The Ascension of the Lord
In Ascensione Domini
Forty days after Easter the Church celebrates the Ascension of the Lord, when the risen Christ ascended in glory into heaven and took His place at the right hand of the Father.
On the fortieth day after Easter — always a Thursday — the Church celebrates the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. After His Resurrection the Lord appeared to His disciples over the course of forty days, speaking to them of the kingdom of God and confirming them in faith. Then, having given His final commission, He led them out toward Bethany, and “while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).
Christ enters into glory
The Ascension is the crown of the Lord’s Resurrection and the completion of His earthly mission. He who had descended from heaven to take our flesh now ascended in that same human nature, glorified, to sit at the right hand of the Father. As the Creed professes, He “ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty.” In raising our human nature to the throne of God, Christ went before us to prepare a place, that where He is, we also may one day be. The Ascension is therefore a feast of hope, for in our Head we behold the destiny promised to His members.
The promise of the Spirit and of His return
As the Lord departed, He bade the Apostles not to leave Jerusalem but to await the promise of the Father, the coming of the Holy Ghost, whom He would send upon them. Thus the Ascension turns the Church toward Pentecost. At the same moment two angels stood by the disciples and declared: “This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The feast looks forward both to the descent of the Spirit and to the Lord’s coming again in glory.
The Paschal candle and the upward call
In the traditional liturgy the Paschal candle, which has burned since Easter as a sign of the risen Christ present among His people, is extinguished after the Gospel of the Ascension, signifying His visible departure. Yet He is not absent: He remains with His Church always, and now intercedes for her before the Father as our High Priest. The Ascension lifts the hearts of the faithful from earthly things to the things above, where Christ has gone, and bids them set their hope upon the kingdom that He has opened to them.
The Collect
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we who believe thine only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, to have this day ascended into the heavens, may ourselves also dwell in spirit amid heavenly things. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ.
Concede, quæsumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, qui Unigénitum tuum, Redemptórem nostrum, ad cælos ascendísse crédimus; ipsi quoque mente in cæléstibus habitémus. Per eúndem Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum.
Patronage
The Ascension is one of the principal feasts of the universal Church and, in many places, a holy day of obligation.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar, the Ascension remains a solemnity kept forty days after Easter, though in many regions it is transferred to the following Sunday (the Seventh Sunday of Easter).
Common Questions
When is the Ascension of the Lord?
It is a movable feast kept forty days after Easter, always on a Thursday. It is a First Class feast and, in many places, a holy day of obligation.
What does the Ascension celebrate?
It celebrates the risen Christ ascending into heaven in His glorified human nature, to take His place at the right hand of the Father, forty days after His Resurrection.
Why is the Ascension a feast of hope?
Because in raising our human nature to the throne of God, Christ went before us to prepare a place. The faithful look to their Head already in glory as the pledge of the heaven promised to them.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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