Some people snuff out the Easter Candle today, Ascension Day, concluding the Easter Season today.
Don’t!!! The Easter Candle is lit through the Day of Pentecost.
It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty to react to such silliness with wrath, rage, and other such responses…
Easter is fifty days. Count them: 50. Get used to it!
Let us pray (in silence) [that we may consciously live in the presence of the Risen Christ]
pause
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that we, who believe your only-begotten Son, [only-begotten One]
our redeemer,
ascended this day to heaven,
may also in heart and mind there continually dwell;
through Jesus Christ
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The above is my reworking for my Book of Prayers in Common in which I seek to provide a set of collects with history and commentary.
Christians have been praying the above prayer on the Feast of the Ascension for over 12 centuries – shared through the Reformation into the Roman Missal and Books of Common Prayer. Surprisingly, it was removed from Roman Catholic rites in 1970, but then restored again in 2002.
For commentary and reflection: Ascension
Any comments, suggestions, resources, of course, are welcome below in the comments section.
Some people start randomly changing the Easter Season colour (to Red – using White for a saint’s day, not for the resurrection!) It is still Easter! [The NZ Anglican lectionary booklet gets so silly that the options become “White, red, or Red” (sic)!]
Don’t!!! The colour until the Day of Pentecost is White.
It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty to react to such silliness with wrath, rage, and all the other responses that have been part of discussions on this site for the last week.
Easter is fifty days. Count them: 50.
In the Southern Hemisphere (but not the Northern Hemisphere) this is the beginning of praying for Christian Unity until the Day of Pentecost. One day, we pray, Christians will be so united that they can even agree in which week to pray for Christian Unity!
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image: Ascension of Christ by Salvador Dali. 1958.
Don’t you use red for Whitsunday? In my opinion, red should run to Trinity inclusive, because it is the octave-day of the Pentecost (and its only raison d’être).
Yes, George, I would concur with Red for Whitsunday. I think, however, that the 41st Day of the Easter Season is best White. Ascension Day Blessings.