Creeping to the Cross
Owing to the vast crowds attending the Solemn Service on Good Friday, during the service itself the faithful venerate the Cross from their places in the Cathedral.
Following the Service there is an opportunity for individual veneration; a vast crowd (there are about 3,000 people at the service) waits patiently in line to kiss the wood of the cross.
This Veneration of the Cross (or 'creeping to the cross' as it was called) owes its origins to the fourth century custom in Jerusalem of venerating the wood of the true cross on Good Friday.
The veneration takes about two hours; it is moving, and uplifting, that the faithful show such devotion.
1 comment:
Do you have any relics of the True Cross in the crucifix that is venerated here?
The Dominican priory I sometimes attend Masses at has one - it is encased in a glass bubble at the foot of the cross. This is what the faithful kiss - in my first Good Friday there, I failed to notice it and kissed the feet of the Corpus instead, as is perhaps more normal!
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