Day 5: Ascension, prelude to Pentecost

Acts 1: 6-8

‘So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'

Luke 24: 49

‘And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.'

It is because Jesus Christ had returned to the Father that the Holy Spirit was able to descend upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost (John 16: 7). The Spirit fills Jesus' place for his disciples: it is our strength, until the end of time!

Into the hands of He without whom nothing would be, let us send up our prayers for the needs of our brothers and sisters across the world. Believing in the promise of Christ to send the Holy Spirit let us pray: Awaken in the hearts of global leaders a sense of responsibility to serve their citizens, that they may seek to implement measures of fairness in order to develop a more humane and fraternal society.

Cardinal Godfried Daneels' Prayer on the morning of the Ascension

Lord Jesus, when you ascended into heaven, the angels said to the eleven: “Do not stay there looking at the heavens!”

But forty days earlier, by the tomb, did not the same angels say to the women: “Do not look downwards! He is not here. He is risen.”?

Would it not have been fickle of the angels to change their minds so quickly?

What are we to do Lord Jesus: look downwards towards the earth or upwards towards the heavens?

Toward both, You tell us: “I am in heaven, so look upwards to me and pray. But I am also on earth in the poor, the weak, the ill and sinners. You still have so much to do down there, for them and for me, at least for the time being.

Lord Jesus, make us look to the heavens, without forgetting the earth, and vice versa. For every time that we do something on earth to serve one of our brothers whom you created, it is indeed You whom we are serving.

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! 43 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