By Sr. Regina Bechtle, based on the story as recounted in Acts 1:12-14:


After Jesus ascended, all his followers, we are told, went back to the city, to the upper room.

It was for them a place of safety where they had known Jesus’ gift of himself.

Where they could remember the intimacy they shared in bread broken, in feet washed. 

Where they knew the deep bond that united them with Jesus and with one another. 

Where the painful memory of one of them who betrayed Jesus was fresh, the memory of all the events that Judas’ sad and shameful act had set in motion.

In that upper room, the reminder of God’s enduring love remained.

Jesus’ followers began to experience that love as a power that could overcome even violence, tragedy, betrayal, death. That power, they would come to understand, was theirs to share.

That love, that power, was the lasting legacy of their beloved Jesus, who gave not only his Body but pledged to share his very Spirit with them.

That love, that power, is Jesus’ gift to us as well.