The Feast Of The Ascension Of Our Lord.

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).

(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.

Ascension Day. Missa Cantata. 2000hrs (8p.m.). Thursday, 29 May 2014, Our Lady Of The Rosary, Blackfen, Kent.

There is a Missa Cantata (Sung Mass), in the Usus Antiquior,

at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, Kent DA15 8LW, at 2000 hrs (8 p.m.),

Thursday, 29 May 2014.

DIRECTIONS

Image: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

Italic Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

The observance of this Feast is of great antiquity. Although no documentary evidence of it exists prior to the beginning of the 5th-Century, Saint Augustine says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time. Frequent mention of it is made in the writings of Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and in the Constitution of the Apostles.

The Pilgrimage of Aetheria speaks of the Vigil of this Feast and of the Feast, itself, as they were kept in the Church built over the grotto in Bethlehem, in which Christ was born. It may be that, prior to the 5th-Century, the fact narrated in the Gospels was commemorated in conjunction with the Feast of Easter or Pentecost.

Some believe that the much-disputed forty-third Decree of the Synod of Elvira (circa 300 A.D.), condemning the practice of observing a Feast on the fortieth day after Easter, and neglecting to keep Pentecost on the fiftieth day, implies that the proper usage of the time was to commemorate the Ascension along with Pentecost. Representations of the Mystery are found in diptychs and frescoes dating as early as the 5th-Century.

Português: Catedral de São Pedro de Alcântara (Petrópolis, estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil):

Vitral triptico de Jesus : Natal, Ascenção, Agonia no horto das oliveiras.

English: Stained-Glass Window, depicting the Ascension, in the Cathedral of

Saint Peter of Alcantara, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Photo: 21 May 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Eugenio Hansen, OFS.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Rogation Wednesday.

Roman Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Ancient Custom of Blessing the Fields

on Rogation Sunday,

at Hever, Kent,
England.

Photo: 9 February 1967.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Ray Trevena.

(Wikimedia Commons)

THE LESSER LITANIES.

In consequence of the public calamities that afflicted the Diocese of Vienne-in-Dauphiny, France, in the 5th-Century, Saint Mamertus instituted a Solemn Penitential Procession on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before Ascension Day.

Under an Order of the Council of Orleans, in 511 A.D., the Devotion spread to the rest of France. In 816 A.D., Pope Leo III introduced it to Rome and it soon became a general observance throughout the Church.

The Litany of the Saints and the Psalms and Collects, sung in Procession on these days, are supplications; hence, the term "Rogations" applied to them. The object of these Devotions is to appease the anger of God and avert the scourges of His Justice and to draw down the Blessings of God on the Fruits of the Earth.

Rogation Days.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/zN3Nlp409Z0.

Violet Vestments are used as a token of Penance, and the Paschal Candle is left unlighted. The Litany of the Saints, consisting of Prayer in the form of a dialogue, is an admirable manner of Prayer, which it should be our purpose to cultivate.

The Celebrant wears a Violet Stole and Cope. All in the Choir stand as they sing the Antiphon (Psalm xliii. 26) Exsurge, Domine, adjuva nos . . .

When the Antiphon is finished, all kneel, and two Cantors begin the Litany of the Saints, the Choir singing the Responses. Each Invocation must be repeated, except where it is found impossible to have the Procession. At Sancta Maria, all stand, and the Procession begins to move, preceded by the Processional Cross, and followed by the Clergy, Celebrant and Faithful.

If a Church or Chapel is visited, the Antiphon, Versicle, and Collect of the local Patron Saint may be sung, or the Stational Mass Exaudivit may be said. On leaving the Church or Chapel, the interrupted Litany is resumed.

MASS OF ROGATION.

Stations:

Monday:      At Saint Mary Major;

Tuesday:      At Saint John Lateran;

Wednesday: At Saint Peter's.

Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines each day.

Violet Vestments.

The Mass, throughout, points to the efficacy of the Prayer of the Just Man, when humble, sure, and persistent. Elias, by Prayer, closed and opened the heavens (Epistle), and Our Lord shows us, by two Parables, that God gives His Holy Spirit to whomsoever asks Him, because He is good (Gospel, Alleluia). In our afflictions, let us place our trust in God and He will hear our Prayers (Introit, Collect).

The Mass of Rogation is said during or after the Procession of both the Greater Litanies (25 April) and the Lesser Litanies.

Rogation Tuesday.

Roman Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Ancient Custom of Blessing the Fields

on Rogation Sunday,

at Hever, Kent,
England.

Photo: 9 February 1967.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Ray Trevena.

(Wikimedia Commons)

THE LESSER LITANIES.

In consequence of the public calamities that afflicted the Diocese of Vienne-in-Dauphiny, France, in the 5th-Century, Saint Mamertus instituted a Solemn Penitential Procession on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before Ascension Day.

Under an Order of the Council of Orleans, in 511 A.D., the Devotion spread to the rest of France. In 816 A.D., Pope Leo III introduced it to Rome and it soon became a general observance throughout the Church.

The Litany of the Saints and the Psalms and Collects, sung in Procession on these days, are supplications; hence, the term "Rogations" applied to them. The object of these Devotions is to appease the anger of God and avert the scourges of His Justice and to draw down the Blessings of God on the Fruits of the Earth.

Rogation Days.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/zN3Nlp409Z0.

Violet Vestments are used as a token of Penance, and the Paschal Candle is left unlighted. The Litany of the Saints, consisting of Prayer in the form of a dialogue, is an admirable manner of Prayer, which it should be our purpose to cultivate.

The Celebrant wears a Violet Stole and Cope. All in the Choir stand as they sing the Antiphon (Psalm xliii. 26) Exsurge, Domine, adjuva nos . . .

When the Antiphon is finished, all kneel, and two Cantors begin the Litany of the Saints, the Choir singing the Responses. Each Invocation must be repeated, except where it is found impossible to have the Procession. At Sancta Maria, all stand, and the Procession begins to move, preceded by the Processional Cross, and followed by the Clergy, Celebrant and Faithful.

If a Church or Chapel is visited, the Antiphon, Versicle, and Collect of the local Patron Saint may be sung, or the Stational Mass Exaudivit may be said. On leaving the Church or Chapel, the interrupted Litany is resumed.

MASS OF ROGATION.

Stations:

Monday:      At Saint Mary Major;

Tuesday:      At Saint John Lateran;

Wednesday: At Saint Peter's.

Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines each day.

Violet Vestments.

The Mass, throughout, points to the efficacy of the Prayer of the Just Man, when humble, sure, and persistent. Elias, by Prayer, closed and opened the heavens (Epistle), and Our Lord shows us, by two Parables, that God gives His Holy Spirit to whomsoever asks Him, because He is good (Gospel, Alleluia). In our afflictions, let us place our trust in God and He will hear our Prayers (Introit, Collect).

The Mass of Rogation is said during or after the Procession of both the Greater Litanies (25 April) and the Lesser Litanies.

Rogation Days.

Roman Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Ancient Custom of Blessing the Fields

on Rogation Sunday,

at Hever, Kent,
England.

Photo: 9 February 1967.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Ray Trevena.

(Wikimedia Commons)

THE LESSER LITANIES.

In consequence of the public calamities that afflicted the Diocese of Vienne-in-Dauphiny, France, in the 5th-Century, Saint Mamertus instituted a Solemn Penitential Procession on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, before Ascension Day.

Under an Order of the Council of Orleans, in 511 A.D., the Devotion spread to the rest of France. In 816 A.D., Pope Leo III introduced it to Rome and it soon became a general observance throughout the Church.

The Litany of the Saints and the Psalms and Collects, sung in Procession on these days, are supplications; hence, the term "Rogations" applied to them. The object of these Devotions is to appease the anger of God and avert the scourges of His Justice and to draw down the Blessings of God on the Fruits of the Earth.

Rogation Days.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/zN3Nlp409Z0.

Violet Vestments are used as a token of Penance, and the Paschal Candle is left unlighted. The Litany of the Saints, consisting of Prayer in the form of a dialogue, is an admirable manner of Prayer, which it should be our purpose to cultivate.

The Celebrant wears a Violet Stole and Cope. All in the Choir stand as they sing the Antiphon (Psalm xliii. 26) Exsurge, Domine, adjuva nos . . .

When the Antiphon is finished, all kneel, and two Cantors begin the Litany of the Saints, the Choir singing the Responses. Each Invocation must be repeated, except where it is found impossible to have the Procession. At Sancta Maria, all stand, and the Procession begins to move, preceded by the Processional Cross, and followed by the Clergy, Celebrant and Faithful.

If a Church or Chapel is visited, the Antiphon, Versicle, and Collect of the local Patron Saint may be sung, or the Stational Mass Exaudivit may be said. On leaving the Church or Chapel, the interrupted Litany is resumed.

MASS OF ROGATION.

Stations:

Monday:      At Saint Mary Major;

Tuesday:      At Saint John Lateran;

Wednesday: At Saint Peter's.

Indulgence of 30 years and 30 Quarantines each day.

Violet Vestments.

The Mass, throughout, points to the efficacy of the Prayer of the Just Man, when humble, sure, and persistent. Elias, by Prayer, closed and opened the heavens (Epistle), and Our Lord shows us, by two Parables, that God gives His Holy Spirit to whomsoever asks Him, because He is good (Gospel, Alleluia). In our afflictions, let us place our trust in God and He will hear our Prayers (Introit, Collect).

The Mass of Rogation is said during or after the Procession of both the Greater Litanies (25 April) and the Lesser Litanies.

Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924). Requiem: 'In Paradisum'.

Text and Illustration from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

Gabriel Fauré (front row, second from left) in a group of staff and students of the École Niedermeyer, 1871. Also in the group are (front) Gustave Lefèvre 3rd from left, Eugène Gigout 4th from left; and André Messager middle row 2nd from right.

Stated by the Bibliothèque nationale de France to be public domain.

Wikipedia.

Gabriel Fauré.

Requiem:

'In Paradisum'.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/6-i1ESIRKdA.

O Filii Et Filiae. Gregorian Chant For Paschaltide.

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

O Filii Et Filiae.

Gregorian Chant for Paschaltide.

John Vianini Studio,

Milan, Italy.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/4wXVpUgflJk.

O Filii et Filiæ - the first line of the Catholic Hymn celebrating Easter. As commonly found in Hymnals today, it comprises twelve stanzas of the form:

O filii et filiæ
Rex cælestis, Rex gloriæ
Morte surrexit hodie.
Alleluia.

It was written by Jean Tisserand, O.F.M. († 1494), a preacher, and originally comprised nine stanzas (those commencing with "Discipulis adstantibus", "Postquam audivit Didymus", "Beati qui non viderunt" being early additions to the Hymn). "L'aleluya du jour de Pasques" is a trope on the Versicle and Response (closing Lauds and Vespers), which it prettily enshrines in the last two stanzas:

In hoc festo sanctissimo
Sit laus et jubilatio:
BENEDICAMUS DOMINO.–Alleluia.
De quibus nos humillimas
Devotas atque debitas
DEO dicamus GRATIAS.–Alleluia.

O Filii Et Filiae.

Gregorian Chant for Paschaltide.

John Vianini Studio,

Milan, Italy.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/WcW_6JtkOpc.

The Hymn was very popular in France, whence it has spread to other countries. Guéranger's "Liturgical Year" (Paschal Time, Part I, tr., Dublin, 1871, pp. 190–192) entitles it "The Joyful Canticle" and gives Latin text with English prose translation, with a triple Alleluia preceding and following the Hymn.

As given in Hymnals, however, this triple Alleluia is sung also between the stanzas (see "The Roman Hymnal", New York, 1884, p. 200). In Lalanne, "Recueil d'anciens et de nouveaux cantiques notés" (Paris, 1886, p. 223), greater particularity is indicated in the distribution of the stanzas and of the Alleluias.

The triple Alleluia is sung by one voice, is repeated by the Choir, and the solo takes up the first stanza with its Alleluia. The Choir then sings the triple Alleluia, the second stanza with its Alleluia, and repeats the triple Alleluia. The alternation of solo and chorus thus continues, until the last stanza with its Alleluia, followed by the triple Alleluia, is sung by one voice.

"It is scarcely possible for any one, not acquainted with the melody, to imagine the jubilant effect of the triumphant Alleluia attached to apparently less important circumstances of the Resurrection. It seems to speak of the majesty of that event, the smallest portions of which are worthy to be so chronicled" (Neale, "Medieval Hymns and Sequences", 3rd ed., p. 163). The rhythm of the Hymn is that of number and not of accent or of classical quantity. The melody, to which it is sung, can scarcely be divorced from the lilt of triple time.

O Filii Et Filiae.
Chant joyeux du temps de Pasques (H. 339) - 

Marc-Antoine Charpentier.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/Ja4I31r1zZE.

As a result, there is, to English ears, a very frequent conflict between the accent of the Latin words and the real, however unintentional, stress of the melody: e.g.: Et Máriá Magdálená, Sed Jóannés Apóstolús, Ad sépulchrúm venít priús, etc. A number of Hymnals give the melody in plain-song notation, and (theoretically, at least) this would permit the accented syllables of the Latin Text to receive an appropriate stress of the voice.

Commonly, however, the Hymnals adopt the modern triple time (e.g., the "Nord-Sterns Führers zur Seeligkeit", 1671; the "Roman Hymnal", 1884; "Hymns Ancient and Modern", rev. ed.). Perhaps it was this conflict of stress and word-accent that led Neale to speak of the "rude simplicity" of the poem and to ascribe the Hymn to the 12th-Century in the Contents-Page of his volume (although the note, prefixed to his own translation, assigns the Hymn to the 13th-Century). Migne, "Dict. de Liturgie" (s. v. Pâques, 959) also declares it to be very ancient. It is only very recently that its authorship has been discovered, the "Dict. of Hymnology" (2nd ed., 1907) tracing it back only to the year 1659, although Shipley ("Annus Sanctus", London, 1884, p. xxiii) found it in a Roman Processional of the 16th-Century.

The Choir of the Cathedral of St Jean's Primatial Lyon (Les Petits Chanteurs de Lyon)

sing O Fillii and Filiae, Parisian prose, and Benedetto Marcello's chorus caelestium Gaudet.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/5Gqz7hISuH0.

The Hymn was assigned in the various French Paroissiens to the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, on Easter Sunday. There are several translations into English verse by non-Catholics. The Catholic translations comprise one by an anonymous author in the "Evening Office", 1748 ("Young men and maids, rejoice and sing"), Father Caswall's "Ye sons and daughters of the Lord" and Charles Kent's "O maids and striplings, hear love's story", all three being given in Shipley, "Annus Sanctus". The Latin Texts vary both in the arrangement and the wording of the stanzas; and the Plain-Song and modernised settings also vary not a little.