Womb of the Upper Room Part IV

The disciples were not orphaned. There is one who is quietly gathering them to the womb of the upper room. There is one who has never given up the Faith, Hope, and Love--the Divine Indwelling-- that has been with her since her Immaculate Conception. She is the mother hen in Jerusalem gathering her chicks. She is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit hovering as Gerard Manly Hopkins would say with "ahh bright wings!" Mary is the midwife of the Spirit helping the disciples prepare for their rebirth. All hope is dead (almost) and therefore seemingly lost...

She gathered them to the upper room once more to pray and fast for nine days for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The first novena of the Holy Spirit was facilitated by Mary who already was Church incarnate. Peter lead them and Mary guided him and the others. They prayed, fasted and waited on God to act.

Going back to Genesis 11, God had confused the language of the men of the world as punishment for the pride they showed trying to build a tower to heaven with which to challenge God or make themselves his equal. God scattered these men and their confused languages to the four corners of the earth. God made covenant with Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. He began to gather a people through whom would come the salvation of the world (Is. 40:5; Lk. 2:29-32; Jn 4:22 ). God sent the power of His Holy Spirit upon the waters of creation, upon the Ark of the covenant, upon the Temple of Solomon, upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and now upon the newly conceived Church.

The Holy Spirit descended in a great wind that shook the cenacle. The power came to rest over each one in the form of a visible flame. The waters of the upper room broke and the Apostles burst forth into the streets of Jerusalem praising the God of heaven and earth in the tongues of all the people's gathered there from the four corners of the earth. Now the Spirit of God gathers all peoples to Himself. No longer are those that believe scattered, confused and afraid. Rather, those who heard the good news, believed and were baptised received unity, knowledge and courage!

The Church is God's antidote to the sin and confusion of Babel. All the power of the Holy Spirit with the merits and graces of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of the Glorified Son of God, Jesus are contained within her. She dispenses the divine treasures to all her children. The life of faith is conceived in us by the power of the Holy Spirit and we are born in the womb of the baptistry to new life in Christ. We are fed with the manna from heaven in the Eucharist that nourishes us and sustains us on our journey. We are matured and built into the full stature of the man Jesus in confirmation. We are unbound and delivered from slavery to sin in the sacrament of reconciliation. We are given healing in the sacrament of anointing of the sick. We are called to leave father and mother and cleave to our spouse that we might be one as Christ and the Church are one and give more children to God from our union in the sacrament of marriage. We are called apart and ordered to the person of Christ to be priests to teach, govern and sanctify the Church. We call God Our Father and Jesus our Brother. Mary is our mother as well as the Church. She is the Church in glory interceding for us in the Holy Spirit who helps us in our weakness and knows how to pray for us in groanings that cannot be expressed by the human tongue (Rom 8:26).

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur: qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

Happy Birthday Church and Thank you Holy Spirit!