By Martin Jumbam
Mother Church celebrates Thursday, May 09, 2013 as the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord to heaven. It is one of the great solemnities in the Christian liturgical calendar and commemorates the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter. The Latin term used for the feast, ascensio, signifies that Christ was raised up by his own powers, and it is from these terms that the holy day gets its name.
Saint Augustine says that the Ascension is to be seen with the eyes of faith which looks toward the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. “On this day therefore, that is, the fortieth after His Resurrection, the Lord ascended into heaven. We have not seen, but we believe. They who beheld Him proclaimed what they saw, and they have filled the whole earth: There are no speeches nor languages where their voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world (Ps. xviii. 4, 5). And so they have reached even unto us, and awakened us from sleep. And lo! this death is celebrated throughout the world” (Saint Augustine, PL 38, Semo. 262. In die Ascensionis Domini IV).
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