Remember on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, when God’s Holy Spirit anointed the disciples, and the crowds thought they were drunk because of their exuberance.(Acts 2:1-21) That seems to be the picture the author of today’s epistle lesson has in mind as he urges them and us to be “filled with the Spirit.” Experiencing the joy and delight of the presence of the Divine inspires us with praise and thanksgiving that we may express in any number of ways, perhaps in “singing and making melody,” perhaps in other ways of sharing our faith, of incarnating God’s love in our lives. The phrase that pulls me up short is “giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything.” It is easy, of course, to give God thanks and praise for all the blessings in our lives, for the consolations we recognize are from the Holy One, for the affirmations that we are on the right path, for grace when we are so undeserving. But there are all those other things we experience in life, the pain, the disillusionment, the rejection, the betrayal, the loss of whatever is important to us, and on and on. They too are part of “everything,” but how can we be thankful for such misery, for “all the times” in our lives when we have been so distressed? Richard Rohr, in his book Everything Belongs, helps by assuring us, first of all, that God is with us in all the circumstances and situations of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. He goes on to point out that the Beloved uses whatever comes our way to draw us into deeper relationship with God. Rohr suggests, for example, we remember those times we thought were abysmal that in retrospect we can see were blessings in disguise. When we are filled with the Spirit, when we realize that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rms.8:39), when we come to see God at work in our lives in “everything” and “at all times,” our hearts are filled with gratitude and spill over in praise and thanksgiving in all we say and do.