Love for the Holy Cross

"Taste in your heart the need our world has to receive the graces of the Cross," Bishop Alvaro del Portillo tells us in a letter from September 1988.

Have a great love for the Holy Cross. Taste in your heart the need our world has to receive the graces of the Cross. How many people still don’t know the Holy Cross, or turn away their shoulder, so as not to accept it!

You and I can’t become discouraged on seeing the big or small betrayals that have always been part of human history, nor can we let the vigor of our soul be lulled to sleep with sterile laments.

All our time on earth is time to give testimony with deeds to the Merciful Love of Christ for all men and women: to the light, the peace, the newness of life that the Mystery of the Cross inaugurates.

We can’t be tranquil if we fail to strive perseveringly to spread Christ’s fire to those around us, announcing that Jesus has died to bring a new life for all men and women.

Let us pray more, love more, work more, in order to show the greatness of our Christian vocation with deeds, with a firm and constant yes to God’s demands.

Once again I ask our Lady to win for us the fortitude of faith and love needed to work always with a youthful spirit, with the strength of people in love, in the apostolic sowing that makes fruitful the most varied fields in this world of ours.

We can’t allow our soul to become timid when faced with the obstacles that any spiritual endeavor stirs up, for we need to remember that the encounter with Christ necessarily passes through the Cross.

Remember that Jesus too suffered opposition, misunderstanding, moral and physical suffering, but he knew that to overcome them, to bring us true happiness, he needed to give his whole Life for our salvation. Savor also the certitude that, after the Cross, comes the Resurrection, the victory of God’s power and mercy over our poor miseries, the joy and peace that this world cannot give. Now is the moment to encourage many people to welcome this new life that has its source in Christ.” (Letter, September 1988)