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...)

Investment Tip

 

During Lent, the Church urges us to participate in the Sacrament of Penance more frequently.  While it is only required that Catholics receive this Sacrament one a year (CCC 1457), there are so many benefits to going more regularly.  Recently, I began using the book Divine Intimacy for daily meditations.  This book is really great.  There is a brief meditation for every day of the Liturgical year, so it follows the ebb and flow of Catholic seasons.  One of the recent mediations was on Confession.  While reading it, I discovered something that I had never realized before:

 

"At that moment it is Jesus who is acting in the soul, either by remitting sin or by producing or increasing grace.  It is well to remember that the efficacy of the absolution is not limited merely to sins that have already been committed, but that it even extends into the future." - Divine Intimacy, pg 306

 

I guess I've always known that Confession gives you the grace to avoid temptation and sin, but it never occurred to me that I should call on the graces of past confessions when I am in the midst of temptation.  I always just thought of it as grace working in my soul up to the current point in my life and not necessarily grace that lingers for awhile.  This is really comforting to know that the grace lasts longer than the moment of absolution! 

 

"The Blood of Christ is, in this sense, not only a remedy for the past, but also a preservative and a strengthening help for the future.  The soul which plunges into it, as into a healthful bath, draws from it new vigor and sees the strength of its passions extinguished little by little.  We see then the importance of frequent confession for a soul desirous of union with God, a soul which must necessarily aspire to total purification." - Divine Intimacy, pg 307

 

Beautiful!  Probably one of the best investments we can make for our eternal future.