Roman Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.
Illustrations and Captions taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.
Station at Saint Peter's.
(Plenary Stational Indulgence).
Double of the First-Class with Privileged Octave
of the Third Order.
White Vestments.
English: Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860.
Deutsch: Holzschnitt aus "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860.
Français: Gravure en bois pour «Die Bibel in Bildern», 1860.
Date: 1851-1860.
Source: Die Bibel in Bildern.
Author: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794–1872).
Permission: Reproduction of a painting that is in the public domain because of its age.
This File: 13 December 2008.
User: McLeod.
(Wikimedia Commons)
It is in the Basilica of Saint Peter, dedicated to one of the chief witnesses of Our Lord's Ascension, that this Mystery, which marks the end of Our Lord's Earthly life, is "this day" (Collect) kept.
In the forty days which followed His Resurrection, Our Redeemer laid the foundations of His Church, to which He was going to send the Holy Ghost.
All the Master's teachings are summed up in the Epistle and Gospel for this Feast Day. Then, He left this Earth and the Introit, Collect, Epistle, Alleluia, Gospel, Offertory, Secret, Preface and Communion celebrate His glorious Ascension into Heaven, where the Souls He had freed from Limbo escort Him (Alleluia), and enter in His train into the heavenly kingdom, where they share more fully in His Divinity.
The Ascension sets before us the duty of raising our hearts to God. So, in the Collect, we are led to ask that we may dwell with Christ in Spirit, in the heavenly realms, where we are called one day to dwell in our risen bodies.
English: A mosaic, showing the Ascension, in one of the Chapels
in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Lourdes, France (see, below).
Français: Mosaïque d'une des chapelles
de la Basilique Notre-Dame du Rosaire (niveau inférieur) : l'Ascension.
Photo: 10 August 2007.
Source: Own work.
Author: Vassil.
(Wikimedia Commons)
During the Octave of this Feast, the Credo is said: "I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God . . . Who ascended into Heaven . . . He sitteth at the right hand of the Father." The Gloria speaks in the same sense: "O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son . . Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us."
In the Proper Preface, which is said until Pentecost, we give thanks to God because His Son, the Risen Christ, "after His Resurrection, appeared and showed Himself to all His disciples; and, while they beheld Him, was lifted up into Heaven".
In the same way, during the whole Octave, a Proper Communicantes of the Feast is said, in which the Church reminds us that she is keeping the day on which the only-begotten Son of God set at the right hand of His glory the substance of our frail human nature, to which He had united Himself in the Mystery of the Incarnation.
English: The Basilicas of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of the Rosary, Lourdes, France.
Français: La basilique de l'Immaculée-Conception et, au premier plan, la basilique Notre-Dame du Rosaire, Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France.
Photo: 23 May 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: Père Igor.
(Wikimedia Commons)
We are reminded, daily, in the Liturgy, at the Offertory's Suscipe Sancta Trinitas, and in the Canon's Unde et memories, that, at Our Lord's command, the Holy Sacrifice is being offered in memory of the "Blessed Passion of the same Christ Thy Son, Our Lord," and also His Resurrection from Hell and His glorious Ascension into Heaven.
The truth is that man is saved only by the Mysteries of the Passion and the Resurrection, united with that of the Ascension. "Through Thy Death and Burial, through Thy Holy Resurrection, through Thy admirable Ascension, deliver us, O Lord" (Litany of the Saints).
Let us offer the Divine Sacrifice to God in memory of the glorious Ascension of His Son (Suscipe, Unde et memores); while we nourish within our Souls an ardent desire for Heaven, that "delivered from present dangers," we may "attain to eternal life" (Secret).
Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
NOTE:
The Novena, preparatory to Pentecost, prescribed by Pope Leo XIII, for the return of heretics and schismatics to the Roman unity, begins on the Friday after the Ascension.
