is also kind, faithful and generous, a patient person is also gentle and self-controlled and so on. So this month as we lead up to Pentecost, let's pray for an outpouring of the "fruit" of the Spirit, in its entirety, on ourselves and our Church, and on all those we love.
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