The small island is known as Cuddy’s Isle. As with Holy Island/Lindisfarne itself,
it becomes an Island cut off by the tide, twice a day.
HOLY CROSS 2023
One of the prayers of Taize sets the scene for Holy Cross Day which many Christians 0bserve on September 14th:
Through the repentance of our hearts,
And the spirit of simplicity of the beatitudes,
You clothe us with forgiveness, as with a garment.
Enable us to welcome the realities of the Gospel
With a childlike heart,
And to discover your will,
Which is love and nothing else.
Here we are brought to the heart of the Cross’s message – the Victory of love – and not only sin and death are defeated by love but also those other things which afflict our lives and drag us down.
The Irish have a saying – “The Cross of Christ upon us” which means that it is an immediate presence in our lives – a power on which we can call in any time of need or uncertainty.So, a tenth century prayer speaks of :
Christ’s Cross over this face, and thus over my ear. Christ’s cross over these eyes…this mouth. .this side – to accompany me… Christ’s Cross to meet every difficulty.
The Cross becomes a protection – the Saving Sign which they would trace in every danger – usually quietly behind their back. The recognition here is that when our human frailty brings insecurity our security rests in Christ and in the certainty that through His Cross, he has done what we say at every Baptism as we trace the Cross on the forehead:
Christ claims you for his own.
Receive the sign of his Cross
After which we tell the one being baptised to never be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ Crucified, to fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil and remain faithful to Christ to the end of their life.
But not in their own strength alone. We follow this immediately with a blessing:
May almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness,
Restore in you the image of his glory,
And lead you in the light and obedience of Christ.
The tracing of the Cross both then and whenever we invoke it is not a magic talisman, nor an empty gesture or a pious practice, but a bringing to our aid the full power of Christ Himself.
To pilgrim in the Cross is to walk in Christ’s Name and to confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father, to quote the letter of St Paul to the Philippians.
That’s what has driven people to proclaim the victory of the Cross with a certainty that it both symbolizes and makes present Christ’s power of love which converted lives and which, if we believe it, will go on doing so.
[Mr.G]
Mr G's Ponderings 