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Meditations for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by Gayle Somers – Brown Pelican Society of Lousiana

Meditations for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by Gayle Somers

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Esteban_Moses-and-the-Brazen-Serpent. Image from Wikimedia Commons

By Gayle Somers, Catholic Exchange, September 12, 2025

Gayle Somers is a member of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Phoenix and has been writing and leading parish Bible studies since 1996. She is the author of three bible studies, Galatians: A New Kind of Freedom Defended (Basilica Press), Genesis: God and His Creation, and Genesis: God and His Family (Emmaus Road Publishing). Her latest book, Whispers of Mary: What Twelve Old Testament Women Teach Us About Mary is available from Ascension Press. Gayle and her husband Gary reside in Phoenix and have three grown children.

This Sunday’s feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, prompts us to marvel over how an instrument of shame, brutality, and defeat became the most glorious symbol in the cosmos. This means more than meditating on the meaning of the Cross for sinners like us, as fruitful as that would be.  No, the idea is to ponder the exaltation of the Cross, and there is a world of goodness for us as we answer this call.

Gospel (Read Jn. 3:13-17)

St. John reports on the tail end of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, a Pharisee (most of whom distrusted and opposed Jesus) and “ruler of the Jews.”  It took place at night, probably because Nicodemus feared public association with the controversial Rabbi, although he was clearly quite impressed by what he had seen and heard from Him (read Jn. 3:1-2).  After startling Nicodemus with an explanation of the need to be “born anew” in order to see the kingdom of God, Jesus goes on to describe an event in His future that would be far more disturbing and unexpected than anything He has yet said. …

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