Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Today is kept in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is one of four Feasts of the Lord (i.e., feasts rather than solemnities, which are the highest grade of celebration). As a Feast of the Lord, it would replace the Sunday celebration of a Sunday Through the Year (aka. Ordinary Time). The other three Feasts of the Lord are the Presentation (Feb. 2, aka. Candelmas), the Transfiguration (Aug. 6), and the Dedication of St. John Lateran (which makes sense only once we realize that this church is the Cathedral of Rome, and thus, in a sense, the Mother Church dedicated to the worship of God throughout the world, or at the very least of Western Christianity).

Veneration of the Holy Cross, on which our Savior died, has long been a part of our faith. We ought always to remember that the Lord himself bore the Cross for us, and only through this action was he able to redeem us. It is of course important to remember that we have our own crosses to bear. As the Monsignor at my parish reminded, Fulton Sheen once remarked: "The cross without Christ is unbearable, and Christ without the cross is unrealistic."

On this day, the Holy Church has provided the the hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt as the hymn proper to the celebration of Vespers. Unfortunately, in the English versions of the Liturgy of the Hours (with the exception of the Mundelein Psalter), it is not included as an option. In order to avoid any copyright issues, I thought you might want to try this link for the English translation. Toward the bottom, there is a link for the Latin text as well.

The Rosary portion of the project continues. I am halfway with the third setting (including Medium Scripture Readings, Patristic Readings, and Collects). I hope to finish tonight, that we might announce the next phase of the project tomorrow, on the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.