catherine Marshall: The Helper

June 10, 2025 joanna seibert

Catherine Marshall: The Helper

“When we try it on our own, we are seeking to usurp the Helper’s place. The result of attempting in the flesh to convict another of sin is wreckage—defensiveness, anger, estrangement, loss of self-worth, defeatism, depression—whereas, when the Spirit does this corrective work, it is ‘good’ hurt, the kind that leaves no damage, that never plunges us into despair or hopelessness but is always healing in the end.”—Catherine Marshall in The Helper (Chosen Books, 1978), pp. 214-215.

Over forty-five years ago, when our medical practice at Children’s Hospital was just starting, my husband and I were not as busy and could go downtown for lunch, and then perhaps browse Cokesbury Bookstore before returning to the hospital.

One day, I saw a book by Catherine Marshall, titled The Helper, on the front sales table for $2. I remembered that she had written A Man Called Peter about her husband, a Scottish immigrant who became the chaplain of the United States Senate but died prematurely. I particularly loved the movie, so I could not resist the bargain. I paid the two dollars, and it changed my life.

I did not understand the Holy Spirit. Then, suddenly, I was presented with a part of God that I could relate to—one who was always with me. However, I had great difficulty relating to God, the Father, and Jesus. One was a kind older man with a beard in the sky, and the other was some kind of television evangelist flipping through the Bible who wanted to save me.

For years, I held on to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper, always beside me, guiding me if I chose. This sustained me for a long time until I could have a deeper relationship with the other two parts of the Trinity.

I am constantly amazed by how God, the Holy Spirit, works: a Presbyterian minister’s daughter I would never meet who grew up in Keyser, West Virginia, with my father, the son of the Methodist minister in the area, a slow-time in our practice; a Methodist bookstore; a bargain table; a New York Times bestseller; a movie; and two dollars.

My favorite story by Catherine Marshall was about answered prayer. She prayed for patience, and God gave her the slowest possible housekeeper.

I wept when I heard of Catherine Marshall’s death at age sixty-eight in 1983, just before Holy Week.

Thank you for supporting our camp and conference center, Camp Mitchell, on top of Petit Jean Mountain, by buying this book in the daily series of writings for the liturgical year, A Daily Spiritual Rx for Ordinary Time: Readings from Pentecost to Advent. All proceeds from the sale of the books go to Camp Mitchell. If you enjoy this book, could you please take a moment to write a brief recommendation on its Amazon page? https://smile.amazon.com/Daily-Spiritual-Ordinary-Time-Pentecost/dp/B08JLTZYGH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=joanna+seibert+books&qid=1621104335&sr=8-1

More thank-you’s than we can say!!!

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Pentecost Continues

June 9, 2025 joanna seibert

Pentecost Continues

“When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” —John 20:22.

We are now into the season after Pentecost, remembering and celebrating that the Spirit was given to us on the Day of Pentecost. If you want to see what happened that day when the Spirit moved through a large room of people who did not have a clue what was happening, watch the video of Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the morning of Pentecost Eve.

Usually, the minister’s words at a wedding are called a homily, a short sermon, but as one of the British commentators puts it, Curry’s message is an actual sermon—and it is all about love. He first reminds us that when two people fall in love, nearly the whole world shows up, as it did that Saturday morning. That is how important love is.

Bishop Curry reminds us that love has the energy of fire, and his enthusiastic, passionate words are indeed comparable to the Pentecost flames running through St. George’s Chapel on that day. It appears as though Bishop Curry is so filled with the Spirit that he has to keep holding on to his lectern to stay in place.

His body language signals that he wants to move closer and reach out more directly to the young couple and his congregation. As you watch people’s faces, you can tell they have no idea what to do with him or his barnstorming message. They look mystified, amused, indignant, comical, questioning. Some look down at their program, so others cannot see what they are thinking. Others glance at their neighbors to seek a clue about what is happening. Some almost fall out of their chairs! Some look at Curry as if they are mesmerized.

Perhaps the ones who seem to understand his message best are indeed the royal wedding couple themselves—especially Meghan, who beams a radiant smile with an occasional twinkle through the whole sermon.

Bishop Curry’s presentation and delivery are not given in the British style, but his message of love is true to his Anglican and African roots. He speaks out of his African American tradition, drawing from his ancestors in slavery and out of his training in an Episcopal style that Americans modified from the Anglican form. Curry speaks his truth, which comes from deep inside of him—as all these traditions mesh and kindle tongues of fire from the power of love that flames around the world.

Curry is an excellent role model of what it is like to be filled with the Spirit. With Pentecost fire, we have no choice but to speak the truth. Many people will be clueless about what we are saying, but everyone who receives us will be changed in some way.

Bishop Curry also reminds us that the truth from God should always be about love: loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our neighbor. Period.

I have so enjoyed our journey together through Lent and Easter, and I look forward to our new adventure through the season after Pentecost.

Happy Pentecost.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

More thank-you’s than we can say!!!

Day of Pentecost

June 8, 2025 joanna seibert

Pentecost

“When the Day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind.”—Acts 2:1-2.

“ … [Jesus] breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” —John 20:22.

Barbara Brown Taylor1 describes two versions of Pentecost: the gentle breeze in John, as Jesus breathes into the few disciples fearfully gathered on the night of his resurrection, and the violent wind of Pentecost described in Acts, as the Holy Spirit sweeps in, with tongues of fire hovering over at least a hundred people.

The disciples at the gentle wind Pentecost are commissioned to take the Spirit out into the world. The ministry assigned to the violent wind disciples is to seek to fan the Spirit already present in the world. Taylor challenges us in our congregations to emulate the disciples in both Pentecost stories: those of the gentle breeze and those of the violent wind. Both groups are commissioned to find the Holy Spirit within themselves and others and to take it out of their churches and into the world.

The same is true of the Spirit, the Christ, within us. We are called to connect with that Spirit within us and then go out and connect with the Christ in others. If we don’t, we are like the disciples in John’s scenario—locked up in a dark room for fear of losing what we have. Only when we connect our Spirit to the Christ in others do we know the peace, joy, and love we are seeking. Our view of God also becomes larger as we become aware of the magnitude of God’s creation and love.

Barbara Brown Taylor, “God’s Breath” in Journal for Preachers, Pentecost 2003, pp. 37-40.

Happy Pentecost.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

More thank-you’s than we can say!!!