The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.

"TO THE EXTENT THAT EACH CHRISTIAN GROWS IN HOLINESS, HE OR SHE WILL BEAR GREATER FRUIT FOR OUR WORLD." (POPE FRANCIS, EXSULTATE ET GAUDATE - REJOICE AND BE GLAD).

"Jesus said to his disciples:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you;
but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

"Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.
They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God."  (Luke 24: 46 - 53).

Sunday 29th May 2022, in the 7th Week of Easter is the Solemnity of the Ascension.  The Feast of the Ascension is celebrated on the Thursday of the 6th Week of Easter or on the 7th Sunday of Easter depending on the Diocese in the United States.

Jesus is taken up into heaven in full view of His disciples. During the forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus continued teaching, encouraging and comforting His disciples. Now the time of Departure has come. He instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Gift of the Father. He then turned the work of building the Kingdom of God on earth to them with the Great Commission:

“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." ( Mark 16: 15).

Every epoch and people respond to the Great Commission with the peculiar gifts and infrastructure provided by God. But the universal and perennial Gift of God is the Holy Spirit. Without the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit we cannot evangelize. Nobody can undertake the onerous missionary work of evangelization without the Holy Spirit.

Two powerful and different examples of evangelization are:
#1. St Therese of the Chlld Jesus (1873 - 1897). She became the Patroness of Missionaries without stepping out of her Carmelite Convent. She offered her prayers and sufferings to support the missionary endeavors of the Church. She gave the world a spirituality of "little ways."  One can be very effective in the spiritual life by doing "little things." She is a Doctor of the Church.

#2. St Teresa of Kolkata (1910 - 1997). Her missionary endeavors all over the world earned her a Noble Peace price and more importantly sainthood.

Every saint in the Church, that includes you and me are missionaries. Our Baptism gives us the mandate of Mission and Witness.

Do what you are inspired to do. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.

5. 29. "Mary is not only the bridge joining us to God; she is more. She is the road that God travelled to reach us, and the road that we must travel in order to reach him." (Pope Francis).

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