Daily Archives: June 1, 2020

Today is the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is celebrated each year on the fortieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter).

Since the date of Pascha changes each year, the date of the Feast of the Ascension changes. The Feast is always celebrated on a Thursday.

The Feast itself commemorates when, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, Jesus led His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and after blessing them and asking them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Spirit, He ascended into heaven.

The story of the Ascension of our Lord, celebrated as one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church, is found in the book of the Acts of the Apostles 1:3-11. It is also mentioned in the Gospels of Mark (16:19) and Luke (24:50-53). The moment of the Ascension is told in one sentence: He was lifted up before their eyes in a cloud which took Him from their sight (Acts 1:9).

Christ made His last appearance on earth, forty days after His Resurrection from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles states that the disciples were in Jerusalem. Jesus appeared before them and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father. He stated, You shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now (Acts 1:5).

After Jesus gave these instructions, He led the disciples to the Mount of Olives. Here, He commissioned them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). It is also at this time that the disciples were directed by Christ to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). Jesus also told them that He would be with them always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).

As the disciples watched, Jesus lifted up His hands, blessed them, and then was taken up out of their sight (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Two angels appeared to them and asked them why they were gazing into heaven. Then one of the angels said, This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven (Acts 1:11).

For forty days after His Resurrection, Our Lord Jesus Christ remained on earth. Filled with the glory and honour of His Divinity, He appeared to His Disciples at various times and places. By eating and drinking with His disciples and conversing with them about the Kingdom of God, our Lord Jesus Christ assured them that He was Truly alive in His Risen and glorified Body. (The glorification of Jesus refers to His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven. When we speak of Christs glorified Body, we refer to Its honour, splendor, majesty and visible radiance it gave off rays of bright Light!).

The time span of forty days (40) is used symbolically in the Holy Scripture and by the Church indicate that an appropriate amount of time has passed for COMPLETENESS. The rains of the Great Flood lasted for forty days. Christ prayed in the wilderness for forty days. We fast for forty days to prepare before the feasts of the Holy Nativity and the Resurrection (Pascha).

The Ascension is a sign and symbol of the Second Coming of Christ and the Final Judgment. Christ will return to the earth in the same manner as He left it. When the Risen Lord returns again in glory, Gods will for mankind will be fulfilled.

Jesus Christ completed His earthly mission of bringing salvation to all people and physically was lifted up from the world into heaven. The meaning of the fullness of Christs Resurrection is given in the Ascension. Having completed His mission in the world as the Saviour, He returned to the Father in Heaven Who sent Him into the world. In ascending to the Father, He raises earth to Heaven with Him.

*Source: GOARCH

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The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord - Greek City Times - Greek City Times

Lauren Hudson sits outside her home in Villa Hills, Kentucky holding her book series entitled "The Ascension Series." "The Redemption," which is the third and final installment, has just been released.(Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

In the month leading up toher sophomore year final exams at the University of Kentucky, Villa Hills native Lauren Hudson released the third and final novel, "The Redemption,"in her young adult fantasy series "The Ascension Series."

The books followa set of triplets who discover on their 15th birthday that they are members of a guardian angel race, called Asterians, and that their real mother is trying to take over the world.

Hudson, 20, said she has always gravitated towards fantasy because it's what she loves to read.She said she realized she might have a future in writing fantasy while she was in middle school.

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My seventh-grade English teacher asked us to create a short story. And instead I gave her a30- pagenovella," Hudson said.

Hudson said she got the idea for the first book in the series, "The Ascension," back in sixth grade.

She was on a FaceTime call with a friend when the idea came to her.

I sat there, and we weretalkingand I said, How cool would it be if someone could see the past, present and future? And I wrote the first chapter to my series that night, back in sixthgrade," Hudson said. "And I picked it back up when I was a freshman in high school, and it was horrible.

Lauren Hudson, 20, also wrote the "Students Leading America Series" with her co-author and father, Rob Hudson. The two books in that series are "Our Best Tomorrow" and "It Can Be Done".(Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

Sherewrote itin high school, and thought it had potential. She was right.

In 2017, Hudson flew to London where she accepted the Best Young Adult Book award at the London Book Festival.

Within its first couple weeks, "The Redemption" was featured on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" list for the religious science fiction andfantasy category. The book received a No. 1 ranking on the list.

Surprisingly, the Dixie Heights High School graduate said she never really thought about majoring in creative writing. She has been excited to go into medicine since "before she can remember." Currently, she is a neuroscience and biology major on the pre-med track.

Hudson has to compartmentalize her fiction writing skills when writing for scientific journals, she said. It has been a learning curve.

Another learning curve? Finding time to write her fantasy novels.

It was easier to write during the school year back in high school, Hudson said. In college, it's more difficult.

"And so now I write furiously over breaks," Hudson said. "I pretty much take, like, a break from writing during the school year."

Over the summer, Hudson says she will crank out 2,000 words per day. Over spring break and Christmas, she'll spend a few hours each day writing.

Hudson says that she enjoys talking to students about her books. The series is geared towards middle and high school aged kids. Her favorite thing to hear from readers is that they connected with a certain character in the series. A lot of the sibling interactions in "The Ascension Series" are based on Hudson's real-life relationship with her older brother.

"I hope that I'll never run out of stories to tell," Hudson said.

Hudson said she does not know what she will write next. For now, it is time to focus on her studies at the University of Kentucky.

I am hoping to get through med school, and then once I get settled into wherever I am for my residency that I will pick up with a new story," Hudson said.

Lauren Hudson's book series entitled "The Ascension Series" rests on a table. "The Ascension" is the first book; "The Deception" is the second, and "The Redemption" is the third and final installment.(Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)

"The Ascension," "The Deception" and now "The Redemption" are all available on Amazon.

Hudson said printing has been delayed, but you can preorder a physical copy of "The Redemption" online. It is currently available as an eBook.

Hudson will also be participating in a Zoom Into Books chat about her latest book on May 30. Registration can be completed online.

Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/05/26/20-year-old-villa-hills-author-releases-third-book-the-ascension-series/3121538001/

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'I hope that I'll never run out of stories to tell.' 20-year-old Villa Hills author releases third book in 'The Ascension Series' - The Cincinnati...

WAUKESHA When the developers behind the new vision for the former blighted, and now demolished, Fox Run Shopping Center first approached City Hall last fall with their project plans, they had the key components of the development sketched out.

The 13.42-acre project at Sunset Drive and St. Paul Avenue would consist of five developable lots with a possible micro hospital, a proposed new financial institution, 72 residential units and future commercial space.

This week we learned that it will be Ascension health care who will be constructing that hospital.

When members of the citys Plan Commission gather today for their monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. theyll get a first look at the plans for a two-story, 35,031square-foot building slated to be built on 4.2 acres off Sunset Drive.

According to a staff memo, the first floor of the building will be occupied by the hospital itself, which will include an emergency department and in-patient rooms, as well as X-ray and CTscan rooms. The second floor of the structure has been designated for medical offices. That part of the building will have its own separate entrance on the south side of the building, with a passenger elevator. The hospital will have an ambulance drop-off on the north side of the building with a general entrance on the east end.

Other than suggesting more direct pedestrian access to the building from the Sunset Drive and St. Paul Avenue intersection area, and some more plantings in and around the parking lot, city planners have recommended that commissioners approve the plans.

Aldermen voted in October of last year to approve the $32 million redevelopment of the Fox Run site, creating a tax incremental finance district for the project, and later granting $3.7 million in tax incremental financing to developers.

Demolition of the main shopping center and the former Sentry Food Store took place in April.

Video of the meeting can be streamed online at http://www.waukesha.legistar.com.

More here:

Ascension looking to build micro-hospital at Fox Run site - Greater Milwaukee Today

from my Creed book.As I have been reminding you, this is my last week writing at Patheos. As of Monday, June 1, I will be firing up my new blog full time over at Stumbling Toward Heaven. Be sure to click the link and bookmark it because thats where youll find me after this week! This week, I am finishing my tenure here at Catholic and Enjoying It with a three part series that comes from my book-in-progress on the Creed. This the last part of that series, wherein we are discussing the Ascension (since the Church is celebrating that this week in preparation for Pentecost).

Seated at the Right Hand of the Father

Two thousand years of Christian culture has kneaded into the western mind the idea that Heaven is something like a civil right. Dying and going to Heaven is a phrase taken most especially for granted by almost everybody who shares some connection to American religious tradition. But the New Testament has something startling to say to us on this point: namely, that we have no natural right to Heaven. To be sure, God desires us to be with him for eternity (which is what Heaven means, not a place with pearly gates and streets of gold as in popular imagination). As Paul puts it, God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). But, of course, mere creatures, much less fallen ones like us, can no more bridge the gap between themselves and their Creator than Hamlet can suddenly show up at Shakespeares front door demanding tea and cakes. That is why Jesus says, No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man (John 3:13). His point is that only in joining human nature to his divine nature can human nature hope to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity. His point is not that he offers some technique or theory or school of mystic philosophy to make us able to pull ourselves up to Heaven by our bootstraps. It is that he himself is the way to Heaven:

[Y]ou know the way where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. (John 14:4-6)

So in the Ascension, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11). But this too is done for our sake because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, not to revel in narcissistic egoism, but as our pioneer. The Ascension is a divine act of trail-blazing so that this prayer may one day be fulfilled:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:24-26)

Jesus: Hidden King and Great High Priest

The pattern of weaning from earthly expectation of kingship culminates in Jesus inaugurating his kingdom, not in Jerusalem as David didwhere moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19)but in Heaven. This too fulfils the Scripture and the great vision vouchsafed to Daniel, centuries before, of the kingdom given to the coming Son of man:[A]nd behold, with the clouds of heaventhere came one like a son of man,and he came to the Ancient of Daysand was presented before him.And to him was given dominionand glory and kingdom,that all peoples, nations, and languagesshould serve him;his dominion is an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass away,and his kingdom onethat shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

And so, on several occasions, the New Testament speaks of Jesus Ascension using the peculiar image of a king who goes away and stays away while his kingdom is put in order for him by his servants acting in his name and with his authority. Most famously, Jesus does this in the Parable of the Pounds:

As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said therefore, A nobleman went into a far country to receive kingly power and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten pounds, and said to them, Trade with these till I come. (Luke 19:11-13)

We will discuss this and similar parables of judgment more later, but suffice it to say here that the picture we are given is of Jesus going to a far country and entrusting to his servants gifts with which they are to increase and spread his holdings in the world.

Relatedly, Paul tells the Corinthians that Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25), again suggesting that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father as king while we, his servants, are advancing his kingdom with the gifts he gives us.

And Peter will likewise describe Jesus as the one, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old (Acts 3:21), with the curious qualifier that we must repent and turn to him that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).

The answer, of course, is found in the outpouring of the Spirit on the Church so that Christ remains present with us here on earth in the Church and through the sacramentssupremely the Eucharist in which he is really and truly present body, blood, soul, and divinitywhile still fully present in Heaven. By his power, manifested in our mysterious union with him despite our sins and failings, we are joined with him. As he himself says, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Behold, here it is! or There! for behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. (Luke 17:20-21).

In the Ascension, the day has dawned when man is now present in Heavenbody, soul, and spiritin the person of the Son of man, Christ Jesus. Because he is already there, we who are in him are there as well, because God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6).

This does not, of course, mean that Christians share in his sinlessness, perfection, or glorificationyet. A quick look at the news makes that clear. Rather, it means that humanity already has a toehold in Heaven and an advocate who labors tirelessly for our redemption when we fail and fall, as we so often do.

So the other image the New Testament holds before our eyes concerning the Ascended Christ is of Jesus standing before the Father as an eternal High Priest, perpetually making intercession for us. As the Catechism (662) says:

There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he always lives to make intercession for those who draw near to God through him (Hebrews 7:25).As high priest of the good things to come he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven (Hebrews 9:11; cf. Revelation 4:6-11).

This is why the Mass is so vital, because it is our greatest encounter with the Ascended Christ, fully present in the Eucharist and eternally worshipping his Father. In that liturgy, he not only acts as our High Priest, he brings us into his work through our baptism and confirmation to participate in his work as kings, priests, and prophets as well. We become fellow workers with Christ, building up the kingdom of Heaven here on earth with the gifts of the Spirit poured out as the fruits of his Ascension and Pentecost (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Acting by the Power of the Spirit

This reveals the paradox of Jesus going away to be seated on the Heavenly Throne in Acts, the companion volume to Luke. For the gospel Luke has just written only tells us of what Jesus began to do and teach (Acts 1:1). His entire earthly ministry is only the spark. The Church, filled with his Spirit, is the fire and hehe himselfis now to continue his work in a way more intimate with us than it was during his earthly ministry. Biblically, to be seated is to be in repose. Not asleep. Not watching TV. Not doing nothing. But secure in ones dominion. In antiquity, judges were seated. So were monarchs when they were enthroned. To say that Jesus is seated is to say he now reigns. To be sure, there is still work to be done. But it is in the nature of mop up, not in the nature of deciding the battle. The worst thing that could ever have happened in the universe has already happenedand God has turned it into the best thing. God has already been killed. Compared with that, everything is pretty small beer. But the death of God on the Cross has led to the life of the world. Jesus has entered on his reign. He is enthroned as King at the Fathers right handnow.

The right hand was the good hand in antiquity. The hand that pours out blessing, the hand that holds the sceptre, the hand that works, acts, fights. The hand is the locus of action. We do not theorize with our hands, we do things. Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, does things. And he empowers us to do things tooby his Spirit. Thus, when Peter appeals to the crowd at Pentecost he doesnt tell them God has poured out a concept or an idea. He has poured out this which you see and hear (Acts 2:33). Catholic Faith is still the same today. To be sure, we walk by faith and not by sight. But the fruit of our faith is still visible in the incarnate signs and acts of love we bear to the world. All these are poured out on us from Jesus, seated at the right hand of God the Father in a hope oriented not so much toward the future as toward eternity. For the same God we have known and know now is not going to abandon us. Rather, Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Fathers glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever (CCC 666).

Read more:

Last Part of my Ascension Chapter | Mark Shea - Patheos

For 15 years, Rebecca Bianco worked as a claims resolution specialistthe same job as Dennyat a small-town hospital in Woodruff, Wis., about three hours north of Dennys office. Like Denny, Bianco figured shed retire there. In fact, Bianco and her husband had just bought a house near the hospital using her 401k to help with the down payment.

Then, in early 2018, she and her colleagues were pulled into a room and told they were being laid off. Bianco, in her mid-50s at the time, took the news hard. She started having panic attacks and is still on medication for the anxiety she says was initially brought on by the layoff.

We had settled here and I figured I would retire there, and what am I going to do now? she said.

Bianco and many of her colleagues lived in Minocqua, a small northern Wisconsin tourist town near Woodruff. Most have since moved away.

I think it affected our little town of Minocqua, she said. When Ascension took over, they really outsourced a lot of jobs. They cost a lot in this community. Whole families are gone now.

So far, no Ascension St. Francis Hospital employees who are members of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals have lost their jobs due to offshoring. But Jamie Lucas, director of the Milwaukee union, said he finds the health systems practice of offshoring troubling.

It really demonstrated to us that we needed to brace for their business model rather than their care-delivery model, he said. It doesnt feel like its about whats best for our patients and the community.

Offshoring relationships dont always work out as planned. After not-for-profit BJC HealthCare laid off Adam Guerich and his colleagues from their customer support technician jobs in November 2018, Guerich agreed to stick around for roughly five months to ensure the transition went smoothly.

Guerichs jobbased out of an office in St. Louis, where BJC is headquarteredinvolved helping BJC employees with information technology, including account access during onboarding, offboarding and role changes. In total, Guerich estimates BJC laid off at least 125 employees around that time, although its unclear how many of those were sent overseas. BJC declined to comment.

Before the change, Guerich and his team prided themselves on their ability to get through a high volume of help desk requests. Afterward, when the work was offshored to India, Guerich said employees hated it. Guerich said people struggled with the language barrier, and he didnt think the employees in India had received enough training.

The offshored employees would in many cases escalate problems they couldnt solve to Guerichs small remaining team. The question queue reached 1,000 at one point, with some requests months overdue, he said.

We were just totally overwhelmed with work, Guerich said.

Guerich, who now works for a national supply company, said he doesnt know whether BJC still offshores that work.

The TAA data show nearly 30 billing and transcription employees at Grays Harbor Community Hospital, in Aberdeen, Wash., became eligible for assistance in 2018 when the hospital offshored jobs to India. John Warring, shop steward with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 and a microbiologist at the hospital, estimates closer to 75 people were laid off around that time. The hospital declined to comment.

Lucy Vest had worked in a variety of positions at Grays Harbor for 44 years before she was laid off from her billing department job in January 2018. The news came on her 66th birthday, just after she and her coworkers had celebrated with a hot dog lunch.

I think it was the way they did it that people were quite upset with, Vest said. Because after this meeting they said, By your desks upstairs there are a couple of boxes. Take your personal items, and youll be escorted out of the building.

Vest retired after that, but most of her colleagues werent ready to do so. Some were in their 30s.

In a small, one-hospital town like Aberdeen, whose economy has sunk along with the decline of the timber industry, well-paying jobs with benefits are hard to come by, Warring said.

They basically were escorted out the door and told not to come back, he said. It was pretty heartbreaking for some of those employees who had been there for years and years. It was pretty traumatic for everybody.

Another potential ripple effect of offshoring: Employees who survive the layoffs might lose trust in their employer, fearing their jobs will be next.

After the Arizona Digestive Center in Scottsdale laid off employees in 2018 so the work could be done in India, Joyia Savoca Losow said she quit her job in the practices billing department. The center didnt respond to a request for comment.

If they dont have loyalty toward their workers, then I didnt think that was going to last, she said.

Guerich felt the same way after losing his job at BJC.

We were angry that they would do that to us, he said. Because we were their faithful employees. But everybody is replaceable. Always remember that, right?

Link:

Health systems may be warming to offshoring, a mainstay practice - ModernHealthcare.com

By the time the next baseball season begins, it will be a new decade. Here is a look back at some of the best Ascension baseball teams of this decade, years 2010-2020.

Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic cancelled the second half of the high-school baseball season, putting an end to the championship dreams of all of the players throughout the state.

With no state tournament games being played this year, it prompts us to look to the past and reflect on all of the great parish teams that made memorable runs.

By the time the next baseball season begins, it will be a new decade. Here is a look back at some of the best Ascension baseball teams of this decade, years 2010-2020.

The only team to win a state championship during that time was the 2018 Ascension Catholic Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs went 28-9 that year, winning 22 of their final 23 games and beating district rival St. John, 4-3, in the Division-IV title game. It was their first championship victory since 1994.

Leading that team was LSU-Eunice signee Mason Zeringue and Charlie Gianelloni, who was named the Ascension Parish MVP in 2018.

Zeringue and Gianelloni also led the Bulldogs to Sulphur for the state semifinals the year prior.

That season, Ascension Catholic fell just short of the championship game. They lost an 11-inning classic to Central Catholic.

In addition to Zeringue and Gianelloni, that team was led by LSU-Eunice signees Landon Clifton and Nick Bellina.

Finally, the 2019 Bulldogs squad reached the state semifinals for a third straight season. Although, they too failed to reach the title game. They lost to eventual state champion Opelousas Catholic.

Ascension Catholic went 28-7 that season and was led by Ascension Pitcher of the Year Tre Medine.

The 2010 Dutchtown Griffins also reached the state semifinals. It was a year removed from finishing as state runners-up. They were eliminated by eventual state champion Catholic, 8-6.

That team was led by Ole Miss signee and eventual Major League Pitcher Jacob Waguespack and Coastal Carolina signee Troy Lewis.

Those two also helped the Griffins make a memorable state quarterfinal run in 2012.

They won their first two playoff games by a combined margin of 13-0. Unfortunately, in the quarterfinals, they dropped a 2-1 affair to eventual champion Barbe.

Along with Waguespack and Lewis, that team also had Cole Stapler, who went on to pitch at Nicholls and was later drafted by the Diamondbacks. They also had a young Austin Bain, who went on to start at LSU.

Bain also led the 2014 Griffins to the state quarterfinals.

They upset fourth-seeded Denham Springs in the second round, before getting swept by St. Amant in two tight games.

Along with Bain, that team had LSU-Eunice signee Dillon Abbess and a young duo of Northwestern State signees in Caleb Ricca and Payton Stafford. Ricca went on to get drafted by the Mariners last year.

St. Amant eliminated the Griffins in 2014. They went on to reach the state semifinals, where they lost a 2-0 contest to eventual state champion Barbe. That Barbe squad, led by the Jordan twins, went on to be named national champions.

The Gators won 20 of 22 games heading into the semifinals. They finished the year 29-9 overall.

They were led by Nicholls signee Blaine Schexnaydre and Brennan Grant.

The 2016 Gators upset No. 9 Sam Houston in the first round, and then upset No. 8 Brother Martin in round two. They lost to eventual champion Barbe in the quarterfinals.

The Gators had a stacked roster that year. They were led by Ascension Pitcher of the Year and District 5-5A MVP Blayne Enlow. Enlow went on to get drafted in the third round by the Twins in 2017.

They also had Florida International signee Adam Sevario and Nicholls signee Ivan Prejean.

Link:

Best parish baseball teams of the decade - Beauregard Daily News

DistractionsOffbeatPentecost, also known as 'Whitsun' or 'Whitsunday', commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit to disciples following the death of Jesus

Sunday, 31st May 2020, 8:55 am

When is Whitsun?

The date of Pentecost changes each year because it falls exactly seven weeks after Easter Sunday, based on the biblical account of the apostles praying together and the Holy Spirit descending upon them 49 days after the resurrection of Christ.

The name of Pentecost comes from the Greek word "Pentekostos", meaning 50, reflecting its origins in the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, marked on the 50th day after Passover.

"Whitsun" is variously believed to be a shortening of "White Sunday" or to have its origins in the Anglo-Saxon word "wit", meaning "understanding".

It could therefore reflect the festival being a day for baptisms when worshippers traditionally wear white or the disciples being filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

Whats the history of Whitsun?

According to the Bible's New Testament the apostles were inspired to talk in tongues when the Holy Spirit descended on to them as they prayed together at the Shavuot festival.

Hearing them speaking in an unfamiliar language, the gathered onlookers in Jerusalem believed them to be drunk.

However, Saint Peter explained to them that the apostles were inspired by the spirit and delivered the first Christian sermon, leading to the conversion and baptism of 3,000 people.

Because of Peter's sermon, many consider Whitsun the birth of the Christian church as an official movement.

How is it celebrated?

Whitsun immediately precedes "Whit Monday", which was traditionally a holiday in the UK until being formally replaced in 1971 by a bank holiday on the final Monday in May.

However, Pentecost Monday is still a public holiday in carious European countries, including France, Germany and Belgium. In Poland, it is referred to as "the Green Holiday", a time for people to decorate their houses with green branches to bring blessings on the home and the people living in it.

True to its biblical origins, the day remains a popular time for baptisms, while some churches, particularly in Manchester and the north-west of England, hold traditional Whit Walks.

What is Ascension Day?

According to the Bible, Jesus travelled for 40 days with his apostles after his resurrection on Easter Sunday, preaching and prepared his followers for his departure.

Ascension Day, celebrated each year on the 40th day (or the sixth Thursday) after Easter, commemorates the final ascension of Christ into heaven, with this year's festival falling on Thursday 21 May.

Original post:

When is Pentecost 2020? The Whitsun date, meaning and what Ascension Day marks - iNews