When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speak in his own language. (Acts 2: 6)

Pentecost is a remarkable time when, as the scriptures tell us, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they saw tongues of fire and spoke to the diverse crowd so that each person in the group understood what was being said in their own language. The people were amazed that these men from Galilee could speak so fluently in a language that an hour before had baffled them.

The people in the crowd were a diverse group representing cultures from all over the known world, each with a native language that differed from the others, yet God overpowered the cultural separation of languages in such a way that everyone who heard understood.

In today’s world, our “cultural languages” are just as diverse, particularly in the realm of religious denominations. Could it be that, through the new Pentecost, the Holy Spirit guides each of us in our own “language,” speaking to each heart in a Catholic tongue, or a Baptist tongue, or whichever language opens your heart to spiritual leading?

I believe that there is no given denomination or spiritual culture that is totally right or totally wrong. Just as God’s world is diverse in color and life, so the spiritual realm holds room for individual understanding and “spiritual languages.”

Holy God of diversity, may your Holy Spirit speak to me in “my tongue” that I may draw closer in understanding to You, and may I respect the understandings of “tongues” I do not comprehend.