May 2026

Come, Holy Spirit, visit us!
We are breathless, Lord.
In the confines of our homes, amidst our barricades, let your Pentecost burst forth,
that it may give us a new lease of life.
Help us to discern your radiant presence in the face of the stranger,
who comes to shake up our routines.
Help us to welcome the other in their truth, in their language, in their darkness and in their faith
which broadens our horizons.
Teach us how to let this inner fire burn, which comes to us from on high,
how to let the trust blossom that drives us to the greatest deeds.

Ask in my name’
To dare to ask
to dare to acknowledge that we are not self-sufficient
that there is a lack within us and things left undone
To dare to ask, to dare to trust that we will be heard.
Lord, if you have told us to ask, is it not because you love us
and because love delights in giving?
But is it not also to love that to dare to ask?
With the whole Church, and far beyond it, we ask for the Spirit.
He who is the Life of our life
and in faith we repeat: Come, Lord, come!

Christ,
as you leave us, you leave us a treasure: your Gospel.
Will we know how to receive it with empty hands, as a gift, as a promise?
Will the revelation of the mystery of the Kingdom, of the Father’s infinite love, revealed to the little ones, cause us too to tremble with joy?
Lead us to the simple source of trust,
let us be reborn from above, by your Spirit.
Christ, guide us along this path which you were the first to tread,
so that, unburdened by ourselves, we may have no other recourse,
no other certainty and no other risk,
than to believe in Love and to build our lives upon it.
Yes, grant that we may welcome the Love of God,
your Father and our Father, with our whole lives.

Blessed be you, Breath of God, for whispering to every human being
that they are God’s beloved,
called by name, raised up to life.
We stand before you with the diversity of our stories,
yet all filled with that ‘something’ that binds us to hope.
There are those whom your fire consumes, those who shield a modest glimmer with their hands,
those who have nothing left but the memory of it. Those whom you enlighten
and those who have no hearth left, those whose hearts are in tatters,
and in their innermost being a great abyss. But there is not one,
Breath of Love, to whom, through the night, you have not spoken the Good News
and who does not know his soul shaped by your infinite tenderness.
It is bearing this inexpressible gratitude that we come to prayer,
to say to you for all, with all: Be blessed forever!

You are leaving without leaving us, you say,
but we are left to believe it;
we are always left to believe
that what passes does not leave us,
but becomes engraved within us more deeply.
You are leaving to prepare a place for us, you say,
and we, this evening, would like to prepare a place for you,
a place within us.
To make room for you amongst us and in this world that so utterly ignores you.
You are leaving, but we want to keep a place for you
so that on the day you return
you will still find faith alive on earth,
that faith which you bring to life,
by leaving us.
Your Passover continues, in this Ascension, we believe,
Jesus our Lord.

Lord our God,
when your Word frightens us because it demands everything of us,
grant that it may also be the strength that sets us free from ourselves
and enables us to do more than we ever dared to imagine.
Grant that, moment by moment, we may grow towards true freedom,
for which Christ has shown the way,
He who goes before us as our universal brother,
drawing us through his Easter towards the Life that has no end.

Lord our God, who came into this world to share with us the fullness of your life,
open our hearts to receive the signs you offer us.
You offer us the sign of weakness: a newborn baby lying in a manger.
Open our hearts to this presence of fragility.
You offer us the sign of humility, by washing the feet of your friends.
Open our hearts to service.
You offer us the sign of bread.
Open our hearts to sharing.
You offer us the sign of the cross, a crucified God who dies outside the city between two criminals.
Open our hearts to your friendship with all.
You offer us the sign of fraternal community,
open our hearts to gathering together without exclusion.

Living God,

we believe in the life that leads to eternal life,

but help our lack of faith.

May your Word, in the Scriptures, in others, and in your many signs,

illuminate our paths, which are still so dark…

until the day begins to dawn

and the Morning Star rises in every heart.

We pray this through Him, your Son, Jesus Christ,

who lives with you in the communion of the Spirit.

for ever and ever.