Adoration of the cross

  • Thread starter Thread starter TAS2000
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

TAS2000

Guest
Need help with 2 things, sort of related. I was reading up on the Triduum, and found some stuff on the USCCB website about the adoration of the cross. In our parish we always have the people come up and kiss the feet of the corpus, with altar servers holding it up on either side, and wiping the feet after each person with a small cloth. The documents I read just said come forward for adoration, never anything about the kissing, which I always found rather awkward anyway. So is it described/mandated anywhere what specifically this adoration should be? Is it always kissing, or could it be a profound bow, kneeling, etc? The second question is that the same document cited after several points things like (GF, 13). Obviously a reference, but to what? Anybody know what GF is and where I’d find it?

Thanks!
 
First of all, I hope it said ‘veneration’ rather than ‘adoration’. I do not think the cross is worthy of my adoration.

I’m not sure where it is said what form veneration may take. I would think it should be somewhat personal. In my parish a kiss is the most common means of showing respect.
 
Nope adortaion, which I thought was odd too.
Adoration of the Holy Cross
The rubrics for this section begin immediately with the first form of Showing the Cross. The deacon or another suitable minister goes to the sacristy and obtains the veiled cross. Accompanied by two ministers with lighted candles, the veiled cross is brought to the center of the sanctuary in procession. The priest accepts the cross and the standing before the altar (not “at the altar” as previously indicated) and facing the people, uncovers the upper part of the cross, the right arm and then the entire cross. Each time he sings This is the wood of the cross…(GF, no. 15).

The second form of the adoration of the cross which takes place at the door of the church, in the middle of the church and before entering the sanctuary has not changed (GF, no.16).
Click to expand...
 
On the matter of kissing anything in common, it is an extremely unsanitary practice. Wiping the object with a cloth does no earthly good at all.

When I was 7 years old, I was enrolled in a Catholic school and there was Benediction every Friday. In those days, they passed the monstrance along the altar rail every child to kiss. Except that I had missed that instruction (my family moved around a great deal in my very youngest years because my father was military). I thought they were all smelling the thing, which is what I did too. I strongly recommend that the squeamish do the same; put their face close and kiss the air. There is no requirement for salvation as far as I know that we kiss anything.
 
Marian, In that first link they describe the chant, “This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the savior of the world.” But it says respond “Come lets us adore” We always say “Come let us worship”. Do you know if that mandated somewhere?
 
How one venerates the cross is not mandated anywhere as far as I know.

In fact, its one of the most beautiful rituals of the church. Some bow, some genuflect…others kiss the cross…some touch it.

Its very moving to see people venerate this great contridiction in their own way.
 
Marian, In that first link they describe the chant, “This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the savior of the world.” But it says respond “Come lets us adore” We always say “Come let us worship”. Do you know if that mandated somewhere?
Click to expand...
The Latin form is Venite adoremus, which means Come, let us adore or Come, let us worship. They mean the same, but the latter is the more modern translation used by ICEL.
 
In orthodox and Greek Catholic churches cross worshiping happens perhaps more frequently. Has been in church since time of Tertullian. The rite of Cross worshipping happens three times on Feast of Raising up Holy Cross (Sep 14 old style), Feast of carrying out Cross (August 1 old style) and Cross Worshiping Sunday of Great Lent. All kiss the cross as worship - but frequently icons and prestolni cross of priest are kissed almost every day or Sunday. Our singing is “To your Cross we bow (worship), O Master and your Holy Resurrection we Glorify”

Perhaps Western Europeans and Americans are not frequent to venerate by kissing. Kissing and bowing to ground are very common in Eastern Church.

Only Cross worship in Roman Church for Lent?
 
40.png
TAS2000:
So does anyone know what GF refers to and where I’d find it?
Click to expand...
Wild guess: Good Friday maybe? (As in: The particular ritual used on that day?)

tee
 
GF - must mean Good Friday since this ritual can only be done on Good Friday.

There is a plenary indulgence granted on Good Friday for venerating the cross I read recently.

as well as repeating your Baptismal promises on Easter Sunday.
 
40.png
TAS2000:
Need help with 2 things, sort of related. I was reading up on the Triduum, and found some stuff on the USCCB website about the adoration of the cross. In !
Click to expand...
if you read anything from the US Bishops I am sure it was about veneration of the Cross, not adoration, which is reserved for the Deity alone. It is optional in the first place, and you may either genuflect or bow, and touch the cross, some people kiss it.
 
Can I ask what the issue is that is being brought up between adoration/veneration?

There are different types of adoration, there is latria which is due to God alone (and is also the root of the word idolatry) and then there is just plain old adoration which is what we do to the saints througout the year, and the cross on Good Friday.

Worship and and the latria type of adoration is reserved to God alone. However that does not mean we can’t have simple adoration for saints, or even the cross. Near as I can tell the ritual has always been called “Adoration of the cross” so I am really confused as to why people are taking issue with it. If it’s been called someting for hundreds of years, how can it suddenly be wrong to call it that?

I see no need for all this scrupulosity and legalism over the words veneration/adoration. If one truly understands the difference between adoration due to God (latria) and just plain old adoration.

Also remember, that even in plain old adoration of the saints and the cross, it is truly adoration of God for how He has revealed himself through the lives of the saints, through the cross, and how He loves us so much that He gave us His only Son to die for our sins.

newadvent.org/cathen/04529a.htm
catholic-forum.com/saints/ncd02454.htm
 
40.png
TAS2000:
…“This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the savior of the world.”… “Come lets us adore”…
Click to expand...
I have always understood this to mean, Come let us adore (latria) the Savior, not come let us adore (latria) the wood.
 
Where would you find G.F. 14? As someone above wrote it is referring to Good Friday. The Roman Missal, which the priest reads from on the altar, includes instructions for the ceremony on Good Friday.

For example G.F. 14 has: “14. After the general intercessions, the veneration of the cross takes place. Pastoral demands will determine which of the two forms is more effective and should be chosen.”

Is kissing the cross optional? Yes, according to the Roman Missal’s Good Friday, n. 18 (G.F. 18): “The priest, clergy, and faithful approach to venerate the cross in a kind of procession. They make a simple genuflection or perform some other appropriate sign of reverence according to local custom, for example, kissing the cross.” So kissing is optional, one could genuflect instead.

The 2002 Latin edition of the Roman Missal has the heading “Adoratio sanctae Crucis”. The currently approved translation is “Veneration of the Cross”. But perhaps a new translation, currently being worked on, will have “Adoration of the Sacred Cross”.

References:

The Roman Missal, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1985, pages 156-158.

Missale Romanum, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2002, ISBN ISBN: 8820972719, page 324.
 
40.png
SMHW:
First of all, I hope it said ‘veneration’ rather than ‘adoration’. I do not think the cross is worthy of my adoration.

I’m not sure where it is said what form veneration may take. I would think it should be somewhat personal. In my parish a kiss is the most common means of showing respect.
Click to expand...
I think you know what they mean by adoration. They don’t mean “latria”.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top