Triumph of the Cross

September 14 is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

As Christians, we glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, once an instrument of death but now the source of life because of Christ's radical self-emptying (kenosis). On the Tree of the Cross, the New Adam redeems by his obedience to the Father the sin of the first Adam. Of the wood of the Cross, the holy Church is built as an edifice to shelter all peoples.

And so we praise and honor Christ, who by his holy Cross, redeemed the whole world.

Crux fidelis, inter omnes
arbor una nobilis:
nulla silva talem profert,
fronde, flore, germine.
Dulce lignum, dulces clavos,
dulce pondus sustinet.


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