Feast of the Ascension

Tomorrow is Ascension Thursday. It is exactly 40 days after Easter and 10 days before Pentecost. However, in the Diocese of Cleveland, the Feast Day is moved to Sunday, May 24. It would be on May 24, even if we weren’t all sheltering in place for Covid-19. I think it’s ironic that we STILL can’t go to church even for this Feast day, but since we already missed most of Lent and Easter, I guess it’s not a big deal. We will be allowed in the very next day for a daily mass, our first one in over two months.

In pastoral consideration of the needs of the faithful, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is celebrated in the Diocese of Cleveland on Sunday, May 24, 2020, not as a holyday of obligation on “Ascension Thursday.” 

Diocese of Cleveland Web Site.

Who am I to argue with the diocese … as if.

So we are going to celebrate on Sunday at home.

Menu:

Because the season of Ascension is spring, I want our meal to reflect that. A light leafy salad with baby spinach and baby potatoes, with a lightly seasoned roast chicken will be fine. For desert, I am serving blue jello in parfait glasses with whipped cream, again for that “in the sky” effect.

We might do pancakes in the morning topped with whipped cream to represent clouds and drizzled with chocolate to symbolize the roads the apostles were missioned to travel to preach the gospel.

Decorations:

Hopefully a vase full of Lilacs, since they are the flowers for the Ascension. However, it’s been cold here in NE Ohio and the lilacs are kind of spent. I might see if Michaels has some artificial lilacs. If not, we’ll do without.

I do have these cute peg saints that we used last year as decoration so I’ll probably use them again.

For preschoolers and kindergartners, it’s a good day to learn A is for Ascension and of course, Apples and apple pie!