I. Consider, my soul, how Jesus after his resurrection wished to remain glorious on earth during forty days, and show himself visible now and then to His disciples, the more to strengthen their faith in His true and real resurrection. But He did not wish to be always manifest to them, in order to accustom them to believe Him even without seeing Him, as we believe Him present everywhere as God, and as God and man in the Sacrament of the altar.

     Jesus wished to stay glorious on earth during forty days, to compensate as it were the numerous tears and sighs of the Just during the forty centuries they had expected him.

     The appointed time arrived at last: after having given all power to the Apostles for the administration of the Sacraments, and commanded them to teach all nations and baptize them, He ordered them to meet together on mount Olivet.

     Jesus commanded the Apostles that they should not depart from Jerusalem. And you, said He to them, stay in the city, till you be endowed with power from on high. And He led them out as far as Bethania (that is on mount Olivet). But they who were come together, asked him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? But who were come together, asked him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? But He said to them: It is not for you to know the times, or moments, which the Father has put in his own power. But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.

     Adore, my soul, thy Saviour, who is about to ascend into Heaven; rejoice at his glorious triumph and at the honors He is going to receive from his heavenly Father and from all the blessed Spirits. Ask him from this moment, and with ardor, for the spirit of faith. With this spirit go to Jerusalem: see how the Savior leaves this so unthankful city, and makes his way to mount Olivet, accompanied by His divine Mother, the Apostles, his first disciples and many holy women, in number of more than five hundred. The Lord wished such a multitude of pre-elected witnesses to strengthen men's faith in his Ascension into Heaven, where He would be our Advocate with the father, and our high Priest having compassion on our infirmities, that He had experienced in the time of His mortal life. Join thyself to Mary, and beseeching her to make thee a partaker of her faith, follow her as far as the holy Mount.

     Here listen with thorough respect and veneration to the last words of Jesus, by which He upbraids the Apostles for their little faith in his resurrection, in the promise of the Holy Ghost, and in His blessing. Look tenderly and respectfully at Jesus, who is about to ascend into Heaven: His divine eyes, which had shed so many tears, and had been languishing and dying on the Cross, are now more sparkling than the sun. His venerable Head is no longer stained with blood, nor crowned with thorns, but on the contrary, it is crowned with immortal glory. All the wounds that disfigured His body, now give him a divine brightness; and far from being a subject of shame and infamy, they increase the glory and splendor of His triumph. With Mary and the Apostles, inflamed with a heavenly ardor, sustained by a vivifying hope, look at Jesus, that having made himself visible to all, commands them to stop midway on the mount, while He, going to its top and leaning His feet upon two stones, lifts up his hands and blesses them, and begins slowly to mount up in the air, His brightness increasing in proportion as He moves away, And lifting up His hands, he blessed them.

 

     II. And it came to pass, whilst he blessed them, he departed from them, and, while they booked on, he was carried up into heaven. What a spectacle! What a wonder! The disciples had never seen a more splendid thing. They had seen him before his death walking on the waters; He had been in the midst of them in the Caenaculum, the doors being shut. But here Jesus is with them; they speak to him: He speaks to them, and mounts up the air. They look at him, but possess him no longer: a white cloud has surrounded him and taken him out of their sight. They are not unaware where he is going, because he has told them so many times. He ascends into heaven whence He had descended; He returns to is Father who had sent him. He goes there where they cannot go now, and where they shall go one day; He goes to occupy the place to which He is entitled, and prepare them the seats He has merited them, and prepared for us all also. He is going to sit at the right hand of his Father and rest in his bosom, till He may call us to the same abode to make us sit there and rest with Him. Ah! why is not my dull heart moved by such a spectacle? O my cold heart, open thyself to the most steadfast hope, wean thyself from earth for ever, and always fix thyself on Heaven.

     The Angels, Archangels, and all heavenly Powers go to meet their King. An innumerable crowd of illustrious slaves join with their divine Savior. All the Just dead from the beginning of the world, and all those who have risen again with Jesus Christ, join together to accompany his glorious triumph. The flesh had been sent away from the garden of Eden, but in the person of the Word made flesh, it is restored to heaven. Lift up your gates, o ye princes; and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of glory shall enter in. Do not ask who He is: He is the Lord strong and mighty in battle, He is the Lamb of God who was killed: He is the victorious Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Lord of hosts, He is the King of Glory. This is the title with which Jesus Christ goes to sit at the right hand of His Father, and makes all those sit there whom He has delivered: here He expects all those who will believe in Him, and profit by his redemption. Oh, how many sat already there! And with what eyes they look at the earth, and all that forms the occupation of men!

     Therefore, O my soul, always turn thy heart and mind to Heaven, as the end of thy mortal journey, as the place of thy rest.

     Faith teaches thee by the Apostle, that we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come. Raise therefore thyself by means of faith, considering that the earth is not thy fatherland; but as a citizen of Heaven and a pilgrim on earth, thou art here only momentarily, and always in expectation of thy return and passage there. Endeavor then, especially this day, to quicken thy faith in the Christian truths, destroying the false ideas of happiness thou hast formed in the fallacious goods of the earth and in the foolish and vain things of this world, which all come only from the illusion of our senses and the corruption of our heart.

     Faith is the eye and reason of a Christian, it is the foundation of the whole edifice of our eternal salvation; as the Apostle says, it is the substance of things we hope for. The prize promised to faith is Paradise. He that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be condemned. Through faith, Jesus Christ lives and abides in us, and we in him; through it, Jesus operates in us, and through it, his Mysteries and Life are communicated to us.

 

    III. My soul, if thou lookest at the promised reward, thou shalt consider every labor light, thou shalt suffer poverty and the privation of the comforts of life, thou shalt receive in peace injuries and wrongs, thou shalt  close thy eyes to the false brightness of the world, that it may not dazzle thee; always remembering that all the worldly pomp and glory finishes with the dust of the grave, whether man wishes it or not. Our soul departed from our body shall carry with her only her works, to her glory, if good; to her confusion, it ill. In order not to lose the thought of eternity, Macarius, Anthony, and Simeon, the Stylite quitted the towns and peopled the deserts; Benedict, Bernard, Dominic, and Francis shut themselves up in cloisters, and sanctified themselves as well as their neighbor!...

     Consider now my soul, what must be the affection of a soul touched with a strong desire of eternal life, who directs all her thoughts and actions to Jesus Chris, as the Apostles did.

     And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come when He shall judge the living and the death, as you have seen him going up to heaven (that is, carried on a cloud).

     The  Apostles were at that moment immovable, insensible to all that happened on earth, incapable of the least distraction, inflamed by a heavenly ardor, sustained by a rejoicing hope, animated by a lively faith. Though they saw Jesus no longer, they did not cease looking up to heaven. Their mouths were silent, but their hearts expressed themselves by deep sighs and ardent sobs, for the loss they were about to make: those sighs were lifted up in proportion as their amiable Savior was going far from them.

     And having adored, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy... from the mount that is called Olivet, which is nigh Jerusalem, Within a Sabbath-day's journey. Spiritual joy is then the fruit of obedience, that makes prayers follow action, and actions follow prayer. The Apostles obeyed the warning of the Angel... Do thou obey thy superiors who are in the place of Angels with thee. Fulfill thy duties, that are God's will on thee; and do not fear leaving the holy Mount, viz contemplation, to return to town, viz to the ordinary occupations that God exacts from thee.

       Remember, that thy Jesus entered Heaven from the top of the same mount Olivet, at the side of which He had begun his Passion. At the feet of this mount the divine Master was seen kneeling, agonizing, then caught, tied and led as a malefactor... Therefore from humiliations and suffering that abase thee in the presence of men, thou shalt ascend to the mount of glory, that is heaven.

     O my Jesus, full of gratitude and love I congratulate thee on thy glory and triumph over thy enemies. But remember, my divine Savior, that to redeem me Thou sheddest all thy adorable blood, and Thou ascendedst to Heaven to prepare me a place, as Thou thyself saidst. Make me worthy to occupy it one day: strengthen me by thy grace; that I may surely arrive at this heavenly and wished for kingdom. Arm me with thy fortitude, that I may overcome all the enemies who will oppose themselves to my acquisition of the same.

     O Mary, the Mother of beautiful Hope, by thy fine Love and by thy grace, make easy for me the way that is to lead me to Heaven.

       So be it.