In the Room and Days of Waiting

THIS IS SAID TO TO BE THE ROOM of the Last Supper but also the Upper Room of Pentecost. The land site may have some historical connection to those events, but the room itself dates much later to the middle ages - arches such as these had not yet been imagined in Biblical times. No matter really: what signifies is what comes to heart and mind. The prayer prayed in this room grows out of waiting.

The disciples gathered here after Jesus had ascended to glory. Physically gone from them, they must have missed him terribly, recalling the depth of relationship they had shared the night of his arrest, the night before his death.

And in the silence and conversation of those days in the upper room they must have remembered the words Jesus had spoken while he walked with them:

"I tell you truly, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices: you will grieve for a time, but your grief will be turned into joy." 

"...you are sad for a time, but I shall see you again; then your hearts will rejoice with a joy no one can take from you. (John 16:20-23)

The apostles waited in this place from the Ascension to the Pentecost:

Name your upper room:

• The place of fear for the unknown.
• The place which longs to return to what was.
• The place of deeply felt and perhaps shared prayer.

Name your upper room:

• The place which hopes for a bright future.
• The place which aches to be healed.
• The place which awaits resolution.

Name your upper room:

• The place which awaits God's revelation.
• The place of fragile insecurity.
• The place which doesn't do well in alone-ness.

Name the upper room:

• The place which wonders if it was all worth it.
• The place which prays to be able to trust.
• The place of fond remembrance or bitter regret.

Now pray...