The collect for the Monday before Easter

ALMIGHTY God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified; Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This morning I decided to incorporate a simple 7am Rite I Holy Eucharist service at St. David’s into my daily prayer time. While praying in the pew before the service, this collect got ahold of me and I mediated on it.

In my evangelical background, Christ’s crucifixion is chiefly portrayed as what won our salvation. And that’s good. But it’s easy to miss that His death is more than that. For one thing, it calls us to walk “in the way of the cross,” to take up our cross and follow Him, to in a very real way suffer and die.

And that’s scary.

But the way of the cross is the way of life and peace. The cross of Christ won our life and peace. Taking up our cross and following Him is the way to fully experience that life and peace.

But it still scares me. And, in a way, I guess it should.