TEN Prayerful Days in the Upper Room

“Pray fervently and fruitfully along with the disciples in the Upper Room“

On the Sunday, after ten days, on the Feast of Holy Ascension, the Church celebrates the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Before ascending the heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ’s final promise and last order to the apostles and the disciples as well as the close followers was to wait in Jerusalem, for the Holy Spirit, the promise of God the Father. (Luke 24: 49, Acts 1: 8) to become His witnesses all over the world.

Why did the Holy Spirit not come while Christ was present, or even immediately after His departure, but rather after 10 days? The disciples had to wait 10 days to receive the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

Why did the Lord want them to pray and wait? “It was fit that they should first be brought to have a longing desire for that event, and so receive the grace. For this reason, Christ Himself departed, and then the Spirit descended. It is the same with us also; for our desires towards God are then most raised, when we stand in need.” (St. John Chrysostom)

The Apostles obeyed Christ command. From the Mount of Olives, the disciples and other went straight to this Upper Room according to Christ’s farewell command to them, to wait there. In this sense let us obey His command and start our journey to the Upper Room. The disciples were united, hoping, praying, trusting, and believing in the words of Jesus and on the tenth day in that upper room, the promise was fulfilled. The Church was born in the upper room.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit was to mark the birth of the infant Church and for ten days Apostolic Band with early Church of 120 people, were gathered in the place of united prayer, until the heavens were opened, and they were all “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: 4). It was an incredible, magnificent, powerful, divine, supernatural, awe-inspiring and faith building experience!

The First Church Prayerful Prepared: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). It was a repetition or a prolongation of the preparation and prayer through which Jesus of Nazareth prepared for the descent of the Holy Spirit, at the moment of His Baptism in the Jordan, prior to the beginning of His messianic mission. Jesus’ prayer in the desert, shows that it is indispensable to pray for the timely reception of “the perfect gift from above” (James 1: 17). The community of the apostles and of the first disciples had to prepare for the reception of this very gift which comes from above, the Holy Spirit who was to initiate the mission of Christ’s Church on earth. The Church must act in like manner. She joins herself to that assembly of the apostles in prayer together with Christ’s Mother. In this sense let us prayerfully prepare in the Upper Room.

Their prayer was with ‘one accord and one mind’. This detail indicates that an important transformation had already taken place in the hearts of the apostles. It was a sign that Jesus’ priestly prayer had begun to bear fruit. In that prayer Jesus had asked for the unity of his disciples “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us” (Jn. 17:21). Throughout all ages and in every Christian generation this prayer of Christ for the unity of the Church is always relevant. In this sense let us continue to remain with earnest, heartfelt prayers that will go up to heaven from the Upper Room. The Lord tells us that His will is not accomplished by human strength or power but by His Spirit (Zech. 4: 6).

Their Prayer was Persevering: the community of the apostles devoted themselves to prayer’. It was not therefore a prayer of momentary exaltation. It was a prayer of the most complete dedication not only of the heart but also of the will. The apostles were aware of the task that awaited them. Their prayer was a fruit of the interior action of the Holy Spirit, for it is he who urges to prayer and helps one to be devoted to prayer. If the gifts of the Spirit are manifold, it must be said that during the period in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was already at work in the secrecy of prayer, so that on the day of Pentecost they might be ready to receive this great and “decisive” gift, by means of which the life of Christ’s Church was to begin definitively on earth. In this sense let the Holy Spirit take our prayers beyond the ceiling of the Upper Room.

The Holy Church has separated and set apart the 10 days from the Ascension of our Lord (Swargarohana Perunnal) till the Pentecost. The disciples were together in the upper room praying and waiting for ten days between Ascension and Pentecost. So Let us have earnest and special meditations, prayers, lent and if possible fasting also to get abundant supply and enrichment of Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Lord does not give us the fullness of His Spirit in a single moment. He makes us wait. The very act of waiting and longing for God’s Spirit to dwell in us more fully, expresses our poverty, our emptiness, our need. It is only under this condition of being “poor in spirit” that the Lord can come and dwell in us richly. It is when we empty ourselves that the Spirit can fill us. Our waiting must be as real and urgent as that of the disciples in the Upper Room, and surely the Lord will fulfill His promise. “Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!” (Ps. 27: 14).

Let us wait, pray fervently and fruitfully along with the disciples in the Upper Room for the Holy Spirit to come in its fullness. Let every Christian have a shut door of upper room, let Church pray together and in one accord. May God bless us and our entire Church, entire mankind, and the entire universe!!!