Holy Cross Catholic School guides each student in developing academic, emotional and physical excellence while spreading the Gospel message as Jesus did, since 1868.

God,

Bless the hopes and anxieties,
The joys and the longings
Within us as we raise our children.

Bless the late nights
And the too-early mornings.

Bless the daily chaos
And the quiet moments, too.

Bless the growing hearts and souls
And their embodied hope.

Bless the future so full of promise,
And bless the past so full of grace.

Bless our belly laughs
And our bitter tears, too.

Bless the celebrations held
And the lessons hard won.

Bless the groans
When no words will form.

Bless the daily reshaping of our hearts
And the renewal of our minds

As we reshape and renew the world
With each act of love.

Bless the spirit inside us
That won’t give up on Your love.

In Your name we pray,

Amen

The one symbol most often identified with Jesus and his Church is the cross.

Today we celebrate The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast traces its beginning to Jerusalem and the dedication of the church built on the site of Mount Calvary in 335. But the meaning of the cross is deeper than any city, any celebration, any building. The cross is a sign of suffering, a sign of human cruelty at its worst. But by Christ’s love shown in the Paschal Mystery, it has become the sign of triumph and victory, the sign of God, who is love itself.

Believers have always looked to the cross in times of suffering. People in concentration camps, in prisons, in hospitals, in any place of suffering and loneliness, have been known to draw, trace, or form crosses and focus their eyes and hearts on them. The cross does not explain pain and misery. It does not give us any easy answers. But it does help us to see our lives united with Christ’s.

We often make the Sign of the Cross over ourselves. We make it before prayer to help fix our minds and hearts on God. We make it after prayer, hoping to stay close to God. In trials and temptations, the cross is a sign of strength and protection. The cross is the sign of the fullness of life that is ours. At Baptism, too, the Sign of the Cross is used; the priest, parents, and godparents make the sign on the forehead of the child. A sign made on the forehead is a sign of belonging. By the Sign of the Cross in Baptism, Jesus takes us as his own in a unique way. Today, let us look to the cross often. Let us make the Sign of the Cross and realize we bring our whole selves to God—our minds, souls, bodies, wills, thoughts, hearts—everything we are and will become.

O cross, you are the glorious sign of our victory.

Through your power may we share in the triumph of Christ Jesus.

Loyola Press