This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension, marking the time when the risen Christ ascended to be with His Father in heaven. But, did you know that while we celebrate the Ascension this weekend, if you had been in a few other parts of the country...Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia...you would have celebrated the Ascension on Thursday and today you would have heard the readings and prayers for the 7th Sunday of Easter? Yes, it sounds confusing. Why do some parts of the country celebrate this Solemnity on Thursday while so many other parts celebrate it today?

I did some research and according to one site that I found this seems to be a divide between the east and the west parts of the country. Some Bishops from the eastern part of the country have lobbied for the Ascension being celebrated EXACTLY 40 days after Easter (on Thursday) and celebrating Pentecost EXACTLY 10 days after the Ascension as it’s laid out in the Scriptural timeline. They see the Mass attendance on that day to be near what it is on Sunday, so having priests offer a special Mass on Thursday really doesn’t seem to be that much of a challenge.

This site also said that in the western part of the country there isn’t so much a disregard for the Scriptural timeline as there are more practical concerns and issues. They note that there isn’t really a secular counterpart to Ascension Thursday like there is between the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God and New Year’s Day, lower Mass attendance, and not as many priests to go around. Moving the celebration to Sunday allows for greater exposure to a larger number of the faithful and allows it to be celebrated with more solemnity.

Whether you agree with our celebration of the Ascension on Sunday or would rather it be on Thursday, that’s a bit about why the transfer was made. Know too that the Ascension is not the only Holy Day that is transferred to Sunday here in the U.S. The Epiphany and also Corpus Christi Sunday in many other parts of the world are celebrated on Thursday, in the United States, they’re both universally transferred to Sunday.

Congratulations and Blessings, too, to Fr. Manning (he’s #5 & I’m #7) as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ordination at the 9:00 am Mass this weekend. Thank you Fr. Manning for your many years of dedicated service to our parish & our Diocese!