Easter Is the Door, and Good Friday Is the Key, by William L. Patenaude

“Likewise, either on the altar or near it, there is to be a cross, with the figure of Christ crucified upon it, a cross clearly visible to the assembled people. It is desirable that such a cross should remain near the altar even outside of liturgical celebrations, so as to call to mind for the faithful the saving Passion of the Lord.” General Instructions on the Roman Missal (308)

Last November at the 11:00 o’clock Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the King, I sat in the south transept of my parish church, the church of my youth, in a chair tucked away for the lector. Just over the chair is the parish’s large, antique crucifix—the kind often found in old French-Canadian parishes, impressive in its realism and its witness to death. …

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