TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which in the East is compared to Easter, is connected with the discovery of Jesus’ cross by Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, on September 14, 320, and with the dedication of the basilica erected over the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (335), built by Constantine. “To be healed from sin, let us look to Christ Crucified,” Saint Augustine said. Raising our eyes to the Crucified One, we adore him who came to take upon himself the sin of the world and give us eternal life. 
Let us reflect on the profound meaning of this feast through the words of John Paul II: “Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Christ. Just as the crucified Christ is raised up by faith in the hearts of all who believe, so he raises those same hearts with a hope that cannot be destroyed. For the cross is the sign of redemption, and redemption contains the promise of the resurrection and the beginning of new life: the lifting up of human hearts” (Homily, September 14, 1984).

To learn more:
• At Your Word - September-October Mass Booklet

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows

No one more than Mary - who had the courage to “stand” beneath the cross - can teach us how to live and face the cross; she can point us toward hope in the cross.
To her, today, we entrust the “night” we are experiencing, praying with the words of the servant of God Tonino Bello.

Holy Mary, Virgin of the Night, we implore you to stay close to us when pain looms, trial breaks in, the wind of despair whistles, and the black sky of troubles, the cold of disappointment, or death’s stern wing hangs over our lives.
Deliver us from the shivers of darkness. In the hour of our Calvary, you who experienced the eclipse of the sun, spread your mantle over us, so that, wrapped in your breath, the long wait for freedom may become more bearable. 
Lighten the suffering of the sick with a Mother’s caresses. Fill the bitter time of those who are alone with friendly, discreet company. Extinguish the fires of nostalgia in the hearts of seafarers, and offer them your shoulder on which to rest their heads. Protect our loved ones who toil in distant lands from every evil, and comfort them with the poignant flash of your eyes,
to those who have lost faith in life. 
Repeat the song of the Magnificat even today, and announce overflowing justice
to all the oppressed of the earth. Do not leave us alone in the night, chanting our fears.
Indeed, if in moments of darkness you draw near to us and whisper that you too, Virgin of Advent, are waiting for the light, the springs of tears will dry upon our faces.
And together we will awaken the dawn. Amen.

To learn more:
• Prayers for Our Lady’s sorrows and tears
• Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
Beginning of the novena to Saints Cosmas and Damian

Today begins the novena to Saints Cosmas and Damian, physicians and martyrs, whom the Church commemorates on September 26. They lived between the third and fourth centuries and have been the object of a very ancient and widespread devotion in both the East and the West. Tradition and art have passed down to us a variety of legends and miracles attributed to these two brothers.

To learn more:
• Saints Cosmas and Damian, physicians

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
Saint Joseph of Copertino

Saint Joseph of Copertino is known as “the flying saint” because he experienced the phenomenon of levitation due to his continual ecstasies, but he is a saint because of the humility and obedience with which he lived his life, always entrusting himself to God’s will. Giuseppe Maria Desa was born on June 17, 1603, in Copertino (Lecce), in a stable in the town. Rejected by some Orders «for his limited learning, simplicity, and ignorance», after much insistence he managed to be accepted by the Conventuals of the “Grottella” and soon expressed the desire to become a priest. He undertook his studies with great difficulty, but the bishop examining him, opening the book at random, asked him about the only passage he knew how to explain.
He was thus ordained a priest by God’s will. He moved from one convent to another until he was assigned to Osimo (Ancona), where he died in 1663.

To learn more:
• Saint Joseph of Copertino

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Blessed Virgin Mary of La Salette

Twelve years before the apparitions at Lourdes, Our Lady had already appeared in France, at La Salette, to two shepherd children: Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud. On September 19, 1846, near a small spring, the two saw, on a pile of stones, a globe of fire «as if the sun had fallen there». Frightened, they approached, and a beautiful Lady appeared there, sitting with her head in her hands, her elbows on her knees, weeping. The Virgin Mary appeared at La Salette to manifest the presence, in our world and in our lives, of the saving power that is in Christ Jesus. The joy of La Salette is the great joy of the children of God who rediscover the Father’s love in their lives.

To learn more:
• Novena to Our Lady of La Salette
• Choose life, then