Glorious Mysteries · 2 of 5
The Ascension
Scripture: Acts 1:6-11
When they had gathered together they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
Spiritual fruit: Hope of heaven
Traditionally prayed on: Wednesday and Sunday
The Ascension of the Lord is the second of the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It commemorates the bodily ascent of the risen Christ to the right hand of the Father, forty days after the Resurrection. The narrative is recorded in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53, and Acts 1:6-11. The Acts account, attributed to Saint Luke as the second volume of his Gospel, is the fullest narrative.
The mystery
After the Resurrection, the risen Christ appeared to the apostles over a period of forty days, "speaking about the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). On the fortieth day, he led them out toward Bethany, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Lifting his hands, he blessed them; and as he blessed them, he was taken up bodily into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
The Ascension is a closing and an opening. It closes the bodily appearances of the risen Christ to the apostles, marking the conclusion of his earthly mission in time. It opens the period of the Church's witness to the world, animated by the Holy Spirit, who will descend at Pentecost, the fiftieth day. The angelic word at the Ascension ("This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way") points forward to the Second Coming.
The bodily nature of the Ascension is theologically essential. Christ ascends not merely in spirit but in his glorified human body, now seated at the right hand of the Father. The Letter to the Hebrews develops this theme: Christ has entered the heavenly sanctuary "with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12), and there he intercedes perpetually for those who approach the Father through him.1
Meditation on hope of heaven
The traditional spiritual fruit of the Ascension is the hope of heaven. The mystery presents the destination toward which the Catholic life is ordered: the human nature of Christ has been received into the eternal communion of the Trinity, and where he has gone in his humanity, the redeemed are called to follow.
Pope Saint Leo the Great, in his second sermon on the Ascension, writes that the bodily Ascension of Christ raises the destiny of the entire human family: where the Head has gone, the members are summoned. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Ascension is the inauguration of the universal mission of the Church and the foundation of every Christian's hope of glory.2
The novena before Pentecost
The nine days from the Ascension to Pentecost are the original novena of the Church: the nine days during which the apostles, gathered with Mary in the Upper Room, prayed for the descent of the Holy Spirit. This is the model from which all subsequent Catholic novenas take their nine-day pattern. See the Holy Spirit Novena for the contemporary form of this prayer.
Praying the Ascension
To pray the second Glorious Mystery: announce "The second Glorious Mystery, the Ascension," pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys while meditating on Christ's ascent into heaven, and conclude with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer.
For the previous mystery, see the Resurrection. For the next mystery, see the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Sources
Footnotes
Last reviewed: May 1, 2026. Sources verified.