Today is Ascension Day. Some churches throughout the world observe this church festival day with special services. Ascension Day is on Thursday, forty days after Easter. It commemorates Christ's ascension which took place by tradition at the Mount of Olives near Bethany in the Holy Land.

My research on Ascension Day states that the earliest documentary evidence of the observance of the feast of the ascension is of the fifth century, which presents it as already long observed. Pictorial representations of the event narrated in the Acts are found in fifth century hinged tablets and frescoes. The Eastern churches know the feast as the Analepsis. The Roman liturgy ranks the day among the highest feasts, and marks its celebration with a visual and an octave. Connected with the liturgical solemnity were certain customs, including the blessing of beans and grapes during the Canon of the Mass, the extinction of the paschal candle, triumphal processions, and, in some churches, the elevation of a figure of Christ through an opening in the church roof, symbolizing the Ascension.

Ascension Day Church services have always had a very special meaning in my life from early childhood days. These services for me were as important as Christmas and Easter. Many special memories of attending Ascension Day church services flood my mind and hold even more special meaning having been able to worship in the Chapel of the Ascension on my last pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It is very interesting that the hotel where I stayed while there was near the Chapel of the Ascension on the hill where tradition has it, that Jesus left his disciples and gave us all the great commission to carry on his work in spreading the Gospel to all nations. I was able to walk the path alone to this chapel to meditate and pray and light a candle. These memories of spending precious prayerful moments at this hill so far away, will forever remain in my memories. Thank you dear readers of this warm thoughts column for sharing with me how very special today is as we celebrate and appreciate this very special festival, the Ascension of our Lord.

Some prayerful thoughts to ponder: Lord, lead me to some soul today. Oh teach me, Lord, just what to say. Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me. And may I gladly do my part to win that soul for Thee. Have a very special Ascension Day!

Warm Thoughts from the Little Home on the Prairie Over a Cup of Tea by Luetta G. Werner

Published in the Marion Record June 1st, 2000.

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Till next time,

Trina