The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord falls on Thursday, May 14 this year, the fortieth day after Easter. Most U.S. Catholic dioceses have transferred the observance to the following Sunday, May 17, in line with a permission first granted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1999 and renewed at the 2025 fall assembly. Five provinces still keep the traditional Thursday: Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, and the Province of Philadelphia. The Archdiocese of Nashville keeps Sunday observance, with Bishop J. Mark Spalding scheduled to celebrate the 11 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation on May 17.
The Ascension closes the forty days of post-Resurrection appearances recorded in the Gospels and the opening verses of Acts. Christ ascends to the Father after promising the Holy Spirit, and the apostles return to Jerusalem to wait. Those nine days of waiting form the original novena. The word novena comes from novem, the Latin for nine, and the practice of nine days of intercessory prayer between Ascension and Pentecost is the oldest novena in continuous Christian observance. Hallow's Pentecost novena, prayed by Father Mike Schmitz, drew 1.4 million participants in 2025, up from 612,000 the year before.
Protestant practice varies by tradition. Anglican parishes mark Ascension Day on the Thursday with a principal feast and Eucharist. Lutheran congregations in the ELCA and the LCMS keep both Ascension Thursday and the Sunday after, with the practice of extinguishing the Paschal candle after the Gospel reading still observed in many parishes. Methodist and Reformed churches generally fold Ascension into the Sunday lectionary readings on May 17, with Year A texts including Acts 1:1-11 and Matthew 28:16-20. Most non-denominational and Baptist congregations do not observe Ascension separately, instead preaching through the post-Resurrection narratives during the seven Sundays of Eastertide.
For Black church traditions, the Easter through Pentecost season carries particular weight. The African Methodist Episcopal, Christian Methodist Episcopal, and African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches all keep formal Ascension and Pentecost observances. Bishop Reginald Jackson of the AME Sixth Episcopal District has called for parishes to mark the novena with Wednesday evening prayer services from May 13 through May 23, with Pentecost Sunday on May 24. The National Baptist Convention USA does not require Ascension observance but encourages preaching through Acts during the Easter season, and several large NBC churches in Nashville, Memphis, and Atlanta hold Pentecost services with full choir and orchestra arrangements.
The novena texts vary by tradition. The Catholic novena most often used is the one approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1897, which appears in his encyclical Divinum Illud Munus. The prayer asks for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and proceeds through the seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Hallow, Pray As You Go, and the Word on Fire app all push the daily texts as audio reflections during the nine days. The Pray.com novena to the Holy Spirit drew 870,000 participants last year, with retention through day nine at 47 percent versus a typical novena retention rate of 32 percent on the platform.
Pentecost Sunday on May 24 is the closing feast of the Easter season. Many parishes encourage red as the liturgical color in vestments and parish decoration, and some hold Pentecost vigils on Saturday evening that mirror the Easter vigil in length and structure. Saint Peter's Basilica will host a Pentecost vigil on May 23 with Pope Leo XIV presiding, marking the first Pentecost vigil of his pontificate. The novena to the Holy Spirit prayed by the pope's office during these nine days will appear in printed and audio form through Vatican News and the Hallow app's Vatican channel.
Practical preparation for the season looks different at the parish level than it does in the home. Pastors and worship leaders typically schedule confirmation Masses around Pentecost, with bishops crossing dioceses through the month of May to confirm seventh and eighth grade candidates. Parish councils handle the scheduling of choirs, the Pentecost potluck or international dinner that has become common in dioceses with significant immigrant populations, and the volunteer rotation for Pentecost evening prayer where it is offered. The Cathedral of the Incarnation will host a Pentecost evening prayer at 5 p.m. on May 24 with readings in English, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Haitian Creole, reflecting the cathedral parish's full demographic.
For families and individuals, the simplest entry into the season is the novena itself. Nine days, a few minutes a day, with a printed text from the parish bulletin or one of the apps. The season was designed for waiting, not for activity. The apostles in Acts spent those nine days in prayer in the upper room, and the church has kept that pattern for seventeen centuries. Pentecost arrives whether or not anyone notices, but parishes that walk through the novena tend to walk into the rest of the year with a different posture.