The Feast of Eternal Life - Ascension of Our Lord
The Ascension of the Lord is one of the most reveredholidays established by the Orthodox Church. It is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter and, in its symbolic meaning, approaches the most holy Resurrection.
However, after the resurrection, the Son of God has already ceasedto be an ordinary earthly man, he came to his close people only for a while, to explain to them how to preach the word of truth, having instructed them so far to be in Jerusalem forever. Christ understood that his earthly days were numbered, and hastened to explain the whole essence of the Christian teaching, so that the apostles correctly conveyed it, preaching to the people.
Then the Ascension of the Lord took place. He raised his hands and ascended to heaven, sitting at the right, that is, to the right of the Heavenly Father. More doubts about the divine origin of the Son of God were not. But Christ did not depart from us living on earth, but showed the way to the Kingdom of Heaven-paradise-for all people living on sinful earth. The Ascension of the Lord became a kind of bridge connecting the earthly and heavenly life, and proved the immortality of the soul, its infinite existence. Jesus himself did everything in his earthly life to convince the mankind he loved in the correctness of his sermons. He sacrificed everything for this purpose, that only man who lives on earth can put on the altar of faith.
The Feast of the Ascension bears all believershope for salvation and comfort to all mourners who have lost their loved ones. As Christ said that he is preparing a place for his disciples next to each other, so every Orthodox Christian knows that his separation from the beloved of the earthly world is temporary, and in heavenly life he is waiting for unity with them. As Jesus keeps all the professors of his teaching, the righteous become the representatives of every person before the Creator.
In 2013, this twelve-day holiday was heldon the 13th of June. The Ascension of the Lord is celebrated according to astronomical dimensions, and its date is tied to the day of the Holy Resurrection. On this day, the church service is beautiful and solemn, read troparion, kontakion and magnification, and people pray for the strength needed to overcome sin and reach the Kingdom of Heaven.