Day 7 of the Ascension to Pentecost series is live.
Today we are sitting with Mary in the Upper Room. Acts 1:14 names her explicitly and separately, and Jacob of Serugh helps us understand why.
At the Annunciation, the Spirit came to her alone. In the Upper Room, she prays that He might come to all.
She is not a bystander at Pentecost. She is its intercessory heart.
Two days until Pentecost. The fire is very close now.
Day 3: Ascension to Pentecost Reflections for the Days of Waiting
“The Church is not a society of the perfect. She is a community of those who wait together for the perfection that only the Spirit can bring.”
— Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios
A reflection on Acts 1:13-15, the Upper Room community of one hundred and twenty, and what the Indian Orthodox and Syriac patristic tradition teaches us about gathered, communal waiting as the context in which the Spirit chooses to work. From the Oriental Orthodox blog Seeking Theosis, rooted in the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Syriac patristic tradition.
We begin today nine days of waiting, from the Ascension to Pentecost, and Seeking Theosis will be posting a short reflection for each of these days drawn from our Syriac Fathers and the liturgical tradition of our Church.
Today’s reflection centres on a beautiful image from Jacob of Serugh: that when Christ ascended, He did not leave our humanity behind. He carried it with Him, wounds and all, to the right hand of the Father. The glorified Body that sits at the throne of the Majesty on high is still marked with the nails and the spear. Not as blemishes, but as glory.
“He did not leave behind what He had taken from us.”
That is the ground of our hope as we wait for the fire of Pentecost.
You can read the full reflection here.
Let us keep these nine days in prayer together.
