Podcast – Three Great Things

Study, Pray, Serve: Exaltation of the Holy Cross

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Here are some of the themes that we find in the Mass Readings for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

1st Reading – Numbers 21:4b-9

  • Filled with impatience, the people complain against God and Moses about the wretched food.
  • In punishment God sends saraph serpents that bite the people and many die.
  • After the people pray for forgiveness, Moses makes a bronze serpent which he fixes on a pole, and those that gaze upon it will live.

    • Psalm – 78:1-2,34-38

    • “Do not forget the works of the Lord!”
    • The psalm recalls God’s might, and how the people often strayed.

      • 2nd Reading – Philippians 2:6-11

      • Jesus “empties himself” and takes on our human form and weakness, even to death on a cross.
      • Because of this, God exalted him, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

        • Gospel – John 3:13-17

        • Jesus tells Nicodemus that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
        • “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…!”

          • Mass Readings – Exaltation of the Holy Cross (#638)

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          Podcast – Three Great ThingsBy Fr. Andrew Ricci