Meditation: The Vigil of the Ascension of Our Lord: Adoration and Thanksgiving: The Vigil of the Ascension of Our Lord

The Vigil of the Ascension of Our Lord

Adoration and Thanksgiving

BEFORE Our Lord ascends to return to the bosom of His Heavenly Father we must render to Him four final tributes.

Our first duty is to adore our Saviour in all the states and mysteries of His life on earth, to ask His pardon for our failure to honor Him and for the little fruit we have derived from His all - meritorious life, and to offer Him in reparation the admirable glory which has been accorded our divine Redeemer by His Blessed Mother, the angels, the saints and by His whole Church.

Our second duty is to bless and thank Our Lord on the eve of His glorious ascension, begging the choirs of angels, the holy company of saints and His most holy Mother, to praise and glorify Him with us, in the name of the whole human race, for all that He thought, said, did and suffered while on earth out of love for us, affirming that we wish to do, say, think and suffer everything only for love of Him alone.

Reparation

Our third duty is to prostrate ourselves at the feet of our Risen Saviour in a spirit of repentance and contrition and, in the name of all mankind, to make worthy reparation, begging His divine pardon for the countless injuries, offenses and outrages we have heaped upon Him which He endured on our behalf while He was on earth. In satisfaction we must offer Him all the honor and glory that He

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received, and that He will ever receive on earth and in heaven, as also to offer ourselves to Him to do and to suffer for this intention, whatever may be His august and holy will.

Union in Spirit and Heart

Our fourth duty is to give ourselves to Him, begging Him to prepare us to leave this earth on the great feast of tomorrow, to ascend to heaven with Him in heart and spirit. We must implore Him to accomplish this by breaking all our bonds and detaching us entirely from everything in this world and in ourselves. We must beg our Saviour to tic and bind us so closely to Himself that He may transport upwards into heaven our minds, our thoughts, our hearts, our desires and our affections, that for the future we may be able to say with the first Christians: "Our conversation is in heaven" (Phil. 3, 20).

Ejaculatory prayer:

"Our conversation is in heaven." Conversatio nostra in caelo est (Phil. 3, 20). 340-