Prayer for the Feast of Obligation of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus

 

According to a tradition, which has been handed down since the earliest days of Christianity, Jesus ascended at noon, the same hour when He was nailed to His Cross.

Prayer From the Liturgical Year of – Dom Prospero Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes:

O Jesus, our Emmanuel! Thy work is done, and this is the day of Thy entering into Thy rest. In the beginning of the world, Thou didst spend six days in harmonizing the varied portions of the creation; after which, thou enteredst again into Thy rest. When later on, thou wouldst repair thy work which Satan's malice had deranged, Thy love induced Thee to live among us for three and thirty years, during which Thou didst work our redemption, and restoredst us to the holiness and honour whence we had fallen. Whatsoever had been assigned Thee in the eternal decrees of the Blessed Trinity, whatsoever had been foretold of Thee by the Prophets; all was done, dear Jesus! not an iota of it all was forgotten. Thy triumphant Ascension was the close of the mission Thou hadst so mercifully undertaken. It was thy second entrance into thy rest; but, this time, it was with our Human Nature which Thou hadst assumed, and which was now to receive divine honour. Thou wouldst have companions in Thine Ascension,--the souls thou hadst liberated from Limbo; yea, and when about to leave us, thou saidst this word of consolation to us: I go to prepare a place for You (St. John, xiv. 2)!

Confiding, O Jesus! in this promise; resolved to follow Thee in all the mysteries achieved by Thee for our sakes, in the humility of Thy Birth at Bethlehem, in Thy sufferings on Calvary, in the joy of Thy Resurrection, we hope, also, to imitate Thee, when our mortal course is run, in Thy glorious Ascension. Meanwhile, we unite with the holy Apostles who rejoiced at Thy triumph, and with the ransomed captives of Limbo who entered heaven in Thy company. Watch over us, O Divine Shepherd, whilst we are in our exile! Tend Thy faithful sheep; let none be lost; lead them all to Thy fold. The mystery of Thine Ascension shows us the object of our existence; it re-animates us to study more attentively, and love more warmly, all Thy other mysteries: our one ambition, then, our one desire, shall henceforth be our own Ascension to heaven and to Thee. It was for this Thou camest into the world: by humbling Thyself to our lowliness, to exalt us to Thine own majesty; and by making Thyself Man, to make man a partaker of Thy divinity. But until the happy day of our union with Thee, what would become of us without that Power of the Most High which thou hast promised to send us, that He may bring us patience during our pilgrimage, fidelity to our absent King, and that solace of a heart exiled from its God,--love? Come, then, O Holy Spirit! Support our weakness; fix the eye of our souls on the heaven where our King awaits us; and never permit us to set our hearts on a world which, had it every other charm, has not the infinite one of Jesus' visible presence!

From the Sermon on the Feast of the Ascension

by Father Francisco Xavier Weninger, 1876

Let us, then, beloved in Christ, imitate their example, by an increase of zeal in prayer, as we celebrate this festive day. Let us, in spirit, place ourselves in their midst, and imagine the deep emotion with which we would have fallen at the feet of Christ and embraced them, had we been witnesses of this happy meeting between Him and His holy Mother, and faithful friends. With what ardor we would have implored Him to remember us before His Father in heaven, and promised to do His holy will in all things, that we might one day follow Him to the realms of everlasting bliss.

If we possess these affections, and fulfill the resolutions arising therefrom; if we think constantly of heaven, and live only for it, then most assuredly will we courageously combat those enemies who would fain deprive us of its celestial joys; and having borne the cross on earth, we shall wear an eternal crown above. Amen!