Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Though this feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross  is celebrated only every seven years on a Sunday it is the powerful reminder that the Cross is the most recognized symbol of our Christian Faith  We see, in whatever setting these two crossed beams are found, and instantly recall the event that  transformed the cruelest instrument of torture into the triumph over sin and death.  He, Who with His foster father, fashioned necessities out of wood for families now fashioned the Table of Sacrifice from which we receive the Bread of Life and the Blood of Redemption.

      So singularly important was and is the Cross that it stirred the Roman Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, to travel, in her advanced years, to the Holy Land in search of this treasure beyond gold.  Miraculously she found the Cross and brought it back to Rome where she had a church constructed for the purpose of protecting this sacred relic and making it  available for the veneration of the faithful.  Over the centuries miniscule slivers have been shaved from the Cross and these relics have traversed the globe.  Your pastor is privileged to have guardianship over one of these relics.  Following several of this week’s Masses you are invited to be blessed with the relic following Mass.  Those who do not receive the blessing this Sunday may do so the following week.

With Blessings,

Father Langan