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Christ the King was raised up on the cross for our sake: come, let us adore him.

Year: C(I). Liturgical Colour: Red.

The Exaltation of the Cross

What are these Christians about, exalting an instrument of torture?

First, we rejoice that something so terrible should have been transformed into a means of redemption for the whole human race.

Second, we remind ourselves of the fact that Christianity is not an abstract and spiritual religion. It springs from God’s direct intervention in the affairs of the world, a real historical event involving real people and, in the end, a real execution on a real cross. We may theorize and theologize all we like; but all our theorizings and theologizings are nothing without the history on which they are based. Take away that history – take away the Cross – and Christianity is nonsense.

Other saints: Saint Ailbe

Ireland

He founded the monastery and Diocese of Emly, (then called Imlech), which became very important in Munster. A ninth-century Rule bears his name. The details of his life have been obscured by legend. He was probably a disciple of St Patrick and ordained by him. He may have died in 528 or in 541. See the article in Wikipedia.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: Saint Andrew of Crete (650? - 720/740?)

St Andrew of Crete is of great importance in the Orthodox Church because he invented – or at least introduced into the liturgy – the canon, a new form of hymnody of which there is no sign before his time. Canons are huge, elaborately structured musical and poetic compositions. Andrew’s immense “Greek Canon”, for instance, is a hymn 250 verses long interspersed with litanies and odes, takes three hours to chant, and goes chronologically through the entire Old and New Testaments, showing examples of the need for repentance and conversion.

The canon, as a genre, has never taken real root in the rest of Christendom, but in addition to his achievements as a hymnographer Andrew was a noted preacher of sermons and discourses, and it is extracts from these that form some of our Second Readings. As might be expected from such a poet they are clear and inspiring, deriving their effect more from the arrangement of images and episodes so that one reflects and illuminates another, rather than from closely-argued pieces of reasoning.

Liturgical colour: red

Red is the colour of fire and of blood. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate the fire of the Holy Spirit (for instance, at Pentecost) and the blood of the martyrs.