During this week, at Mass, the Servant Songs of Isaiah are read. Today’s reading is the Second Song, from Isaiah 49: ‘The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”’ Here we see the ‘glorious course of the Son’ accomplished in hiddenness and humility.

The crucifix shown is a Benedictine crucifix, with the special Benedictine medal inserted into the design. At the top of the medal is the word ‘Pax’, Peace. As St Paul wrote to the Ephesians, ‘He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end’.

May Christ’s peace be yours this Holy Week and Easter, and may He bless your walk with Him.