Cross

“ The sign of the Cross should always be dear to you as the sign of a Christian, the badge of a Christian, and the glory of a Christian — as the distinctive mark of Christ’s true followers, — as a memorial of the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, and of your own deliverance from eternal death by and through those sufferings. ”

“ Well for thee, O cross, which hast put on the Lord, hast gathered in the robber, hast called the apostle to repentance, and hast not deemed us unworthy to be received by thee! But why do I speak yet so long and allow not the cross to embrace me, in order to be raised to life in the cross, when I, through the cross, have gone from life to death, which is the lot of all? Come then, servants of my joy and beadles of Aegeates, and fulfill the wish of both of us and bind the lamb to the cross of suffering, the man to the demiurge, the soul to the Saviour! ”

“ In the Cross, Death crowns Him the Prince of Life, and His Cross is His throne. All His life long He was the Light of the World, but the very noontide hour of His glory was that hour when the shadow of eclipse lay over all the land, and He hung on the Cross dying in the dark. ”

“ From the cross the radiance streaming
Adds new lustre to the day.
Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that thro' all time abide. ”

“ The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one's life to the welfare and salvation of one's fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does stand forever, on earth and throughout a vast universe, as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love. ”

“ Learn Thy love while gazing thus,
Sin, which laid the cross on Thee,
Love, which bore the cross for us.
Here we learn to serve and give,
And, rejoicing, self deny;
Here we gather love to live,
Here we gather faith to die. ”

“ His whole aim in life was that He should die on the cross, so now He stretches out His arms to receive that precious burden, the seat of His love, the instrument of His mercy, and the sign of triumph. Dear cross! no longer are you the wood of disgrace on which malefactors are to die; you are now the sign of glory. No longer are you the accursed wood, but the glory of the elect. Cross and altar are now the same thing to us; the altar is our joy and happiness, so also is the cross. The Christian who has no love for the cross is to be pitied. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now when all mankind behold the holy cross and all the other sacred instruments of the Passion shining like the sun at midday, for the cross of Christ will gleam with a light of unexampled brilliance, those who are waiting below will stand in trembling fear and woeful lamentation. ”

“ Such was indeed His cry, as He hung on the cruel and shameful cross and suffered the blasphemy of the priests, who surrounded the cross and shouted and hissed out the mocking words: He trusted in God: let him now deliver him. ”

“ Dear children, I have had much sorrow since we last met and talked of the joys of heaven—a beloved brother has, I trust, through Christ’s merits, joined the bright hosts rejoicing there. But should not I meekly bear the cross which my heavenly Father sees good to send me? To every one passing through this life is given a cross—a trial to bear. To some it is so light that they scarcely feel it; with others so heavy that it bows them to the dust. Each of you knows, or will know, its weight. But let none be afraid nor cast down. The cross prepares for the crown. ”

“ The cross he bears is painful, heavy, and unjust, and yet he cheerfully carries it, inviting thee to carry your cross after him to Paradise. No cross will ever be so weighty or painful for thee as Jesus’ was. Wilt thou, then, refuse to accept it from his hands? Wilt thou shrink from bearing it in his company? Without the cross the way to heaven is not open to thee; without the cross thou canst not be a follower of Jesus. Courage, then, and follow in his footsteps with cheerfulness. Do not fear that he will not lighten its weight; he will cheer thee and assist thee. ”

“ As we have first of all been taught to sit at the foot of the cross, and neither hope nor glory in anything else, we have made that the foundation. Under the cross you have watered us with the showers of divine instruction and prayers, that, like this vine, we might entwine about it and bear pleasant fruit. ”

“ Simply to thy cross I cling.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds un-known
See thee on thy judgment throne,—
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee. Amen. ”

“ The cross, the emblem of all the Christian's hopes, the bright sun shining on the holy ground, figurative of the sun of righteousness, could not fail to bring to mind the comforting assurance that they who slept around would one day rise again. ”

“ Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. ”

“ We revere the cross, not because there is anything in its shape or substance to make us venerate it, but because it is the symbol of the Christian religion—of all that it has done for the world in the past and all that it may do in the future. ”

“ Oh, my brethren, that the cross should be the great symbol of our highest measure, that that which stands for consecration, that that which stands for the divine statement that a man does not live for himself and that a man loses himself when he does live for himself—that that should be the symbol of our religion and the great sign and token of our faith? ”

“ Salvation in the cross.
1 Here at thy cross, my dying God,
I lay my soul beneath thy love,
Beneath the droppings of thy blood,
Jesus, nor shall it e'er remove.
2 Not all that tyrants think or say,
With rage and lightning in their eyes,
Nor hell shall fright my heart away,
Should hell with all its legions rise. ”

“ Here truth, more unshaken than a rock, takes her immoveable stand: and mercy, tenderer than the mother's tears, yearns with bowels of everlasting pity. In a word, the cross of Christ is a conspicuous theatre, on which all the divine perfections unite, and harmonize, and shire forth with transcendent lustre. ”

“ Surely the cross is that wonder-working rod which can bring water out of a rock. If you understand the full meaning of the divine sacrifice of Jesus, you must repent of ever having been opposed to One who is so full of love. ”

“ So there stands the Cross, the revelation to us, not only of a Brother's sacrifice, but of a Father's love; and that because Jesus Christ is the revelation of God as being the ‘eradiation of His glory, and the express image of His person.’ Friends! light does pour out from that Cross, whatever view men take of it. ”

“ We'll go when the year's at its gayest,
When meadows are laughing with flow'rs;
And there where the crosses are greyest,
We'll seek for the cross that is ours.
For they cry to us: Friends, we are lonely,
A-weary the night and the day ”

“ I glory only in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, namely, in the faith, in grateful remembrance and contemplation of the benefactions of the Cross, through which we were redeemed and have received the grace to lead a devout: life and to strive for eternal happiness. In the Cross we recognize thoroughly the enormity of our guilt and the boundless love of God. ”

“ Behold everything dependeth upon the Cross, and everything lieth in dying; and there is none other way unto life and to true inward peace, except the way of the Holy Cross and of daily mortification. Go where thou wilt, seek whatsoever thou wilt, and thou shalt find no higher way above nor safer way below, than the way of the Holy Cross. Dispose and order all things according to thine own will and judgment, and thou shalt ever find something to suffer either willingly or unwillingly, and thus thou shalt ever find thy cross. ”

“ Do Thou, God, who wert nailed to that cross, grant us, by the intercession of Thy Mother, who stood by Thy cross, of the angels who wept by Thy cross, and of St. Helen, who honored Thy cross, the grace to lay hold of our cross with zeal and desire, and to bear and retain it with joy ”

“ How many of us Catholics, of the thousands that crowd that church of which we see the cross above the hill-top, or lie here with hands crossed to God, ever offered a prayer for those neglected souls, living or dead? ”

“ By the Cross their fury braves;
We, on life’s wide ocean tossed,
If we have it not are lost.
3 Hope it gives us when distrest,
When we faint it gives us rest;
Satan’s craft, and Satan’s might,
By the Cross are put to flight.
4 That from sin earth might be free,
Jesus bore it; so must we;
Ne’er through faintness lay it down:
First the Cross, and then the crown!
545. C. M.
Heber.
In the Day of Distress.
1 Oh God, that mad’st the earth and sky,
The darkness and the day,
Oh listen to Thy children’s cry,
And help us when we pray! ”

“ THIS station represents the place where Jesus Christ was publicly exalted on the cross, between two thieves, who were executed with the innocent Lamb. Consider here the confusion of your Saviour, exposed to the profane view of a blasphemous multitude. Imagine yourself at the foot of the cross. Behold that sacred body, streaming blood from every part. Contemplate the divine countenance, pale and languid, the heart throbbing in the last pangs of agony; the soul on the point of separation. Charity triumphs over his agony; his last prayer asks forgiveness for his inveterate enemies. ”

“ As often as we make the sign of the Cross we invoke the blessings of God upon us, for we owe all blessings to the infinite merits of our divine Saviour, who died upon the Cross for us. The ignominious instrument of torture and death, the Cross, has now become the instrument of life and the source of salvation. Hence the Church never dispenses blessing except in the sign of the Cross. ”

“ Believe me, no cross is to be compared with this cross. On the other hand, how happy it is to live in dying daily and in mortifying our own will and in seeking not our own but the things that are Jesus Christ’s! I trust that through the merits and prayers of our holy mother the Church, in which is my chief confidence, and through the prayers of its living members, to which you belong, our Lord Jesus Christ will sow the Gospel seed in this heathen land by my instrumentality, though a worthless servant. ”

“ The Romanist hangs the cross on his bosom; the true Christian carries the cross in his heart; and a cross inside the heart is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart—Christ crucified in you, the hope of glory—the cross of this world's troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it. [93] Christ in the heart, means Christ believed in, Christ beloved, Christ trusted, Christ espoused, Christ communed with, Christ as our daily food, and ourselves as the temple and palace wherein Jesus Christ daily walks. ”

“ Ay, as the groanings of the cross must have astounded angels, so shall the results of the cross amaze the seraphim, and make them admire the excess of glory which has arisen from the shameful death of their Lord. O beloved, great things are to come out of our Jesus yet. Courage, you that are dispirited. Be brave, you soldiers of the cross. Victory awaits your banner. Wait patiently, work hopefully, suffer joyfully, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. ”

“ 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, of all our public ministrations. Let us leave a favour of this knowledge, which is far better than precious ointment, in every private company. Let it appear, from all our conversation, that the affections of our heart, and the labours of our life, are devoted, wholly devoted, to our adored Redeemer's cross. ”

“ One is tempted to ask, in which Cross?—the kind made of gilded tin which holds itself aloft in pride on the top of the church steeple, or the Cross proclaimed in the challenge of the great Cross-bearer, "Whosoever doth not bear his Cross, and come after Me, cannot be my disciple"? ”

“ So, then, brethren, when your trials come thick and fast; when your temptations seem more than you can endure; when you are pinched by poverty, slighted by your neighbors, forsaken—as it seems to you—even by God himself, then remember the way of the cross. Remember the agony in the garden; remember the mount of Calvary. {198} Grasp the palm firmly in your hand to-day; let it be in fancy the wood of the cross. Cry aloud as you journey on: "Through humility and suffering to exaltation and glory." Keep close to Jesus. ”

“ All we can say, and especially in so narrow a compass, will fall far beneath the dignity and sublimity of it. We shall only remind you, with simplicity and plainness, that the cross of Christ is the fulfilment of divine purposes and predictions--the sum of the Gospel--the salvation of sinners--the conquest of all enemies--the foundation of hope--the ground of triumph--the display of the divine perfections--and the grand incentive to holiness. ”