They usually take the cross up the hill at 10 am on Good Friday, tie it into place, say prayers and sing hymns, and leave it there until 3 pm when some members return to remove it.

This year when they returned to take the cross down it was not there.

Tupuna Maunga a body created under a 2014 Treaty settlement controls the mountain-top.

It chairman Paul Majurey said it appeared the cross was destroyed by "members of the public" in the early afternoon.

The authority had given consent for the ritual to take place but the church leaders had not said they would leave the cross unattended for several hours, nor that it would be attached to a structure.

Majurey said that a contractor employed by the authority had no way of knowing that the cross was supposed to be there.

"However our contractor did not take it down."

Majurey said their contractor had noticed three young men sitting on the bench beneath the intact cross when he first pulled up.

But he could not confirm that they were responsible for the destruction of the cross.

However, when the contractor later returned he found the cross lying in pieces.

As a health and safety precaution, he removed and disposed of the nails, rope and broken pieces of wood.

Anglican vicar Charmaine Braatvedt, of Holy Trinity Church in Devonport, said the authority had told her the cross had been damaged and was taken to the tip.

The authority offered to replace the cross, but Braatvedt said that would not be necessary.

She said that in the Easter spirit of reconciliation she looked forward to better communications with the authority next year.

She acknowledged that the churches had not made it clear enough to the authority, knew the details of the procession and removal of the cross.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: nzherald.co.nz

Other religions have similar practices, and it is difficult not to see in certain Jewish traditions the prefiguration of this particular Christian symbol, a physical, outward manifestation of a spiritual attitude.

It is likely that this practice appeared very early in the history of Christianity, and it is striking that its evolution has followed that of the Church.

The tradition that has prevailed in the West and is customary among Latin Catholics is to make the Sign of the Cross by moving the fingers from top to bottom, then from left to right.

Certain cultures join the five fingers, evoking the five wounds of Christ. But this custom is relatively recent and likely differs from the primitive practice, which is still prevalent in the Eastern Christian world.

Indeed, in the beginning, Christians crossed themselves from top to bottom and then from right to left.

The thumb, forefinger and middle finger were joined, evoking the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity, while the ring finger and the little finger folded against the palm of the hand evoke the two natures — human and divine — of Christ.

Like a blessing

The oriental and primitive tradition thus reproduces the gesture of the blessing given by the clergy as in a mirror: the blessing given by the priest or the bishop reproduces the gesture of Christ figured on Byzantine icons, where the thumb of the hand that blesses joins the ring finger, the index finger is upwards, the middle finger and the little finger slightly folded.

Thus the hand of the priest forms the first letters of the words Jesus Christ in Greek — IC and XC — while recalling the association of the three persons of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ.

The hand that blesses thus traces the Sign of the Cross toward the faithful from top to bottom and from left to right.

This movement, which is always that of the blessings given by the clergy in the East as in the West alike, is probably that which has been used from the earliest times. Continue reading

Sources

• Aleteia article by Valentin Fontan-Moret
• Image: El Mensajero

I was sure that after getting married in the Catholic Church, everyone around me would see the differences in my life and I would be Catholic forever.

I thought my conversion was the beginning of my happily ever after, regardless of how broken my life before the Church had been.

That isn't quite what happened.

Instead, every new crisis adds to the stress caused by the multiple crises before it. And every time, I find myself looking up at the crucifix, wondering why I ever thought that this Catholic thing was going to be so easy.

I've tried so many ways to get me and everyone in my life acting how I think we should. I don't get mad at God anymore because I've learned, after trying it plenty of times, that that really doesn't help anyone. But I've tried everything else.

In one bout of despair, I stopped going to Mass; at another time, I went to all the Masses. I've prayed the rosary and novenas; I've talked to priests and talked to therapists. I have set up GoFundMe accounts and seen the love of God in action when people donated, and I've felt the loneliness when people didn't.

There is absolutely nothing that I haven't tried in order to relieve in "the Catholic way" some of the consistent struggle and pain of life.

What I am coming to realize is that this struggle is the Catholic way.

Most stories of the saints are tidied up; they give the impression that saints never did anything wrong. That isn't Catholicism.

Saints are human; they had their struggles and their sins. Being a saint doesn't mean doing no wrong; it means loving Jesus enough to take our wrongs to Him, and trust that He will make something out of us anyway. Continue reading

• Leticia Ochoa Adams describes herself as 'a hot mess convert who loves Jesus and has a scandalous sense of humour'. She writes at www.letiadams.com.

This means that the Church will need to ask great things of Catholic spouses in order that they become what they already are sacramentally; united with Christ and holy. Trials are in worldly terms failures we can't make sense of; but in the Catholic faith trials are means by which saints might be made.

The truth is marriage comes with the Cross. For the world Crosses are meant to be overcome by elimination. For the Church Crosses are overcome by embracing them.

How spouses think about Crosses manifests a completely different set of outcomes for a marriage experiencing trials. But surely there is a Cross that is too hard? Not according to Chiara.

No one today illustrates the challenge of the Cross in marriage and family more than Chiara Corbella Petrillo.

What Chiara and Enrique each brought to their union was not only love for each other but most importantly their personal foundation of commitment in relation to Christ in His Church. Therefore they turned to God every day throughout their married life. In this way God was able to lead them through the challenges which befell them.

Chiara and Enrique met when Chiara was 18. They were engaged for 6 years. It was a difficult engagement as they fought and broke up many times.

In hindsight Chiara felt that their difficult engagement had prepared them for the trials ahead. Eventually they married and shortly after Chiara was pregnant with their first baby.

What followed for Chiara and Enrique was devastating. Their first two unborn babies were diagnosed with conditions incompatible with life. There was no medical explanation why this should have happened to these young parents.

Both babies, named Maria and Davide, died very shortly after each was born, Baptised and loved. Despite this Chiara and Enrique strangely experienced a great joy in being parents even through such a double trial.

They continued to trust in God's plan for them. Maria and Davide were a blessing; a life once begun never ends.

Again Chiara became pregnant. This time the baby boy was well but Chiara was not. She presented with a ravaging cancer during her pregnancy and only permitted the doctors to give her a little treatment with very little pain relief. She suffered a lot.

Sadly Chiara lived for only a year after their son was born. During her final hours she told her husband that the Cross was truly ‘very sweet'.

Chiara's testimony regarding their difficult journey was this; that they took small steps at a time and God gave them the grace to persevere.

There is no doubt to those who knew Chiara that those trials brought about a profound witness of great holiness to which many are drawn today.

What would the Church's witness of marriage and family be like in the world today if through a deeper conversion to Christ in the Church spouses were able to make sense of their trials and persevere.

The Church is able to help spouses through to the greater joy beyond the Cross which comes with marriage. The Church is the witness to joy by encouraging its people not to abandon the Cross but find through it Christ Risen even as Chiara teaches it to be ‘very sweet'.

• Lynda Stack graduated as a distance student with a BTh from Good Shepherd College. She is now studying for a Masters at the JPII Institute in Melbourne. Lynda is married. She and her husband have two adult children who are living overseas.

One inquirer even suggested that the Crucifix hanging above the Altar is too intense a reminder of the sorrow in the world and that she would never join a church that displayed a sign of such cruel violence.

Today, we begin Holy Week with the celebration of Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion and we are again reminded of this paradox.

Mass begins differently today. The gospel account of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem by Jesus is proclaimed from the doors of the Church.

After the other readings, the Passion Narrative from Mark's gospel is proclaimed. From cheering crowds to insane hatred and attack, what are we to make of this?

Vale of Tears
Catholics are taught that we are pilgrims in this "vale of tears."

The Salve Regina includes the words, "To thee [Mary] do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears."

Again, the inquirer might ask, "Why would I want to join up with a bunch that is so pessimistic about life?"

To be sure, this life on earth is filled with hardships, pain and suffering. Who among us has not suffered?

Looking back over my life, I can recall numerous occasions of pain. My earliest memories of pain involved occasions of embarrassment as a very young child; the events do not count for much now, but at the time, mortification would not have been too strong a word to describe my feelings.

There followed all of the normal moments of discomfort that can be expected to be experienced by a child and young teenager growing up in an affluent country.

Real suffering and loss had not yet arrived; no hunger, serious illness or homelessness… but I would come to be greatly affected by death. Continue reading

• Deacon Michael Bickerstaff in The Integrated Catholic Life

Deacon Michael Bickerstaff is the Editor in chief and co-founder of the The Integrated Catholic Life.

Several of the couples already had children and some had been living together before being married.

It was a rare act for a Pope, with the last time a pontiff presided at a marriage being St John Paul II, who officiated at the weddings of 16 people at a Mass to mark the Jubilee for Families in October 2000.

On Sunday, Francis took each couple through their vows in turn - including Gabriella Improta and Guido Tassara, who already had children and thought such a marriage would be impossible, Vatican Radio reported.

The diocese of Rome had earlier stated: "The people getting married on Sunday are couples like many others. Some already live together, some already have children."

The couples had been selected by the diocese of Rome as a realistic sample of modern Catholic couples.

Last year, Pope Francis told priests from the diocese of Rome they should welcome couples that live together, and should accompany them, while not denying God's truth in its fullness.

On Sunday, the Pope told the couples that marriage is "not a television show" but a symbol of "real life" with "joys and difficulties".

Marriage, the Pope said, is about "man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband to become ever more a man".

"Here we see the reciprocity of differences," he said.

The path is not always smooth for married couples, the Pope continued, nor is it "free of disagreements".

"If it were, it would not be human."

Rather, "it is a demanding journey, at times difficult, and at times turbulent, but such is life"!

But "families are the first place in which we are formed as persons and, at the same time, the 'bricks' for the building up of society", the Pope said.

If married couples entrust themselves to Jesus, who has come not to condemn but to save them, he "will bring them healing by the merciful love which pours forth from the Cross, with the strength of his grace that renews and sets married couples and families once again on the right path".

Sources

• Daily Mail
• Catholic News Agency
• New York Times
• DW News
• La Stampa
• Image: Daily Mail

The walk will coincide with the double centenary of the first message preached by missionary Samuel Marsden.

"I have a heart for this nation and seeing unity among the people, in particular unity and forgiveness between the tribes and iwi with each other and with their European brothers and sisters," he says.

"I feel that God has asked me to walk the length of the country with a cross and two flags - one being the New Zealand flag and the other being the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, to signify the two people groups. Continue reading

That's what fashion thrives on: subversion and irreverence; an immaculately groomed, sneering Johnny Rotten worth millions, the world's best-dressed troll.

The latest person to express outrage at this industry's flagrant disregard for common decency is the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who writes in the foreword to his first Lent book that the crucifix has become a fashion statement, devoid of religious meaning.

This from a man who regularly wears a dress made of gold. Continue reading.

Harriet Walker is a fashion journalist, author and columnist. She is news editor of digital fashion magazine Never Underdressed.

Source: The Guardian

Image: Show Studio

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone. Even the atheists. Everyone," he insisted.

"We are created children in the likeness of God and the blood of Christ has redeemed us all," he said. And the potential to do good is inscribed on the human heart and does not derive from creeds.

Continue reading

The trouble with the crucifix is we no longer see it, but rather filter the image through our eyes of faith. Some people wear it as an accessory like gold earrings or a necklace; others use it as a talisman to ward off evil, if not vampires. A few brave souls even have it tattooed on various parts of their anatomy. The truth is, if we actually took the time to see the crucifix, we, like the Chinese, would be shocked, if not thoroughly scandalized.

While the Romans did not invent this particularly brutal form of capital punishment, they certainly perfected it. They were not interested in simply killing criminals; they intended to demean and dehumanize them. The slow, tortuous death was a bonus. The public spectacle served not only as a punishment for miscreants but also as a warning to anyone who harbored similar rebellious thoughts.

When I ask Bible study groups why Jesus was crucified, I get the formulaic "He died for our sins" or sometimes "He died to show God's love for us," which are true enough, but not complete. Certainly the powers-that-be who conspired to silence the pesky rabbi from Nazareth didn't have the salvation of the human race in mind. Rephrasing the question: "What did Jesus do to deserve crucifixion?" proves more thought-provoking. Clearly Jesus and his message posed a threat to the status quo, both religious and political. His cleansing of the Temple was the last straw. But the physical expulsion of merchants and moneychangers from the Court of the Gentiles was simply the final, dramatic manifestation of Jesus' scandalous message throughout his ministry: God loves everybody, unconditionally. Continue reading

Sources

• Joseph R Veneroso in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Vimeo

Maryknoll Fr. Joseph R. Veneroso is a former editor and publisher of Maryknoll magazine and Revista Maryknoll.

Her question penetrated. I turned to talk to her but instead found myself looking back in time and wondering about how the symbolism of the cross had permeated my life.

In my world, the cross offered rescue from a difficult eternity. The execution of an innocent man meant that my eternal life would be blissful instead of tormented. As a young person I accepted that sacrificial exchange.

I eventually questioned that, along with a literal heaven or hell but it took longer to wonder about the desirability of eternal life. Why would I when my society still tries to live forever?

Previously fuelled by the imaginings of theologians and religious artists, this egocentricity is now given credibility by medical science. But it's still a dream state. An illusion that the essential me matters so much it must be kept alive for as long as possible.
In the Christian church we're in Lent, the run up to Easter, a journey that encourages the contemplation of death and imaginings about eternity.

We get 40 days to contemplate the story of a Jewish man, profiled as human and divine. We explore his outspokenness and compassion, his challenges to the prevailing religious system and his horrible death by crucifixion. It's an outstanding story, rich, nuanced and multi-dimensional.

When I grew up, we weren't encouraged to ask questions about belief so I didn't realise that the death of a man/god on a cross was an exploration of mortality that had appeared before in human history.

Nor did I explore the cross. Much later I wondered if it might be an archetypal image that arises in the collective unconscious. Symbolically sitting at the intersection of the material world and the unseen, spiritual realm, constantly irritating sensibilities as perception is rattled. A growth spot where meaning can flourish. Continue reading

• Sande Ramage in Spirited Crone

Sande Ramage is an Anglican priest and blogger.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, will call in his Easter Sunday homily for Christians to "wear proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ on their garments each and every day of their lives".

"I know that many of you do wear such a cross of Christ, not in any ostentatious way, not in a way that might harm you at your work or recreation, but a simple indication that you value the role of Jesus Christ in the history of the world, that you are trying to live by Christ's standards in your own daily life," he will say in a service in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

"I hope that increasing numbers of Christians adopt the practice of wearing a cross in a simple and discreet way as a symbol of their beliefs."

Dr John Sentamu hit out at "meddling" after it emerged that ministers were fighting a case brought by two women at the European Court of Human Rights.