STAY WITH US LORD!

Rudolph Bostic- USA

I have always associated the poem by John Donne (d.1631) with the ASCENSION of the LORD.

STAY, O sweet, and do not rise!   
    The light that shines comes from thine eyes;   
  The day breaks not: it is my heart,   
Because that You and I must part.   
    Stay! or else my joys will die...          

I wonder if this was how the Apostles and Disciples felt upon seeing Jesus leave their midst.  Even though He explained (over and over again) why He was going, where He was going, and that they would one day join Him, I can imagine the human side which must have felt a twinge of loss.

Before Jesus was taken up, he gave instructions by the power of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. For forty days after his death He appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that He was alive. They saw Him, and He spoke to them about the Kingdom of God.

Peter Rogers - USA

Although the place of the Ascension is not distinctly stated, it would appear from the Acts that it was Mount Olivet. Since after the Ascension the disciples are described as returning to Jerusalem from the mount that is called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, within a Sabbath day's journey.

...And when they came together, He gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for Me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After saying this, He was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Doina Flesariu- Romania

They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as He went away, when two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them and said, “Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven."  (Acts 1:2-4,8-11)

Jesus  the Son of God takes his rightful place as Lord of Lords at the Ascension, raising humanity to its full dignity by bringing us to the Father. Jesus forever intercedes for us as King of Kings.

Joan Bohlig- USA

The Ascension of  Jesus is professed in the Nicene Creed and in the Apostles' Creed. It is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narratives of the life of Jesus: the others being Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

Peter Rogers-USA

Bl. John Paul II  emphasized that Jesus had foretold of his Ascension several times in the Gospels, e.g. John 16:10 at the Last Supper: "I go to the Father, and you will see me no more" and John 20:17 after his resurrection he tells Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God".

Jyoti  Sahi -India

In the selection of art for this blog I decided to only use naive art, as I feel it expresses our humanity, which Christ shared in, but rose from in order that we too one day will share in His divinity!

Ethiopia

A wonderful poem (which I present here with first and last stanzas) by the British poet Jonathan Evens:

ASCENSION

Where is Jesus now?
Not here! Jesus has left the building.
The last we saw of him
was the soles of his feet
as he ascended to heaven.

Philome Obin- Haiti

Myrtice West

What does it mean
to be where Jesus is now?
Like children becoming adult
to grow up into him,
together becoming him.
Each playing our part
in the whole that is Jesus,
Emmanuel, God with us.