Feast of the Ascension

This Feast has been moved to the Sunday before Pentecost. Many of us still remember when Ascension Thursday was a Holy Day of Obligation.
Jesus, in each Gospel, says farewell to his disciples, but only Luke describes the Ascension of Jesus. What seems to be important is that the Apostles are to go out to all the world and spread the Good News. They, and we, all have a mission to make the love of God known. The Apostles, after Jesus left them, stayed together in prayer with Mary, too, until the coming of the Holy Spirit gave them gifts to have the courage to go out and preach.
We receive Baptism and the Sacrament of Confirmation to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to become proclaimers of the Good News. How many of us go out to preach by our lives? To give the joy of the Gospel?
Two of my third graders brought me long, typed (one in red font and the other in blue) thank you notes. Besides telling me how much they enjoyed coming to read with me and how much I had helped them, they stressed that I had taught them about God, that I loved cookies, reading, and going to the Chapel and that I laughed every time we met. They both seem to have been most impressed by my laughter, but they also said I had taught them to be holy. I cannot remember even speaking about God except in one story where the character was full of anxiety and I told them that they need never to be like that if they learned to trust Jesus. Anyway, reading their rather long thank you notes that came in specially made covers for me was a real joy and I shall miss them greatly. Then I received four more thank you notes from the children and I was really touched by their notes.
I also had a lovely note from my "eighth grader" as I still adopt a child at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles each year as do many alums. Writing notes is a real ministry now that I have several friends who do not use the computer.