Holy Cross

“ With what love and devotion should we, then, make the sign of the Cross! As often as we sign ourselves with the Cross we profess our belief in the holy Trinity, and in the merciful and blessed work of the redemption, and express our gratitude to the holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It is hard to believe that there are Christians who are ashamed to make the sign of the Cross ”

“ Holy Cross is in our almanacs and the church of England calendar on this day, whereon is celebrated a Romish catholic festival in honour of the holy cross, or, as our ancestors called it, the holy rood. ”

“ To Thy service and to the honour of Thy most sacred Cross, I dedicate this true man. Bless Thou this shield of his, that it may be between him and his enemies, and his arms, also, that he may go before our host, and save many, and lead us to Thy holy place in Jerusalem! Endue him with grace, fill him with strength, enlighten his heart. Hear me and help me, O Christ, a sinful, loving woman!
"Holy Spirit of God, Most High, Creator, Comforter, let Thy pure gifts descend upon this clean-hearted man, that his courage fail not in life, nor in the hour of death. ”

“ Passionists, an order of priests, called of the Holy Cross, founded in 1694 by Paul Francisco, of the Cross in Sardinia, whose mission it is to preach the Passion of Christ and bear witness to its spirit and import, and who have recently established themselves in England and America ”

“ It is from the period of the Crusades especially that we must date the wide-spread erection of crosses and use of cross-forms throughout Europe. Worn as a badge or charm, worked in silk or chaced in metal, towering in stone by the wayside or overshadowing the busy market, gleaming on banners, or resplendent in jewels in the solemnity of the Church,—everywhere the holy sign met the eye. ”

“ In what a dreadful age do we live! .... When the Church instituted this holy ceremony, everyone longed for the happiness of placing these crosses in his field and behaved with the utmost respect. When they were found, either during the reaping or the vintage, people bowed down to the earth to adore Jesus Christ, Who died on the Cross for us, and in that way they expressed their recognition of the fact that He had desired to bless and preserve their harvest. ”

“ Jesus falls under the Cross a second time.
Jesus proceeds, the blood still flowing from Him, and his anguish and pains increasing at every step. Again His strength fails Him; again He falls to the ground, re-opening, by the shock, all His wounds, and causing them to smart afresh.
Thou didst fall again, oh my Jesus, to expiate my repeated and shameful falls. How often hast Thou pardoned me! and yet I have relapsed, with base ingratitude, into the same crimes. Give me grace, I beseech Thee, by virtue of this Thy second fall, to persevere henceforth in serving Thee until my last hour. ”

“ HOLY WAY OF THE CROSS.
Those who are about to perform the Stations, should begin by placing themselves on their knees before the Blessed Sacrament, calling to mind, with a lively faith, the moment in which Jesus Christ, having been blasphemed at the house of Caiphas, and derided at the house of Herod, is expecting to receive the sentence of death in the Court of Pilate: then stationing themselves at his sacred feet, they should make an Act of Contrition for their sins, and an Offering of the devotion which they are going to begin. ”

“ When the last lot went, I prepared for the Holy Communion on the theatre stage, and nearly a hundred came back to receive the Blessed Sacrament—officers, non-commissioned officers, and men kneeling on the muddy floor, remembering, worshipping, receiving into their hearts by faith, the vital power to fight, and, if need be, to suffer and die for the righteous cause. The Cross of Christ seemed to be so real, and its meaning so clear, to men who are really living away from the world's conventionalities, and up against death and the other life. ”

“ The celebrant takes off the chasuble, the badge of his priesthood, in order that the reparation which he is the first to offer to the outraged Christ, may be made with all possible humility. Standing on the step near the Epistle side of the Altar with his face turned toward the people, he receives the cross from the deacon, and unveiling the upper part as far as the arms, he raises it and sings the words—"Ecce Lignum Crucis" Behold the wood of the Cross! ”

“ Of the least approach to a liturgical observance, were it but the repetition of the Creed, it was said: “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Now nearly all the sects make a feint of some sort of service or observance of the Christmas season; the cross is displayed within and without many church buildings; not merely organs but string and brass bands fill the choirs of Protestant fashionable churches; they may nearly all be heard falsely repeat, Sunday after Sunday, that they “believe in the holy Catholic Church” ”

“ Whatever faults marred the actions of the Crusaders, and however soiled by human ambitions and personal jealousies later expeditions might be, the first Crusade was inspired by a genuine zeal for a cause that all held to be holy—the rescuing of the places sanctified by the Saviour’s life and death from the pollution of unbelievers, and especially the bringing back of the Cross to its place of honour. On Friday, July 13th, 1099, the Christian armies entered the city, and the Cross, uplifted on Calvary, became the centre, almost the raison d’étre, of the new kingdom of Jerusalem. ”

“ In short; the doctrine of the cross, is suited to answer all the great ends of our ministry, and promote all the truly valuable interests of our people. By this, the holy Spirit delights to work. And this, O Satan, shall be thy plague: This O sin, shall be thy destruction, Hos. xii. 14. -However, therefore, the cross might be to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness; God forbid, that we should glory in any thing else - Let this be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and ending [6] , of all our public ministrations. ”

“ Now let us consider how many relics of the true cross there are in the world. An account of those merely with which I am acquainted would fill a whole volume, for there is not a church, from a cathedral to the most miserable abbey or parish church, that does not contain a piece. Large splinters of it are preserved in various places, as for instance in the Holy Chapel at Paris, whilst at Rome they show a crucifix of considerable size made entirely, they say, from this wood. ”

“ The form of the cross which we trace with our right hand from our forehead to our breast, and then from the left to the right shoulder, is a profession of faith in the Incarnation of the Son of God, who became man and died on the cross for our redemption. ”

“ All the regenerate in Christ the sign of the Cross constitutes kings, the unction of the Holy Spirit consecrates priests, in order that, besides that special service of our ministry, all the whole body of spiritual and rational Christians should recognize themselves to be partakers of royal race, and of sacerdotal office. ”

“ The deacon and sub-deacon again uniting their voices with his, and the people falling upon their knees, while the choir sings Venite Adoremus. This third and unreserved manifestation represents the mystery of the Cross preached to the whole earth, and is intended as a reparation to Our Lord for the outrages of Calvary. The celebrant and the ministers having removed their shoes, advance successively towards the place where the crucifix has been laid, making three genuflections at intervals, and finally kissing the Cross. The clergy follow in due order. ”

“ Towards the end of the veneration of the Cross, the candles are lighted and the deacon spreads a corporal upon the Altar upon which the Blessed Sacrament is to be placed. Then follows the procession to the chapel in which the Host consecrated the day before has been kept. The deacon takes the chalice which contains the host and places it upon the Altar. The priest having adored the Blessed Sacrament, takes the chalice and proceeds in solemn procession to the High Altar. During the procession the triumphant hymn of the Cross "Vexilla regis" is sung. ”

“ Amongst the alterations suggested by the prelates who were appointed as commissioners to settle the form, it was decreed that anointing was to be performed in the form of a cross, a point established, which 283was at that time as fertile a source of invective as the use of that most holy and touching symbol in our churches has since been in these days, even amongst well-intentioned and pious Christians. ”

“ They compel Simon of Cyrene to assist Him in carrying his cross: but the virtue of the cross changes his heart, and from a compulsory task it becomes a delightful occupation.
Oh Jesus! may the place of that stranger be mine. I will never refuse Thy cross. What part so ever of thy sufferings Thou dost destine for me, I accept with confidence, submission, and love. Especially do I resign myself to death and its agonies. I desire to die for Thee, who didst die for me.
The Act of Contrition. Page 17.
THE SIXTH STATION.
A pious woman wipes with a veil the face of Jesus. ”

“ Naturally the mass is the part in which this joy predominates. Though her pictures and images and crucifixes are still veiled, yet the Cross is covered with white, the Altar is decorated, and the candles are of white wax. In Cathedral Churches, the Bishop always pontificates on Holy Thursday, and during the mass blesses the Holy Oils, a function which we will describe later. ”

“ The column is adorned with niches containing statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John, and other saints, and the tabernacle is completed with a tapering spire ending in a small cross. The whole structure is thirty feet high.
A special class of wayside crosses has been provided by the ancient custom of placing this holy sign beside wells and springs. From ancient times an idea of special sanctity attached itself to springs of bright clear water. It was so in the days of classic Rome, and the Derbyshire custom of well-dressing proves its existence in the past amongst ourselves. ”

“ As the air causes hair to wave and flutter on the neck, so the breath of the Holy Spirit stirs the strong love that it may fly upwards to God; for without this divine wind, which excites the powers of the soul to the practice of divine love, all the virtues the soul may possess become ineffectual and fruitless. ”

“ For as the many grains of the pomegranate pressed together give forth but one wine, so all the marvels and magnificence of God, infused into the soul, issue in but one fruition and joy of love, which is the drink of the Holy Spirit, and which the soul offers at once to God the Word, its Bridegroom, with great tenderness of love. ”

“ The vineyard is the plantation in this holy soul of all the virtues which minister to it the wine of sweet taste. The vineyard of the soul is then flourishing when it is united in will to the Bridegroom, and delights itself in Him in all the virtues. ”

“ Well, we do the same through the Christian's glorious standard, which is the sacred symbol of the cross. Be it of wood or of the most precious metal—be it the production of the most unskilful or the most cunning workman—it is for us the symbol of man's redemption, and around it cluster our most tender feelings of veneration and love. It is placed over our altars, over our churches; it hangs in our rooms; where Catholic feelings can save it from insult, it is raised up in the highways, and is made to meet our eyes wherever we turn. ”

“ We have seen how the cross was erected in the busy market and beneath the shadow of the great Cathedral, where crowds hurried to and fro, day by day, for business or devotion. It was not alone in such populous places, however, that the sign of salvation reared itself to cheer the weary traveller through life’s ways by a message of faith, of hope, of divine love. In the village street, the lonely trackless moor, the meadow pathway and the king’s high-road, at every turn and in every place in mediæval England one met the same sacred memorial. ”

“ The stately minster and the lordly abbey, the rustic church and the humble cell stood in stately grandeur or in simple grace amid the fields and farmsteads of the people. In every market place the tapering cross, then perchance fresh and white from the carver’s hands, saw the folk gather at its feet to chat and chaffer, as beneath the shelter of a friend: and every highway and byeway was marked at intervals, like the great pathway of man’s life, with crosses that are at once emblems of suffering and of salvation. ”

“ And my will went forth from itself, becoming Divine; for, being united with Divine love, it no longer loves with its natural strength after a lowly manner, but with strength and purity from the Holy Spirit; and thus the will, which is now near to God, acts not after a human manner, and similarly the memory has become transformed into eternal apprehensions of glory. And finally, by means of this night and purgation of the old man, all the energies and affections of the soul are wholly renewed into a Divine temper and Divine delight. ”

“ When it is not only indulged, but cherished as a luxury, it soon becomes sinful. When the mourner persists in nursing his woe, and feeds it with melancholy reflections in silence and seclusion, heeding neither the dissuasives of friendship nor the solacements of religion, he despises his own mercy and injures his own soul. Remember your departed friends with tenderness, but let your sorrow be subdued and holy, and aid the healing art of Nature with the balm of grace to shorten as much as may be the term of its continuance. ”