The Ascension of the Lord is celebrated forty days after Easter, more precisely on Thursday of the sixth week after the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. At the evening service served on Wednesday before the Ascension, a kind of farewell with Easter is performed in accordance with the church typicon, the so-called Paschal Ode, a kind of farewell with Easter. The beginning and end of the service on that day are performed in the same way as on Easter itself. The joyful verses are sung again: “Let God rise and His enemies be scattered…” and “Behold the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it…”.

When the swallows run out of food and when the cold approaches, they then move to warm regions, to regions abundant in sun and food. A swallow flies forward, cutting through the air and opening the way, and the rest of the flock follows it.

When the food for our soul in this material world runs out, and when the cold of death approaches - oh, is there any swallow that will lead us to a warmer region, where there is an abundance of warmth and spiritual food? Is there such a region? Is there, is there, such a swallow?

Outside the circle of the Christian Church, no one can give you any reliable answer to this question. Only the Church knows, and she knows it reliably. She has seen that heavenly region, for which our soul longs in the frosty twilight of this existence on earth. She has also seen that blessed Swallow, who was the first to fly into that desired region, cutting through the dark and heavy atmosphere between earth and heaven with Her powerful wings, and opening the way for the flock after Herself. Besides, the church on earth can tell you about the countless flocks of swallows that followed that first Swallow and flew away with it to the good land, abundant in every good thing, to the land of eternal spring.

You remember that by that saving Swallow I mean the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Didn't He Himself say of Himself that He is the beginning, the beginning and the way? And didn't He Himself say to His apostles: I go to prepare a place for you, and I will take you to Myself (John 14:2-3)? And didn't He even tell them before that: And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself (12:32)? What He said began to be fulfilled immediately after a few weeks, and continued to be fulfilled until today, and will be fulfilled until the end of time. That is, being the beginning of the first creation of the world, He became the beginning of the second creation or the grace-filled renewal of the old creation. Sin broke the wings of Adam and all of Adam's descendants, and they all fell away from God, distanced themselves and became blinded by the dust from which their bodies were created. Christ is like the New Adam, the first man, the Firstborn among men, who ascended to heaven with spiritual wings, to the Throne of eternal glory and power, thus paving the way to heaven and opening all the gates of heaven to His spiritually winged followers. Like an eagle paving the way for its young eaglets. Like a swallow that goes ahead, showing the flock the way and breaking the heavy resistance of the air.

Who would give me wings like a dove? I would fly away and die! The prophet before Christ cried out sadly (Ps. 55:6). Why? He himself explains: my heart trembled within me, and the fear of death seized me. Fear and trembling came upon me, and terror seized me. Such a terrible feeling of mortal fear and the horror of being in the realms of this life must have weighed down the entire rational and honest world before Christ like a heavy sea. Who would give me wings to fly away from this life? Many a noble and sensitive soul must have wondered. But where will you fly away, sinful human soul? Do you still remember, as if in a dream, that warm and bright realm from which you were banished? Behold, the gates are closed behind you, and a cherub with a flaming sword is stationed to forbid you entry. Behold, sin has broken your wings, not birdlike but divine, and has pressed you firmly to the ground! You need someone who will first free you from the burden of sin, who will wash you and set you straight. Then you need someone who will plant and nurture new wings for you, so that you can fly. Then you need someone, very powerful, from whom even a cherub with a flaming sword moves out of the way, to guide you to your bright homeland. Finally, you need someone who will appease the offended Creator, to receive you again into the borders of His immortal state. That someone was unknown to the pre-Christian world. He appeared as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Out of love for you, He bent heaven to earth and descended to earth, clothed Himself in flesh, became a prisoner for your sake, suffered sweat and frost, endured hunger and thirst, revealed His face to be spat upon and handed over His body to be nailed to the Cross, lay down in the grave as dead, descended into hell to tear down a worse prison than this life, which was intended for you after separation from the body - and all this in order to wash you from the mud of sin and raise you up; then He rose from the grave, to thereby plant wings for you to fly to heaven, and finally ascended to heaven, to open the way for you and draw you into the angelic abode. You do not now, therefore, have to sigh in fear, trembling and terror like King David, nor do you desire wings like a dove, for the Eagle has appeared, who has shown and paved the way. ...   ttps://svetigora.com/110052-2/