About the Ascension of the Lord

The Feast of Holy Ascension marks the ascent of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven on the 40th day after His glorious Resurrection.  The timing is clearly specified in the Acts of the Apostles, where it is stated that Christ presented himself alive to the Apostles, "appearing to them during forty days and speaking of the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).

On the 40th day, after he finished speaking to the Apostles, "as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sigh." (Acts 1:9).  The Gospel according to Mark sums up the same story as follows: "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16: 19). The same account is also in the Gospel according to Luke: "While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:51).  There are also several references to this event in some of the other books of the New Testament.