The feast of Ascension

The feast of Ascension must raise thoughts of heaven, to be with the Lord Jesus in His glory and to be with all the holy saints of God. The desire for heaven is something that we must cherish in our life. Our Father St. Francis de Sales tells us how some of the saints died in acts of Love for God or of longing for heaven:

“Many saints, however, have departed this life not only in charity and with the habit of heavenly love, but even in the act and practice thereof. S. Augustine died in the exercise of holy contrition, which cannot be without love: S. Jerome exhorting his dear children to the love of God, of their neighbour, and of virtue: S. Ambrose in a rapture, sweetly discoursing with his Saviour, immediately after he had received the holy Sacrament of the altar: S. Antony of Padua after he had recited a 309 hymn to the glorious Virgin-mother, and while talking joyously with our Saviour: S. Thomas Aquinas joining his hands, elevating his eyes towards heaven, raising his voice very high, and pronouncing by way of ejaculation with great fervour, these words of the Canticles (the last which he had expounded): Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages (Songs 7:12). All the Apostles and almost all the Martyrs died in prayer. The Blessed and Venerable Bede having foreknown by revelation the time of his departure, went to Vespers (and it was Ascension day), and standing upright, leaning only on the elbows of his stall, without any disease at all, ended his life at the same instant that he ended his singing of Vespers, as it were directly to follow his Master ascending unto heaven, there to enjoy the fair morning of eternity, which has no Vesper…” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, Chapter 9).