Alleluia! God
is gone up with a merry noise!
The
Feast of the Ascension, which falls this year on May 1, is important for
several reasons. Jesus told the disciples that it was good that He should go
away so that the Holy Spirit would come. So the Ascension points our thoughts
forward to the season of Pentecost. In His Ascension, Christ took our human
nature, restored and resurrected, back to heaven, where He sat down at the
right hand of God the Father. Although the feast itself is on a particular day,
like most great feasts it has an octave—eight days during which it is
celebrated; the octave includes “Ascension Sunday,” which has its own collect.
Grant, we beseech thee,
Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus
Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind
thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth
and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God,
world without end. Amen.
O God, the King of glory, who
hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great
triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless;
but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and
exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour
Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world
without end. Amen.