Why do our Church leaders feel they must conform to the whims and fashions of the world?  Is not the Truth timeless?  Why are the great Holydays of Mother Church being systematically eradicated by a culture that has time for all manner of nonsense, but not time for our Creator? 

In all but a few dioceses in the United States, Ascension Thursday has turned into “Ascension Sunday,” presumably because its “too hard” for people to get to Holy Mass more than one day per week.  I love Ascension Thursday.  The only child I was able to bring into this world was born on Ascension Thursday.  I was in the hospital for almost a week and the only day Our Lord came to me in Holy Communion was that day that my son was brought forth, just prior to his birth.  I continue to meditate on what the meaning might be that my son was born on Ascension Thursday.  I actually was supposed to have him the day before, but he didn’t want to come out.  So the next day, a Caesarean was performed and my almost 10-pound baby showed his beautiful face to the world! 

Many other Holydays are going the same route, when one falls next to a Sunday.  The point is, these Holydays matter.  They are precious.  They should be preserved.  Catholic Survivalists must fight this fight.  Just as we must protect our water supply, our trees and our animals, we must protect the traditional riches of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Woe to the culture that fails to find time for God.  That fails to find time to attend Holy Mass.  For the just consequence is that God will begin to forget us.  “Oh, you’d like Me to stop that earthquake?  Well, let Me check my schedule…gee, I’m really rather booked up for today…you’d like Me to cure your cancer?…yeeeaaahhh…its not really looking good for today, I’ve got a few new universes to create…I’ll get back to ya!” 

Let us attend Holy Mass and receive Our Blessed Lord as often as possible, lest these great privileges be taken from us.  At that hour, there will be wailing by the locked Church doors,  pleading for Him to return to us.

Collect for the Feast of the Ascension (from the Mass of St. Pius V):

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who believe Thine only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, to have this day ascended into heaven, may dwell in spirit amid heavenly things. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Scott P. Richert from “About.com:  Catholicism,” writes:

“Christ’s bodily Ascension foreshadows our own entrance into Heaven not simply as souls, after our death, but as glorified bodies, after the resurrection of the dead at the Final Judgment. In redeeming mankind, Christ not only offered salvation to our souls but began the restoration of the material world itself to the glory that God intended before Adam’s fall.”

For the complete text: 

http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Ascension.htm

For the “Novena to the Holy Ghost,” which is traditionally began on Ascension Thursday, to commemorate the days between the Ascension and Pentecost:

http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/p/Novena_HG.htm

For more on the Feast of Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven, please search to the right for “ascension.”  You’ll also come up with info on the Rogation Days, which were celebrated this week.  Hopefully, Ascension Thursday won’t go the way of the Rogation Days.  Don’t forget, Ember Days are coming up soon!

O Lord, Ascended into Heaven in Glory, have mercy upon us!