Celebrate Ascension the Hallowed Home Way

Gustave Dore’s Ascension. (Source: Creative Commons.)

Ascension is the Answer

Flashing back to a spring many moons ago–dear readers, I was in my TWENTIES (!)–a friend asked me, a fellow Catholic, “Isn’t there something in the Church that happens 40 days after Easter?” I remember replying with no little embarrassment, that I thought it was about Jesus, but I didn’t know offhand. Looking it up later in a missalette, I learned forever the name of the singular celestial spectacle: the Ascension of the Lord.

What is the Ascension of the Lord?

The Ascension of the Lord is the solemn feast commemorating the moment when the risen Jesus, in the presence of His apostles and His mother, was taken up bodily into Heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father (Acts 1:9-11). It completes the Paschal Mystery—His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and now His Exaltation. Jesus, fully God and fully man, enters divine glory with His resurrected and transfigured human body and soul, opening Heaven for humanity and interceding for us as our eternal High Priest. The Ascension is a promise: Christ goes before us to prepare a place (John 14:2-3), inaugurate His kingdom, and send the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to empower the Church. It calls us to live as His witnesses, lifting our hearts from earthly things toward our true home in Heaven.

Manuscript page depicting Ascension. (Source: Public Domain.)

When is the Ascension?

The Ascension is traditionally celebrated exactly 40 days after Easter Sunday, which always falls on a Thursday (following the inclusive Biblical counting in Acts 1:3, where Jesus appeared to the apostles “over a period of forty days”). As we know, the number 40 holds profound Biblical significance as a period of preparation, testing, and spiritual completeness (e.g. the 40 days of the Flood, the 40 years in the desert, or Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness). Therefore, it marks the fullness of Christ’s earthly mission.

In the Church’s liturgical calendar, it is a Solemnity (the highest type of feast) and, where observed on Thursday, a Holy Day of Obligation. However, in the United States most dioceses have transferred the observance to the Seventh Sunday of Easter so that more of the faithful will participate in the liturgy as they already are obligated to attend Sunday Mass.

Christ as the First Fruits of the Resurrection

The season-of-year timing of Ascension fits well with what it commemorates. As St. Paul said: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Traditionally, Catholic families brought the first fruits of spring—beans, grapes, strawberries, and other early garden produce—to be blessed at Mass on Ascension Thursday.

First fruits and flowers. (Source: Creative Commons.)

Just as the Old Testament first fruits assured the full harvest to come, Jesus is the first fruits of the Resurrection. His Ascension completes the offering as He presents His glorified humanity to the Father. Blessing and sharing the first produce of the season is a participation in this mystery—offering back to God the first and best, confident that the greater harvest of eternal life is guaranteed in Christ.

Symbols, Signs and Significance of the Ascension

Key symbols and signs drawn from Scripture and sacred Tradition include:

  1. The cloud (Acts 1:9): A biblical sign of God’s veiled presence and glory, as at the Transfiguration or the Exodus pillar of cloud. It shows Jesus entering the heavenly realm.
  2. Upward movement and heaven: Jesus is “taken up” or “lifted up,” with apostles gazing into the sky—reminding us to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-2).
  3. In sacred art and icons: A mandorla (almond-shape) illuminating Christ, angels, the apostles (often with Mary at the center in Eastern icons), and sometimes footprints on the Mount of Olives.
  4. White/gold liturgical colors and decorations: Radiance of divine glory and Easter joy.

The Ascension assures us that our humanity is already enthroned in Heaven with Christ, giving us hope amid our trials. It completes His redemptive work and launches the Church’s mission. We are no longer to stand “looking into the sky” but to go forth as witnesses, living the Gospel until He returns. Through the Ascension a bridge was made between earth and Heaven. It follows that our earthly homes can witness to the great Heavenly mission of making disciples of all men, which Christ entrusted to the Church (Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 1:4-9; Acts 1:8).

Eastern icon with Mary at the center. (Source: Creative Commons.)

Giotto’s Ascension from around 1304 located in Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Note the mandorla shape around Christ. (Source: Public Domain.)

Left panel of 1447 triptych by Fra Angelico. (Source: Creative Commons.)

How to Celebrate the Ascension: a Hallowed Home Guide

As Pope St. John Paul II said, “we are an Easter people.” Not just on the day or the octave. Accordingly, Ascension is a part of living out Easter. Make this feast come alive in your domestic church with simple, intentional traditions rooted in Scripture, the Magisterium, and time-honored Catholic customs. Here’s our practical guide:

  1. Attend Holy Mass The heart of the celebration! Go as a family. Consider inviting a friend(s). You may want to dress in white or gold to mirror the liturgical color. (I have noticed more and more women seeming to do this.)

2. Set the Scene

3. Pray

    • Make the Ascension Novena: “Jesus, I honor You on the feast of Your Ascension into heaven. I rejoice with all my heart at the glory into which You entered to reign as King of heaven and earth…” Here is a video with the complete text to pray along with.
    • Pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary (the Ascension is the second mystery). We use this inspiring video version with sacred art and music.
    • Begin the Novena to the Holy Spirit It is traditionally prayed from the day after Ascension through the eve of Pentecost.

    4. Read aloud or reflect on passages that explore the Ascension:

      • Mass readings for the feast: Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:17-23 or 4:1-13, and the Gospel (Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-20, or Luke 24:46-53 depending on the year/cycle), which proclaim the Great Commission and the promise of the Holy Spirit.
      • The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 659-667)—straight from the Magisterium.
      • The Life of Christ by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (a classic that beautifully details the Ascension as the climax of Christ’s mission).
      • Homilies of the Church Fathers, such as St. Augustine or St. John Chrysostom on the Ascension (available in The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers or A Year with the Church Fathers.) These keep your hallowed home library grounded in timeless, approved teaching.

      5. Bless, Cook, and Bake (or hit the nearest deli counter) Many cultures honor the “flight” to Heaven with bird-themed foods or the “first fruits” theme with harvest foods.

        • Blessing (and eating!) first fruits: Italian families are some of those that historically brought their “first fruits,” beans and grapes, to church for blessing. Blessing, sharing, and eating the season’s first produce is a tangible way to thank God and remember that promise of eternal life. In some regions, apple fritters or stuffed grape leaves recall spring’s abundance. (If you cannot get a priest to bless your food (not commonly done anymore), you can non-sacramentally bless it yourself with a little holy water, similar to saying grace before eating.)

        Classic Greek stuffed grape leaves. (Source: Creative Commons.)

        Italian spring dandelion dish. (Source: Creative Commons.)

        • Traditional bird/fowl-related dishes and desserts: In medieval Europe, pigeons, partridges, or bird-shaped pastries were common. Consider serving chicken or turkey, or even easy Panera copycat chicken salad sandwiches or a store-bought rotisserie chicken. A dessert of cream puffs (here’s a simple baked recipe!) could imitate the cloud of Heaven where Jesus ascended. Maybe this could be the excuse you have been looking for to get a countertop cotton candy machine! Or my personal favorite, bird-shaped chocolates; here’s where to get the molds and the chocolate.

        Bird bun in a basket. (Source: Creative Commons.)

        • Picnic on high: Pack a simple outdoor meal and head to a hill, park, or even your backyard deck as a “high place,” symbolizing the Mount of Olives. A no-frills Ascension picnic of chicken, a jar of three-bean salad, and some green grapes tastes like a nummy new tradition to me.

        “Picnic in May” by Pál Szinyei Merse, 1873. (Source: Public Domain.)

        Paving the Way to Pentecost

        Precisely forty days after Easter, the glorious Ascension took place!

        My friend’s simple question long ago stirred my heart to dive deeper into this profound gift of our salvation. After His Resurrection, our Lord walked among His apostles for forty days, He was “taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9), and then He returned to the Father in triumph, just as He had promised (John 16:28; 20:17).

        The Ascension paved the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and opened Heaven for all who believe. It is a mystery well worth contemplating, commemorating, and celebrating. Why not make this the year you joyfully celebrate it in your Hallowed Home?

        Hallowed Home logo of a path leading to an inviting greenery-framed open door of a home with warm golden light inside.