The Ascension of the Lord

St. Nicholai Velimirovich

Thus did the One ascend to Heaven Who held heaven within Himself. He who carries hell within himself will end up in hell, but he who bears heaven within his soul will ascend to heaven. And truly, no one can ascend to heaven other than those who have heaven within; and no one can end up in hell besides those who have hell within. The familiar is drawn to what is familiar and unites with the familiar; but it rejects what is not familiar. Matter submits to the spirit to the extent that the human soul is filled with the Divine Spirit; and the laws of nature are obedient to moral laws, which govern the world. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the perfection of moral law, to Him is subject all matter—the entire physical world, with all the laws of nature.

From the Sacred Ascension To Holy Pentecost

The Purified Heart as a Foundation for the Mystical Ladder: Prayer, Confession, and Deification

1. “Purify your hearts...”

LET US GATHER once again, all ye assemblies of those who love God, Christ, and the Comforter!

The deifying Grace of the Holy Trinity calls us, today, to the upper chamber of Pentecost: to a sacred banquet!

And it enlightens the Holy Fathers to remind us that there is a sacred order:

THE MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF ASCENSION

On the Feast of the Ascension, the Orthodox Church does not merely commemorate an historical event in the life of Christ. On this day, the Church celebrates Christ's physical departure from the world and His glorification with God the Father.

For forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth. Filled with the glory and honor of His Divinity, He appeared to His Disciples at various times and places. By eating and drinking with His followers and conversing with them about the Kingdom of God, Jesus assured them that He was truly alive in His risen and glorified Body. (The glorification of Jesus refers to His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven. When we speak of Christ's glorified Body, we refer to Its honor, splendor, majesty and visible radiance - it gave off rays of bright light!)

FROM THE HEART: RESTING IN THE ASCENSION

By Douglas Cramer

Summer is almost here. It’s a good time to just take a deep breath, and relax. You know, go to the beach if you live close to it, have a barbeque, invite some friends over. I remember doing this on a grand scale as a child growing up in New Jersey. But how often do most of us do this anymore? We’re so busy, we’ve forgotten that true rest and relaxation, the kind that really restores you, is vital to our survival.

This week the Church celebrates the Ascension of our Lord, and our worship since Pascha has been rooted in our joy in the Resurrection. In the light of this glorious, peaceful and fulfilling period of the calendar of our Church we should be totally relaxed and fully in the presence of our Lord. But we still struggle to relax and unclench, to be at peace.

FEAST OF THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

Introduction

The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated each year on the fortieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter). Since the date of Pascha changes each year, the date of the Feast of the Ascension changes. The Feast is always celebrated on a Thursday.

The Feast itself commemorates when, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, Jesus led His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and after blessing them and asking them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, He ascended into heaven.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES CONVENT

View of the Mount of Olives from Mount Zion. From vol. 1 of Picturesque Palestine

The Mount of Olives is one of the holiest places on the earth. It is first mentioned in the Bible over a thousand years before the birth of Christ, in the Second Book of Kings, where one finds described the expulsion of King David from Jerusalem and his withdrawal to the Mount of Olives for prayer (II Kings 15:23, 30-32). It was here also that the Prophet Ezekiel beheld a vision of the cherubim and the glory of the Lord (Ezek. 11:22-23). All four evangelists likewise recount for us the principal events in the Savior's earthly life, all of which are connected with the Mount of Olives. The summit of the Mount, for example, witnessed the prophecy of the final days of Jerusalem (Luke 19), of the Dread Judgment (Matt. 24), the Lord's parting instructions to His disciples, and the foretelling of Peter's denial. The Savior loved the Mount of Olives and spent nights there in prayer. On Holy Thursday, following the Mystical Supper on Mount Sion, the Master and His apostles, "having sung a hymn, went out into the Mount of Olives" (Matt. 26:30). There He promised to meet His disciples in Galilee after His Resurrection (Matt. 26:32; Mark; 14:28). And this, of course, is where He ascended into heaven, as is recounted in the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 1:12). Olivet was also the place where the palace of Herod stood, and where Joanna, the wife of Chuza, buried the precious head of St. John the Baptist after his execution, where it was discovered by the ascetic Innocent in the 4th century, as we read in the Menologion under the date February 24th.

The Ascension and the Glorification of Man

Fr. Lawrence Farley

In contemporary Orthodoxy, we are accustomed to referring to Christ as one of the Holy Trinity. He is usually referred to as “Christ our true God”, and the Gospel of John, which stresses His divine status, is, I would suggest, our favourite of the four Gospels. When announcing the reading from (say) Matthew’s Gospel, the deacon says, “Bless master him who proclaims the good tidings of the holy apostle and evangelist Matthew”, but when he announces a reading from John’s Gospel, he says, “Bless master him who proclaims the good tidings of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian”. The other evangelists are honoured, but only John receives the title “the Theologian” (an epithet shared only by St. Gregory Nazianzus and St. Simeon, sometimes called “the New Theologian”). Like I said: John is our favourite.

Sermon on the Ascension of the Lord

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

“I am with you, and no one can be against you,” says the Lord to everyone who believes in Him. No sorrows, no temptation, not even the most terrifying catastrophes should break the believer whose faith unites him in spirit with Christ. Here in Sretensky Monastery we have before us the relics of St. Hilarion (Troitsky); most of you here today have read in his Life how he celebrated the Paschal services in Solovki concentration camp. Bereft of basic human rights, tortured and mocked, the threat of death hanging over them at every moment, these prisoners celebrated the triumph of the power of One upon Whom they placed all their hope.

Homily on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

St. Innocent (Borisov), 

Archbishop of Cherson and Taurida,

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Lk. 24:50–52). Thus ended our Lord and Savior’s time of earthly labor! He suffered much, and was greatly glorified. There have never been such sorrows as His sorrows, and there has never been such glory as His glory. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:8-11).

You have Ascended in Glory, Christ our God

Lambros Skontzos 

The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, is a joyful festal stage in the truly jubilant Resurrection time of our Church. With feelings of rejoicing, we Orthodox faithful pack the churches on this holy day, to send hymns of thanksgiving to  our Saviour and Redeemer Lord and to praise His holy ascent to the heavens, after He had consented to descend in order to perform his redemptive work for the human race. (Jn. 3, 13; Phil. 2, 6-11). We hymn His return to the divine throne of His ineffable majesty, at the right hand of God the Father, to Whom He is forever our great and eternal Intercessor (I Tim. 2, 5).

St. Silouan the Athonite on the Joy of the Ascension of Christ

(amateur translation)

After the Ascension of the Lord, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem with great joy, as the Gospel says (Luke 24:52).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem on the Ascension of Christ

From Catechetical Lecture 4:

But when Jesus had finished His course of patient endurance, and had redeemed mankind from their sins, He ascended again into the heavens, a cloud receiving Him up: and as He went up Angels were beside Him, and Apostles were beholding. But if any man disbelieves the words which I speak, let him believe the actual power of the things now seen. All kings when they die have their power extinguished with their life: but Christ crucified is worshipped by the whole world. We proclaim The Crucified, and the devils tremble now. Many have been crucified at various times; but of what other who was crucified did the invocation ever drive the devils away?

Ascension of the Lord — Peace, Holy Spirit , & Forgiveness of Sins

Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

"While He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy"...with great joy ... "and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (Lk. 24:51-3).

If, during the course of six weeks, the Holy Church has been teaching us to preserve this peace which Christ granted on the first day of His Resurrection, saying: "Peace be unto you" (Jn. 20:19), then now this feeling of peace should fill our hearts. You see, this feeling of peace appears in all of us as an expectation of joy. People search for some kind of rest, some kind of comfort. For this they travel from place to place in order to find peace. And yet this peace is within them, only in an unrevealed state. Peace is that gift which the Lord gave to us, that peace which keeps a person in a kind of unearthly state of joy. This is what the Holy Church has been teaching us during the six weeks of Easter: to be close to Christ, to preserve this peace, protect ourselves from those things which, entering our heart, might disturb this peace.

On the Feast of the Ascension

A Sermon by Our Righteous Father Sebastian Dabovich San Francisco, 1899

Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich was the first North American born Orthodox priest, serving in Canada and the United States. His relics were recently translated to his home parish in California, where many faithful attended in anticipation of his glorification as the most recently revealed saint of North America. This sermon was taken from "Lectures and Sermons by a Priest of the Holy Orthodox Church", by Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich, Cubery and Company, Publishers, San Francisco CA, 1899, pages: 148-152.

"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
which also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?"Acts 1:10, 11

THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LORD AND GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST

ON WEDNESDAY OF THE 6TH WEEK

AT SMALL VESPERS

Synaxarion For the Thursday of the Ascension

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

Thursday of the Ascension

On this day, the Thursday of the sixth week of Pascha, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Verses

Thou didst sit at the right hand of the Father, O Word,Granting unto Thine initiates a most steadfast faith.

The Ascension of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ

By Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas, PhD, DD, DTh[1]

"And while he was blessing them, he departed and started to ascend to heaven" (Luke 24:51).

The Ascension as the pinnacle of the Feasts of the Lord: How bright and wonderful is this Feast! It is the pinnacle of all the Feasts of the Lord, because with it the sacred and saving purpose of the Divine Incarnation and Inhomination of the Word of God is completed. For what purpose did the Son and Word of God become man, and underwent the passion, the death, the resurrection…and the ascension? All these events took place so that the human nature might not remain below on the earth, but be raised to heaven, become deified and glorified according to the Creator’s original design. This, then, was the purpose for which the Son of God condescended to assume within his super-godly person (hypostasis) our human nature, which had fallen from its original condition, in order to renew it with his Crucifixion and Resurrection and to raise it to the heavenly heights with his glorious Ascension, presenting it to God the Father as the super-brilliant trophy of his victory.

The Ascension of the Lord in the Flesh to Heaven

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

This Feast is celebrated on the 40th day after Pascha, which always comes on Thursday of the 6th week. It has received its name from the commemoration and event glorified on this day, the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh to heaven (Мark. 16:16-20; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:4-12). On the last day of His visible stay on earth the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to all the apostles who had gathered together and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the coming of the Holy Spirit on them that was promised by Him. He has "led them from the city of Jerusalem to Bethany" on the Mount of Olives 1. While on the way He talked with them about the organization of His Church on earth. On the top of the Mount of Olives the Lord, explaining to the Holy Apostles what their purpose will be, said to them: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth". And when He had said this, the Savior lifted up His divine hands and blessed His disciples. "And when He blessed them 2, He receded from them, and went up again into heaven". The Apostles reverentially bowed to the Lord, Who blessed them, and with trembling and amazement watched Him ascend to heaven while, finally, a cloud took Him out of their sight. But the Lord was not slow to comfort His disciples with such an unexpected and regrettable separation. Behold two men in white clothes revealed themselves to the Apostles. They were Angels whom the ascended Savior as Lord and Master of the Angels sent to earth to the Apostles. The Angels said to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven". Having heard from the angels such a comforting message, the apostles, filled with the deepest joy, left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem. So glorious was the visible ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, which His Disciples told us. But His further invisible Ascension to an eternal divine kingdom to His Father was much more glorious, as this is described in the church hymns in the present day, in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets.

And Ascended Into Heaven...

by V. Rev. George Florovsky, D.D.

"I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God, and Your God" (John 20:17).

In these words the Risen Christ described to Mary Magdalene the mystery of His Resurrection. She had to carry this mysterious message to His disciples, "as they mourned and wept" (Mark 16:10). The disciples listened to these glad tidings with fear and amazement, with doubt and mistrust. It was not Thomas alone who doubted among the Eleven. On the contrary, it appears that only one of the Eleven did not doubt - St John, the disciple "whom Jesus loved." He alone grasped the mystery of the empty tomb at once: "and he saw, and believed" (John 20:8). Even Peter left the sepulcher in amazement, "wondering at that which was come to pass" (Luke 24:12).

The Glorious Ascension of Our Lord and the Prayer of the Heart

The Glorious Ascension of Our Lord: A Guide to the Neptic Activity of Prayer of the Heart

COME, all ye feast-loving Faithful! Let us spiritually celebrate, with enthusiasm and clapping our hands, the marvelous ascent of our Lord and God and Savior from the earth to Heaven.

Today we celebrate the most glorious “Epilogue to the most exquisitely beautiful, most salutary, and universal discourse of the Economy of God the Word for our sake.”1

Now is the time of ineffable gladness and jubilation, because our corruptible and mortal nature ascends in Christ, incorruptible and immortal and with indescribable glory, to Heaven.