Solemnity of the Ascension

"Our right to Heaven has been given us, our place is ready; it is for us to live in such a way that we may occupy it some day."

~Divine Intimacy, pg. 535

Today is Ascension THURSDAY!  I'm not a big fan of transferring this Feast Day to Sunday, so we are celebrating today.  Unfortunately, Natalie has a sore throat and fever, so Mass is not on the menu, but I did make homemade cream puffs (aka cloud puffs...) for dessert, and I am making fried mushrooms for appetizers (cloud-ish as well ;).  Hopefully we can get in the Glorious Mysteries tonight in lieu of Mass.

"The Ascension is, then, a feast of joyful hope, a sweet foretaste of Heaven.  By going before us, Jesus our Head has given us the right to follow Him there some day, and we can even say with St. Leo, 'In the person of Christ, we have penetrated the heights of Heaven.'  As in Christ Crucified we rise to the life of grace, so too, we are raised up to Heaven in the Ascension of Christ."

~Divine Intimacy, pg. 535~

And, don't forget that the Novena to the Holy Spirit starts tomorrow in anticipation of Pentecost.  I've actually never said this novena, but in the Divine Intimacy meditation for Ascension, it says this:  "...they returned to Jerusalem where, in the Cenacle, they awaited in prayer the fulfillment of the promise.  It was the first novena in preparation for Pentecost..."  How cool is that?!  Sometimes the Apostles, early Christians, and even the humanity of Christ can seem so distant, surreal, and hard to reach.  But, reading that the Apostles said the same 9 day novena that we still say today (probably not in the same format) makes it seem so much more real!  So, I think I will make the effort and say my first Novena to the Holy Spirit to prepare for Pentecost!!  The meditation goes on to recommend that we should unite our novena to the Blessed Mother, just as the Apostles did (although, you probably already knew that...)