QUOTATION: The Cross

God placed on Jesus’ Cross all the weight of our sins, all the injustices perpetrated by every Cain against his brother, all the bitterness of the betrayal by Judas and by Peter, all the vanity of tyrants, all the arrogance of false friends. It was a heavy Cross, like night experienced by abandoned people, heavy like the death of loved ones, heavy because it carries all the ugliness of evil. However, the Cross is also glorious like the dawn after a long night, for it represents all the love of God, which is greater than our iniquities and our betrayals. In the Cross we see the monstrosity of man, when he allows evil to guide him; but we also see the immensity of the mercy of God, who does not treat us according to our sins but according to his mercy.

--Pope Francis, Good Friday Way of the Cross, April 18, 2014

QUOTATION: Christ Crucified

The heart of God’s salvation is his Son who took upon himself our sins, our pride, our self reliance, our vanity, our desire to be like God. A Christian who is not able to glory in Christ Crucified has not understood what it means to be Christian. Our wounds, those which sin leaves in us, are healed only through the Lord’s wounds, through the wounds of God made man who humbled himself, who emptied himself. This is the mystery of the Cross. It is not only an ornament that we always put in churches, on the altar; it is not only a symbol that should distinguish us from others. The Cross is a mystery: the mystery of the love of God who humbles himself, who empties himself” to save us from our sins.

--Pope Francis, Morning Meditation, April 8, 2014.

QUOTATION: Taking Up the Cross

Whoever from deep within her noble and zealous heart wishes to take up the cross through Jesus Christ our savior who died on the field of battle in order to give us life, let her first take up the arms necessary for such battles and especially those which are treated next in order: first is diligence; second, distrust of self; third, confidence in God; fourth, memory of his passion; fifth, memory of one’s own death, sixth, memory of the glory of God; seventh and last, the authority of Holy Scripture as it gives the example of Christ Jesus in the desert.

--St. Catherine of Bologna, The Seven Spiritual Weapons

QUOTATION: Your Vocation

Nothing should make you love your vocation more than being nailed to the Cross.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Fairweather Followers

Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but He has few bearers of His Cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but He finds few who will be with Him in His abstinence and fasting. All men would joy with Christ, but few will suffer anything for Christ. Many follow Him to the breaking of His bread, for their bodily refreshment, but will follow Him to drink a draft of the chalice of His Passion. Many honor His miracles, but few will follow the shame of His cross and His other ignominies. Many love Jesus as long as no adversity befalls them, and can praise and bless Him whenever they receive any benefits from Him, but if Jesus withdraws a little from them and forsakes them a bit, they soon fall into some great grumbling or excessive dejection or into open despair.

--Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Why Dread the Cross?

Why, then, do you dread to take His Cross, since it is the very way to the kingdom of heaven, and there is no other way? In the Cross is health, in the Cross is life; in the Cross is the fullness of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind, joy of spirit, height of virtue, full perfection of all holiness, and there is no help for the soul, or hope of everlasting life, save through the virtue of the Cross.

--Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Refusing to Carry One's Cross

Those who refuse to carry the Cross of Christ, are obliged to carry the bonds and the chains of Satan.

--St. Robert Bellarmine, The Seven Words on the Cross

QUOTATION: Never Jesus Without the Cross

Never the Cross without Jesus, or Jesus without the Cross. Through his dying upon it the Cross of ignominy became so glorious, its poverty and starkness so enriching, its sorrows so agreeable, its austerity so attractive, that it became as it were deified and an object to be adored by angels and by men. Jesus now requires that all his subjects adore it as they adore him. It is not his wish that the honour even of a relative adoration be given to any other creature however exalted, such as his most Blessed Mother. This special worship is due and given only to his dear Cross. On the day of the last judgement he will bring to an end all veneration to the relics of the saints, even those most venerable, but not to those of his Cross. He will command the chief Seraphim and Cherubim to collect from every part of the world all the particles of the true Cross. By his loving omnipotence he will re-unite them so well that the whole Cross will be re-formed, the very Cross on which he died. He will have his Cross borne in triumph by angels joyfully singing its praises. It will go before him, borne upon the most brilliant cloud that has ever been seen. And with this Cross and by it, he will judge the world. Great will be the joy of the friends of the Cross on beholding it. Deep will be the despair of its opponents who, not being able to bear the brilliant and fiery sight of this Cross, will plead for the mountains to fall upon them and for hell to swallow them.

--St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom

QUOTATION: The Worldly Do Not Understand the Cross

Wise and honest people living in this world, you do not understand the mysterious language of the Cross. You are too fond of sensual pleasures and you seek your comforts too much. You have too much regard for the things of this world and you are too afraid to be held up to scorn or looked down upon. In short, you are too opposed to the Cross of Jesus. True, you speak well of the Cross in general, but not of the one that comes your way. You shun this as much as you can or else you drag it along reluctantly, grumbling, impatient and protesting. I seem to see in you the oxen that drew the Ark of the Covenant against their will, bellowing as they went, unaware that what they were drawing contained the most precious treasure upon earth.

--St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom

QUOTATION: Bearing One's Cross

The whole cross borne in union with His will and following in His footsteps is easier to bear than the splinters against which we rebel.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, The Fifteen Mysteries

QUOTATION: Two Types of People in the World

I believe that there are only two classes of people in the world: those who are on the Cross with Christ, and those who are beneath it to harangue Him. Those who are on the Cross, even by sympathy, like His Blessed Mother, are those who suffer. Take, for example, the hungry, a large percentage of the population of the world. They are on the Cross. They may not know it, but that is the way they will be saved. Then there are the others who are beneath it saying…Come down and we will believe.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Crosses

Our Lord never promised that we would be without a cross; He only promised that we would never be overcome by it.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, The Fifteen Mysteries

QUOTATION: Christianity

Christianity does not exist without a Cross. There is no possibility to exit from our sins ourselves.

--Pope Francis, Homily, April 8, 2014

QUOTATION: If God Seems Dead...

If God appears dead in our nuclear age it is because Christians and arid people have isolated Christ from His Cross.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Transcendence is the Answer

The key is to understand the cross as the seed of resurrection. Any attempt to cope with pain will bring partial results, if it is not based in transcendence.

--Pope Francis, Pope Francis: His Life in His Own Words

QUOTATION: How to Bear the Cross

I do not ask, Lord, that You take me down from the Cross, but I implore You to give me the strength to remain steadfast upon it.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Delivery from Sin

The mystery of the Cross delivers us from the power of sin ; the mystery of the Eucharist, from the will to sin.

--Pope Innocent III

QUOTATION: Carrying One's Cross

You must follow Him along the way of the cross, choosing to be crucified in His way, not yours.

--St. Catherine of Siena

QUOTATION: Christ Goes with the Cross

If we could take Christ off the cross and put him over to one side, and then put the cross without Christ on the other side, we would have the picture of the world. Who picks up Christ without the cross? Our Western, affluent, Christian civilization. No discipline, no mortification, no cross, no self-denial. Who picks up the cross without Christ? Russia, China. The ascetic principle of Christianity has moved to the totalitarian states: discipline, order, law, commitment to a common end. But neither side has the answer. The crossless Christ is weak, effeminate, and can never save, because there is no mention of sin. The Christless cross allows Dachau, Auschwitz, the squeezing of the lives of individuals like so many grapes to make the totalitarian wine of the state. 

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: The Lukewarm

The lukewarm do not embrace the cross; they merely drag it along.

--St. Teresa of Avila