“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES, 3”  

In the evening, Paschal Vespers is celebrated. This differs from normal Vespers in that the priest vests in all his sacerdotal vestments, and after the entrance there is a Gospel reading, which tells of the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to His Apostles on the evening of the day that He had risen from the dead (John 20:19-25).

For forty days, until the Great Feast of the Ascension, we sing the paschal troparion in the Divine services, and many of the verses and the canon, and during the Divine Liturgy instead of “We have seen the true Light,” and before the dismissal, we chant the paschal troparion, “Christ is risen” three times. The prayer to the Holy Spirit, “Heavenly King” is not read or sung in church or in our private prayers until the Great Feast of the Holy Trinity, Pentecost.

Just as in Great Lent the Sundays have various special commemorations, which prepare us for the festival, so during Pascha, the Sundays have special commemorations through which the Resurrection of Christ is hymned, and which manifest His life-giving Nature imparting spiritual and physical healing through His mercy. Based on their appointed Gospel lections, the various Sundays are: Thomas Sunday; Sunday of the Ointment-bearing Women; of the Paralytic; of the Samaritan Woman; and of the Blind Man.

[Now we return to the place where we left off before Pascha - ed.]

§ 130. Services for the feast of the Lord’s Ascension. The Ascension of the Lord is celebrated on the fortieth day after Pascha. The feast’s origins go back to the third and fourth centuries.

In the appointed verses, there is depicted a picture of the outward events of the feast (Jesus Christ’s ascent of the Mount of Olives, His blessing of the Apostles, the appearance of the Angels) and its inner significance is also proclaimed, namely: the sorrow of the Apostles on parting from their Teacher, their requests that the Holy Spirit be sent down, the wonder of the celestial powers, the Angels, and their question, “Who is this comely Man? But He is not only man, but God and man.” The hymns also tell of the purpose of the Lord’s ascent into Heaven: that He might send down the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and that He might reveal unto us the way into Heaven. And finally, all the faithful are called upon to pray the Lord to send down upon them the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament readings we have the following thoughts: in the first (Es. 2:2-3) it is prophesied that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains and all nations shall flow unto it and say: Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways.” In the second reading (Es. 60:10-12, 63:1-3, 7-9), it foretells the glory and majesty of the Saviour, and that by Him redemption shall be granted to His holy people. In the third (Zach. 14:1, 4, 8, 11), it foretells that the Lord will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the east, and that on that day the Lord shall be King over all the earth.

The troparion is:

“Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God,
and gladdened Thy disciples
with the promise of the Holy Spirit;
and they were assured by the blessing
that Thou art the Son of God
and Redeemer of the world.”

The contakion:

“When Thou didst fulfil Thy dispensation for our sakes,
uniting things on earth with the Heavens,
Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God,
departing not hence, but remaining inseparable from us,
and crying unto them that love Thee:
I am with you, and no one can be against you.”