The Exaltation of the Holy Cross Feast
September 14th, 2010
Exodus 32 : 7 – 11
In today’s reading from Exodus and in the Gospel passage, we encounter a people and an individual who are in a deep process of learning again what God wants for them. The characters are fortunate that they were not judged or abandoned by those around them. They are given the opportunity to learn from the past and begin anew.
God does not label or abandon us either. He continually calls and encourages us through experiences of faithfulness, conversion and forgiveness to become more fully God’s people. Our desire to learn, grow and change is a sign of God’s care for us.
Today is the feast of the Triumph of the Cross, formerly called the Exaltation of the Cross, recalling the miraculous appearance of a Cross in the year 312 to the Emperor Constantine who was told: “In this sign conquer.” Fourteen years later, his mother, Saint Helen, recovered the Cross on which Jesus had been crucified. The annual commeration of that event has been celebrated since, in praise of the redemption won for us by Christ.
Prayer
Prayer : Today, all over the world the Church is rejoicing in that victory, so we rejoice too as we say together : “Dying you destroyed our death. Rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus come in glory.” Amen.
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
