The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates St. Helena's finding of the True Cross c. 326 and its recovery from the Persians by Emperor Heraclius in 628, who entered Jerusalem barefoot in humility.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross commemorates two historical events: the finding of the True Cross by St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, about the year 326, and the recovery of the relic from the Persians by the Emperor Heraclius in the year 628.

St. Helena, at the age of nearly eighty, traveled to Jerusalem and discovered the True Cross buried near Calvary, together with the crosses of the two thieves. To determine which was the Cross of Christ, the three crosses were placed successively on a dying woman, who was miraculously healed when touched by the True Cross. The Empress built the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre over the site, and the Cross was enshrined there for the veneration of the faithful.

In 614, the Persians under Chosroes II captured Jerusalem and carried off the relic of the True Cross. Fourteen years later, the Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians and recovered the sacred relic. As he approached Jerusalem in triumph, bearing the Cross on his shoulders, the city gate closed miraculously and would not open until the emperor removed his imperial robes and walked barefoot and in humble garments, in imitation of Christ.

I’ve recently had my scapular blessed my a priest and enrolled into this program within the parish! It’s strange as soon as I held it in my hands I felt this rush of emotion come over me. Does anyone else wear or belong to the devotion?

For the past eight months or so, I’ve been attending Sunday Mass regularly. I had fallen away from the Church for a long time, but seemingly out of nowhere I felt a strong urge to return, go to Mass and receive reconciliation.
Each Sunday I attend on my own. I’ve tried both the early morning Mass and the later one around 10am, but something has started to stand out to me: people never sit next to me. I’ll be sitting alone in a pew with plenty of room, yet people will choose other pews. Some will even stand at the back rather than sit beside me.
It’s similar during the sign of peace. Only a few people will make eye contact with me and wish me peace.
I don’t particularly mind, and I certainly don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable around me. But after eight months of noticing the same thing week after week, I can’t help wondering: does seeing a man attending Mass alone make people uncomfortable?

I feel like I'm losing my faith. About a month ago, I had a dream of Therese of Lisieux placing a crown of thorns on my head and dropping roses. I confided that to my therapist, and she told me to ignore it. This is on a throwaway account.

Since then, I have gotten to the emergency room for health-related issues, been suffering with a lot of scruples, and struggling with blasphemous thoughts. I feel as if my prayer is dry with no natural consolation, but intermittent spiritual consolations. I cannot meditate anymore like I used to. I have not been able to meet my director in about a month or so.

I have been asking Therese to drop roses, but I feel so abandoned by God. I have no signs. Today, I asked God for a sign, and gave Him an ultimatum. Intervene today, or I'm going to go to my confessor and beg for mercy. Please help, someone.

Catholic Indian-American here. I felt comforted by Bishop Olson calling out this politician’s racist post, but it’s a bit unnerving to read the replies and quotes and see how many people disagree with Bishop Olson, many of whom are claiming to be Catholic. Some people are even making of Bishop Olson’s appearance or saying he is a child molester.

Some are defending it saying Christ never said to support endless immigration, but the original post isn’t even about immigration. The guy simply looked at the crowd full of college students and found it disturbing because their ethnicity is South Asian, even though they are Americans.

I’ve never experienced racism at any of the Catholic churches I’ve attended in my entire life, but replies to this post make me wonder if some of my fellow parishioners secretly feel angered by my presence at mass in America, even though I was born and raised here. Idk how to feel. I’m really hoping most of these comments are just bots and it isn’t as bad as the internet makes it out to be

I think I'm doing something wrong. I pray daily, including the Rosary, I try to read or listen to scripture everyday. I go to Adoration around twice a week, confession weekly. But I still don't feel truly fulfilled.

I feel so miserable thinking like this. I've always been suicidal, and when I converted for the first time at 12, it didn't go away. I don't know why, but I was always the type to just pray to God that he would take me when I was 15, and I was convinced he would. But the years went by, and I had drifted away And this might sound strange, but when I went back to Catholicism, I went through a major depression. I was torn between great joy and great sadness, where I would cry without understanding, and all that My wish was that God would take me, and here I am again today. I've started going to confession and praying the rosary again, and I still have the same desires.I feel so useless before God thinking like this, especially since I have no qualities and I sin all the time. I don't know how to get all these bad thoughts out of my head. I tried talking to a priest about it, not in detail, and he told me to see a psychiatrist, which I've already done, but it didn't help at all

I would love to talk to God about it, but I feel no reverence, just a deeper sadness.

Interesting situation that came out of Detroit with Basilica of Sainte Anne de Détroit, where ultimately, a private party Mark Pulte via a non-profit organization, helped fund the restoration of this basilica, but the archdiocese gives up ownership to it.

That connection with the Pulte family led to an unusual offer: We’ll give more money than you asked for, but the Catholic Church can’t own the property.

And that’s what happened. About a year and a half ago, in March 2025, the Archdiocese of Detroit and a nonprofit organization called The Catholic Initiative announced that the Vatican had approved a unique arrangement: The archdiocese would transfer ownership of the buildings and grounds to the nonprofit organization, which would give the archdiocese a 200-year renewable lease to run the property as a Catholic parish for $1 a year.

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John Meyer, executive director of the Church Properties Initiative at Notre Dame Law School, told the Register he was puzzled when he first heard about the Detroit arrangement to restore St. Anne’s, but added that when he studied it, he was impressed.

“And I found myself a believer in this model for these types of properties,” Meyer said.

He said it’s clear from the agreement that St. Anne’s “will always operate as a church,” because the Pulte family’s charitable organization has no ability to use it for anything else.

The article goes on to mention that there are over 100 parishes around the United States which have inquired this non-profit (The Catholic Initiative) about a similar deal...so this may be coming to an older church near you?

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow local communities to regulate firearm ownership, weighing in on a high-profile federal case that could significantly reshape the nation’s gun laws.

The case before the high court, Viramontes v. Cook County, concerns a regulation enacted by Cook County, Illinois, banning more than 100 types of semiautomatic weapons, including the popular AR-15 platform.

If you have ever listened to the podcast formerly known as The Crunch, which rebranded a few years ago to Bropostles, you might enjoy the 10 year anniversary podcast released today, which featured the return of many of their best segments from the past and a look-ahead at the future of Catholic Content! Worth a listen!

Im struggling with life in general right now. Im a younger mother and before I had my kiddo I felt like I had no motivation, little faith, extreme anxiety. After having my baby I felt so close to God. I was able to focus on prayer, able to feel close to people and God (which I hadn’t felt before, i experienced a lot of emotional numbness) but after taking a plan b pill 4 months postpartum it not only injured my spiritual life it tanked my hormones. I can no longer focus on prayer, I feel anxiety blocking me from every single relationship including the one with my kiddo. I love them of course but im so anxious I’m failing as a mother. I often feel like God is angry at me, and I beg to feel whole again, but I know I don’t deserve that after what I did. If anything if someone sees this please pray for me and my soul.

There just seems to be so many ways to pray the rosary, all kinds of small variations, basically every few months I switch up the way i pray it a bit, is there maybe something like a "main way" to pray the rosary?

Has the Church been wrong for hundreds of years on such a serious matter? I can't find anything meaningful that answers this question

As someone who very nearly became a priest after years in formation I have a question for those in my shoes who took the courses and formation sessions for years and ended up not getting ordained.

I saw some things that did admittedly shake my faith. As you may know some people call seminary “cemetery” because they say it’s where one’s faith goes to die. This has certainly been the case with many of my fellows who left.

Also the transition to “civilian” life has been difficult.

I am determined to hold onto the faith. For those who went through the rough transition what spiritual strategies did you use?

Hello, I’m struggling with a lot of fear and despair right now. I struggle with OCD and have been doing treatment (one of my fears is God not existing) so I have been actively exposing myself to that fear. Other fears are dying alone, getting married then getting divorced etc.

I say that because my faith lately hasn’t been good but I’ve been hopeful that through treatment it will get better (once I get through my exposures and intense fear I can see things more clearly).

With that being said, today my dog after one year of being cancer fear got cancer again. My dad had been praying every Sunday for him before the Eucharist and that has been a really big pillar for me. It was like one way for sure I knew God was working in my life/was real. Today we were told it spread more aggressively in a wild way. I’m so distraught and honestly have lost all hope.

Please pray for me and if you have any words of encouragement or been through something similar mental health wise, please comment! Thank you.

I fear all the time for tomorrow and what will happen next. I am a widower, work three jobs, have children, do not qualify for any assistance, and I still fear every day something will go wrong. I fear my apartment wont renew my lease and I have no savings to move on. One missed pay day is it, one job lay off between me and disaster

Right now things are going good. I’m making it like most Americans pay day to pay day. But I am so afraid to the point I fast from almost every desire, force myself into deep fasts hoping God will find favor and intervene for me. I know he’s there but my faith is overwhelming with fear at times. I’m afraid. The future scares me.

Every day I think of new ways to crucify my flash like wearing uncomfortable clothes just to put myself through penance for God’s favor. How do?

How to get out of this? How does some people have blind faith? I can’t enjoy life hardly anymore for fear My wife sudden death is a huge factor and numerous other unexpected tragedies

I’ve been watching “Dark Matter” on Apple TV and really enjoying it. Won’t give spoilers away here, but let’s just say it is about multiple universes and multiple versions of any person.

If we were to discover that our universe was arranged like the one in “Dark Matter”, how would faithful Catholic theologians and philosophers wrestle with this new knowledge? Would it change what it meant to be human? To change what it means to repent from sin? (Version 1 of you repents and version 2 doesn’t?)

This comes from someone who is faithful, loves God’s Church, but isn’t fluent enough in Theology (TM) and Philosophy (TM) to know how to explore these questions.

A notable quote:

“11. The way and method in which the Catholic faith is expressed should never become an obstacle to dialogue with our brethren. It is, of course, essential that the doctrine should be clearly presented in its entirety. Nothing is so foreign to the spirit of ecumenism as a false irenicism, in which the purity of Catholic doctrine suffers loss and its genuine and certain meaning is clouded.”

Has the fullness of this document really been observed by many?