Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

It was neither my first nor second choice of seminaries. Nashotah House in Nashotah, Wisconsin was a place I knew of but very little about. Mostly when hoping and thinking about where we would go for seminary, we were hoping and thinking about staying close to home so Susan could visit and care for her aging and ailing parents and where being from an “owning” diocese we would have help with tuition. We got Nashotah instead. It was a long way from home and parents, a place of unfamiliar religious rituals, and costly in many ways. But, within and through that experience I learned to value something unanticipated - the feast and fast days of the church. Nashotah is in the Anglo-Catholic stream of the Episcopal Church. We observed every feast and fast day, every saint’s day, and even made one up when there was not one on the church calendar. Blessed Saint Feria of Northumbria, pray for us! I learned to value the formative nature of these holy observances, and by extension to value all the days of our feasting and fasting. They were preparation for the fasting from communion and communion we are now experiencing. I know that many of you, and likely all of you, have your own stories of times of feasting and times of fasting - times when everything seemed to be well and good, and times when a dark cloud hung overhead. They are formative experiences and with theological reflection can reveal to us God’s presence in the fast as well as the feast.

The Feast of the Ascension was observed on Thursday, May 21. It is a Principal Feast of the church taking precedence over other observances. That puts the Feast of the Ascension on par with Easter, Pentecost, Christmas Day and several others that most church people still observe. It has not been my experience that Ascension Day is highlighted on as many calendars. Given the current situation, that is a lost opportunity for a valuable theological reflection on these times we now face. In the collect for the day, we read that Jesus ascended into heaven and much artwork has tried to capture that moment with some, personally speaking, less than edifying representations showing his feet sticking out from the clouds as watchers look on. Jesus is gone home. We now fast from his presence until his future second coming one might conclude. But the prayer continues on that in ascending he filled and fills all things on earth in the present time, even his Church. The Ascension of our Lord is a crucial moment in the life of God’s people. It is as significant as the Incarnation and the Resurrection. Within the fasting of Jesus from his people until his second coming is a feasting on his presence everywhere we find two or three gathered together in his name. Jesus is gone (fast) but is everywhere (feast). And because he is everywhere, the love, peace, and healing of Jesus are everywhere. Even within you? The feast is in the fast.

And so I wonder, what do you see when you look again at what is now missing from your life and what you now miss? What do you see in your fasting from your church community and from communion, from family and friends, from the things you enjoy? There is a feast within the fast. Can you see it and what good thing is God revealing to you in these days of fasting?

Grace to you and peace, Fr Bill+