Why Are The Feasts Of The Ascension And Pentecost So Downplayed Today?

[White Knight]

With the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven who is seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, and then 10 days after the Ascension, You have Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in the Upper room clothing them with power, this feast day marks the birthday of the Church.


[b]Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Chris. Birth of Our Lord Himself.t[/b]

[b]Holy Thursday: The Night before Jesus He suffers, He is Betrayed, and Ordains the Apostles, and says the First Mass.[/b]

[b]Good Friday: The Day Jesus died on the Cross for all the sins of all humanity, Destroying our death.[/b]

[b]Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the grave, restoring life, conqeuor of sin and death.[/b]

[b]Ascension Thursday (Sunday); Jesus spending forty days on Earth leaving to return to the Father, to prepare a place for us, and to send a Advocate to empower us.[/b]

[b]Penetcost Sunday: The Holy Spirit decents into the Upper room, empowering the Apostles and clothing them with Power, the Birthday of the Church.[/b]

How come these feast days are so toned down, compared to the feasts during Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, and Lent? when they are considered two of the most important feast days of the Church Calendar, The meaning behind these days are so important to our faith, could you explain to me please why its so silent it seems when comparing it to Christmas or Easter...


Thank You....

White Knight.

God Bless You

Edited May 28, 2009 by White Knight

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='White Knight' post='1876973' date='May 27 2009, 11:24 PM']With the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven who is seated at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, and then 10 days after the Ascension, You have Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in the Upper room clothing them with power, this feast day marks the birthday of the Church.


[b]Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Chris. Birth of Our Lord Himself.t[/b]

[b]Holy Thursday: The Night before Jesus He suffers, He is Betrayed, and Ordains the Apostles, and says the First Mass.[/b]

[b]Good Friday: The Day Jesus died on the Cross for all the sins of all humanity, Destroying our death.[/b]

[b]Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the grave, restoring life, conqeuor of sin and death.[/b]

[b]Ascension Thursday (Sunday); Jesus spending forty days on Earth leaving to return to the Father, to prepare a place for us, and to send a Advocate to empower us.[/b]

[b]Penetcost Sunday: The Holy Spirit decents into the Upper room, empowering the Apostles and clothing them with Power, the Birthday of the Church.[/b]

How come these feast days are so toned down, compared to the feasts during Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, and Lent? when they are considered two of the most important feast days of the Church Calendar, The meaning behind these days are so important to our faith, could you explain to me please why its so silent it seems when comparing it to Christmas or Easter...


Thank You....

White Knight.

God Bless You[/quote]

There's not really a theological answer, since it's certainly not the Church's intention to downplay Holy Days. However, if I could venture an educated guess, it may have something to do with the fact that after Advent and Christmas, the faithful are kind of "worn out" (not saying they should be) to the point that they don't always celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God right after Christmas as they should, and after Lent and Easter, the faithful find it easy to forget the following. It may in theory be more effective to move the celebration of the Ascension and Pentecost to some time in the fall (when the faithful have had some more time to get back into the swing of ordinary time) and give them their own distinct seasons to accentuate them, but that kind of timing would be liturgically and scripturally inaccurate.

Really, what we need is greater catechesis on the importance of these Holy Days, but there's rarely any significant theology on the Ascension that is approachable by the laity (at least, not nearly as much as the popular theological talks, books, etc. you can find on Christmas, Lent, and Easter). Outside of the charismatic movement, there's also not much in the way of popular piety to teach about or express faith in Pentecost.

I think if you increase catechesis on those topics and show people who important those days are, as well as develop spiritual devotions to the Ascension and the Holy Spirit (the "forgotten Person of the Holy Trinity"), you would see an increase in interest in those Holy Days.

God bless,

Micah