Pastoral Letter for Ascension Day

Ascension Day

The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Thursday 25 May 2017

Friday 5 May 2017

Dear Holy Cross Family,

Today is the 20^th day of our Easter Celebration.  The 40^th day is coming quickly.  On the 40^th day of Easter, the Church commemorates the ascension of our Lord to the right hand of God the Father, the place from which we profess in the Creed Jesus reigns as the victorious Lord of life who has conquered death by his death and shown forth his victory of life by his resurrection from the grave.  The Feast of the Ascension is one of the major feasts in the life of the Church.  We will join our brothers and sisters in keeping this feast of our Lord Jesus Christ at a Holy Day Mass that will gather together all Episcopalians from throughout the Wyoming Valley.  The Mass will be celebrated at 6 PM on Thursday 25 May at St. Stephen’s.  Following the Mass, we will share in a meal, thus providing an opportunity not only for our souls to be fed with the Blessed Sacrament, but also for our bodies to be fed as we share in fellowship with fellow brothers and sisters of Christ.

I know that in times past we have struggled to support and be present for moments such as this that have taken us away from our own house of prayer.  Today I wish to strongly invite you all to resist this temptation.  We can do this.  In the Lenten journey that we walked earlier this year, we turned out for joint times of prayer and fellowship not only at our own church, but also at St. Clement & St. Peter Wilkes-Barre, Grace Kingston, and Prince of Peace in Dallas.  On this occasion we will gather at St. Stephen’s.  I urge us all to make it both a commitment and a priority to come to the feast on the 40^th Day of Easter.  We are not coming together as strangers.  We are all brothers and sisters, and as such, we need to make a profound statement of Christian love one for another by our presence at the Altar and at the dinner table.  The impact of such witness is not for us alone.  Here is a wonderful opportunity to show to our community that we are united in the name of Jesus, committed to serving God and our neighbor in the love that we first received and have been commanded to share not only with friends but with strangers also.

I look forward to seeing you all at the feast of the Ascension!  Let’s fill St. Stephen’s, and show each other and this community in which we live our devotion to God and our affection for one another.

Blessings,

Timothy +

The Rev’d Timothy Alleman, Rector of the Church of the Holy Cross