Pentecost Ben

By Mary Anne O'Connor
April 2003

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Gifts of the Spirit fill you, gentle Ben
Patience, kindness, generosity, joy
All encapsuled in you
Are you aware? No!
Perhaps your non-awareness
Is the key
To such gifts being placed in you
For you are totally without guile
No demands
Humility walking life's path
Simplicity and purity of heart, your cloak
Creation, your walk

In the world's view
You are low
Not rationally intelligent
Not politically astute
Not physically apt nor powerful
Not worthy of notice

Ah! But you, my child-witness
Are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led!
You are Pentecost for me, young Ben
Testimony to God's merciful
And upside-down
Kind of loving

As a Scarboro lay missioner from 1990 to 1998, Mary Anne O'Connor served in the Philippines, Brazil and in Canada. In "Pentecost Ben" she writes about a child, like so many she walked with in mission, whose joy surpassed their difficult lives. Mary Anne now teaches in Mexico.

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