Skip to main content

Ascension Day



After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. (Acts 1:9)
            Augustine claimed that according to apostolic tradition, the fourth Thursday after Easter is the day to celebrate the Ascension. I'm not really much of a holiday person partly because I'm not a party person. I'm more interested in the meaning behind a day than with the hoopla. Perhaps it's evidence of my lack of education, but I've never seen the sense to Shrove Tuesday, or Ash Wednesday, or Maundy Thursday. I am even a little dubious about celebrating Christmas, but it seems to me that celebrating Christ's ascension makes complete sense. This is a holiday I'm going to add to my calendar.
             I have to admit, until I looked at the calendar for today's blog entry, I'd never considered celebrating the Ascension or Pentecost. Church holidays and traditions tend to be curiosities. But if Easter is the most important Christian holiday, what are the next most important events? At the moment, I would say His return (date unknown), Pentecost, and His Ascension. These ought to be at least as significant in our lives as Mother's Day.
            This year's celebration is going to be necessarily bare-bones. I may try to put something together for Sunday, which is the modern date of its celebration. Next year's celebration is something to which I can look forward and plan. Care to join me?+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On the Calendar
Ascension Day
Birthday of
Soren Kierkagaard
Karl Marx
Henryk Sienkiewicz

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more