Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 / John 17:20-26
Since Ascension Thursday, the prayers at Mass, i.e., the collect, the prayer over the offerings and the prayer after communion, are about the incoming and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church.
As a matter of fact, the days after Ascension are days of deep and intense prayer for the Church as she prepares to be renewed and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out her mission.
Indeed the Holy Spirit has guided the Church and this can be obviously seen in the Acts of the Apostles. In fact the Acts of the Apostles can also be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
For example, in the 1st reading, we could see how the Holy Spirit inspired St. Paul to see through the precarious situation he was in and in just one sentence he brought confusion to those who were against him.
Indeed, if we live and move and have our being in the Holy Spirit, we will always be with God and God will always be with us.
And if God is for us, then who can be against us, and who can ever separate us from the love that God has for us?
And that is what Jesus is saying in the gospel - Just as He is in the Father, He is also in the Church and with each of us by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So it is necessary and essential to pray to the Holy Spirit always, and even to remember a short prayer to the Holy Spirit.
One short and easily remembered prayer is taken from the Creed :
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets. Amen.
It is a prayer to the Holy Spirit, it is a profession of faith in the Holy Spirit, and it is also an offering of ourselves to the workings of the Holy Spirit.