Our crest

I was in a Seculars group meeting yesterday and we had a talk from the wonderful Fr Matt Blake OCDS.  He was talking about the cross and about Edith Stein and about her book The Science of the Cross.  This book is very much focussed on the writings of St John of the Cross.  Fr Matt pointed out something I had not noticed: not only has the cross always had a very special significance to the Discalced Carmelite Order, but indeed the OCD crest is to be distinguished from the traditional (O.Carm) Carmelite one by the addition of a cross in the centre.  He also pointed out that the cross was employed by the Romans not simply as a means of execution, but as an utterly shameful means of execution, so that Our Lord was not simply killed but set up for the most extreme kind of public humiliation.  There are so many lessons for us in that fact.

Intercessions

Chris, in intensive care

Baby S, in recovery from a complex heart operation