While eating with them,
he commanded them
not to leave Jerusalem
but to wait ‘for the promise of the Father,
which you heard about from me –
that John baptised with water,
but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now.’
So those who met together
were asking him, saying:
‘Lord, is this time when you will restore
the Kingdom to Israel?’
He said to them:
‘It is not for you to know
the times and seasons
that the Father has laid down
with his own authority,
but you will receive power
from the Holy Spirit
coming upon you
and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea,
and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth’
O Lord, in whom is our hope,
remove far from us, we pray thee,
empty hopes and presumptuous confidence.
Make our hearts so right with thy most holy and loving heart,
that hoping in thee we may do good;
until that day when faith and hope
shall be abolished by sight and possession,
and love shall be all in all.
Christina Rossetti (1830-94)