Fr Peter Helman

O holy Cross, triumphant Tree! 
The world’s true health, all hail to thee!  
Amidst the trees none such can be  
In leaf, or flower, or bud.  

(From a Latin hymn from the English Church’s liturgical tradition that predates the first Book of Common Prayer of 1549, appointed for Holy Cross Day.)
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Dear Beloved,

Three observances in the church’s calendar of feasts and fasts are especially dear to me: Good Friday, Holy Cross Day, and All Souls’ Day.

We celebrate the second of those today and commemorate the finding of the “True Cross” by Saint Helena, mother of Roman Emperor Constantine. She made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 326 CE to locate the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and tomb. Oral traditions led her to a place just outside the city walls, where she discovered the cross buried beneath a pagan temple, along with those of the two thieves crucified with Jesus.

Holy Cross Day peers back to Golgotha and the grave of Good Friday and turns our sorrow into joy. Death is undone and swallowed up in life, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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There are many moments in the liturgy of Holy Communion when we make the sign of the cross on ourselves. Among them:

(1) at the Opening Acclamation (“Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”)

(2) toward the end of the Gloria (“…in the glory of God the Father. Amen.”)  

(3) near the end of the Creed (“…we look for the resurrection of the dead,…”)  

(4) at the mention of the faithful departed in the Prayers of the People  

(5) when the Absolution is declared (“…have mercy on you,…”)   

(6) at the elevation of the Bread and Wine during the Eucharistic Prayer  

(7) at the Invitation to Communion (“The Gifts of God for the People of God.”)  

(8) and at the closing Blessing (“…the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…”)

I’ve come to rely on this simple manual act of prayer to remember that life in Christ is cruciform. We literally mark our bodies with the means of Christ’s saving love. By grace, we are become Christ’s pierced hands and feet in the world, each of us a living sacrifice to God for the life of the world. I commend this simple practice to you, as the cross is ours to bear together.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Peter