Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Lord’s Ascension!

Although today is a joyful feast, today we often feel not so much joy as a feeling of sadness, because the Paschal period of the church calendar has come to a close. We may feel that the Lord has left us and our world, and that we have been left alone without Him. We have to admit that this somewhat natural state of sadness is not entirely correct.

We should remember how, when our Lord was taken up and ascended to heaven, angels appeared among the disciples and told them: "Why stand ye gazing up to heaven?" In other words, the apostles were astounded, shocked and were petrified in place. They weren’t saddened but amazed, and tried as much as possible to understand with their human minds what had just transpired. How many questions they must have had! They must have had doubts about the veracity of the ascension of their Teacher. Some of them may have thought that they had lost their minds. In the end, they had to come to the conclusion that despite such a thing being implausible, it was a fact. They had seen the ascension with their own eyes! We should also marvel in Christ’s miracles.

We should also strive towards God. He didn’t so much leave us and our world as He showed us the way to eternal life. Therefore, let’s not stand gazing up into the sky in sadness, but instead take action. Let’s personify in ourselves the teachings of our Christ and in such a way ascend to Him.

priest Alexis