The liturgists who revised our liturgy after the 2nd Vatican Council saw these days— the 7th week of the Easter season— as a novena preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They filled these days with powerful reflections on the Holy Spirit from the Fathers of the Church, Augustine, Basil the Great, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyril of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Hilary of Poitier. Great teachers of our church, who assure us the Holy Spirit is with us. We have them in our Office of Readings all this week. I’m letting them speak in this blog each day.

In the Eucharist these days we hear Jesus praying, praying for us,  promising to send the Spirit to lead us to all truth. And we listen to him;  he strengthens our faith.

But let’s listen also to Paul in the Acts of the Apostles we read today. He may be particularly pertinent for understanding the way the Spirit is with us in our day.  

Paul’s on his way to Jerusalem. He says he is “compelled by the Spirit” but he’s not quite sure what’ going to happen next. There are “ hints”, signs of hardship and suffering ahead. Hints,  but nothing clear, nothing certain. Some intimations maybe, but nothing like the strong winds and burning fire we usually associate with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Signs of power and persuasion. Instead the signs point to hardship and suffering.

Are these the signs we have?

What matters for us is that, like Paul, even if the way isn’t clear, even if the signs are dark, we have to “finish the race and complete the service assigned to us by the Lord Jesu, to bear witness to the gospel of God’s grace.”

At this time the early followers of Jesus gathered after he ascended into heaven. They were people from Galilee. They remembered the good days when  crowds flocked to Jesus in the towns he visited. They saw him, they ate with him, they prayed with him, they followed him. Like Mary Magdalene, they cling to him.

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They say. They have hopes, but their hopes are shaped by what was and what they knew.“

It is not for you to know the times or seasons” Jesus tells them. It’s God’s plan, not yours. God is at work.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” The followers of Jesus went back from the Mount of Olives with nothing more than an instruction to wait for the Holy Spirit. The times were changing.

We may be more like those first followers of Jesus than we think.

And what did these first followers of Jesus do? “They went to the upper room where they were staying…And they devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus,” Acts 1:13-14)

Is what they did something unique to them and to their time? Or do they point out what  we must do in times of great change like ours.

We must pray together. We must prayerfully listen to the world we live in, to the church, and to one another. 

When it’s time the Spirit will speak.