Ascensiontide: the waiting is the hardest part
Salvador Dalí’s 1958 painting “The Ascension” captures the surreal quality of the moment from the disciples’ point of view.
We saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst we were rooted still in time and place
As earth became a part of Heaven’s story
And heaven opened to his human face.
We saw him go and yet we were not parted
He took us with him to the heart of things
The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings,
Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst we our selves become his clouds of witness
And sing the waning darkness into light,
His light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Which all creation waits to see revealed .
-Malcolm Guite, A Sonnet for Ascension Day
Ascension Day (May 14th, in 2026) is one of the most important feasts in the Christian Calendar, coming 40 days after Easter. Because it falls on a Thursday it isn’t often observed in our culture the way that Easter and Pentecost are. Traditionally, the 10-day period between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost is called “Ascensiontide.”
This is the time when we remember Jesus giving the disciples instructions to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promised Paraclete - the Holy Spirit. He is then taken up into the clouds, out of their sight. I love this image from the ceiling of the Ascension Chapel at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham - it gives the viewer a sense of the immediacy, the physicality, and the mystery of Christ’s Ascension.
There he goes! Now what do we do? Ceiling of the Ascension Chapel at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, England.
But after the feet have vanished, and the disciples are left gawping at the clouds, what happens next? I wonder how the disciples felt at that moment. The Resurrection has taken place, and Jesus has been with the disciples for a while, but now he is gone. Now what do they do? They didn’t yet know the end of the story, as we do. They only knew that they were without their teacher, savior, and Lord, waiting for - well, what, exactly? - in a dangerous place.
If you’ve ever been in a place of uncertainty and waiting, Ascensiontide is for you. This is the period when we honor the time between God’s promise being made and that same promise kept. In the meantime, there is discomfort and tension. If you are fired up and ready to be the Hands and Feet of Jesus in the world, it's difficult to sit around and wait for your marching orders. What do we do with ourselves in the meantime?
Times of anxious waiting are when our spiritual practices pay off the most. The hymns and songs we sing at church suddenly pop into your head. “Abide with me/fast falls the eventide,” or “O God, our help in ages past/our hope for years to come/our shelter from the stormy blast/and our eternal home,” or “A mighty fortress is our God/a bulwark never failing.” The prayers that we say every week become powerfully relevant: “Give us this day - this one day at a time - our daily bread,” or “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.” The words, music, postures, and rhythms of our faith become the tools we need to sustain ourselves during tough times.
In his Sonnet for Ascension Day, I love how English poet Malcolm Guite describes this time in between as one of spiritual growth. Jesus, in Guite’s imagination, is singing the song of broken hearts being mended, of weakness being transformed into strength, of light shining in a dark place. He implies that part of our process of becoming members of the “cloud of witnesses,” we both hear the song that Jesus sings and join our voices to it.
SPIRITUAL CHALLENGE:
During this year’s Ascensiontide, I challenge you to ponder and name the songs, prayers, and mantras that help bridge the in-beween times, the chasm between the promise and the fulfillment. Practice using the powerful spiritual tools you have been given. Sing them, speak them, whisper them - out loud, in the car, in the shower, anywhere you like - as a way of giving strength to the weak places in our hearts and shining a light in our own spirits.