Ascension Thursday - 26 May 2022

Quoted from Catholicism.org [1]:

Our Lord remained on earth for forty days after His Resurrection before ascending to His Father. During this time, He appeared twelve times to His Apostles and/or disciples, instructing them, and preparing them for the coming of the Paraclete in His fullness. In the Cenacle, after rising, He appeared to the Apostles and gave them the power of the Holy Ghost so that they could forgive sin.

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What I found intriguing in the accounts of the Resurrection is that no one believed it until they saw Jesus with their own eyes. And this, even though He had spoken to the Apostles of His passion and resurrection four times. They would not even believe those to whom He had appeared. Our Lord was not pleased; in fact, when He did appear to them all together in the Upper Room “he upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again” (Mark 16:14).

Take Mary Magdalene for example. She, and a few other holy women, saw the empty tomb and two angels, albeit in the form of young men, sitting in the sepulchre. The angels told the women that Jesus is not there, He has risen, as He said He would. Yet, they did not believe the angels, or if they did, it was weakly so. They were in a state of stupor, “for a trembling and fear had seized them.” Mary Magdelene, even after receiving the news from the angel, still asked “the Gardener” who had asked her why she wept (as had the angel also): “Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:15). It was then that Jesus revealed Himself to her.

Quoted from Wikipedia [2]:

Johann Sebastian Bach composed several cantatas and the Ascension Oratorio  to be performed in church services on the feast day. He first performed Wer da gläubet und getauft wird, BWV 37, on 18 May 1724, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein, BWV 128, on 10 May 1725, Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen, BWV 43, on 30 May 1726 and the oratorio, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen, BWV 11, on 19 May 1735.

The J.S. Bach pieces above are available on YouTube.

[1] https://catholicism.org/ascension-thursday.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Ascension#Music, italics  original, quoted without hyperlinks.

Feast Of Saints Philip And James - Apostles - 11 May

Quoted from REGINA Magazine LLC [1]:

Two of the favored witnesses of our Beloved Jesus’ Resurrection come before us today. Sts. Philip and James are here, bearing testimony to us that their Master is truly risen from the dead, that they have seen Him, that they have touched Him, that they have conversed with Him (1 John 1: 1), during these forty days....

St. Philip preached the Gospel in the two Phrygias, and his martyrdom took place at Hierapolis. He was married when he was called by our Savior; and we learn from writers of the second century that he had three daughters, remarkable for their great piety, one of whom lived at Ephesus, where she was justly revered as one of the glories of that early church.

St. James is better known than St. Philip. He is called in Sacred Scripture, the brother of the Lord (Gal. 1: 19 and elsewhere), on account of the close relationship that existed between his own mother and the Blessed Mother of Jesus. (He is also called James the Less, to distinguish him from James the Greater—who was the brother of St. John, and of greater bodily stature.) He claims our veneration during Paschal Time, inasmuch as he was favored with a special visit from our Risen Lord, as we learn from St. Paul (1 Cor. 15: 7). There can be no doubt but that he had done something to deserve this mark of Jesus’ predilection. St. Jerome and St. Epiphanius tell us that our Savior, when ascending into Heaven, recommended to St. James’ care the Church of Jerusalem, and that he was accordingly appointed the first Bishop of that city....

The bodies of Sts. Philip and James repose in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles in Rome. These relics are counted as one of the richest treasures of the Holy City, and there is reason to believe that the first day of May (which was formerly the date of this Feast), is the real anniversary of their translation....

[1] https://www.reginamag.com/feast-of-saints-philip-and-james-apostles/, italics  original.

Feast Of Saint John The Apostle At The Latin Gate - 6 May

Quoted from New Liturgical Movement [1]:

John was an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Prophet: an Apostle, because he wrote to the churches as a teacher; an Evangelist, because he wrote a book of the Gospels, which the other twelve Apostles did not do, apart from Matthew; and a Prophet, for on the island of Patmos, whither he had been banished by Domitian because of his testimony to the Lord, he beheld the Apocalypse, which contains such infinite mysteries of the future. And Tertullian says ["] ... that at Rome, he was put into a vessel of boiling oil, but he came out cleaner and healthier than he went in.”

[1] https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/05/the-feast-of-st-john-at-latin-gate.html#.YnQrg4fMLIU