Praying TO the Cross?

[YehoiakhinEx232]

I’m developing an interest in devotions related to Christ passion and death and I questions about devotions, and specifically prayers to the Cross.

Firstly, even before I started developing these devotions, I had and still have the habit of wearing the purple scapular which requires you to say the O ave crucis prayer 5 or 7 times a day. In the O ave crucis prayer, it speaks of “adoring” the Cross of the Saviour, why “adore?” Does it refer to the fact that Christ was sacrificed on the Cross so that, in a sense, the Cross receives adoration and sacrifice, or is it just using the term loosely?

Secondly, and more importantly, when I looked up prayers related to the Holy Cross and Christ’s passion and Crucifixion, I noticed that the prayers were directed TO the Cross, as though the Cross itself were animate and could hear our prayers. (Albeit, the O ave crucis prayer is also directed to the Cross, and for reason, I didn’t have a problem with it until now.) Why are these prayers directed TO the Cross? What is the reasoning and understanding behind it?

 

[Lost4words]

I have always believed that we pray to Jesus on the cross. Not on the cross on its own.

When i look at a crucifix i am praying to Jesus, not the actual cross.

 

[YehoiakhinEx232]

But why are certain Cross prayers written as though they are explicitly addressing the Cross and not Jesus on the Cross?

 

[Genesis315]

See this part of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa here:

Article 4. Whether Christ’s cross should be worshipped with the adoration of “latria”?

It is related to the principles discussed here:

Article 3. Whether the image of Christ should be adored with the adoration of “latria”?