The Daily Pilgrimage

Good Morning, Pilgrim

Receive this day from God.

Christ is risen, has ascended in His glorified humanity, and reigns in Heaven. The Church and her members still suffer on earth, but their trials do not overturn His victory. Christian hope is therefore more than an encouraging feeling: it trusts Christ's promise of resurrection and eternal life and gives the faithful a reason to persevere in obedience today.

Ask Mary, Queen of Martyrs, for constancy. Offer in advance the contradiction, delay, or sorrow that divine Providence may permit.

Formation in True Devotion - Day 159: Review and Deepening: Consecrated Life through Mary to Jesus

“The more often we do so, the sooner we shall be sanctified, and attain to union with Jesus Christ, which always follows necessarily on our union with Mary, because the spirit of Mary is the spirit of Jesus.”
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 259

Ora — Begin with Prayer

Offer the day before spending it

Prayer gives the day its right beginning and its right end. Before work, conversation, news, or distraction claims the mind, adore the Blessed Trinity and offer every prayer, work, joy, suffering, and temptation to Jesus through Mary. Ask your Guardian Angel for help, and place the souls and needs entrusted to you beneath God's will.

Begin simply. Make the Morning Offering through the hands of Our Lady. Pray the Three Hail Marys for purity and final perseverance, ask your Guardian Angel to govern the senses and imagination, and name the soul or intention for which today's prayers and sacrifices will be offered. Do not rush these acts merely because they are familiar; let them place the whole day beneath God before the world begins to claim it.

O ascended Lord, lift my mind toward Heaven and keep my hands faithful to the work Thou hast given me. Make me obey Thy commands while I await eternal life with Thee.

Quote of the Day

“He was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
St. Luke, Acts 1:9, Douay-Rheims

Today's Full Breviary Sermon or Proper Lesson

The Head has entered; the Body is called to follow.

Matins - Second Nocturn - Ascension of Our Lord

The verified Breviary witness for this observance is identified below. A complete English transcription has not yet been admitted, so no excerpt or summary is presented as though it were the full appointed text.

Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon 1 on the Lord's Ascension

“The Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us.”

• The Breviary keeps the fortieth day after Easter as the crown of the forty days in which Christ confirmed the reality of His Resurrection.
• St. Leo teaches that the Ascension is not Christ's departure from concern for His members, but the exaltation of the Manhood He took from us.
• Where the Head has gone in glory, the hope of the Body is summoned to follow; Paradise is made sure because Christ has entered as our Head.

Lift the mind where Christ has gone. The Ascension teaches the soul to live on earth without making earth its home, because our Head reigns above.

Walk with the Church

The Church has already begun praying. Enter her prayer.

Today the Roman year keeps Ascension of Our Lord. Receive the observance as the Church gives it: first understand what is commemorated, then let its doctrine and worship shape the day.

Roman Martyrology

May 6

At Rome, the feast of St. John before the Latin Gate. Being bound and brought to Rome from Ephesus by the order of Domitian, he was condemned by the Senate to be cast, near the said gate, into a vessel of boiling oil, from which he came out more healthy and vigorous than before. — At Antioch, St. Evodius, who, as the blessed Ignatius wrote to the people of Antioch, was consecrated first bishop of that city by the apostle St. Peter, and ended his life by a glorious martyrdom. — At Cyrene, St. Lucius, bishop, who is mentioned by St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles. — In Africa, the holy martyrs Heliodorus and Venustus, with seventy-five others. — In Cyprus, St. Theodotus, bishop of Cyrinia, who having undergone grievous afflictions under the emperor Licinius, at length yielded his soul to God, when peace was restored to the Church. — At Damascus, the birthday of the blessed John Damescene, renowned for sanctity and learning, who, by both the written and the spoken word, courageously resisted Leo the Isaurian, in defending the worship paid to sacred images. By order of this emperor his right hand was cut off, but commending himself to an image of the blessed Virgin Mary, which he had de: fended, his hand was immediately restored to him entire and sound. — At Carrhae, in Mesopotamia, St. Protogenes, bishop. — In England, St. Eadbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, eminent for doctrine and piety. — At Rome, St. Benedicta, virgin. — At Salerno, the Translation of St. Matthew, apostle. His sacred body previously transferred from Ethiopia to various countries, was finally taken to Salerno, and there with great pomp placed in a church dedicated under his invocation.

Gospel of the Day

Preach the gospel to every creature.

Ascension of Our Lord - Mark 16:14-20

“Going into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature.”

Do not think Our Lord has gone far away. He reigns, He sends, and He strengthens the little works done for Him with a faithful heart.

Learn from Today's Saint or Feast

Ascension of Our Lord

The King ascends and sends His Church.

On Ascension Day, Our Lord is taken up into Heaven after commanding the apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature.

The feast teaches both triumph and mission: Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father, and His Church must confess His doctrine, administer His sacraments, and live in hope of His return.

Look upward without abandoning duty. The ascended Christ rules, intercedes, and sends His Church into the world with divine authority.

Secondary Saint or Commemoration

St. John before the Latin Gate

Apostolic love proved by accepting suffering with Christ.

This feast honors St. John the Apostle in connection with his suffering for Christ before the Latin Gate.

In the Gospel, Christ's chalice means the suffering and sacrifice that His disciples must be willing to share with Him. St. John's trial teaches that closeness to Christ does not remove suffering; it gives the disciple grace to remain faithful through it.

Ask St. John for love strong enough to suffer without becoming cold or bitter. Sharing Christ's chalice means accepting the sacrifices required by fidelity while continuing to love God and neighbor.

Breviary Witness for the Day

He was taken up into Heaven.

Matins - Ascension of Our Lord

• The Ascension office contemplates Our Lord taken up into Heaven after entrusting the apostolic mission to His Church.
• Its witness joins royal triumph to command: Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father, and the Gospel must be preached with the authority He gave.

Look to Heaven without weakening duty on earth. The ascended King still commands, governs, intercedes, and sends.