feast of the ascension

today in our catholic calendar, it is ascension day, a holy day of obligation. or to be more ‘churchy’ correct, ‘feast of the ascension of the lord jesus’. it is a day where the lord, jesus christ ascended into heaven after his death and ressurection.

by ‘obligation’ it means we are obligated to  attend mass, and by feast, it means a time of great rejoicing (good excuse for eating more – feast lah!)

an obligation day from the church can also mean in simple lay-men term as ‘a church holiday’, and being a church holiday, i have the day off. yipee!

in our catholic church we have 3 days of obligation, which all happens to start with ‘a’ – ascension, assumption and all saints. oh yes and i have these 3 days off from work. talk about many public holidays in our country – lucky me got these 3 days as holidays.

well it is good that today is a holiday for me as it gives me time to pack for my trip to kl (see my other post). I’ll do my packing in the morning then evening i have to attend mass. must go early since i have the duty of commentating.

as this post is about ascension, i’ll leave you with bible passagees about the ascension.

acts 1, 9-11
⁹ And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹ and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

luke 24, 50-51
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. ⁵¹ While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.