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Show COMMEMORATIVE CRUCIFIXES. An Excellent Plan for Rendering Homage to Our Divine Redeemer. During the Holy Year of Jubilee and at the commencement of the twentieth century the Church Universal, led by the venerable Vicar of Christ, will render ren-der special solemn homage to Our Divine Di-vine Rereemer in various ways throughout the world, says Mr. Dudley Baxter, in the London "Catholic Times." Foremost among these will be the erection of commemorative crucifixes cru-cifixes and crosses in loving memory of the awful Sacrifice of Calvary, when in bitter agony and mysterious desolation the Lord Jesus Christ shed His Precious Pre-cious Blood for our redemption. Now, there are many methods in which the Christian Symbol might be I specially honored, and may not these be summed up under the following heads? I. The erection of large crucifixes and crosses in some prominent position posi-tion inside churches, more especially by the restoration of the Holy Rood. II. 'The setting up of crucifixes and crosses outside churches, viz., on their exterior walls; also particularly by the restoration of the churchyard cross, and, if possible, of the village or the wayside crucifixes or crosses. III. The hanging of crucifixes and j crosses upon the walls of our houses . and wearing them on our persons. ' The last method here advocated needs no discussion, but the first two suggestions perhaps should be given some further explanation. With regard to the crucifixes placed inside churches, there can surely be no question that the old position at the junction of nave and chancel is the place of honor par excellence in the traditional usage of Catholic ecclesiastical ecclesiast-ical decoration. Until the unhappy Reformation period the "Rood, Mary, and John" that is to say, the Crucifix with statues of Our Lady and St. John the Evangelist on either side of it, usually placed upon a rood-screen was a universal feature in every church, whether cathedral, conventual j or parochial, throughout the land. For ! instance, the last Catholic Archgishop ! of Canterbury, the saintly and distin- : guished Cardinal Pole, in his interest-ing interest-ing Visitation Articles, insists upon its ' due restoration everywhere in his arch- I diocese. There is no necessity to recall 1 here the prevalent absence of this j beautiful feature in our . English ! churches today; alas! there have even ! been nineteenth century and Catholic iconoclasts, and, while many Anglicans are trying to introduce the Rood-screen Rood-screen with its figures in their places of religious worship, contrary to their ecclesiastical law, we Catholics could erect it in ours, but unfortunately fail to do so. Most certainly the exaggerated exag-gerated massive form of a mediaeval rood-loft has fortunately had its day except in certain Anglican cathedrals and larger churches, once our own, where it now supports an organ as a rule. But the usual type of Rood-screen, Rood-screen, with its light and open structure, struc-ture, does not hide ' the altar at all, while it forms a becoming partition and a wise entrance guard, as it were, to the chancel, and so to the sanctuary enshrining the Body of Christ in the tabernacle. Again, the use of a loft or gallery above the screen is not likely ever to be revived among us, and if the Rood-screen is considered unsuitable to any particular church, then, as in old ' days, too. either the Rood (or great crucifix) might hang from the roof or it might be placed upon a beam stretching stretch-ing across the chancel arch,- and with the figures of "Our Ladye Saint Marie" and of St. John, the beloved Apostle, on either side. In this case no screen is necessary at all, and at the same time the Crucifix is accorded a position at once the most central, the most dignified and the most suitable in the building a position, too, which is something more than one of architectural architec-tural beauty, for it comes by Catholic instinct and as a beloved heritage from the past Ages of Faith. |