The Feast of Ascension is celebrated on Sunday, May 21, 2023

Masses for Ascension will be the regular weekend schedule.

Adoration in the church will be per the normal schedule.

Reflection on the Feast of Ascension

We Hope to Follow

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared again and again over a forty-day period.  He explained the Scriptures to his disciples, they touched him, and they shared meals together.  Often it took them time to recognize him.

On the fortieth day, Jesus commissioned the apostles to preach the Gospel to all creatures and to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes it seems that these first witnesses were the lucky ones.  They saw Jesus, heard his voice and teachings, and perhaps even touched his wounds.  Having seen, how could they have done anything but believe?  And yet until the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, they were afraid.  They had seen what had happened to him, and even though he had risen, they could not have been eager to face persecution themselves.  But even though Jesus was gone, he had not abandoned them.

The Ascension is a feast of joy, joy in the Father glorifying Jesus.  It is also a feast of anticipation, because we hope that we too will be raised, that we too will be taken up to Jesus because we belong to him.  We hope that by believing in Jesus and by living in imitation of him, we too might be citizens of heaven, raised up by the Father.

Our lives become gifts to God when we die to ourselves and unite ourselves to Jesus.  May our prayer be one of offering our whole lives to the Father so that dying with the Lord, we might rise with him.  Where he has gone, we hope to follow.