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Commentary from 
THE ANNOTATED
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER
Edited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT
Rivingtons, London, 1884
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION
 
This day was anciently called by the significant name of "Dominica Expectationis."  Being the only Lord's Day which intervened between the Ascension of our Lord and the Descent of the Holy Ghost, it represents that period during which the Apostles were obeying the command of their Master, when "He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father." [Acts 1:4] 

The Collect for this day is an expansion of the ancient Antiphon to the Magnificat on Ascension Day; and has a special interest in the English Church from the fact recorded in the account of the Venerable Bede's death, that it was among the last of the words which he uttered.  He died on the Wednesday evening about the time of the first Vespers of the Festival, and the spirit in which he sang the Antiphon is well expressed by the aspiration that concludes the modern Collect. 

The alteration of the ancient form, which is addressed to the ascended "King of Glory" of the twenty-fourth Psalm, into a prayer addressed to the Father, is to be regretted.  It was probably prompted by the principle of offering prayer chiefly to the Father through the Son.  But its present form jars strangely with Scriptural ideas in Psalm and Gospel. 

The day itself, within the octave of the Ascension, may be properly considered as a continuation of that festival, but commemorating especially the session of our Lord at the right hand of the Father.