How This Protestant Came to Love the Crucifix
A few weeks ago, I found myself in Saint Mary’s Cathedral , the bishop’s seat for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. I wanted to make a point to pray in that old church, a church whose exterior I had admired since I was a child. As I approached the alter, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful life-size painting of Christ crucified above the alter. I knelt on the kneelers at the front and the only prayer that I could find the words to pray was the great Sanctus, a doxology used in the liturgy: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and Earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! Amen.” Crucifixes are not a part of the church tradition I grew up in. I was raised in a nondenominational evangelical Protestant Charismatic congregation. Sure, we had crosses but none of them featured the crucified Christ. Instead, our pastor explained that while the Roman Catholics were focused on the cru
