Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
The Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS) is a centre for research and formation that promotes spiritual formation and renewal, drawing on the rich resources of the venerable Carmelite tradition.
It is an apostolate of the Anglo-Irish Province of the Discalced Carmelites, based at the Carmelite Priory at Boars Hill, Oxford, England.
OUR MISSION
CACS strives to achieve its mission through structured study and formation programmes in spirituality from the Carmelite perspective, especially Prayer and Spiritual Direction. At the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, you are welcome to enter into the silence where God’s voice is heard in prayer, word and sacrament, inviting you to journey ever more deeply into a place of growth and wholeness. Our goal is to bring people to experience a life-transforming friendship with God through a lived experience of Carmelite spirituality that is authentic to its biblical roots.
Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
The Solemnity of Ascension
THE SOLEMNITY OF ASCENSION
Word & Wisdom is a weekly reflection on the Sunday’s scriptures and the wisdom of the Carmelite tradition. It promises to offer you real spiritual food to sustain you on the journey.
This Word and Wisdom Podcast is brought to you by the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, Oxford (carmelite.uk.net).
To receive audio and written copies, subscribe by emailing podcasts@cacs.org.uk
To connect with our Living Prayer Podcast on Youtube, kindly click: https://www.youtube.com/@CACSOxford
The ascension marks the conclusion of Jesus Christ's ministry on earth in his bodily presence. It is a constant reminder for us also to set our sights on holiness and strive for an intimate relationship with Christ by which we are drawn into the very mysteries of God. In the readings today, Luke in his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, we read that Christ, while he blessed them, parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And again, as they were looking on, he was lifted and a cloud took him out of their sight. This reference to cloud is unambiguously theological as it resonates with previous theophanies.
Here, it signals an abiding and real presence or closeness which is no longer calibrated by physical dimensions or cause, but solely by spiritual parameters. Hence, ascension does not mean departure into a remote region of the cosmos. Rather, it is the continuing closeness that the disciples experience so strongly that it becomes a source of lasting joy leading to worship.
It is as though our Lord himself says, Rejoice, for see, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Luke tells us that the disciples were overjoyed because they understood what this meant for them and their new mission. Our second reading from Hebrews highlights the consequence of this ascent to God, namely, advocating in the presence of God on our behalf.
This celestial setting is not only tied to responsibility, but also to honour. He ascends and stands at the right hand of the Father. Indeed, it is a priestly posture characterised by devotion and profound mediation in a way that transcends our understanding of active presence.
God is intimately present to all of creation as its Lord, Creator and Father. Christ's ascension signifies our participation in this divine dominion over space, not in any way undermining our humanity, because Christ recapitulates creation by his holy incarnation, draws us up forever unto God. As much as John of the Cross sketches in his ascent of Mount Carmel, Teresa, in chapter 2 of her life, speaks too of this spiritual ascent of the soul and how the path leading to the most exalted contemplation must be through the humanity of Christ.
Just so, we should never abandon our humanity. So much so, the human categories of friendship, intimacy and allegiance are transformed and elevated in a new way, a way only one who prays experiences. Teresa's beautiful definition of prayer in terms of intimate sharing between friends and being with the one whom we know loves us, encapsulates this experience of closeness at the right hand of the Father.
This has many implications for the prayer cynical convoked in company with Mary, the mother of redeemed humanity. As members of Christ's body, we participate in the mediatory role of Christ our head, a stark truth that is often left out in the reading of 1st Timothy 2 verses 1 to 4, where Paul called for supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings to be made for all people. So in our difficult and almost insurmountable weakness, may the unwavering assurance of faith in Christ and the prayerful intercession of all Christ's faithful imbue a lasting joy.