WobLog

Fr. Tim Finigan comments on the trend (at least in the English-speaking world) of moving yesterday's Feast of the Ascension to the following Sunday, and points to other posts critical of the move.

The Curt Jester expands on the theme, noting that the Thursday is observed in the Catholic blogosphere as the "Feast of the Rant that today is not Ascension Thursday." This feast is observed with posts critical of the decision by bishops to move the feast (and thus the associated obligation to attend Mass) from Thursday to Sunday (presumably because Catholics can't be expected to be Catholic for more than one hour a week). The Jester suggests a new way to observe the Feast – if you don't already regularly attend Daily Mass, make a point of attending on Ascension Thursday:

You really don't need any special reason to want to go to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but if you need one then celebrating the Ascension with the rest of the Catholic world is a nice bit of solidarity. This is the only type of Mass protest that is acceptable. It would be wonderful if more and more people each year did choose to go to Mass today and celebrate with the rest of the universal Church and lead by example so perhaps the bishops were led by this example and rethink the minimum weekly dose of Catholicism mentality.

What difference does it make, you ask? Well, for one thing, Scripture tells us the Lord ascended 40 days after Easter. That's Thursday, not Sunday. Furthermore, the deep ties between Scripture and Tradition argue for maintaining Thursday. As pointed out to us by a friend of ours at Church, the origin of the Catholic tradition of the novena is tied to Ascension Thursday:

[T]he first novena is that prayer-filled space between the Ascension of Our Lord and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the nascent Church!

We know from Acts 1:12-14 that, after the Ascension, the Apostles, together with the blessed Virgin and disciples, gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem where the Last Supper had been taken. There they devoted their time to prayer, awaiting the fulfillment of Our Lord's promise. "Wait here in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).

So – they prayed for nine consecutive days, and look what happened – Pentecost!

We observed the feast by going to the well-attended Traditional Latin Mass at our parish. I like the idea of a grass-roots effort to reclaim Thursday for Ascension Thursday.