Each year, on the three days leading up to the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension, our community takes part in the long-standing tradition of the Church to hold Minor Litanies, or “Rogation Processions,” to invoke the mercy of God, the prayers of the saints, deliverance from evil, and protection of our land. Rogation Procession litanies consist of four main parts. First, we invoke the three Divine Persons, with the response, “Miserere nobis” (Have mercy on us). Second, we invoke the intercession of Mary, the Apostles, and groups of saints, with the response, “Ora pro nobis” (Pray for us). Third, we pray for protection from evils of body and soul, through the merits of Christ, with the response, “Libera nos, Domine” (Deliver us, O Lord). Fourth, we pray for particular blessings for the Church and the world, with the response, “Te rogamus, audi nos” (We beseech Thee, hear us).

In John 15 and 16, Jesus tells his apostles that He is about to return to His Father – I can imagine there was a great heaviness in His voice due to His imminent passion and death, but then it seems that a light breaks through the darkness when He speaks of the coming of the Paraclete.  He tells his apostles to actually get excited, because He is about to send them the Holy Spirit.  And we should be excited, too.  We should feel the excitement of this time leading up to Pentecost.  Jesus has died for you.  Jesus has risen for you.  Heaven has been opened for you.  And Jesus continues to pour out His Holy Spirit on you.  What a glory.  What a joy!

Some lovely “Ascension clouds” over the Abbey of St. Walburga

Luke tells us of Jesus’ Ascension in his Gospel: “Then he led them [out] as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them.  As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.  They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:50-53).  Let us do the same as the apostles – let us go to church, full of excitement for what’s coming, a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Let us imitate the zeal of the apostles in the early Church, who lived as though Jesus would return any minute.

We also hear a description of the Ascension in the Acts of the Apostles: “When they had gathered together they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’  He answered them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’  When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.  While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven’” (Acts 1:6-11).  So, I encourage you, every once in a while, remember to look up at the sky.  Is He there?  One day, He really will come, whether it is in our lifetime or not.  The fact that it’s going to happen is glorious –  And we will be taken up to meet Him in the clouds (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:17).  Think about this!  We should be excited to hear about these things and ponder them, and respond by living full of expectation for His coming.  I hope we can all live with the spark of joy that this news brings, because the world needs the joy of God.

“The departing Jesus does not make his way to some distant star.  He enters into communion of power and life with the living God, into God’s dominion over space… Because Jesus is with the Father, he has not gone away but remains close to us.  Now he is no longer in one particular place in the world as he had been before the ‘Ascension’: now, through his power over space, he is present and accessible to all—throughout history and in every place… ‘We have come to know a threefold coming of the Lord.  The third coming takes place between the other two…his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness, this intermediary coming is in the spirit and in power, the last coming will be in glory and majesty’ (In Adventu Domini [by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux]).”

Pope Benedict XVI, “Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week”