Those who are soldiers of the temple are of God.
39 days after Easter / 10 days before Pentecost.
39 days after Jesus rose from the dead, he calls his apostles together. The last time before he goes to Heaven. We read this in Acts. They leave Jerusalem. They climbed a mountain on the east side of the city. He told the Apostles that His task is accomplished. Now they must preach the gospel to every corner of the world. (Acts 1:4-8)
Acts 1:9 says:
After these words, they saw Jesus being lifted up. A cloud took Jesus with it and it disappeared from their sight.
Here it says that he disappears from sight in a descending cloud. Then the apostles are promised that He will return to earth in the same way. Acts 1:11.
This is the final accession of Jesus. In Heaven He sat down at the right hand of God. Now he rules the earth from Heaven. God sent his only son Jesus to earth; to connect Heaven and earth. It is finished, it is “finished”. In other words: we are now connected to Heaven.
The priest celebrates this by saying: “Almighty God, let us rejoice and rejoice, full of gratitude, because the Ascension of Christ your Son is also our exaltation. His glory with You is our hope, for we are one body with Him who is our head: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The first known celebration of Ascension Day dates from the 4th century. Described by church historian Eusebius. Later it became a regular holiday. Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday, thirty-nine days after Easter (the fortieth day of Easter) and ten days before Pentecost.
The Paschal candle continues to burn with every celebration, up to and including Pentecost. This strengthens unity at Easter, the feast of the resurrection, feast of light. Ascension is not a feast of farewell to Jesus, it is a feast of his continued presence among us as the glorified Lord.
We also commemorate the promulgation of Pope Leo XIII’s papal encyclical on social justice, Rerum Novarum, in 1891. On this day, abbey tours were walked.
An old tradition is to dew on Ascension Day. Presumably, people used to get up at three o’clock in the morning on Ascension Day to sing and dance barefoot on the grass. That’s where the term “dew trapping” would come from. The dew on the grass is said to have a purifying effect. This is to celebrate the May festival or the revival of nature.
Photo of Dew Traps from the last century. photo: Heemkunde Oostmasum
Ascension Day in the coming years:
Date day week no
14 May 2026 Thursday 20
6 May 2027 Thursday 18
25 May 2028 Thursday 21
10 May 2029 Thursday 19
30 May 2030 Thursday 22
22 May 2031 Thursday 21
6 May 2032 Thursday 19
26 May 2033 Thursday 21
18 May 2034 Thursday 20