An ‘Octave’ of the Cross

14 September

Following on our previous post, today, the feast of the Apostle Saint Matthew, brings to a close a sort of ‘octave’ of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that we celebrated on 14 September. On that glorious day, we contemplated the ineffable honour that inanimate pieces of wood now have by virtue of the One Who carried and hung upon them for but a few hours. After Our Lord Himself in the Most Holy Sacrament on altars and in tabernacles around the world, the many little fragments of the Cross are the most precious relics we have of our dear Saviour.

Since the fourteenth, we can say we have had a spectacular week of week of celebrations related to the holy and life-giving Cross.

15 September

On the fifteenth, we commiserated with Our Lady of Sorrows standing by the Cross on which hung her Son, her own real flesh and blood. The Crucifixion of her Son is past in time, but His Crucifixion in the suffering members of His Mystical Body continues till the end of time. Still He asks, ‘Why do you persecute Me?’ (Acts 9:4).

Also on the fifteenth, we commemorated the first-century priest and martyr Saint Nicomedes. He refused to sacrifice to pagan Rome’s ‘gods’ when called upon to do so, retorting, ‘I only sacrifice to the omnipotent God Who reigns in heaven.’

16 September

The next day, the Church remembered the martyred Pope Saint Cornelius and the bishop Saint Cyprian of Carthage. Their names are linked in our worship because the latter was killed five years after the former, on the day his relics were translated.

This day also saw the feast of the martyrs Saint Euphemia, a virgin, and Saints Lucy and Geminian, who were murdered in the early 300s.

17 September

Ah, the seventeenth! Moving forward about a millennium, ‘with the world growing cold’, as the Collect says, we raised our eyes to gaze and our hands to pray as the ‘Seraphic Patriarch’ Saint Francis, in a vision two years before his death, saw what looked to be a seraph nailed to a cross. When he looked back at himself, he saw that he has been mystically crucified and now bore the wounds of his Lord. This was the great memorial of the Impression of the Stigmata of Saint Francis.

18 September

The following day, the Church recalled a son of Saint Francis, Saint Joseph of Cupertino. This man, a wonder of God’s grace, had quite a hard life, an uphill climb to a Calvary, let us say. His was a martyrdom not of blood, but a witness to God’s delight in showering His favours on the poor. Misunderstood and calumniated like his Lord, now he prays for us from heaven.

19 September

This day was the feast of the magnificent Saint Januarius, the bishop justly famous the world over for the repeated miraculous liquefaction of his blood in the cathedral of Naples. He and his companions were martyred at the beginning of the fourth century, as pagan Rome rushed to spill more Christian blood in a vain attempt to extirpate the Church. The Emperor Diocletian did not understand that ‘the blood of Christians is seed’, as the apologist Tertullian wrote.

20 and 21 September

The twentieth is the vigil, a day of preparation, for the feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle on the following day. All of the apostles, save Saint John (who stood with our Mother by the Cross), were martyred, thus sharing in the cup of suffering of their Master (cf. Matt 20:22-23). Saint Matthew wrote to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. His Gospel is a masterful argument, but the apex of the argument is Matthew’s witness to Truth unto the shedding of his blood, like the Messiah Himself.

Last but not least in this line-up of saints is our dear friend Padre Pio. Saint Pio, like Saint Francis, bore the wounds of Christ, and like Saint Joseph of Cupertino, he suffered much from his superiors and confreres. Padre Pio’s feast is coming on the 23rd, the day of his passing from this partial life into the real and everlasting life, but the 20th is the day he received the permanent, visible stigmata.

A Chaplet of the Cross

To conclude this ‘octave’, and to honour our crucified King and Saviour and the many saints, known and unknown, who have followed His path up Mount Calvary and onto the Cross, we are pleased to share a Chaplet of the Holy Cross, composed of texts from Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy. This chaplet is shorter than the Rosary but prayed using the same beads. May it be a real comfort, that is, both soothing and strengthening, to all who rejoice in honour of the Holy Cross or who feel its heaviness at times. As Saint Paul, that great preacher of Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:23), says, ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the sake of His body, the Church’ (Col 1:24).

The chaplet can be found in English here in our next post.