Genesis 11:4, 6-7
“Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves…’  But…the Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’”

 Acts 2:3-4, 6-7
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them…When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?’”

 Hebrews 1:3a
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Word of God, you speak all of creation into shape and form.

United in the Trinity, you are the single voice of truth.  Yet in our desire to build monuments to our own glory we corrupt our conversation with rivalry, bitterness and anger.

Redeem our speech so that we raise your name to the heights.  May our every utterance be pleasing to you because we have built a foundation on the Word.

We ask this in the name of Christ, who embodied the foreign language of love as our gift of the Spirit.

Listen to ‘Joy Brand New’ by Ordinary Time