May 2026 

Thought for the day on Pentecost and Ascension

On Thursday 14th May, forty days after Easter, the Church marks Ascension Day, when Jesus returned to heaven. Then on Sunday 24th May, fifty days after Easter, the Church celebrates Pentecost. This is when the Holy Spirit came to rest upon all the followers of Jesus who had gathered in Jerusalem.

During the period between Jesus’s Ascension and Pentecost the disciples devoted themselves constantly to prayer and waited for the promise to be fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit to come. As Jesus’ disciples in this generation, we do the same. In recent years we’ve called this time Thy Kingdom Come. We choose 5 people and commit to pray for them for these 10 days.

However, we also need to pray for ourselves and our own deepening faith. I’ve heard it said that “Bethlehem was God with us, the Cross was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us.” For ourselves this is a time to ask for a fresh infilling of the fruits of the Spirit which are “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5: 22-23.)

Happy Thy Kingdom Come!

Larissa