Lift high the cross


This week, on Tuesday, the Church celebrates Holy Cross Day otherwise known as the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross’. This marks the day when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated in 335 and a fragment of the true cross was brought out of the church for people to venerate.

The cross is an incredibly powerful image venerated by Christians around the world. This is perhaps surprising given that it was an instrument of torture and execution used by a number of the Emperors to make quite clear that they held the power of life and death.

Yet in Christ’s crucifixion the tables are turned. As the disciples saw Christ breath his last they may well have feared that the authorities had finally beaten this ‘Galilean prophet’. But in three days Jesus is raised from the dead, glorified as the risen Christ. Finally we see that God is the victor above and beyond earthly rulers and despots. It is he who is the source of life and who has overcome death.

Maybe you where a cross around your neck, maybe you see them on Churches as you travel to work, maybe you have one on the wall at home. If so take a moment on Tuesday and join with others in saying this special prayer for Holy Cross Day;

Almighty God, who in the passion of your blessed Son made an instrument of painful death to be for us the means of life and peace: grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer for his sake; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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