A blessed feast of the Ascension to all our readers, when Christ ascended body and soul back to the Father, whence He was sent, to that Trinitarian life that is His by nature. The Ascension is celebrated on Thursday of the sixth week of Easter, the fortieth day after the resurrection of Christ, and nine days before Pentecost, thus comprising the beginning of the earliest ‘novena’. (That it has been moved to replace the seventh Sunday of Easter signifies a diminution in our Christian culture). Still, if you are able and amenable, begin that novena to the Holy Spirit now, praying for the gifts and power of the Paraclete, so we may truly live an ‘Apostolic’ life.
Rejoice on this day, for although Christ and His mother have left us in their incarnate forms, they ‘have not left us orphans’, for they both still exist, glorified, body and soul, in that beatific state we call heaven, which is not ‘far away’, nor ‘far above’, but here all around us, invisible to our eyes and senses, but more real than the things we do see and sense.
Let not our hearts be troubled, therefore, neither let them be afraid. Rather, have courage and good cheer, as Christ prepares a ‘place for us’, and for all those who, God willing, respond to His truth and mercy, for whatever we now ask in the Father’s name will be granted to us.