God, give us to believe that it is good that Jesus is going away
so that we may continue to wait for his Spirit, always present, always to come,
to compel us to take our lives in our hands,
to believe in the living Word of his Gospel,
to bear witness that what is essential is invisible
and that from now on his human face shines only in the secret fire of the Church
which is his body regenerated by the Spirit from age to age.