Day 0: By our baptism, we have become temples of the Spirit

The Ascension of the Lord refers to the moment when Jesus was raised up to heaven, after having suffered on the cross and after his Resurrection from the dead.

40 days after Easter Sunday, so we spread this great event of our salvation out over an extended period. 40 days after Easter and it's still Easter!!! And this season lasts until Pentecost.

Ascension Day marks the end of the physical presence of Jesus Christ on earth, but he does not abandon us since he promises to send the Holy Spirit. So this preparation for the Ascension and for Pentecost turns our hearts towards heaven and awakens our thirst to receive the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, during this novena leading up to the Ascension, let us be houses of prayer or temples of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says. We are made by God and for God. Pentecost is the birth of the Church! The apostles, when they had received the Spirit, realised that they were the Church… and what about us? Are we aware of being the Church, and of being Temples of the Holy Spirit?

We undertake this preparation in order to help us to turn our hearts not towards the heavens as the apostles did when they saw Jesus being lifted up from them, but towards the heaven inside of us, that place where the Spirit dwells, where God has chosen to establish his dwelling place. The term ‘temple' implies a place of worship: so let us, in this Eastertide, be ever more fully transformed into a house of prayer, ‘If anyone loves me, we will come to him and make our home with him.' (John 14: 23)

St Paul talks about our body in this way: ‘Do you not know that your body is the temple of God?' (1 Cor 3:16).

Jesus himself spoke of his body in this way, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again … He was speaking of the temple of his body.' (John 2:21)

Having been justified by the death and Resurrection of Our Lord, and purified by the discipline of the 40 days of Lent, only a few days until the end of these 40 days after the Resurrection, let us reflect on this mystery whereby Jesus did not leave us alone but, quite the opposite, he is very close to us, in us. It is we who have become his eyes, his hands …

Come back tomorrow for the first day of the novena!

Let's pray

Lord Jesus Christ, may my prayer rise up from the depth of my being, amidst the weight of my flesh and my history! Allow me to find you there. You the Risen one, and may I make my own this Good News that I am a temple of your Spirit.

Community prayer

Prayer in preparation to Ascension (Father Jean-Louis Barre)

You ascended into heaven, risen Lord, but without leaving us, for your life has triumphed over all our dead, your victory has triumphed over all our defeats. Oh my Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Father, you are also near each one of us, being one with us, to accompany us in this fight to lead for the reign of the Kingdom of Our Father in heaven. Jesus now present in all the tabernacles of the world, as the Apostle of the Father, you lead us in your adoration in spirit and in truth. And you carry us higher and higher in your ascent to the Father, drawing us from our hells that you have trapped by burying yourself in there. Jesus of the ascension you have reserved for yourself the descent into the pit of our impasses that enclose us to open a path to freedom by your return to the Father who can see us only in you. And in this mercy, you draw us upward, ever higher in the splendors of heaven. O blessed are you Lord of my darkness where you have buried yourself like a leaven of light that burst the old skins filled with a new wine for the sake of a new heaven and a new earth. Through your Spirit, give me to descend into this hollow of faults where the Adversary seeks to hold me, so that I can cry out to you: "My Lord and my God, always give me absolution and preserve me from mortal sin. With Mother Mary, I allow myself to be drawn into the paths of conversion and love that hasten your return to Glory, because you can no longer resist the calls of the members of your body, for whom you have given your life forever. Yes, Risen Lord, your ascension makes us wait and hope in the Immaculate Heart of Mary your ultimate coming from above as a descent into our humanity which reaches by this last coming, its fulfillment where all is attracted, joined, united, because God will always be all in all. Amen Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!

Thank you! 41 people prayed

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Col 4:6