"Ascendit Deus in jubilatione": Solemn High Mass for Ascension at St Benedict Church in Chesapeake, Va

Introitus: "Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum? alleluja: quemadmodum vidistis eum ascendentem in caelum, ita veniet, alleluja, alleluja, alleluja. Ps 46,2 Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus: jubilate Deo in voce exsultationis. Gloria Patri. Viri Galilaei."

"Introibo ad altare Dei"

"Ab illo † benedicaris, in Cujus honore cremaberis."

"Dominus in Sina in sancto, ascendens in altum, captivam duxit captivitatem. Alleluja. He took captivity captive..."

In God's work of our salvation being and doing are always in harmony through His love, for He loves and is love eternally and perfectly. Christ's work of ascending to the Father is for our sake, that we may learn and live the truth that being is more important than doing. He takes captivity captive through His death and resurrection, granting us the gift of freedom through the forgiveness of our sins.

As our Holy Father Benedict XVI reminds us, the new thing revealed by the mystery of His ascension is that now our humanity, in Christ, has "an eternal place in God".

"Hoc est enim Corpus Meum."

" ... and gave gifts to men": above all Himself, the perfect gift, in the Most Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, in which He is truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

"Ecce, Agnus Dei"

"Ite, Missa est."

Sincere thanks to Rev Fathers Neal and Peter, FSSP, for their fraternal kindness and hospitality and to the choir for the beautiful sounds of praise they lifted up to Almighty God for His greater glory and to the Lord's faithful people, the families of St Benedict's Church, among them a number of large families I had the pleasure to meet.