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Pentecost in the Upper Room. Pentecost Sunday in Jerusalem, where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place... The Franciscans lead the evening prayer in the Cenacle, in the same place that tradition …More
Pentecost in the Upper Room.

Pentecost Sunday in Jerusalem, where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place...

The Franciscans lead the evening prayer in the Cenacle, in the same place that tradition says was spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles.

“It was here, in this very place, when suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”

There are Christians that come to Jerusalem as pilgrims, a small assembly of various origins, as if to represent the universality of the church throughout the world, which precisely here started its journey. Prayer, meditation, and just like on that day, so many different languages, each in his own praying the Our Father.
Here at the Upper Room, now as then, is not difficult to perceive the presence and power of the Spirit, still capable of leading the Church of Christ and its mission of witness in Jerusalem and throughout the world.

And from here, once again this year, new strength and momentum for a particular mission, that of P. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land, who was reappointed for another three years of service, as P. Francesco Bravi publicly announced to the visitors.

Very significant for the Custos to celebrate Pentecost in the Upper Room, the day after his reappointment.
Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa: “Once again, this means that we must place everything under the action of the Spirit, who moves, operates and works within the Church, and who asks us to listen. I would like us to trust more and more in the providence of God and less in our own abilities, to know that everything is moved by His providence, that this duty, this task, this Church does not belong to us; it belongs to Him, and we are His instruments. Seeing it in this way, therefore, also helps us to see our life differently, as well as the work of God and the reality in which we must work. I would like for everyone, first of all for the friars, but also for the entire Church… to focus more on communion, which does not means uniformity of ideas but unity of intentions.”
To face all the difficulties of this land?

Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa: “Every difficulty… as Christians, we are few and little… But we have the great and serious responsibility of testifying before all those that are around us, and the first thing we must testify to is life.”
The Upper Room and the Custos of the Holy Land are an indissoluble combination tied directly to the beginnings of the Franciscan presence in the Holy Land. The Custos in fact also bears the title of the Guardian of Mount Zion.

Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa: “The first place in which the Franciscans began their activity was precisely in the Upper Room, from which we were expelled in 1551. However, the name endured, as did our desire to return to this place in the name of the Church… To return, above all, with that characteristic that we always carry with us: to always be moved in communion with the Church under the action of the Spirit.”
Irapuato
Thank Heaven for the Franciscans!