When I was a young whippersnapper being indoctrinated into a religion, what held my attention most were the mystical teachings — the very aspects that couldn't be explained in any language: virgin birth, rising into heaven, angels appearing, conversations with Satan... all much more interesting than no meat on Fridays.

The "gift of tongues" particularly captured my imagination. I first noticed it in that basic love-everybody Bible teaching: "If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." What's a seven or even nine-year-old supposed to make of those lofty words? I presumed the first part was about loving everybody in any language, but it wasn't until I became aware of politically-affiliated churches (or is it church-affiliated politics?) many years later that the last part began to make sense.

I don't know what language angels speak in, but my childhood vision was of the apostles brilliantly holding forth in the prevailing language as soon as they hopped off the boat on some foreign shore. Of course, back in those days they didn't travel nearly as far or as easily as we do, so the advantages weren't quite as obvious. Imagine landing in Greece today and instantly being able to order spanakopita like a native. Or arriving in Tokyo and not having to struggle to find an address.

Right here in the U.S., we continue to speak in tongues. Whether it's Shino, Japanese, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic or even "a mighty wind," for some reason communicating in a language other than our native one seems to deepen our sense of connection to the Divine... at least in the world of organized religion.

It's kind of interesting that advertising messages and much of our popular music have largely degenerated to the level of yo, dude, yet our prayers are still so exotic. What language does Spirit speak?