Surrexit Christus Alleluia!
 

Ascension Day : Reading cycle Year B
† Thursday 1st June 2000
Holiday of Obligation: Solemnity

First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles 1: 1 - 11
Luke in this introduction to the writing we know as the Acts of the Apostles, recalls all that Jesus had done and said from the beginning. He reminds his readers, about the death of Jesus, his resurrection and how the Risen Lord met with the disciples, ate and spoke with them. Then having instructed his apostles, promising them that the Holy Spirit would come, Jesus was taken up to heaven.

Second Reading from Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 4 : 1 - 13
Paul stresses the new unity in the community that comes with Christian faith, “there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all.” With this unity in Christ, come the gifts of the Spirit, which manifest themselves in people bearing witness to the truth, some as apostles, some as pastors or teachers, “so the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.”

Gospel according to Mark 16 : 15 - 20
This text which is at the end of the gospel, is likely to have been added at a later date as the earliest extant manuscripts of the gospel do not contain this passage. Yet the text provides a suitable summary of the impact of the Resurrection of Jesus upon the disciples, and how they then “preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.”