This is not a private devotion but an act of the Church's public worship: the second part of the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday, standing between the Liturgy of the Word and Holy Communion in the Roman Missal. The Cross is shown in three stages with the acclamation 'Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the Salvation of the world', answered by 'Come, let us adore'; the Reproaches and other chants accompany the procession of the faithful. The Missal directs that a single Cross be used for the veneration, so that the sign is not divided.

Come to the Celebration of the Passion in your parish on Good Friday afternoon, and plan to stay for the whole of it. When the Cross has been unveiled and shown, join the procession and make the act of veneration your parish uses — a genuflection, a kiss, a bow or a touch — without hurrying, and let the gesture be the prayer. If the assembly is very large the priest may hold up the Cross for a common veneration instead; make the act with the same deliberateness from where you stand. Keep the fast and abstinence of the day, and let the silence after the liturgy stand rather than filling it.

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