{"id":11292,"date":"2012-05-20T16:33:08","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T23:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=11292"},"modified":"2015-03-19T15:28:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T22:28:47","slug":"sunday-lectionary-going-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2012\/05\/20\/sunday-lectionary-going-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Lectionary: Going up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to being the Seventh Sunday in Easter, this Sunday is also Ascension Sunday. This has been an insanely busy week – sorry I didn’t get this posted earlier.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord:\u00a020th May, 2012<\/h2>\n

\"\"This Sunday we hear a glorious mystery! The Second Glorious Mystery<\/a>\u00a0to be precise! Yes, this Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, life among the Apostles had been, to put it mildly, a bit rocky (and not “rocky” in the good, “Peter”<\/a> kind of way). In fact, things had been pretty awful. The Master had been betrayed, beaten and then killed on a cross. Dark times.<\/p>\n

But then, something happened… He rose from the dead! For several weeks He had been appearing to His disciples!\u00a0Life was good again! But then…what?…He left?<\/p>\n

Huh?\u00a0Things were finally starting to look up! Why did He leave?\u00a0Did the Lord abandon His Church?<\/p>\n

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Reading I: Acts 1:1-11<\/h3>\n

Since we entered the Easter season, all our First Readings have come from the Acts of the Apostles. In past weeks we’ve read about a healing performed by St. Peter and the subsequent sermon to the crowd and his preaching to the\u00a0Sanhedrin. The Acts of the Apostles covers roughly the first thirty years of Church history, but this week we backtrack to the very beginning of the book…<\/p>\n

In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered,\u00a0appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Questions:<\/p>\n