Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, commemorated Ascension Day in a tweet published on Sunday.

"The Ascension is a beautiful mystery of our faith," Dolan wrote in his tweet, which was attached to a minute-long video. "Today I want to share a fourth lesson with you that we can learn from it."

Ascension Day, also known as the Feast of the Ascension, is an annual observance that is held on the 40th day of the Easter season, 39 days after Easter Sunday. This day commemorates the 40-day time span in which Jesus, following his Resurrection, repeatedly appeared to his disciples. On the last day, he led his disciples to the Mount of Olives, from where he ascended into Heaven and marked his departure from Earth. In 2023, Ascension Day took place on Thursday, with many dioceses across the United States celebrating on Sunday.

However, not all dioceses celebrate the Ascension in the same way. In some U.S. states such as Nebraska and Pennsylvania, Catholics celebrate it on Thursday, while in the rest of the U.S., the feast is celebrated the following Sunday, with Thursday Mass optional. In November 1998, the U.S. Bishops' Conference approved a plan allowing individual ecclesiastical provinces to move the liturgical observance from Thursday to Sunday after receiving the approval of two-thirds of the voting bishops.

Ascension Day is celebrated globally through means such as Mass, processions, hymns, and prayer, as well as through traditions specific to certain countries. The Swedes seek luck in bird songs during sunrise, the Welsh abstain from work, the Portuguese keep wheat at home for prosperity, and the Indonesians declare the day a public holiday.

"With the Ascension, something new and beautiful happened: Jesus brought our humanity into heaven, that is, in God," Pope Francis wrote in the tweet. "That humanity that he had assumed on earth did not remain here. It ascended into God and there it will remain forever."