Catholic TV Mass Online June 01, 2025: The Ascension of the Lord

Presider: Fr. Chuck Hanel
Parish: Queen of Apostles
Choir: Marquette University High School (MUHS)

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

A reading from the conclusion of the holy gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, o Lord.

Jesus said to his disciples: "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Apart from being a very important day in the church year, the Solemnity of the Ascension we have something very unique in our readings today. We have the same event narrated twice by the same person. And that doesn't happen very often. In fact, once every three years we read from the gospel of Luke and Ascension we read from the very conclusion of his gospel and then the first reading is the very beginning of the other volume that Luke wrote, that is acts of the apostles. And the hinge it seems, the one event that is in both of them is the Ascension. And again, Luke ends his gospel with the Ascension but then he wrote this other book, the sequel called Acts of the Apostles in which he describes the life of the early church and the activity of the holy spirit in that church and so it begins once again with the ascension. I almost wish this one day of the year we could read the gospel first because that's the first narration and then acts of the apostles last because that is then the beginning of acts of the apostles in which it serves as a beginning, not a conclusion as it did in the gospel but a beginning. And a beginning is actually Jesus ascending, but telling the apostles, telling us, that he is going to send the holy spirit. And that's what makes it a new era. The era of the holy spirit. The era of the church. If you will, the final ages before God's fulfillment of his kingdom. We know when it's going to come to an end. When Jesus once again comes but in the meantime, we're exhorted not to stare in the sky wondering when Jesus is going to come back again, but rather to make the work of Jesus' redemption what he did for us, make that reality known to all the world by our lives, by what we say and what we do.

Entrance: A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing
Text: Hymnum canamus gloriae; Venerable Bede, 673–735; tr. by Benjamin Webb, 1819–1885, The Hymnal Noted, 1854, alt. Tune: LASST UNS ERFREUEN, LM with alleluias; Geistliche Kirchengasange, Cologne, 1623; harm. by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1872–1958

Psalm 47: God Mounts His Throne
©Brian McLinden

Presentation: Ave Verum Corpus
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Communion: We Are Many Parts
Text: 1 Corinthians 12, 13; Marty Haugen, b.1950 Tune: Marty Haugen, b.1950 © 1980, 1986, GIA Publications, Inc.

Sending Forth: Hallelujah Is Our Song
© 2012, Meaux Jeaux Music, Tunes From The Basement, River Oaks Music Company, Sarah Hart, all administered at CapitolCMGPublishing.com, Fiat Music, LLC, and Josh Blakesley. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Mass Setting: Mass for Sister Thea Bowman
Text: © 2010 ICEL Music: Mass for Sister Thea Bowman, Aaron Mathews, © 2021 GIA Publications, Inc

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.


www.HeartoftheNation.org