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Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him.
— St. Augustine
The Feast of the Ascension commemorates the return of Our Lord to his Father in Heaven and begins the closing of the Paschaltide season. We read of the day’s events in the first chapter of Acts.
In our home the weekdays before and after Ascension serve as a time of double penance and preparation as we lead up to Pentecost. There are the three Minor Rogation Days like a long vigil for the Ascension, the feasting of Ascension, then a short reprieve before the Vigil of Pentecost. After this pattern we’ll start with the Rogation Days.
The Minor Rogation Days
The three days leading up to the Feast of the Ascension are traditionally observed as the Minor Rogation Days, also called the Lesser Litanies. Similar in nature to the Major Rogation on April 25th, the Feast of St. Mark, these three days of sacrifice to God were instituted in the 400s. This Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were set aside as a penitential time during Eastertide (with purple vestments even), a little lent akin to the Ember Days, where we are reminded of the reparation we owe to God for our sins and our need to ask God for his Divine Mercy, protection from plague, pestilence and natural disasters, as well as His blessing for a bountiful harvest.
Dom Prosper Guéranger further elaborates that the Minor Rogation is “to appease the anger of God, and avert the chastisements which the sins of the world so justly deserve; moreover, to draw down the divine blessing on the fruits of the earth.”
You may be unfamiliar with penance during Eastertide, especially during the days while Christ was still historically walking the earth, but I think Dom Guéranger explains this paradox best when he recalls, “but is not sadness in keeping with these the last hours of Jesus’ presence on earth? Were not His Mother and disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of their having so soon to lose Him, whose company had been to them a foretaste of heaven?”
Going back to the Old Testament, the Catholic perspective on unfortunate events like natural disasters is that they are just punishment for the sins of man. So around 470 AD when multiple natural disasters and demonic activity struck Vienne, their bishop, St. Mamertus, knew exactly what to do and instituted the Minor Rogation Days. He called for penance, fasting (changed to abstinence when made a universal observance by Rome), barefoot processions, praying of the penitential psalms, and prayers against impending famine. The processions would end at a different church for Mass, but the same propers were used each day. The name for these days is taken from the Latin word “rogare,” to ask.
As such, we abstain from meat and take one of these three Rogation days to again process around the property line, also called “beating the bounds.” Like for the Major Rogation one child leads with a crucifix in front, another carries our icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (“Our Lady of Lost Shoes”), yet another sprinkles holy water, and the youngest children keep the tradition of processing barefoot in the wagon. We keep the custom of praying the Litany of the Saints, Antiphons, Psalms (69/70), and Canticle of the Three Young Men along with the singing of St. Patrick’s breastplate as we walk. We don’t have any Gospel Oaks to stop under, but we enjoy our ramalation biscuits (scones or the like) and ganging (root) beer under a Gospel Pecan just as well. (If you need a science project for the end of the year, making root beer using dry ice is a simple but delicious experiment that fits wonderfully with these days.)
On the following two remaining Rogation days the kitchen garden, main crop garden, berry patch, muscadine vines, and orchards receive their annual individual blessings. For us in the southern United States, hopefully our seeds are long past the sprout stage that was blessed at the Major Rogation in April. By now potatoes and garlic are almost ready for harvest, if not already out of the ground. And the cooler weather brassicas and asparagus have already ended their year at Easter. These make way for the southern peas, melons, summer and winter squash, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers that need all the heavenly help they can get to make it through the blistering summer heat to harvest. We pray over the seeds when we plant and water — that they would sprout, and thrive, and yield an abundance to be a nourishment to our family and those around us — but after these final blessings I can breathe a little easier, even when it’s hotter than blue blazes out.
In addition to the procession prayers and blessings, at meals during the Minor Rogation we include a different short Gallican (the rite of the ancient church in Gaul) prayer each day:
Gallican Mass Prayer for the First Rogation Day
It is from thee, O Lord, we receive the food, wherewith we are daily supported; to thee also do we offer these fasts, whereby, according to thy command, we put upon our flesh the restraint from dangerous indulgence. Thou hast so ordered the changes of seasons, as to afford us consolation: thus, the time for eating gives nourishment to the body, by sober repasts; and the time for fasting inflicts on them a chastisement pleasing to thy justice. Vouchsafe to bless and receive this our offering of a three days’ penitential fast; and mercifully grant, that whilst our bodies abstain from gratification, our souls also may rest from sin. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gallican Prayer for Rogation Days (We pray this on Rogation Tuesday)
It is truly meet and just, that, in all contrition of heart, we should praise thee by our fast, O Almighty and Eternal God, through Christ our Lord. Who, having come to teach us the hidden things of thy mysteries, revealed to us the symbol, shown to Noe, of the peaceful olive-branch borne in the dove’s beak: it was the glorious figure of the beautiful tree of the cross. It was in honour of Christ that the dove prefigured the cross, signifying that it was to bo venerated by all men, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. We desire to be like this bird, by the innocence of our lives; we pray that we may be sanctified by that Spirit, of whom it was the figure. Therefore do we offer up our prayers in these three days of fasting and humiliation, carrying, at the head of the army of the faithful, the invincible standard of the cross, and singing psalms in praise of thy divine Majesty. We beseech thee, O Almighty God, that thou receive all the prayers of thy people, and the sacred rites whereby they present them to thee. We also beseech thee so to sanctify them by this their fast, that they may deserve to be freed from all their sins. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gallican Prayer for the Third Rogation Day
It is truly meet and just, yea most meet, that they who fast should seek thee alone, thee that art the teacher of abstinence, and the giver of eternal rewards to them that practise it. To them that fast, thou grantest what they, with faith, ask of thee: thou cleansest them from the stains contracted by intemperate indulgence. It was thou that didst proclaim holy fasting by thy servant Moses, in the book of Leviticus; wherein thou commandedst that we should humble our souls, lest we should be destroyed, as was the people that gave themselves up to excess in eating. Thine only-begotten Son sanctified this institution by himself fulfilling it, and, by his fast, opening to us the kingdom we had lost, and pardoning our sins. Do thou, therefore, graciously accept the fasts thou hast instituted, and, by them, absolve us from all our guilt. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Feast of the Ascension
To be clear, the Feast of the Ascension is a Holy Day of Obligation. For many US dioceses, however, the Ascension has sadly become the feast who was Thursday. Under the new calendar, with the popular transferring of the Ascension’s observance to the following Sunday we lose the symbolism and Biblical significance of this feast’s place 40 days after Easter and the 9 days before Pentecost. That said, I am sweetly encouraging the wider return to celebrating the original Ascension Thursday whether or not your parish’s schedule aligns with this.
Now as to how our home observes this feast, for breakfast on the Ascension (and Assumption) we always do blender popovers. These sweet cousins of Yorkshire puddings are filled with whatever fresh berries we have on hand and are enjoyed with scrambled eggs, some meat, and a little whipped cream cloud. For our brood, the fun part of popovers, muffins, soufflés, and the like is gathering around the oven window to watch them rise up!
You may have started shaking your head when you read soufflés, but don’t let all the “bougie” hype fool you. They are super easy to make with few ingredients in addition to the egg whites. So much so that the years we didn’t have an oven, I was able to make them in a small toaster oven. Soufflés are so versatile too because they can be a savory side dish or a sweet dessert for the Ascension or Assumption.
Usually after Mass we head to a park or trail for a hike and picnic with olives for the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended, something bubbly to drink, and a form of the traditional faire of foul. After the meatless Rogation days, fried chicken (bacon grease and using the same type of pieces are the secret here) with the traditional southern picnic sides of potato salad, coleslaw, and fluffy ambrosia fruit salad is a once a year favorite when the season of life permits. But chicken salad sandwiches with these sides have also served us well.
For supper our family tradition is chicken and cloud dumplins. Depending on when Easter falls, this time of year we are either getting down to our last couple pastured whole chickens in the freezer or have just harvested all the new chickens for the year. Regardless, a whole chicken goes in the pot to make the broth. As a side bar: don’t let anyone tell you to use cut up flour tortillas as your dumplins. That is a lie from the pits of hell. Don’t waste your time. Mix the dumplins like you’re making drop biscuits and just drop them in the broth with the pulled chicken instead. You will know all the dumplins are done when they rise up to the top. And golden cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet is a must with this — no dispensations!
For dessert we’re a little more flexible… anything with fluffy cloud-like meringue or whipped cream goes. This could be a coconut meringue pie, white coconut macaroons, marshmallows, a pavlova, or the easiest ice cream cloud floats. Can you tell making punny liturgical food is a love language in our home? I promise I’ll simmer down now.
Finally I’ll share some meal time prayers we add from Ascension to Pentecost:
Benedictine Meal Blessings for Ascension Thursday until Pentecost
Before meals:
Ascendit Deus * in jubilatióne, allelúia: * et Dóminus in voce tubæ, allelúia.
God ascends * amid shouts of triumph, alleluia; * and the Lord with the sound of trumpets, alleluia.
After meals:
Ascendens Christus * in altum, allelúia: * captívam duxit captivitátem, allelúia.
Christ ascending * on high, alleluia, * hath led captivity captive, alleluia.
Prayer from the Mozarbic Breviary
O Jesus! the power and wisdom of God! who coming down from heaven for our sake and for our salvation, deignedst to clothe thyself in human flesh, that, by a most merciful union, thou mightest clothe us with thy divinity, and that, by ascending into heaven, thou mightest enrich with immortality the mortality thou assumedst by descending upon our earth: grant, we beseech thee, by the merit of this day’s solemnity (whereon we rejoice at and desire to imitate thine Ascension) that we may acknowledge the favour of this most loving dispensation, by paying to thy mercy the only homage in our power, the offering of our praise; and awaiting thy second coming which is to console us with joys eternal. Amen.
The Pentecost Novena
The Pentecost novena, beginning on the Feast of the Ascension, is an ancient devotion dating back to the descent of the Holy Ghost at the first Pentecost. Acts 1:14 tells us that after the Ascension of Christ the Apostles, “all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus…” This 9 day period preceding Pentecost was the original novena and created the pattern that all other novenas would go on to follow.
Universal support for the Pentecost novena was proclaimed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1897 encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Divinum Illud Munus, where he declared, “We decree and command that throughout the whole Catholic Church, this year and in every subsequent year, a novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday (a.k.a. Pentecost), in all parish churches.” It is said that correspondence from an Italian homemaker prompted his public backing for this ancient devotion. The importance of the connection between prayer and the coming of the Holy Ghost was further emphasized in 1986 with St. John Paul II’s encyclical, Dominum Et Vivificantem.
Formerly a plenary indulgence granted by Pope Leo XIII, as of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 issuing of the Enchiridion of Indulgences, the Pentecost novena carries a partial indulgence. Those novenas prayed before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas also hold the same standing.
