The Seventh Sunday of Easter – Reflection by Canon Leslie

Christ has gone up on high
and has led captivity captive. Alleluia!
 
Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter and the Sunday following Ascension Day. Today’s Gospel reading from chapter 17 of John’s Gospel concludes the long farewell discourse, before Jesus goes out to face his arrest, with what is often called Jesus’ high priestly prayer. In this prayer Jesus looks forward with confidence to returning to the Father. What John expresses in this high priestly prayer, Luke symbolises through the Ascension which links the close of Luke’s Gospel with the opening of the Acts of the Apostles. The Feast of the Ascension (kept on the Thursday before the Seventh Sunday of Easter), is seen as Jesus going to his Father and as his enthronement. 
 
For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited you to reflect on the image of royal robes. In today’s picture, Teddy Horsley is reflecting on his Christus Rex.
 
Risen and ascended Christ,
we proclaim you to be our King.
As you have called us to serve you,
help us to live up to our calling;
for you are the King of glory,
now and always.
Amen.
 
Next Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating how the Holy Spirit came to the apostles and settled on them like tongues of five. The image to help us prepare for next Sunday’s theme is fire. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials. Please send us your ideas and photos of the things you may create; email them to [email protected].
 
To learn more about Teddy Horsley and his adventures, check out his website here: https://teddyhorsley.org/, and his page on the St. Mary’s Centre website here: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/TeddyHorsley.html.
 
You are warmly invited to join us in worship online. We are livestreaming our 10:30am service on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. To stream the service on Facebook, follow this link to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolCathedral. To stream the service on YouTube, follow this link to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/LiverpoolCathedral/videos.
 
Teddy Horsley sends his Ascensiontide greetings to all.
 
Canon Leslie