Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension always falls on a Thursday, forty days after Easter. This is because Jesus spent forty days on earth with his disciples after his resurrection, talking with them, showing them again and again that He was indeed risen, and preparing them for the time when he would go away. The Feast of the Ascension is important for several reasons. Jesus told the disciples that it was good that He should go away so that the Holy Spirit would come. So the Ascension points our thoughts forward to the season of Pentecost, which comes next in the liturgical year. In His Ascension, Jesus Christ, God the Incarnate Son, took our human nature, restored and resurrected, back to heaven, where He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Although the feast itself is on a particular day, like most great feasts it has an octave—eight days during which it is celebrated; the octave includes Ascension Sunday, which has its own collect.

Thou hast raised our human nature to the clouds on God's right hand. 

There we sit in heavenly places, there with Thee in glory stand.

Jesus reigns, adored by angels; man with God is on the throne.

Mighty Lord, in thine ascension, we by faith behold our own.