In the canon for the Lord’s Ascension, we have festive praises in the Lord’s honour, Who has ascended into Heaven and has revealed His last miracle seen while He was yet upon the earth, which is a source of amazement for the pious soul, because the Lord has ascended into heaven with His all-immaculate flesh and thus shows those that believe in Him, that human nature has been made worthy to ascend even above the Angels and to achieve the Throne of grace. On the other hand, we see in the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ a manifest sign of the reconciliation of heaven with earth, of mankind with celestial powers in the glory of the One Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Finally in the canon, the whole universe, both visible and invisible, is called to rejoice together with spiritual joy on the glorious day of the Ascension of the Lord.

The prokeimenon is: “Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, and Thy glory above all the earth.”

In the Apostle reading (Acts 1:1-11), the account of the Lord’s Ascension is recorded.

The Gospel (Luke 24:36-53) also contains an account of the Ascension.

The megalynarion is:

“Magnify, O my soul, Christ the Giver of life,
Who hath ascended from earth into Heaven.
O thou who art God’s Mother transcending mind and word,
who ineffably in time gavest birth unto the Timeless One,
thee do we the faithful magnify with one accord.”

The communion hymn: “God is gone up in jubilation, the Lord with the voice of the trumpet.”

… to be continued in the next issue with “The Divine Services of the Feast of the Holy Trinity or Pentecost.”

AN APOLOGY

WE APOLOGISE that this issue is being dispatched later than usual. There are two reasons for this. First of all, during Great Lent all the members of the monastic brotherhood had severe bouts of ‘flu, and in Fr Niphon’s case this developed into bronchitis. Also Gabriel and Helena Lawani’s computer broke down. As Holy Week and Pascha are now shortly upon us, and Fr Alexis will be away at the All Diaspora Council in mid-May, we ask you, please, to accept this issue as a joint April-May issue, and thereafter we hope again to be back on track. We also apologise that, owing to the illness of the fathers at the Brotherhood, several of the lenten services had to be cancelled.