Follow the Church from the final weeks of Eastertide through the Ascension of Our Lord and the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.
Volume 9 of Dom Prosper Guéranger’s monumental The Liturgical Year is Paschal Time, Book III, bringing the Easter season to its glorious conclusion with two of the greatest mysteries of the Christian year: the Ascension of Our Lord and Pentecost.
Dom Guéranger devotes this volume to the final three weeks of Paschal Time, beginning with the Fifth Sunday after Easter and the traditional Rogation Days, then leading the reader through the Ascension, its Octave, the days of preparation for Pentecost, and the great feast of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
Readers will encounter:
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The Fifth Sunday after Easter
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The traditional Rogation Days
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Ascension Eve
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The Ascension of Our Lord
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The Mass, prayers, and Vespers of the Ascension
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The Octave of the Ascension
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The days of preparation for Pentecost
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The Feast of Pentecost
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The descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles
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The Octave of Pentecost
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The completion of the Church’s Paschal season
The Ascension is treated not simply as Christ’s departure from the earth, but as the triumph of the risen Savior returning to the Father after completing His earthly mission. Dom Guéranger shows how the Church’s liturgy expresses both the joy of Christ’s victory and the longing of the Apostles who await the promised Holy Ghost.
The volume then turns toward Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descends upon the Apostles and the Church is sent forth to preach the Gospel to the nations.
Dom Guéranger presents Pentecost as the completion of the Paschal Mystery: Christ has risen, ascended into Heaven, and now sends the Holy Ghost to give supernatural life and strength to His Church.
Through the Masses, prayers, Scripture readings, hymns, and ancient liturgical traditions of these days, the reader is invited to contemplate the work of the Holy Ghost in the Church and in the Christian soul.
The volume also gives special attention to the ancient Rogation Days, days of prayer and procession in which the Church asks God for protection, blessing, and the necessities of life before celebrating the Ascension.
Throughout The Liturgical Year, Dom Guéranger combines theology, Scripture, Church history, liturgical commentary, and spiritual meditation to help Catholics understand not merely what the Church celebrates, but why she celebrates it and how those mysteries should shape the Christian life.
Volume 9: Paschal Time III is an ideal companion for Catholics who want to enter more deeply into the Ascension and Pentecost and understand how the Church brings the great Easter season to its fulfillment in the coming of the Holy Ghost.
By: Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
Translated by: Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.
Series: The Liturgical Year, Volume 9 of 15
Season: Paschal Time — Book III
Primary Feasts: Ascension & Pentecost
