What is the “Return to the Upper Room”?
“Return to the Upper Room” – is a call to help the People of God return to the Upper Room in adoration and intercession – to experience a Pentecost not only of a moment or a day, but a permanent Pentecost, according to the intuition of Blessed Elena Guerra who, at the end of the nineteenth century, urged Pope Leo XIII to lead the Church back to the Cenacle/Upper Room of Jerusalem, for the Church to be enlightened again and again and burn like a burning bush.
What happens at Return to the Upper Room?
A time of Adoration and Intercession
In Adoration
– Through worship and praise in song
– Through praying the Scriptures of adoration. (I.e. Psalms and Revelation ch.4-5)
– Before the Blessed Sacrament
Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us (Psalm 95, 1-6) and the almighty power of the Saviour who sets us free from evil…“ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2628)
In Intercession
It is intercession in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit where we may intercede with great fervour, for the renewal of the Church, unity of Christianity and renewal of society, thereby “a renewal of the face of the earth”.
This encompasses the call to new evangelisation and the conversion of all sinners as well as other special intentions.
It incorporates prayers of intercession, petition, thanksgiving and blessing in charismatic (spontaneous) prayer of the Spirit, always knowing: “The Holy Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls to her all that Jesus said also instructs her in the life of prayer, inspiring new expressions.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2644)
Who is Called?
The call of the “Return to the Upper Room” is a call to the whole Church, to all Christianity.
All Christianity needs to cry out in a united voice for a continuous “new outpouring of the Holy Spirit” for every individual and the Church of Jesus Christ and the world in these times. We all should unite ourselves with the apostles and Mary the mother of Jesus gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem in expectation of the Lord sending us “power from above” to change this world.