One of the most precious heritages of our Catholic Tradition is the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose the Cross as the privileged means of our redemption.
Dear Reader,
Hanging on the Cross, He poured forth His Sacred Blood in order to wash the world of its sins. To this day, Our Lord bears on His glorified Body the wounds that attached Him to the Cross.
As Catholics, we “glory [ ] in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). We hang the crucifix in prominent places, we genuflect to and venerate the Cross on Good Friday, we relive the sacrifice of the Cross daily at Mass and, through the strength of the Mass, strive to take up our own cross daily (Lk. 9:23).
Throughout the centuries, countless holy Catholic writers have turned to the Cross, to contemplate it, to learn true wisdom from it, to love the One hanging on it. St. Thomas Aquinas famously remarked once that he learned more from the crucifix than from any book. This was not an experience unique to him but something that all realize who study the Cross with careful attention.
This issue brings to our readers some of the rich reflections that have been drawn from the Cross over the ages. The ancient Anglo-Saxon poem “The Dream of the Rood” has the Cross of Our Lord speak to us about His death. Certain Nativity poems draw a connection between Our Lord’s birth and His death. Joyce Kilmer provides us, in his verse, the reflections of a World War I soldier on the Cross. The great medieval painters Giotto and Fra Angelico often chose the Cross as their subject, depicting the affections of Sts. Dominic and Francis of Assisi at its foot.
The Cross is the salvation of mankind for all ages, including our own. Like all of our forefathers in the Faith, we must bear it lovingly and love it tenderly. As we approach the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, may the meditations in this issue communicate to its readers the strength of those great admirers of the Cross.
“Sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the Burden which thou bearest, for thou alone, O Holy Cross, wast worthy to bear the King and Lord of Heaven.”
Fr. John Fullerton
Contents:
FEATURED:
- The (Old and New) Mass and the Cross
Fr. Ian Andrew Palko, SSPX - Found in Translation: An Introduction to “The Dream of the Rood”
Dr. Amy Fahey - The Hidden Treasure of the Church: Major Polish Film on the TLM
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski - Reading the Cross of Christ’s Cradle: The Nativity
Jonathan Wanner - Walking the Via Dolorosa
Isabella Childs - Haunted by the Cross: The Crucified Christ in Eliot’s Poetr
Dr. Matthew Childs - Kilmer and the Cross
Patrick Murtha - Carrying the Cross in the School of Fra Angelico
Fr. François Delmotte, SSPX
CULTURE:
- Review: Étienne Gilson by Fr. Laurence Shook
Reviewed by Fr. Therasian Babu
FAITH:
- From the Archbishop: The Mystery of the Redemption
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre - Leixcon of the Crisis: "Revelation"
Fr. Paul Robinson, SSPX - Interview: My Path to Tradition
Lint Hatcher - Theological Studies: The Man of Sorrows
Pauper Perigrinus - Scripture: Meditations on St. John’s Gospel — Chapter Twenty-one
Pater Inutilis - Questions & Answers
Fr. Juan Carlos Iscara, SSPX
THE LAST WORD - Fr. David Sherry, SSPX
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