Father in heaven, by whose grace the virgin mother of thine incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping thy word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to thy will; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

'For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy.'

Luke 1.44

Today the Church celebrates The Visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth.

📷 'The Visitation', Unknown (15th century) pic.twitter.com/eD1jOYSuRx

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) May 31, 2026

O Lord God Almighty, eternal, immortal, invisible, the mysteries of whose being are unsearchable: Accept, we beseech thee, our praises for the revelation which thou hast made of thyself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons, and one God; and mercifully grant that ever holding fast this faith we may magnify thy glorious name; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end.

“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY,
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY,
which was, and is,
and is to come.”

THOU ART worthy, O LORD, to receive Glory and Honour and Power: for THOU hast created all things, and for THY pleasure they are and were created

Rev 4:8-11 KJV ❤️ GOD BLESS#HOLYTRINITY #TRINITYsunday pic.twitter.com/Ax2VW2dN8K

— Christine Christian (@TwityChristine) May 31, 2026

O God, who according to thy promise hast given thy Holy Spirit to us thy people, that we might know the freedom of thy children and taste on earth our heavenly inheritance: Grant that we may ever hold fast the unity which he gives, and, living in his power, may be thy witnesses to all men; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Spirit falls, the fire burns, the world is changed.
The Spirit falls, the fire burns, the world is changed. 🕊️🔥
Happy Pentecost Sunday!
Come, Holy Spirit fill us again.#PentecostSunday #HolySpirit #ComeHolySpirit#Pentecost2026 #FireOfGod #RevivalFire #ChurchFamily pic.twitter.com/IlY1V5jwzd

— Art4DDay (@art4dday) May 25, 2026

O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Almighty God, who fillest all things with thy boundless presence, yet makest thy chosen dwelling-place in the soul of man: Come thou, a gracious and willing Guest, and take thine abode in our hearts; that all unholy thoughts and desires within us be cast out, and thy holy presence be to us comfort, light and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Guten Morgen ☕️🌸🍃
Wo Blumen blühen…. lächelt die Welt pic.twitter.com/rXwL6BNknI

— Renate Kleine (@RenateKleine) May 28, 2026

O God, who didst graciously send on thy disciples the Holy Spirit in the burning fire of thy love: Grant to thy people to be fervent in the unity of faith; that abiding in thee evermore, they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

🌿🌸Guten Morgen 🌸🌿
Einen wundervollen Mittwoch wünsche ich euch allen. pic.twitter.com/woXMnSQPax

— Brigitta Neurauter (@BrigittaNeurau2) May 27, 2026

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

Or you may watch it using this link:

Louis Galloche, The Pentecost, 18th Century pic.twitter.com/QMy0ifvNiK

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) June 8, 2025

O Jesus Christ, who art the same yesterday, today and forever: Pour thy Spirit upon the Church that it may preach thee anew to each succeeding generation.  Grant that it may interpret the eternal gospel in terms relevant to the life of each new age, and as the fulfillment of the highest hopes and the deepest needs of every nation; so that at all times and in all places men may see in thee their Lord and Saviour.

Sunrise at Skerries this morning. pic.twitter.com/fSahhoHhmi

— Sryan Bruen Photography (@sryanbruenphoto) May 26, 2026

Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

It's Whitsun, Pentecost, the summer festival when the Holy Spirit descends with fire. In this Anglo-Saxon image the flames touch the lips of each apostle, and even the sky has turned fiery red.

'Tongues of fire they had, when with love they preached the glory of God' (Ælfric) pic.twitter.com/M9rJHgDYtU

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 24, 2026

O God, who in the exaltation of thy Son Jesus Christ dost sanctify thy universal Church: Shed abroad in every race and nation the gift of the Holy Spirit; that the work wrought by his power at the first preaching of the gospel may now be extended throughout the whole world; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

24th May is the feast of Pentecost.

BL Arundel 157; Psalter of the Virgin Mary, and Little Office of the Virgin Mary; 13th century; England, Central (Oxford); f.12v @BLMedieval pic.twitter.com/dQb9gLS36W

— Ennius (@red_loeb) May 23, 2026

“You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

–Deuteronomy 16:9-12

Today's the great feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends on the Blessed Virgin and the Disciples in 15th Century glass at East Harling, Norfolk. pic.twitter.com/3CRXngUIQo

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) May 24, 2026

Glory be to thee, O Christ our Prophet, who didst reveal and interpret thy Father’s will and all saving truth to the world.

            Glory be to thee, O Christ our Priest, who didst offer thyself a sacrifice for sin and ever livest to make intercession for us.

            Glory be to thee, O Christ our King, who dost give laws to thy people, and dost govern and protect us in thy love, and who reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and for evermore.

Bonne fête de #Ascension à tous les Chrétiens et plus particulièrement aux Chrétiens dans le monde entier persécutés en raison de leur foi 🙏#Ascension2026 pic.twitter.com/pRNHZ4ZtJQ

— MClaudeVoinçon 🇫🇷Ⓜ️ (@voinconmc) May 14, 2026

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

–Ezekiel 36:22-27

Under The Copper Beech. 19°C. Blackbirds singing. pic.twitter.com/QDv2yOGJue

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) May 23, 2026

Almighty God, who after thy Son had ascended on high didst send forth thy Spirit in the Church to draw all men unto thee; Fulfill, we beseech thee, this thy gracious purpose, and in the fullness of time gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him, who is the head over all things in the Church which is his body, Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Golden sunrise – Ardvasar, Isle of Skye #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 pic.twitter.com/rrFSIWHzVX

— James MacInnes (@Macinnesplant) May 22, 2026

O God, whose dearly beloved Son was, by thy mighty power, exalted that he might prepare a place in thy kingdom of glory for them that love thee: So lead and uphold us, O merciful Lord, that we may both follow the holy steps of his life here upon earth, and may enter with him hereafter into thy everlasting rest; that where he is, we may also be; through the merits of the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Tuesday views across Wensleydale 🌿

Looking towards Bolton Castle, where history and landscape sit side by side.

📸 Wendy McDonnell | #YorkshireDales #TuesdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/pKrpK79ocU

— Yorkshire Dales National Park (@yorkshire_dales) May 19, 2026

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

–Ephesians 3:14-21

The Lennon River, Ramelton, in Donegal. pic.twitter.com/KIPJetCOk6

— Inish View (@inishview) May 19, 2026

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

Good morning from Cambridge. Have a good week#Cambridge pic.twitter.com/aVo7GXxd58

— Sandy De Born (@SandyDeBorn) May 18, 2026

O God, whose blessed Son, our great High Priest, has entered once for all into the holy place, and ever liveth to intercede on our behalf: Grant that we, sanctified by the offering of his body, may draw near with full assurance of faith by the way which he has dedicated for us, and evermore serve thee, the living God; through the same thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

M29 (NGC 6913) is a beautiful, fairly bright stellar cluster located about 4,000 light years away in Cygnus, the Swan. Relatively small, the cluster lies in a rich, crowded area of our Galaxy, close to the bright northern sky beacon, Sadr, Gamma Cygni. 📷 Adam Block #NGC6913 #M29 pic.twitter.com/51EwFh37y1

— Lee-Anne Gibbon (@LeeAnneGibbon1) May 17, 2026

Blessed art thou, O Lord God Almighty, the Ancient of Days, who hast set thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord upon the glorious throne of thy kingdom, exalted far above all peoples, all places, all times, eternally; that he who hath worn our flesh, and borne our manhood into the holy of holies, should henceforth pour down heavenly gifts upon his brethren, and be both our righteous judge and most merciful intercessor; to whom with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Spirit, one God, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and praise, now and for ever.

Over The Border. 9°C and blue skies. Pheasants. pic.twitter.com/lXo34akyVj

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) May 16, 2026

O Lord Jesus Christ, who after thy resurrection didst manifestly appear to thine apostles, and in their sight didst ascend into heaven to prepare a place for us: Grant that, being risen with thee, we may lift up our hearts continually to seek thee where thou art, and never cease to serve thee faithfully here on earth; until at last, when thou comest again, thou shalt receive us unto thyself; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

The Ascension of Christ by Salvador Dali, 1958 pic.twitter.com/DSAbTUDTX6

— Archetype Vision (@ArchetypeVision) April 30, 2026

As you can imagine, there’s no shortage of fine choral music to celebrate the feast of Our Lord’s Ascension says music historian Monsignor Philip Whitmore. He suggests we listen is a piece of 20th century organ music written as an extended meditation and an uplifting motet for double choir by English composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford.

Read and listen to it all.

Mikhail Nesterov, Ascension of the Lord, c.1895 pic.twitter.com/WQZhxhaGbx

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) September 4, 2025

O Almighty God, who by thy holy apostle hast taught us to set our affection on things above: Grant us so to labour in this life as ever to be mindful of our citizenship in those heavenly places whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; to whom with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end.

"Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum? Hic Iesus qui assumptus est a vobis in caelum, sic veniet. Quemadmodum vidistis eum ascendentem in caelum"@Charlottesrabt#art #painting
The Ascension, Benjamin West 1738–1820 https://t.co/tN7HPQAyhG pic.twitter.com/sAFThgYoa2

— Miguel Calabria (@MiguelCalabria3) June 3, 2020

Jesus hasn’t just gone away. He has gone deeper into the heart of reality–our reality and God’s. He has become far more than a visible friend and companion; he has shown himself to be the very centre of our life, the source of our loving energy in the world and the source of our prayerful, trustful waiting on God. He has made us able to be a new kind of human being, silently and patiently trusting God as a loving parent, actively and hopefully at work to make a difference in the world, to make the kind of difference love makes.

So if the world looks and feels like a world without God, the Christian doesn’t try to say, ‘It’s not as bad as all that’, or seek to point to clear signs of God’s presence that make everything all right. The Christian will acknowledge that the situation is harsh, even apparently unhopeful–but will dare to say that they are willing to bring hope by what they offer in terms of compassion and service. And their own willingness and capacity for this is nourished by the prayer that the Spirit of Jesus has made possible for them.

The friends of Jesus are called, in other words, to offer themselves as signs of God in the world–to live in such a way that the underlying all-pervading energy of God begins to come through them and make a difference.

Read it all.

L'Ascension du Christ.

Le Pérugin (dit Perugino) (1450 – 1523).

Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon. pic.twitter.com/Jtuig9pYVf

— Histoire & Odyssée (@HistoireOdyssee) May 14, 2026

Now that he is on the throne, seated at the right hand of the Father, the signs expected of the messianic age are being fulfilled before our eyes: the Spirit has been poured out and the nations have begun to turn their hearts to the worship of Israel’s God.

An even more compelling array of biblical images connects Jesus’ Ascension with the priestly work of the Messiah. Early Christians considered Jesus’ death on the cross to be a sacrifice of atonement (Rom. 3:25), an act whereby our sins are fully and finally forgiven.

However, coming from the context of Israel’s temple culture, it would have struck most Jewish believers as oddly incomplete to say that the Cross was all there was to Jesus’ ritual of sacrifice. As anyone in the ancient world knew, the penitent sinner needed a further step in the ritual of atonement: a sacrifice to be slain and a high priest to bear the sacrificial blood into the presence of God.

Read it all.

Giotto (1266–1337), The Ascension (Fresco, circa 1303),
from the Cycle of the Life of Christ.
Height: 200 cm; Width: 185 cm.
Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy. pic.twitter.com/EHhNYCcKqb

— Daniel Van Geel ^ (@DanielVanGeel) May 14, 2026

Almighty and everlasting God, who hast willed to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King and Lord of all: Mercifully grant that all peoples and nations, divided and wounded by sin, may be brought under the gentle yoke of his most loving rule; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end.

Wishing you a fabulous Friday from North Yorkshire 😊 pic.twitter.com/DTptYwQ8ss

— Nicky (@NickyJohnsonNY) May 15, 2026

Hannah also prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in thy salvation.

“There is none holy like the Lord,
there is none besides thee;
there is no rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones;
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might shall a man prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces;
against them he will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the power of his anointed.”

–1 Samuel 2:1-10

Errigal / Thanks to @onlymccoyle/instagram for the shot #donegal #ireland @wildatlanticway @Failte_Ireland pic.twitter.com/DS99t0N6lx

— iDONEGAL (@idonegal_) May 15, 2026

Additionally, early Christians were not, as is commonly assumed, bound to a three-tier vision of the universe, i.e., heaven, hell, and earth.

[W]hen the Bible speaks of heaven and earth it is not talking about two localities related to each other within the same space-time continuum or about a nonphysical world contrasted with a physical one but about two different kinds of what we call space, two different kinds of what we call matter, and also quite possibly (though this does not necessarily follow from the other two) two different kinds of what we call time.

So heaven and earth, understood in this way, are two dimensions of the same reality. They “interlock and intersect in a whole variety of ways even while they retain, for the moment at least, their separate identities and roles.” Combine this with the doctrine of the ascension and we do not have a Jesus who floats up into a heaven “up there” but disappears into a reality we cannot yet see. Because heaven and earth are not yet joined Jesus is physically absent from us. At the same time he is present with us through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments, linkages where the two realities meet in the present age.

Read it all.

29th May is the feast of the Ascension#AscensionDay
BnF MS 1186; Psalter of St Louis & Blanche de Castille; 13th century; f.27v @GallicaBnF pic.twitter.com/fNjARyEuBq

— Ennius (@red_loeb) May 28, 2025

The readers may learn out of our Institutions what profit we reap by the ascension of Christ. Notwithstanding, because it is one of the chiefest points of our faith, therefore doth Luke endeavor more diligently to prove the same; yea, rather, the Lord himself meant to put the same out of all doubt, when as he hath ascended so manifestly, and hath confirmed the certainty of the same by other circumstances. For, if so be it he had vanished away secretly, then might the disciples have doubted what was become of him; but now, sith that they, being in so plain a place, saw him taken up with whom they had been conversant, whom also they heard speak even now, whom they beheld with their eyes, whom also they see taken out of their sight by a cloud, there is no cause why they should doubt whither he was gone. Furthermore, the angels are there also to bear witness of the same. And it was needful that the history should have been set down so diligently for our cause, that we may know assuredly, that although the Son of God appear nowhere upon earth, yet doth he live in the heavens. And this seemeth to be the reason why the cloud did overshadow him, before such time as he did enter into his celestial glory; that his disciples being content with their measure might cease to inquire any further. And we are taught by them that our mind is not able to ascend so high as to take a full view of the glory of Christ; therefore, let this cloud be a mean to restrain our boldness, as was the smoke which was continually before the door of the tabernacle in the time of the law.

–Commentary on Acts

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Alleluia! Christ ascends into heaven as Lord. Come, let us adore him. Alleluia!

“Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of time”

JesusCaritas

(Image by the Indian Christian artist A.D. Thomas) pic.twitter.com/UZfAPS2Acm

— Barry Naylor ن (@KaJuror) May 14, 2026

The remedy for unprofitable spiritual stargazing lies in a Christian theology of history, an understanding of the order of events in the divine programme. First, Jesus returned to heaven (Ascension). Secondly, the Holy Spirit came (Pentecost). Thirdly, the church goes out to witness (Mission). Fourthly, Jesus will come back (Parousia). Whenever we forget one of these events, or put them in the wrong sequence, confusion reigns. We need especially to remember that between the ascension and the Parousia, the disappearance and the reappearance of Jesus, there stretches a period of unknown length which is to be filled with the church’s world-wide, Spirit-empowered witness to him. We need to hear the implied message of the angels: ‘You have seen him go. You will see him come. But between that going and coming there must be another. The Spirit must come, and you must go—into the world for Christ.’

–John R W Stott, The Message of Acts:To the ends of the earth (Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Academic, 1990), p.2

The angels speak to the disciples, explaining their joy at Christ’s return and what it means for heaven and earth. But then the poem turns from narrative to reflection, following, in its most famous section, Gregory the Great’s exposition in a homily on the Ascension of the ‘leaps of Christ’:

Hence it is that Solomon has put into the mouth of the Church the words: Behold, He cometh! leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

These hills are his lofty and noble achievements. “Behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains.”

When He came to redeem us, He came, if I may so say, in leaps. My dearly beloved brethren, would you know what His leaps were?

From heaven he leapt into the womb of the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the manger on to the Cross, from the Cross into the grave, and from the grave up to heaven.

Lo, how the Truth made manifest in the Flesh did leap for our sakes, that He might draw us to run after Him for this end did He rejoice, as a strong man to run a race.

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, it behoves us in heart and mind thither to ascend, where we believe Him to have already ascended bodily.

Read it all.

'So the beautiful bird ventured into flight.
Now he sought the home of the angels above,
that glorious country, bold and strong in power.'

Today is Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter. A wonderful Anglo-Saxon poem about Christ's 'leap' into heaven: https://t.co/MfwI6d6GOC pic.twitter.com/gYJttcg5jM

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 14, 2026