“How precious is the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise but opens the way for our return.” St. Theodore the Studite (8th-9th centuries)
“Christians must lean on the Cross of Christ just as travelers lean on a staff when they begin a long journey. They must have the Passion of Christ deeply embedded in their minds and hearts, because only from it can they derive peace, grace, and truth.” St. Anthony of Padua (12th-13th centuries, Doctor of the Church)
“When we are overcome by sadness, fear, or suffering; when the pains of loss overwhelm us; when evil seems to have taken power; let us look to the cross and be filled with peace, knowing that Christ has walked this road and walks it now with us and with all our brothers and sisters.” St. Teresa of Avila (16th century, Doctor of the Church)
“The gate that gives entry into these riches of His wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it.” St. John of the Cross (16th century, Doctor of the Church)
“Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.” St. Rose of Lima (16th-17th centuries)
“Place your hopes in the mercy of God and the merits of our Redeemer; say often, looking at the crucifix: there are centered all my hopes.” St. Paul of the Cross (17th-18th centuries)
“We are co-redeemers of the world. And souls are not redeemed without the cross.” St. Teresa of the Andes (19th-20th centuries)
“The cross is the school of love.” St. Maximilian Kolbe (19th-20th centuries)
“Jesus said to me, ‘How many times would you have abandoned Me, My son, if I had not crucified you. Beneath the cross, one learns love, and I do not give this to everyone, but only to those souls who are dearest to Me’.” St. Pio of Pietrelcina (19th-20th centuries)
“By a beautiful paradox of Divine Love, God makes His cross the very means of our salvation and our life. We have slain Him; we have nailed Him there and crucified Him; but the Love in His eternal Heart could not be extinguished. He willed to give us the very life we slew; to give us the very Food we destroyed; to nourish us with the very Blood we poured forth. He made our very crime into a happy fault: He turned a Crucifixion into a Redemption; a Consecration into a Communion; a death into Life Everlasting. And it is just this that makes man all the more mysterious! Why man should be loved, is no mystery. But why he does not love in return, is a great mystery. Why should Our Lord be the Great Unloved; why should Love not be loved? He is loved in all who unite themselves with Christ the Priest and the Victim.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)
“The cross was the reason of His coming, now He made it the earmark of His followers. He did not make Christianity easy; for He implied not only must there be a voluntary renouncement of everything that hindered likeness of Him, but also there must be the suffering, shame, and death of the cross. They did not have to blaze a trail of sacrifice themselves, but merely to follow His tracks zealously as the Man of Sorrow. No disciple is called to the task that is untried. He had taken the cross first. Only those who were willing to be crucified with Him could be saved by the merits of His death and only those who bore a cross could ever really understand Him.” Ven. Fulton Sheen