Posted on 06/03/2011 7:14:16 AM PDT by marshmallow
The current Sunday arrangement has not been a great success
If I have a special wish for this time next year it must be that we will all be able to celebrate Ascension Thursday on the Thursday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter, and not on the Seventh Sunday, as at present.
The current arrangement, which has been with us for five years, has not been a great success. It is true that more people have been going to Mass for the Ascension, because it is now on a Sunday, but this comes at a cost, namely a tinkering with the Church’s year that breaks its rhythm, and that is something you really can’t do with time.
The restoration of the feast day to its true day (which seems to have near universal support) will mean that parish priests will have the opportunity to celebrate Mass in Catholic schools on that day, which will, if properly handled, give them an opportunity to evangelise.
Funnily enough, when Ascension and Corpus Christi were on their original days, I was working in a Catholic school, which like so many of our schools was staffed by non-Catholics, lapsed Catholics and, in many cases, anti-Catholics, and the moaning in the staff room about losing lessons on a Thursday morning so that the school could celebrate Mass was really something to behold.
But people who do not want to countenance Catholic worship ought not to get jobs in Catholic schools, ought they? Or is that me being simplistic?
My personal memories as a small child of Ascension Thursday were all good ones. On that day we got the whole day off school, and we went swimming – Ascension Thursday being regarded in Malta as the official start of the swimming season. In fact, rather than just having a lesson off to squeeze in Mass, it would be better for Catholic schools to make a whole day of it – to make the Ascension a proper feast.
The same applies to Corpus Christi. And if we get that day back, can we please think about processions? Their demise is deeply regretted by many. As a child, the one thing I remember with clarity is the Corpus Christi procession round the school grounds.
The trouble is, once the baton has been dropped, it is hard to pick it up again; and once a tradition has been broken, it is difficult to revive it. We have given up our holy days and the practices associated with them, but what have we gained in their place?
And while on this topic, can I make a plea for the Epiphany being restored to Twelfth Night? That tradition is ancient, and not to be lightly discarded. There is a Shakespeare play named after it too! It is a pretty good day, incidentally, to have your Christmas party.
We have Corpus Christi procession.
Lots of puzzled stares...... :-)
I do hope Catholics return to giving Holy Days their proper place. Which other ones have been transferred? Transfiguration? Annunciation? By trying to make the Days more accessible, I think their distinction has been lost; it becomes "just another Sunday."
And I pray we Orthodox will never change. As we say, "Change? What is this word 'Change?'"
Oh and I must say "Christ is Ascended!" We only get to say that until Pentecost.
Note: this lazy practice is localized to the Catholic Church in America. The rest of the Church still observes the Holy Days.
And the UK........perhaps not surprisingly.
At my (Lutheran) parish, we do. As I explained last night at the beginning of my Ascension Day sermon: "Today the church celebrates the Ascension of Our Lord. It was forty days after his resurrection that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, and so this is the day--forty days after Easter, always on a Thursday in mid-to-late spring--when we have this festival."
And while on this topic, can I make a plea for the Epiphany being restored to Twelfth Night? That tradition is ancient, and not to be lightly discarded.
Again, at my (Lutheran) church, we celebrate the Epiphany of Our Lord on January 6, regardless of the day of the week.
It probably started here but, alas, the practice of changing Holy Days to the nearest Sunday is pretty widespread, even in places like Spain. I believe it’s the option of the local bishop, however, and while the national bishops’ council can recommend putting all the Holy Days on Sundays, the local bishop is the one who makes that decision.
We need to go back to the Holy Days as they were. They were all there for a reason (a reference to the specific time in the Gospel accounts, and then the symbolic understanding of this by the Church over the centuries). Putting it on Sunday completely loses that.
I agree.
Being stuck in my old missals and Rosary booklets, I had no idea they were changed.
The changing of the holy days to put them on Sundays came because for the reason, and forget any mispellings, “convienence”.
Yhere is no excuse for nor observing this holyday. On an errand we passed by Good Shephard Church and noted all the cars parked for evening services. My brother saked “Why all the cars ?” My reply “It’s Ascension Thursday”. The demonimation of that church was Lutheran and as a Catholic I felt ashamed .
Yesterday at our GOA parish:
6th Thursday after Pascha/Ascension
June 02
Synaxarion:
The Lord Jesus passed forty days on earth after His Resurrection from the dead, appearing continually in various places to His disciples, with whom He also spoke, ate, and drank, thereby further demonstrating His Resurrection. On this Thursday, the fortieth day after Pascha, He appeared again in Jerusalem. After He had first spoken to the disciples about many things, He gave them His last commandment, that is, that they go forth and proclaim His Name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. But He also commanded them that for the present, they were not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait there together until they receive power from on high, when the Holy Spirit would come upon them.
Saying these things, He led them to the Mount of Olives, and raising His hands, He blessed them; and saying again the words of the Father’s blessing, He was parted from them and taken up. Immediately a cloud of light, a proof of His majesty, received Him. Sitting thereon as though on a royal chariot, He was taken up into Heaven, and after a short time was concealed from the sight of the disciples, who remained where they were with their eyes fixed on Him. At this point, two Angels in the form of men in white raiment appeared to them and said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, Who is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven” (Acts 1:11). These words, in a complete and concise manner, declare what is taught in the Symbol of Faith concerning the Son and Word of God. Therefore, having so fulfilled all His dispensation for us, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended in glory into Heaven, and sat at the right hand of God the Father. As for His sacred disciples, they returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, rejoicing because Christ had promised to send them the Holy Spirit.
It should be noted that the Mount of Olives is a Sabbath’s day journey from Jerusalem, that is, the distance a Jew was permitted to walk on the day of the Sabbath. Ecumenius writes, “A Sabbath day’s journey is one mile in length, as Clement says in his fifth Stromatis; it is two thousand cubits, as the Interpretation of the Acts states.” They draw this conclusion from the fact that, while they were in the wilderness, the Israelites of old kept within this distance from the Holy Tabernacle, whither they walked on the Sabbath day to worship God.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gladdened Thy disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit; and they were assured by the blessing that Thou art the Son of God and Redeemer of the world.
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Second Tone
O Christ our God, upon fulfilling Your dispensation for our sake, You ascended in Glory, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. You were never separate but remained inseparable, and cried out to those who love You, “I am with you and no one is against you.”
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