During the general audience in the Paul Vl Hall on 21 June the Holy Father continued his reflections on the Holy Spirit.

1. We know Jesus’final promise and last order to the apostles before the Ascension: "I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk 24:49; cf. also Acts 1:4). We have spoken of this in a previous reflection, emphasizing also the continuity and development of the pneumatological truth between the Old Covenant and the New. Today we learn from the Acts of the Apostles that that order was carried out by the apostles, who "when they had entered the city went up to the Upper Room, where they were staying....All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" (Acts 1:13-14). Not only did they remain in the city, but they assembled in the Upper Room as a community and remained there in prayer together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as an immediate preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit, and for the first "external" manifestation, through the work of the Holy Spirit, of the Church born from the death and resurrection of Christ. The whole community as such, and each one of the community personally, was preparing.

2. It was a prayerful preparation: "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" (Acts 1:14). It was as it were a repetition or a prolongation of the prayer through which Jesus of Nazareth prepared for the descent of the Holy Spirit at the moment of his Baptism in the Jordan, when he was to begin his messianic mission: "When Jesus.., was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him" Lk 3:21-22). 

One might ask: why keep on praying for what has already been promised? Jesus prayer at the Jordan shows that it is indispensable to pray for the timely reception of "the perfect gift from above" (cf. Jas l:17). The community of the apostles and of the first disciples had to prepare for the reception of this very gift which comes from above: the Holy Spirit who was to initiate the mission of Christ’s Church on earth.

In moments of particular importance the Church acts in like manner. She joins herself to that assembly of the apostles in prayer together with Christ’s Mother. In a certain sense she returns to the Upper Room. Thus it was, for example, at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. Every year, moreover, the Solemnity of Pentecost is preceded by a "novena" to the Holy Spirit, which reproduces the experience of the first Christian community awaiting in prayer the coming of the Holy Spirit.

3. The Acts of the Apostles emphasize that the prayer was with "one accord". This detail indicates that an important transformation had already taken place in the hearts of the apostles. Previously there had been differences and even rivalry (cf. Mk 9:34; Lk 9:46; 22:24). It was a sign that Jesus’ priestly prayer had begun to bear fruit. In that prayer Jesus had asked for the unity of his disciples "that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us" (Jn 17:21). "I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and host loved them even as thou hast loved me" (Jn 17:23).

Throughout all ages and in every Christian generation this prayer of Christ for the unity of the Church is always relevant. How appropriate are those words to our own times, characterized by ecumenical efforts on behalf of Christian unity! Perhaps never more than today have they had a significance closer to that very special meaning with which they were uttered by Christ at the moment when the Church was about to be launched into the world! Today also one gets the impression on all sides of a start towards a new world, one more united and drawn together.

4. Moreover, the prayer of the community of the apostles and disciples before Pentecost was persevering: "they devoted themselves to prayer" (in Greek: p QosacteQvnteV ). It was not therefore a prayer of momentary exaltation. The Greek word used by the author of the Acts of the Apostles suggests a patient assiduousness, in a certain sense even a "stubbornness", implying sacrifice and the overcoming of difficulty. It was therefore a prayer of the most complete dedication not only of the heart but also of the will. The apostles were aware of the task that awaited them.

5. That prayer was itself a fruit of the interior action of the Holy Spirit, for it is he who urges to prayer and helps one to be devoted to prayer. Again there comes to mind the analogy with Jesus himself who, before beginning his messianic mission, went into the wilderness. The Gospels stress that "the Spirit drove him" (Mk 1:12; cf. Mt 4:1), that "he was led by the Spirit in the wilderness" (Lk 4:1).

If the gifts of the Spirit are manifold, it must be said that during the period in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was already at work in the secrecy of prayer, so that on the day of Pentecost they might be ready to receive this great and "decisive" gift, by means of which the life of Christ’s Church was to begin definitively on earth.

6. In the united community of prayer other persons were present besides the apostles, and some of them were women.

Christ’s recommendation, at the moment of his departure to return to the Father, concerned the apostles directly. We know that "he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4). To them he had entrusted a special mission in his Church.

If other persons, including women, now take part in the preparation for Pentecost, this is simply a continuation of Jesus’ own way of acting, as is evident from different passages of the Gospels. Luke even tells us the names of some of these women who were followers, collaborators and benefactors of Jesus: Mary called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, Susanna, and many others (cf. Lk 8:1-3). The gospel proclamation of the Kingdom of God took place not only in the presence of the "Twelve" and of the disciples in general, but also of these women in particular, of whom the evangelist speaks when he says that they "provided for them (Jesus and the apostles) out of their means" (Lk 8:3).

From this it follows that women on a parity with men are called to share in the Kingdom of God which Jesus announced, to be a part of it and also to contribute to its growth among people, as I explained at length in the Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem.

7. From this viewpoint, the presence of women in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, during the preparation for Pentecost and the birth of the Church, takes on a particular importance. Men and women, the simple faithful, took part in the entire event alongside the apostles and together with them. From the very beginning the Church is a community both of apostles and disciples, of men and women alike.

There is no doubt that the presence of the Mother of Christ had a great importance in the preparation of the apostolic community for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. However, this is a subject for a separate reflection.