Hymns | Holy Cross Day | 14 September

Holy Cross Day, kept on 14 September, does not appear in the usual Church of Ireland calendar. It is, however, observed in the calendar of the Community of St Benedict, and so it has become part of the rhythm by which I pray and mark the Christian year.

The day invites us to contemplate the Cross not merely as an instrument of suffering, but as the place where the self-giving love of God is revealed. The appointed scriptures draw together the serpent lifted by Moses in the wilderness, the desolation of Psalm 22, Christ’s humility and exaltation in Philippians, and the promise in John’s Gospel that the Son of Man must be lifted up.

This hymn places those biblical images within the Irish landscape. The Cross stands amid bog and hillside, beside rivers and beneath ancient trees. It meets us in valley mist, peat-smoke and Atlantic wind. These are not decorations around the story of salvation: they remind us that the Cross is planted within the real landscapes of human life—within beauty and pain, abandonment and healing, death and hope.

The cry of Christ—“Forsaken”—means that no depth of suffering lies beyond his presence. Yet the Cross is not the end of the story. The Crucified One is also risen and exalted, and the healing begun upon the tree continues wherever lives and landscapes are opened to his transforming love.

O Christ, uplifted on the tree

1.
O Christ, uplifted on the tree,
Whose mercy breaks the serpent’s claim,
In wilderness and bog and brí,
Your healing fire burns through our shame.

2.
From Slemish slopes to Shannon’s tide,
Your Cross stands tall in wind and rain;
The cry “Forsaken” once You cried
Now sanctifies our deepest pain.

3.
The oak and ash in stillness stand,
As ancient prayers around us rise;
Your Cross, the doorway to that land
Where heaven breathes through earthly skies.

4.
Though you were God in form and right,
You bent to earth in humble grace;
The hazel glen and peat‑smoke night
Are brightened by Your lifted face.

5.
As Moses raised the sign to save,
So you draw all by love’s pure flame;
The hawthorn bows, the oceans wave,
And all creation knows your Name.

6.
O Christ, whose Cross the world renews,
Whose rising breaks the grip of death,
In Celtic quiet your Spirit brews
New life in every pilgrim breath.

7.
Exalted now at God’s right hand,
Your Name above all names proclaimed;
The Cross still marks this pilgrim land
With hope that never can be tamed.

8.
So lead us, Bright and Burning One,
Through valley mist and mountain air;
Until the healing work begun
Is crowned in glory everywhere.

Hymn information 

First line: O Christ, uplifted on the tree
Text: Michael McFarland Campbell
Metre: LM
Tune: Gonfalon Royal
Theme: Holy Cross Day
Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17
NDH-0339

© Michael McFarland Campbell. 2026. 
Permission granted for local church or parish use with attribution. Not for commercial reproduction.