st andrew

Today is the feast of the apostle St. Andrew, brother of Peter, and the first apostle to follow after Jesus according to the gospel of john.

It is believed that Andrew died crucified on an x shaped cross on the gulf of Patras.

Ancient tradition tells the following about St. Andrew's proclamation before the cross which was to take his earthly life:

"Hail, O Cross, inaugurated by the Body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as though they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired an earthly fear. Now, instead, endowed with heavenly love, you are accepted as a gift.

Believers know of the great joy you possess, and of the multitude of gifts you have prepared. I come to you, therefore, confident and joyful, so that you too may recieve me exultant as a disciple of the One who wa shung upon you...

O blessed cross, clothed in the majesty and beauty of the Lord's limbs! Take me, carry me far from men, and restore me to my Teacher, so that, through you, the one who redeemed me by you, may recieve me. Hail! O Cross; yes, hail, indeed!"

In the words of Pope Benedict, here we encounter true Christian spirituality that does not view the Cross as an instrument of torture but rather as the incomparable means for perfect configuration to the Redeemer, to the grain of wheat that fell to the earth. thus we learn our own crosses acquire value if we consider them and accept them as a part of the Cross of Christ, if a reflection of his light illuminates them. It is by the cross our sufferings are enobled and acquire their true meaning.

In deed we all must learn to walk where the apsotles walked, filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, as St. Paul relates in the epistles.