I once designed a logo for a longsword organization and their tag line was going to be a quote from Fiore, “Everything begins at the cross”. This is a rough translation due to the manuscript were written in vague Latin, which is not spoken anymore.

Fiore dei Liberi, was a late 14th-century knight, diplomat, and itinerant fencing master. He is the earliest Italian master from whom we have an extant martial arts manual. His Flower of Battle (Fior di Battaglia, Flos Duellatorum) is among the oldest surviving fencing manuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiore_dei_Liberi

Historian believed that during the middle ages, you were thought to be intelligent if you could craft a sentence with words or phrases that has a double meaning. So throughout old manuscripts, you would see this double meaning method being used.

Fiore believed that it was not a real duel or a true fight if your opponent was unarmed. So in his manuscripts, he states that “everything begins at the cross”, referring to the crossing of your blade with your opponent’s blade. Seeing that Fiore was a knight, and most knights were part of religious organizations (the church), we get the second meaning of this phrase.

As believers, we know that everything really does begin at the cross of Jesus. This is where you obtain our salvation, healing, redemption, and forgiveness. At the cross is where we have gained everything and our adversary loses it all. So Fiore was correct in his statement “EVERYTHING BEGIN AT THE CROSS”.

Application

• If you have not yet received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today can be your day. (see Gospel In 3 Minutes )
• Praise the Lord for what was purchased at the Cross ( salvation, healing, redemption, and forgiveness )
• Share your testimony with someone this week,