Today's Entrance Antiphon, in a precise and elegant form, gives the theological foundations for today's feast: "We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection; through him we are saved and made free." This antiphon is based on Saint Paul's words (Galatians 6:14): "As for me, the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" and adds the gifts Jesus won for us: salvation, life, resurrection, liberation.

Perhaps words like "boast" or "glory" do not help us nowadays to see how devotion to the Cross of Christ can foster our spiritual life. And so we might, for example, say we should "reverence the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ".

We show our reverence for the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in several different ways. On Good Friday, the veneration of the Cross is an important part of our liturgy and should be done with great reverence. We acknowledge the importance of the Cross when we begin and end our prayers with the sign of the Cross, and recognize this simple gesture as a salvific blessing.