‘Ave, Crux, spes unica!’ ... Hail, O Cross, our only hope!
“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.” Jesus Christ (Jn 12:31)
“But far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” ~ St. Paul the Apostle, Galatians 6:14
“The cross is the school of love.” ~ St. Maximilian Kolbe
“As they were looking on, so we too gaze on his wounds as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul.” ~ St. Augustine
“When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to preach to you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent sermon!” ~ St. Paul of the Cross
If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth. ~ St. Thomas Aquinas
Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent. ~ St. John of the Cross
“It is You Jesus, stretched out on the Cross, who gives me strength and are always close to the suffering soul. Creatures will abandon a person in his suffering, but You, O Lord, are faithful…” ~ St. Faustina
“Nails were not enough to hold the God-Man nailed and fastened on the Cross, had not love held Him there.” ~ St. Catherine of Siena
“I told our Lord that I knew it was His cross that was now being placed upon the Jewish people; that most of them did not understand this, but that those who did would have to take it up willingly in the name of all. I would do that. At the end of the service, I was certain that I had been heard. But what this carrying of the cross was to consist in, that I did not yet know.” ~ St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) prior to her death in Auschwitz
“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.” ~ St. Rose of Lima
And today we celebrate...
