The feast of the Ascension is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday. This year it will be on Thursday 30 May. It is a day of obligation when Catholics are asked to attend Mass. At St. Aidan’s there will be Mass at 9:30am and 8pm.

Having risen from the dead, Jesus had shown himself on many occasions to the disciples. The Ascension celebrates the return of Jesus to his Father in heaven having completed the work of our redemption. By ascending in his human body he shows that his humanity is eternally united with his divinity. After the Ascension the disciples no longer saw Jesus in bodily form, but they remembered his promise: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses (Acts 1:8). They went back to the upper room accompanied by Mary the mother of Jesus. There they spent the following days in prayer waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. The period between Ascension and Pentecost is a special period of prayer for us who are disciples of Christ today.