Saint Leo the Great Ascension Day Sermon

MISSAL PROPERS:
THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

INTROIT. Viri Galilaei. Acts I.YE MEN of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Alleluia : in like manner as ye have seen him going up into heaven, so shall he come again. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Ps. 47. O clap your hands together, all ye people : O sing unto God with the voice of melody. V. Glory be.

COLLECT.
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God : that like as we do believe thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens ; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell. Who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

FOR THE EPISTLE. Acts 1:1-111 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

GRADUAL. Alleluia, alleluia. V. Ps. 47. God is gone up with a merry noise and the Lord with the sound of the trump, alleluia. V. Ps. 68. The Lord is among them as in the holy place of Sinai, he is gone up on high ; he hath led captivity captive. Alleluia.

GOSPEL St. Luke 24:49-53
49 Jesus said: behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

SECRET.
ACCEPT. O Lord, we pray thee, the oblations which, in remembrance of the glorious Ascension of thy Son, we do offer unto thee : and mercifully grant that we, being delivered from all perils in this life ;present, may attain in the end unto life everlasting. Through the same.

COMMUNION. Ps. 68. Sing ye to the Lord, who ascended to the heaven of heavens, to the sunrising, alleluia.

Ascension Day Hymn & Lesson for Matins

Ascension Day
Hymn.Aeterne Rex altissime.

Eternal Monarch, King most high,
Whose blood hath brought redemption nigh,
By whom the death of Death was wrought,
And conquering grace to man was brought

Ascending to the throne of might,
And seated at the Father’s right,
All power, O Jesu, is thine own,
That here thy Manhood had not known.

To thee the whole creation now
Doth in its three0fold order bow,
Of things on earth, and things on high,
And things that underneath do lie.

With awe the Angels contemplate
The wondrous change of man’s estate;
Though flesh hath sinned, Flesh purged the stain,
And in that Flesh our God doth reign

We therefore beg, dear Lord, of thee
To pardon our iniquity;
Yea, of thine own supernal grace
Uplift our hearts to seek thy face.

That when in clouds, O Judge of doom,
Thy glory shall this earth illume,
Thou mayst remit our debt of pain,
and grant our long-lost crowns again.

All praise from every heart and tongue,
To thee, ascended Lord, be sung;
Whom with the Father we adore,
And Holy Ghost, forever more. Amen.
　
　
From a Sermon by St. Leo the Great

After the blessed and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, (wherein was raised up in three days that true Temple of God which hath been destroyed by the impiety of Jewry,) there came by God’s providential ordering a season of forty days, the annual commemoration of which endeth on this day. The original great forty days, dearly beloved, were spent by the Lord in profitable instruction for our benefit. On this wise, his bodily presence was still given to the earth during all those forty days, that our faith in his resurrection might be armed with all needful proofs. For the death of Christ had troubled the hears of many of his disciples ; their thoughts were sad when they remembered his agony upon the cross, his giving up of the Ghost, and the burial in the grave of his lifeless body : and so a sort of hesitation had begun to weigh on them.

Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples who had been fearful concerning the death on the cross, and doubtful of the trustworthiness of the report of Christ’s resurrection, were so strengthened by the clear demonstration of the truth, that, when they saw the Lord going up into the heights of heaven, they sorrowed not ; nay, they were filled with great joy. And, in all verity, it was a mighty and unspeakable cause of rejoicing for all the holy multitude of believers, when they perceived that the nature of mankind was thus exalted above all creatures, even the heavenly spirits, so as to pass above the ranks of the Angels, and be raised beyond the heights of the Archangels. For on this wise they perceived that no limit was set upon the uplifting of that nature short of the right hand of the Eternal Father, where it was to be Sharer of his throne, and Partaker of his glory ; and nevertheless it was still nothing more than that nature of man, which the Son hath taken upon him.

Therefore, dearly beloved, let us also rejoice with fitting joy. For the Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us. And whither the glory of the Head of the Church is passed in, thither is the hope of the body of the Church called on to follow. Let us rejoice with exceeding great joy, and give God glad thanks. This day is not only the possession of paradise made sure unto us, but in Christ our Head we are actually entering into the heavenly mansions above. Through the unspeakable goodness of Christ we have gained more than ever we lost by the envy of the devil. For those whom our venomous enemy cast down from the happiness of their first estate, these same hath the son of God made to be of one body with himself, and hath given them a place at the right hand of the Father : with whom he liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever on God, world without end. Amen.

Collect:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.