{"id":47603,"date":"2019-05-28T17:39:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T22:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=47603"},"modified":"2019-06-02T21:34:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T02:34:56","slug":"they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it\/","title":{"rendered":"They have taken my Ascension and I do not know where they have put it."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A few years ago Anthony Ruff\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2010\/05\/13\/happy-not-ascension-thursday\/\">posted<\/a> on the merits of transferring the feast of the Ascension from the traditional fortieth day after Easter to the following Sunday. While I can see the logic of transferring it to a Sunday (and also the practical issue that many parishes face of people simply not turning up on Thursday), I honestly prefer the symbolic sanctification of time by following the biblical chronology. Also, I am against the tendency to remove all holy days, transferring them to Sunday or simply eliminating the \u201cobligation\u201d to attend Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Different Churches have marked different holy days from time immemorial, think of Egeria\u2019s fourth century\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/litpress.org\/Products\/8421\/The-Pilgrimage-of-Egeria\">account<\/a> of her visit to the Holy Land and the various liturgical commemorations that took place on weekdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am in favor of different areas having different calendars and can see little advantage in having a single invariable liturgical ordo for the whole world. It is natural that different nations celebrate things in different ways and times.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, occasionally things don\u2019t run perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I presently live in Ireland, but having spent most of my adult life in the US, I am a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ and I visit there most every year. This year I will be flying to the States on Friday. This means that on Thursday I will celebrate Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter here in ireland, while those living in the Archdiocese of Newark will celebrate Ascension Thursday. Then next Sunday, I will celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter in Newark, while in Ireland they are celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not a particular fan of \u201cprivate\u201d Masses and am planning to take part in public liturgies in both places (although I will probably un-rubrically celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours for Ascension Thursday in Ireland on Thursday). So basically, I will simply miss the observance this year. On another occasion, I missed the Feast of the Epiphany (Ireland still celebrates it on January 6, while it is transferred to a Sunday in the US), but on that occasion, there was a group traveling with me. I used the option of celebrating an Epiphany-themed Mass from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/litpress.org\/Products\/3487\/Collection-of-Masses-of-the-Blessed-Mary-Virgin\">Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary<\/a>. I also once traveled from Guam to Hawaii, going over the International Date Line. That meant living a Friday in Lent two days in a row, and being a true Irishman I have little taste for fish!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am sure that I will survive the spiritual turmoil, but I would be interested to know whether other PrayTell readers have had similar experiences, or whether anyone has any good suggestions to promote a spiritual answer to the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago Anthony Ruff\u00a0posted on the merits of transferring the feast of the Ascension from the traditional fortieth day after Easter to the following Sunday. While I can see the logic of transferring it to a Sunday (and also the practical issue that many parishes face of people simply not turning up on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":47605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3118,17,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-liturgical-year"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>They have taken my Ascension and I do not know where they have put it. - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They have taken my Ascension and I do not know where they have put it. - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago Anthony Ruff\u00a0posted on the merits of transferring the feast of the Ascension from the traditional fortieth day after Easter to the following Sunday. While I can see the logic of transferring it to a Sunday (and also the practical issue that many parishes face of people simply not turning up on [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/28\/they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-28T22:39:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-03T02:34:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ascnsion-Icon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"183\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Neil Xavier O&#039;Donoghue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Neil Xavier O&#039;Donoghue\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/28\\\/they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/28\\\/they-have-taken-my-ascension-and-i-do-not-know-where-they-have-put-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fr. 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Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. 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Neil Xavier O'Donoghue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/2024_09_NeiL_Portrait-96x96.jpeg?crop=1","caption":"Fr. Neil Xavier O'Donoghue"},"description":"Neil Xavier O\u2019Donoghue is originally from Cork, Ireland. He is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ who has ministered in parishes on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent many years as an academic mentor to seminarians. Neil currently serves as Programme Director for Liturgical Programmes at the Pontifical University and as Acting Director of the National Centre for Liturgy. Since 2020 he has also served as the Executive Secretary for Liturgy to the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. He has studied at Seton Hall University (BA, MDiv), the University of Notre Dame (MA), and St Vladimir\u2019s Orthodox Theological Seminary (MTh). He holds a Doctorate in Theology (Ph.D.) from St Patrick\u2019s College, Maynooth and is in the process of completing a second doctorate (D.D) in the Pontifical Facultad de Teolog\u00eda Redemptoris Mater in Callao, Peru. Neil has published a translation of the Confessio of St. Patrick: St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works (Totowa, NJ, 2009), as well editing the third edition of Fredrick Edward Warren\u2019s The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Piscataway, NJ, 2010). In 2011 the University of Notre Dame Press published The Eucharist in Pre-Norman Ireland an adaptation of his doctoral thesis and in 2017 the Alcuin Club published his Liturgical Orientation: The Position of the President at the Eucharist. His articles have appeared in The Irish Theological Quarterly, New Blackfriars, The Furrow and Antiphon. He writes a monthly article on some aspect of the theology of Pope Francis in the Messenger of St. Anthony and blogs regularly at PrayTell.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/nxodonoghue\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Ascnsion-Icon.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47603"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47618,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47603\/revisions\/47618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}