One of the key feast days (red letter days) of the church calendar is "Holy Cross", which was on Friday,  September 14 .

During the reign of Constantine, first Roman Emperor to  profess the Christian faith, his mother Helena went to Israel and there  undertook to find the places especially significant to Christians. (She was  helped in this by the fact that in their destructions around 135, the Romans had  built pagan shrines over many of these sites.) Having located, close together, what she believed  to be the sites of the Crucifixion and of the Burial (at locations that modern archaeologists think  may be correct), she then had built over them the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was  dedicated on 14 September 335. It has become a day for recognizing the Cross (in a festal  atmosphere that would be inappropriate on Good Friday) as a symbol of triumph, as a sign of  Christ's victory over death, and a reminder of His promise, "And when I am lifted up, I will draw  all men unto me." (John 12:32) The cross is today the universal image of Christian belief.

Countless generations of artists have turned it into a thing of beauty to be carried in procession 

or worn as jewelry. To the eyes of the first Christians, it had no beauty. It stood outside too

many city walls, decorated only with decaying corpses, as a threat to anyone who defied Rome's

authority-including Christians who refused sacrifice to Roman gods. Although believers spoke

of the cross as the instrument of salvation, it seldom appeared in Christian art unless disguised

as an anchor or the Chi-Rho until after Constantine's edict of toleration.

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy  Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen

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God's blessings to you all, this day and for evermore...    Fr. David