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The Second Glorious Mystery The Ascension

CHAPTER 4

Christ's Commission to His Disciples, and His Ascension into Heaven

[And so in all,]
                                    He appeared first to Mary Magdalen and the women, and after that He appeared in another shape to two
of them
walking, as they were going into the country. And they going told it
                            to the rest. [But in the meantime] He was seen by Cephas; and after that, when it was late that
same day, He was seen by the eleven.
                        And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
                            [There] He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once. And seeing Him they adored, but
some doubted.

                And He showed Himself alive after His Passion by many proofs, not to all the people, but
                            [particularly] to the Apostles whom He had chosen [as] witnesses preordained by God, appearing to
                                them for forty days after He arose again from the dead, and eating and drinking together with them,
                                and speaking of the kingdom of God. Until the day on which He was taken up, giving commandments to
                            them by the Holy Ghost [that they should] preach to the people, and testify that it is He Who was
appointed by God, to be judge of the living and of the dead.

                            After that, He was seen by James, then by all the Apostles. And last of all, He was seen also by
                            Saul, [who likens himself to] one born out of due time, [saying]: "I am the least of the Apostles,
                                    who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace
of God, I am what I am."

[But to speak of the Ascension of the Lord: Having directed His disciples to gather again in
Jerusalem,] He appeared to the eleven as they were at table. And He upbraided them with their
incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe
them who had seen Him after He was risen again.