How splendid the cross of Christ...

"Blest is the wood through which 
justice comes about." - Wisdom 14:7

Exquisite mosaic ~ Tree of Life, Holy Cross (detail) ~ San Clemente - Roma

“The event of the Cross and Resurrection

abides and draws everything toward life.” (CCC 1085)

Feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross

September 14

"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life." ~ St Theodorus the Estudite

 

Painting (detail) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Luigi Gregori

Spes Unica: (Our) only Hope

"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.

Receive in this bread that which was hanged on the cross; receive in this cup that which was poured from Christ's side. For he will gain death, not life, who thinks Christ is a liar." ~ St Augustine

"On the Cross human misery and divine mercy meet. ...The Cross is planted in the earth and would seem to extend its roots in human malice, but it reaches up, pointing as it were to the heavens, pointing to the goodness of God.

By means of the Cross of Christ, the Evil One has been defeated, death is overcome, life is given to us, hope is restored, light is imparted. O Crux, ave spes unica!…" ~ St John Paul II, homily 09.14.03

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross - YouTube (3 mins)

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Roodmas)

Click here: Crucifixes and Crosses

"He who runs away from one cross,

will meet a bigger one on his road."- St Philip Neri

O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross 
when I think of yours!"- St Bernadette Soubirous

Crucifixes on rosaries, worn around one's neck and in one's home
serve as enduring and endearing reminders of the magnitude

of Christ's love and serve as focal points for private prayer.

 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen summarized the reason
for using a crucifix instead of an empty cross when he said,
“Keep your eyes on the crucifix,
for Jesus without the cross is a man without a mission,
and the cross without Jesus is a burden without a reliever.”

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee

because by Thy holy Cross 

Thou hast redeemed the world!

How splendid the cross of Christ!...

"Blest is the wood through which 
justice comes about." - Wisdom 14:7

Exquisite mosaic ~ Tree of Life, Holy Cross (detail) ~ San Clemente - Roma

“The event of the Cross and Resurrection

abides and draws everything toward life.” (CCC 1085)

Feast of the
Exaltation of the Cross

September 14

"How splendid the cross of Christ! It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; Paradise, not its loss. It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior, was wounded in hands and feet and side, but healed thereby our wounds. A tree has destroyed us, a tree now brought us life." ~ St Theodorus the Estudite

 

Painting (detail) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Luigi Gregori

Spes Unica: (Our) only Hope

"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament.

Receive in this bread that which was hanged on the cross; receive in this cup that which was poured from Christ's side. For he will gain death, not life, who thinks Christ is a liar." ~ St Augustine

"On the Cross human misery and divine mercy meet. ...The Cross is planted in the earth and would seem to extend its roots in human malice, but it reaches up, pointing as it were to the heavens, pointing to the goodness of God.

By means of the Cross of Christ, the Evil One has been defeated, death is overcome, life is given to us, hope is restored, light is imparted. O Crux, ave spes unica!…" ~ St John Paul II, homily 09.14.03

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross - YouTube (3 mins)

Click here: Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Roodmas)

Click here: Crucifixes and Crosses

"He who runs away from one cross,

will meet a bigger one on his road."- St Philip Neri

O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross 
when I think of yours!"- St Bernadette Soubirous

Crucifixes on rosaries, worn around one's neck and in one's home
serve as enduring and endearing reminders of the magnitude

of Christ's love and serve as focal points for private prayer.

 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen summarized the reason
for using a crucifix instead of an empty cross when he said,
“Keep your eyes on the crucifix,
for Jesus without the cross is a man without a mission,
and the cross without Jesus is a burden without a reliever.”

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee

because by Thy holy Cross 

Thou hast redeemed the world!

Death by love... (GOOD FRIDAY)

O crux, ave spes unica!

(Hail, O cross, our only hope!)

GOOD FRIDAY

"His side was pierced as Adam's was; yet there came forth not a

woman who, being beguiled, was to be a death-bearer, but a

fountain of life that regenerates the world by its two streams:

the one to renew us in the baptismal font and clothe us with the

garment of immortality, the other to feed us, the reborn, at the

table of God, just as babes are nourished with milk."

Bishop Theodore of Cyr (15th century)

From the treatise:  On the Incarnation of the Lord

Souls have all the same price,

which is that of the Precious Blood of Jesus."

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

"Nature is in mourning covered with darkness during the Holy Hour of the first Good Friday.  The chants of the heavenly Jerusalem are interrupted.  The entire court of Heaven waits in order to receive the last throb of the Heart of the Man-God, the victim of Golgotha.

Fervent loving souls,

we are truly at the summit of Calvary:

it is the Holy Hour!

A loud voice resounds in the heights, a voice that says: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.'  And bending His lacerated Head, Jesus Crucified dies of love.  It is His Heart which out of love for us has brought Him to death.  All glory to His loving Heart which gave us life and which now is stilled in death!"- Fr Mateo Crawley-Boevey

Image above:  Christ Crucified ~ Viktor Vasnetsov (1896)

"Do grant, oh my God,

that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You,

I may taste the gall that was given to You;

when my shoulders lean against Yours,

make me feel Your scourging;

when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist,

make me feel Your passion;

when my head comes near Yours,

make me feel Your thorns;
when my heart is close to Yours,

make me feel Your spear."

St. Gemma Galgani

We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee

because by Thy holy Cross 
Thou has redeemed the world. 


"Your love is my only martyrdom.

The more I feel it burning in me,
The more my soul desires you…
Jesus, make me die of love for you."

St Thérèse of Lisieux

Divine Mercy Novena begins today
 Click here: DIVINE MERCY NOVENA PRAYERS