Prot. Dmitry Smirnov

Today we throughout the Church glorify the Cross of the Lord. The reason for this event was historical. Queen Helena organized an expedition to find the Tree of the Honest Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, and with a large number of accompanying people - both labor and soldiers - headed to Jerusalem. And they began to search, because Jerusalem was completely destroyed by Roman troops under the leadership of two emperors - Titus and Vespasian. On this occasion, the victorious Arch of Titus is still located next to the Colosseum in Rome - as a sign of victory. And they began to ask local residents, because in ancient times, by the grace of God, there were no newspapers and no televisions either, so people communicated only by word of mouth. There were no books, and if there was Holy Scripture, only a small number of people could read it. Therefore, people’s heads were completely free, like a clean, clear sheet, and they remembered a lot of what dad said, what grandmother said, what great-grandfather said. And after interviewing local residents, they established the place that is Mount Golgotha, carried out excavations and found the Cross of the Lord. They found out which of the three crosses belonged to the Savior, placing it on the deceased, as the funeral procession walked past. The deceased has risen. This amazed everyone so much that they decided to establish the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross in honor of this event. Exaltation - because then the Cross was erected so that all the people could see it. And we still celebrate this holiday since the time of Queen Helena. And even in our temple a small piece of the Tree of the Lord is kept by the grace of God, and in many churches there are small particles of the Tree of the Lord, they have spread throughout the world and are a source of God’s grace.

But in addition to the Life-Giving Tree of the Lord itself, the Cross has a spiritual meaning for every Christian. The Holy Church chose the memory of the erection of the Cross as the second holiday of the church year, the twelfth, the greatest, in order to remind us again and again not only of this shrine, but also of our destiny. Not a single person, without carrying his cross or carrying it with grumbling, no matter how heavy this cross may be, unfortunately, cannot achieve the Kingdom of God, which the Lord wants to give to everyone. Why is that? Because a person enters the Kingdom of God when he has completed all the virtues within himself.

Why is the cross so important? Why does the Church decorate churches and sacred robes with the cross of the Lord, why do priests and laity wear the cross on themselves? To remind you all the time how salvation happens. Salvation is possible only through the cross, and the very death of Christ the Savior points to this. Man, like any animal, wants to live well, satisfyingly, happily, not get sick, so that no one offends him. But if someone, God forbid, manages to organize a serene, calm life for himself, if he has no losses at all in his life, if no one offends him, unfortunately, such a person will not be saved. Why is that? How does our salvation work here? For salvation, the most important virtue is humility, so that a person acquires a peaceful spirit, so that nothing disturbs a person: neither people, nor politics, nor neighbors, nor children, nor grandchildren, nor sons-in-law, nor daughters-in-law. Imagine, nothing disturbs, there is a peaceful spirit in a person’s heart. To do this, you need to acquire such a virtue as humility - from the word “peace”. Peace in the soul and peace with God. Why? Because a person saves his soul by the grace of God, and the grace of God cannot be in the heart of a person who is in indignation, in anger, in the love of money, in bitterness, in malice, in revenge, in jealousy. In children, this usually manifests itself as: “I’m right,” “he’s wrong,” “that’s fair,” “that’s unfair.” Actually, what difference does it make, fair or unfair? The main thing is that you are in a state of rage. And when a person is in this state, the Holy Spirit cannot enter his heart, because the Holy Spirit is the spirit of meekness, the spirit of mercy, the spirit of love. And salvation for such a person is impossible, even if he gives all his property to the poor, even if he builds five hundred churches, it will not give anything. The Holy Spirit will still not be able to enter such a restless soul. Therefore, humility is the main virtue through which one can achieve salvation for oneself.

This wonderful church-wide holiday teaches us love, humility, and patience. And the Lord not only called for this, He also showed how it happens. Imagine how God, Who created the universe, endured all this, how He humbled himself, endured terrible torment. Only to save us all. Not en masse, but each individually, if he wishes. And each of us at any moment of our lives - in youth, in old age, in maturity or while still a child - if he wants salvation, the Lord will definitely save him. You just need to demonstrate this, and for this you need to acquire a peaceful spirit. Therefore, we will try. Then our celebration will be according to this day, if we do everything with humility. But we are proud people, we ourselves usually cannot humble ourselves, no one taught us this, and no one talked about this in childhood. And without this there is no way to be completely saved. And we all want to change people to suit us. “I want” or “I don’t want”, “I will”, “I won’t”. And as a result, the Lord is forced to turn away from man, because God created man free, and the Kingdom of God will be inherited only by those who want to, and not from under the stick. God does not need love from under the stick. Only training can happen under pressure. And God wants the same love that he showed us. And He himself said: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend(John 15:13). And He laid down His soul for us. And we must also direct our lives in such a way as to lay down our souls for our Lord and Savior.

On this day, the great church man, John Chrysostom, departed to the Lord. So they called him, in Greek - Chrysostomos, which means “golden lips”. The great teacher of the Church who lived in the 4th century - can you imagine how ancient he is! – and died on our territory, in Abkhazia. He was exiled there. The Greeks called the entire northern coast of the Black Sea hell, because it seemed to them that it was very cold there. It's really damp there, and winter conditions are generally very difficult. And he. While they were driving him there, he became very weak and on this day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross he went to the Lord, saying the great words: “Glory to God for everything!” This is true humility - both for sorrow and for joy, and for the birth of people, and for peacetime, and for war. For all. A person who has achieved humility, opening the window, despite the fact that there is rain or sun, silence or a nuclear war has begun, says: “Glory to God for everything!” Because God knows best what medicine to give to each person for his salvation.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Today the Holy Church solemnly remembers the discovery of the Precious Cross of the Lord. This joyful event followed, as we know, three centuries after the Resurrection of the Lord and was accomplished through the zeal of the holy Queen Helen, mother of Equal-to-the-Apostles King Constantine. Through a long and difficult path of humility, the Lord Jesus Christ entered into His glory, and the humiliation of the Life-Giving Tree, on which the Lord offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, continued incomparably longer.

The Savior of the world was already in Heaven, and the instrument of salvation was contained in the bowels of the earth; the glory of the Crucified One had already been announced to all the ends of the universe, but no one knew about the Tree of the Cross even in those places that were adjacent to Golgotha ​​itself. But the world began to become convinced that the word of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but the power of God for those who are being saved (1 Cor. 1:18), and the Tree of the Cross needed to appear to the world for its joy, for the triumph and decoration of the Church. Constantine the Great, who himself had repeatedly experienced the power of the Cross, set out to find the very Tree on which our Savior was crucified.

This sacred work was undertaken by his venerable mother, Empress Helena. The Holy Spirit inspired this Equal-to-the-Apostles queen to use effort and zeal to seek the Cross. But how to find this treasure? On the advice of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Macarius, the oldest Jews were convened, and when asked where their ancestors hid the Cross of Christ, they pointed to a certain Judas, who, having brought the queen and the archbishop to the north-eastern side of Golgotha, told them: “In this place, where the temple of Venus stands, you will find the Cross of your Christ." The temple was torn down and after much labor - since the Cross was littered with debris and earth - the Cross of the Savior - and with it the crosses of the thieves crucified with the Lord - was found. Even before finding them, a fragrance emanating from the earth was felt. But since three crosses were found, in order to determine which of them was the Cross of the Lord, Patriarch Macarius ordered that the sick pious woman lying on her deathbed be attached to the crosses. When it was applied to the first two crosses, they did not produce any effect or change in the state of the sufferer, but touching the third not only revived her from her sickbed, but also gave her greater strength than what she had previously possessed. After this, giving glory to God, everyone unanimously recognized the miraculous cross as the Cross of the Lord.

Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

But this was still not enough. It pleased God's providence to further glorify the power of the Cross, so that his enemies would believe in him. They carried a dead man past the house where the sick woman lay for burial. And so the Patriarch again places three crosses on the dead man, one after the other. When the Cross of the Savior was laid, a miracle happened: the dead man was resurrected, so that even the enemies of Christ’s Church from among the Jews themselves believed. Each of those present wanted to prostrate themselves before the Cross and kiss it, but the cramped space and the large crowd of people did not allow this. Then the people began to ask that they at least be shown the Tree of the Cross.

Saint Macarius, standing on an elevated place, erected the Honest Tree, and the people, overwhelmed with reverent joy, exclaimed: “Lord, have mercy!” Therefore, the memory of this glorious event received in our Church the name of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross of the Lord. Judas, who suggested where to find the Cross, believed in the crucified Lord, received Baptism with the name Cyriacus, later became the Patriarch of Jerusalem and died a martyr’s death.

The power of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord provides the greatest help to those who protect themselves with its sign. “The Cross is a sign of our salvation, the common freedom and mercy of our Master,” says St. John Chrysostom about the Cross. This sign, both in former and modern times, opened locked doors, took away the power of harmful substances, rendered poison ineffective and healed the deadly stings of animals. For if it opened the gates of hell, opened the door of heaven, reopened the entrance to heaven, crushed the fortress of the devil, then what is surprising if it defeats the power of poisonous substances, animals and everything like that?

Indeed, the sign of the Cross has great power. Thus, once in the city of Bostra, in Arabia, there was Bishop Julian, one of the monks. Some residents of this city, enemies of Christ, wanted to poison him with poison. They bribed a young servant so that when he served Julian a drink, he would mix poison into the cup. As he was taught, so he did. He gave the cup of poison to Saint Julian. Julian recognized the deceit and, accepting the cup, placed it in front of him without saying anything to the young man. Then he summoned all the citizens of the city, including the attackers, and, not wanting to expose them, he said to everyone: if you are thinking of poisoning the humble Julian with poison, then here I am drinking it in front of you. Having overshadowed the glass with the triple sign of the Cross with the words: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I drink this glass” - and after drinking it in front of everyone, he remained unharmed. The attackers saw this, fell to the ground and asked for forgiveness.

At the sight of numerous miracles in which the power of the Cross of Christ is manifested, Saint Demetrius of Rostov says in his homily on the Exaltation: “It is worthwhile and righteous to worship the Cross of Christ, for by this blessed Tree death was put to death and life was given. We were put to death by the Tree of Paradise, and by the Tree of the Cross revived; the first to be expelled from paradise, the second to ascend to heaven; the second to defeat our enemies; therefore, this blessed Tree was kept in great honor in the temple of Solomon, then so much the better. The weapon of the cross is worthy of greater veneration and worship, with which Christ defeated not man, but the devil, this hellish Goliath, with all his army. Before Christ’s coming, the demon had power, because people did not have weapons to resist him, but now there is the Cross of Christ; just put the sign of the cross on yourself - and he will immediately run away from you. He is bound by the power of the cross, and if he is bound, how can he harm you? If it does harm, you yourself bind him, that is, put on yourself the sign of the Cross of the Lord - and he will be bound. Does the devil put evil thoughts into your mind? Place the sign of the cross on your forehead - and he will run away from you. Does it force you to turn your eyes here and there? Place the sign of the cross on your forehead - and he will move away from you. Forces your tongue to rant? Drive away with the cross. Does the vain words of others reach your ears? Protect your hearing with the Cross of Christ." Saint John of Damascus also advises us, who says: "The cross was given to us as a sign on our foreheads, just as circumcision was given to Israel. We, the faithful, are distinguished by the cross from the infidels, we are marked by the cross, the cross is a shield, a weapon and a victory over the devil; This is a seal so that the destroyer cannot touch us.”

Dear brothers and sisters, when worshiping the Cross of the Lord, we must take care that our outward worship is an expression of our inner spiritual adoration before the Savior. It will be saving for us if it serves as an expression of our sincere and reverent faith in the crucified Lord. Jesus Christ crucified on the Cross is our Savior and God, the Cross is the banner of our victory and Christian faith. With humility we bow our knees and our minds before this sign, reverent before the incomprehensible wisdom of God and the highest secret love of God for the human race. We must always confess our faith in the Lord crucified for us, remembering the words of the Savior: Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father in Heaven. (Matt. 10:32).

Dear brothers and sisters, knowing the power of the Life-giving Cross and the fact that the Lord suffered for our sins so that we could live for righteousness, let us try to live piously, in the truth of God, otherwise we will undergo terrible punishment not only for our sins, but also for trampling on the Blood of the Son God's May this not happen to us. On the contrary, let us be filled with a feeling of gratitude to the Lord and with true filial devotion and love let us fall to this Cross, kissing the Savior depicted on it and crying: We bow to Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection!

September 27, 2018

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

O many-chanted Tree of the Cross! O life-giving Tree of the Cross! O blessed Tree of the Cross! O honorable Cross, all-joyful sign of our redemption!

Show us, sinners, the path of saving life.

Our friends! “...the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”(1 Cor. 1:18). And yesterday you and I visibly touched this power, becoming participants in the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Life-Giving Tree floated past each of you, carried from the Holy of Holies, from the earthly sky, from the altar of the Lord. It floated, rose to a height, and sank to the ground in order to rise again, covering all directions of the world, so that everyone could see, understand and feel the power and authority of this great sign of victory.

It was not through human invention that this wondrous holiday, which absorbed three different-time events in the history of the Life-Giving Tree, entered the world, and it is not through human efforts that it has been preserved in the world for seventeen centuries. The Gospel reading of the holiday points to the power that constantly and autocratically controls the changeable and fickle world. The strength and power of the Cross is made up of the great sacrifice - the sufferings of the Savior on the cross, starting from His unrighteous condemnation to death until the piercing of the rib of His most pure body, from which flowed blood and water, feeding the world into Eternal Life. And the Gospel ends with the assurance that the truth of this terrible story is attested by an eyewitness to that Calvary sacrifice and is conveyed so that those who hear it will believe.

The Orthodox Church, born on the eve of the appearance to the world of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord and which in the person of the Apostles became an eyewitness to the great feat of love - even to death and death on the cross - has since accepted the sign of the Cross as a saving symbol for believers, and not only as a symbol, but as a saving symbol. the power with which enemies are defeated.

Evidence of the veneration of the Cross of the Lord has been preserved in the writings of the apostles that have reached us and in the writings of the teachers of the Church. And living examples of this power, appearing at all times, gave rise to a special rule of veneration of the Cross, established at the Sixth Ecumenical Council, which took place in 680 in Constantinople.

Its 73rd rule reads: “Since the Life-giving Cross has shown us salvation, it is fitting for us to use every diligence, so that honor may be given to that through which we were saved from the ancient fall.”

The first is the terrible and glorious Cross of the Lord, which from an instrument of execution became an instrument of power and glory. This is the Cross that lifted the innocent and voluntary Sufferer Christ the Savior from earth to heaven and nailed with Him the sins of the whole world. The cross, watered with His pure blood and with it washed away all sinful filth. The cross, which has absorbed many evil glances, ridicule and blasphemy. The cross, at the foot of which only two people cried: the Mother of the Crucified One, whose very heart was pierced by the weapon of the Cross, and the only disciple whose love was not frightened away by the horror of suffering.

This Cross rose above the world for a short time, only to be hidden in the ground for a long time by human malice. But this short time was enough for the Life-Giving Cross to conquer the world and revive it.

The Lord Jesus Christ entered His glory through a long and difficult path of humility, but the humiliation of the Life-Giving Tree on which He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world lasted incomparably longer. All the ends of the universe were already filled with the glory of the Crucified One, and the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross, hidden in ignorance and ignominy, awaited its time for another three centuries.

Already the Cross crowned the Church of Christ, already the sign of the cross, by the power of Christ crucified on it, strengthened the human weakness of the first Christians who went to suffer for their faith, and the only Life-giving and Savior Tree was still hidden from human gaze.

Christianity expanded and strengthened. Already the powers that be were thinking about the Divine origin of the Crucified and Ascended to the Cross. Emperor Constantine the Great was honored with all his army to see the sign of God - the Cross shining from the stars in the sky and the radiance of the inscription around it: “By this you conquer.” And the sign of the Cross gave him the path to many victories in battle.

Such phenomena revived in the minds of Christians the memory of the first Cross of the Lord, and with it the faith that this great shrine could not perish. By this time, the Church was already filled with many living testimonies of the feats of bearing the cross, and it so lacked for the triumph, glory, and joy of that only Cross, from which victory over death shone forth. And the work of searching for the Cross of the Lord was undertaken by eighty-year-old Helen, the mother of the first Christian emperor Constantine. The Holy Spirit inspired this queen (later called Equal-to-the-Apostles), to the glory of the Crucified One and to the joy of Orthodox Christians, to put in a lot of work and effort to acquire the shrine.

The pagan emperors and the malice of the Jews tried to completely destroy in man the memories of sacred events and sacred places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for people and was resurrected. The Holy Sepulcher and Golgotha ​​were covered with earth, and a pagan temple was erected on the site of an artificial hill.

And now the Christian queen was looking for traces of the lost treasure among the Jews hostile to Christianity.

And how great is the power and authority of God, you can judge for yourself: in response to the queen’s question addressed to the elder Jews: “Where did your ancestors hide the Cross of Christ?” - they pointed her to a certain old Jew Judas, who, in response to a repeated question, apparently against his will, led her to the site of the temple of Venus and said: “In this very place you will find the Cross of your Christ.”

Judas betrayed Christ to the Cross, and three hundred years later another Judas will contribute to the manifestation of the glory of Christ.

After the removal of the temple, the search continued for a long time, and hopes gave way to hopelessness, until the Lord Himself deigned to reveal to people the shrine resting in the ground. The fragrance of the Holy Spirit coming from the earth put an end to the search.

But again the pious seekers were perplexed. Instead of one coveted Cross, they found three, and completely identical ones. The tablet with the inscription, which at one time was on the Cross of the Savior, was found later in another place.

Saint Macarius, who led the search together with Queen Helena, exclaimed: “If God’s Providence did not deign to leave the Cross of the Lord in the ground forever, then will it allow it to remain in obscurity? Will he allow us to give honor to the cross of the thief instead of the Cross of the Lord? God Himself will show us the Cross of our Savior.”

All three crosses were brought into the house of the pious wife, who was lying on her deathbed. After a fiery prayer, the saint one by one laid crosses on the dying woman. And only with the latter’s touch did the power of life enter the sick person.

Those present at the miracle unanimously gave glory to the Cross of the Lord. But this certificate was not enough for the glory of the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross. It was God's providence that the glory of the Lord's Cross should shine forth even to those who did not want to recognize it, so that by the power of the Honest Tree unbelief and the enemies of the Lord's Cross would be crushed.

Returning from the healed woman’s home to Golgotha, Christians met a funeral procession. Filled with faith, the pious Saint Macarius boldly applied the Cross of the Lord to the deceased, and the Cross of the Conqueror of Death and Hell, again breaking the bonds of death, revived the deceased.

The news of the perfect miracle, which shocked those present, flew around Jerusalem in the blink of an eye and gathered believers and non-believers to the foot of the Cross at Golgotha. And countless people wanted to see the wonderful Tree at least from afar.

Saint Macarius and Queen Helena, standing on a dais, erected the Holy Cross as high as possible on all four sides, so that everyone could bow to it. The people, overwhelmed with awe, exclaimed in great numbers: “Lord, have mercy!”

The power of the influence of the Life-Giving Tree was so great that Jews were baptized in large numbers, and among them was Elder Judas, who pointed out the place of hiding of the Cross of the Lord, received the name Cyriacus in baptism and became, by the grace of God, at the end of his life the Bishop of Jerusalem, and for a short period of life in Christianity he himself ascended to his martyr's cross during the reign of Julian the Apostate.

This is how the acquisition of the Cross of the Lord took place. Three hundred and twenty-six years after the crucifixion of the Savior, the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord again became a preacher of the power and Divinity of Christ.

“It is worthwhile and righteous to worship the Cross of Christ,” says Saint Demetrius of Rostov, the Russian Chrysostom, in his homily on the Exaltation, for with this blessed Tree death was put to death and life was given. By the Tree of Paradise we were put to death, and by the Tree of the Cross we were revived; the first to be expelled from paradise, the second to ascend to heaven; The enemy defeated us first, we defeat the enemies second.”

After the discovery of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine ordered the construction of a majestic and extensive temple in Jerusalem in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, which included both the Holy Sepulcher and Golgotha.

The temple took ten years to build and was consecrated on September 13, 335, and the next day the Cross of the Lord was erected in the temple, and on this day it was established to celebrate the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

And the Church sang for the first time on this day: “We bow to Your Cross, Master, and glorify Your Holy Resurrection!”

And on the same day, one more, third event is remembered, connected with the life of the Cross of the Lord.

From 614 to 628, the Honest Tree suffered captivity from the Persians. God's providence preserved the Tree even there, in a foreign land. The pagans, amazed by the miracles that accompanied the ark with the Cross, did not dare to boldly touch the Christian shrine. The victory of the Greek Emperor Heraclius over the Persians returned the Cross to Jerusalem. Both the return of the Cross and its erection over the Holy Sepulcher took place precisely on the day of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Tree of the Holy Cross.

Thus, my dears, three events at different times from the life of the Cross of the Lord illuminate this day. And I repeat as a reminder to you - this is the discovery of the Tree of the Cross, and the construction of the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord on Calvary, and the bringing of the Life-giving Cross into this temple, and the last return of the Life-giving Tree from captivity and its installation on Calvary, in its original place.

Twenty centuries have passed since the greatest event of the Savior’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary, when Christ ascended into heaven in glory. The cross remained on earth, continuing to do the great work begun on Calvary. And to this day the Cross lives as a living person, as a person, accepting both boundless love and equally boundless hatred.

And just as at the first Saving Cross of the Lord, at one time, love and malice, loyalty and betrayal opposed each other - so at all times in the life of the world the Cross is destined to be a stumbling block. For some - the atheists - it is a cruel and hateful field of suffering, leading to death. Sorrows and sufferings of earthly life are the lot of all earthly beings. For others - followers of Christ - the cross of the same sorrows and suffering becomes a favorite field of highest spiritual pleasure, the path of following the beloved Christ into eternal life to glory.

The cross continues to live in the world for some for salvation, for others for greater destruction. The struggle between evil and good at the foot of the Cross continues for the sake of love or hatred for the One by whom the Tree of the Cross was sanctified.

Let's not go deep into history for examples, let's take living examples of our days. What anger and rejection of the Cross is now being shown by all those who have left the Orthodox Church of Christ, and especially Protestants and sectarians who blaspheme the Cross of Christ, our sign of the cross and accuse the Orthodox of idolatry for venerating the Cross. The Cross is the guardian of the entire universe, the Cross is the guardian and affirmation of every person in the truth - does not exist for them.

And with the rejection of the Cross, they reject the very path of salvation, the path of following Christ. And they become the playground of demons on the way to destruction.

Here's another example. In 1992, love for Christ brought pilgrims from all over the world to Jerusalem to celebrate the Holy Resurrection of Christ. And the blessed fire in the lamps had not yet gone out, but in the hearts there was a trembling, just experienced miracle of the descent of God’s grace and Easter Sunday joy, and Easter week, like a single day, rejoiced in the Church of God, and the blasphemous, impudent heart, breathing malice, was preparing an act of terrible blasphemy. On Saturday of Bright Week, a criminal hand uprooted the Holy Cross, which had stood on Calvary for centuries.

But God cannot be mocked. The blasphemers swear at themselves. The Lord sees this struggle from the height of His glory, and the invincible victory - the Cross of Christ - until the last day of the world, until the day of the glorious and terrible second coming of the Lord, is given to the faithful as a weapon against enemies, visible and invisible.

And the appearance of the Lord of Glory on earth will be revealed only by the great sign in heaven of the Cross of the Lord, which will be seen by all the peoples of the earth, which everyone will see. They will see, and weep, and tremble.

And this will be the third greatest appearance of the Cross on the eve of the appearance of the Savior at the Last Judgment.

Let us, dear ones, confirm our thoughts with the life-giving power of the Cross of Christ, let us direct our reverent attention to it, and especially on this day of his feast we will lift up and glorify him in our souls and bodies; Let us bow before the Cross with tenderness of heart and contrition of spirit, for it is impossible to worthily glorify both the incomprehensible power and the greatness of the Cross of the Lord.

And in order to be at least to a small extent ready for us to perceive this incomprehensible phenomenon, the Holy Church, in its Charter, commands us: “On the day of the Exaltation of cheese, and eggs, and fish, we will not dare to touch,” since the veneration of the Cross consists of mortification of the flesh.

Merciful Lord, preserve, bless and save us with the invincible and Divine power of Your Cross! Amen.

On September 27, 2016, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' performed the rite of great consecration of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Belousovo, Trinity Administrative District (New Moscow) and the Divine Liturgy in the newly consecrated church. At the end of the Liturgy, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed the participants in the service with the Primate's word.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Today we celebrate the great twelfth feast of the Exaltation of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, and all the services, all the hymns and prayers that are said in the temple, have in the center the saving Cross on which the Son of Man and the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified.

A lot has been said about the Cross. The Holy Fathers dedicated entire treatises to him. Many wonderful thoughts are captured in our church chants and prayers. But out of all the abundance of definitions of what the Cross is and what its meaning is for a person, I would like to cite today only one, which we find in St. John Chrysostom: “The Cross is our freedom.”

Amazing words reveal the very essence of what happened on the Cross and what the Lord brought to people. Suffice it to remember that before the Savior came into the world, sin acted in the world with irresistible force - one might say, it was included in the basis of all relations between people, social relations, and state systems. Man did not have any freedom: when he came into the world, it was as if he stood on rails that led him to spiritual destruction.

Yes, we know: there were great geniuses of the spirit, great heroes and ascetics, Old Testament prophets who, despite the irresistible power of sin, testified to God's truth. But few people listened to their words, except perhaps their closest disciples, and even among them there were sometimes those who joined the persecutors of the prophets.

And so the Lord conquers evil on the Cross. Evil was the cause of this terrible unjust execution. Evil triumphed over the One who amazed people with His miraculous power. It would seem, who can rebel against Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the Son of Man? After all, He stops the storm, feeds thousands of people with five loaves, heals the deaf, lame, lepers, brings Lazarus of the Fourth Day out of the tomb... To this day, some, hearing about Christ, object: “How can you believe in all this? Where is God, we can’t see Him? But if He performed a miracle now, I would believe it.” These are crafty words, and to be convinced of this, it is enough to remember that even the greatest, mind-shaking miracles performed by the Savior did not stop the irresistible, devilish force of evil. She killed Jesus, our Lord and Savior, on the Cross, but the subsequent Resurrection brought the final line, indicating that the irresistible power of sin in the world was coming to an end.

So, has evil completely left the world? Not at all, and each of us knows this from the experience of our own lives. But along with evil there is good, together with lies there is God’s truth. So what did the Cross give us? And the Cross gave us the freedom that John Chrysostom spoke about with such force - the freedom to choose between good and evil, between lies and truth, to stand next to Christ or with His persecutors, with light or with darkness. We are free, which was not the case with our distant ancestors, who lived in conditions of insurmountable evil.

This freedom of choice is captured in our Russian iconography of the Cross. Our Russian Orthodox Cross is eight-pointed. In addition to the central crossbar to which the Savior was nailed, a tablet is depicted, which Pilate ordered to be nailed in defiance of the Jews, testifying that the Crucified One is the King of the Jews. And the lower crossbar rises with the right side up, and the left down, because on the right hung the thief who confessed the Lord and received salvation, and on the left was the one who rejected Him and went into destruction forever. This is a symbol of our freedom, and we make a choice between good and evil every day.

No one can say: “I am forced to do evil.” Even those who live in conditions of dictatorship, in conditions of slavery, no one can force to do evil - they must always have enough intelligence, will and strength to do good. But most often no one forces us - we already easily succumb to temptation. Do we want to live better? Work hard, and use what your work brings you for good. But this seems not enough, a person wants to have as much as possible, and he crosses the line and begins to get money in dishonest ways, although they do not bring any happiness. Or, for example, no one forces us to tell a lie, but we speak anyway, fearing for our career or wanting to please the majority. We are afraid to tell the truth and lie. Or we betray our principles, betray a loved one, show deceit - again freely, not under coercion. And although we always find an excuse, we ourselves are aware that we could have acted differently.

Christ gave us this great power of freedom. After the Resurrection of Christ, the freedom of human choice is preserved even where slavery is legalized. A slave, even if he received freedom, could sin or not sin, tell the truth or a lie, grovel or preserve his God-given dignity. The Cross gave us freedom, which means it sharpened and emphasized our personal responsibility before God for how we use this freedom.

Therefore, praying before the cross and asking the Lord to protect us from all evil, let us ask Him to give us strength always, whenever we can and even when we cannot, to remain on the side of good and truth. And this can only happen if we give our mind and heart to the Lord, and then the power of the Cross will protect us from temptations and enticements and strengthen us in doing God’s righteousness.

On September 27, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross - one of the 12 main, or twelfth, holidays of the Orthodox Church.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross: history

On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, they remember how Queen Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles, found the Cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. The cross was found in 326 near Mount Golgotha ​​in Jerusalem. Since the 7th century, the memory of the return of the Life-Giving Cross from Persia by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (629) began to be associated with this day.

The holiday is called the Elevation of the Cross, because both upon the acquisition and upon the return of the Cross, the primate raised (Erected) the cross three times so that everyone could see it.

Equal to the Apostles Tsar Constantine wished to build churches of God on places sacred to Christians in Palestine (that is, at the place of birth, suffering and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, etc.) and to find the Cross on which the Savior was crucified. With great joy, his mother, St., undertook to fulfill the king’s desire. Queen Equal to the Apostles Helen.

In 326, Queen Helena went to Jerusalem for this purpose. She put in a lot of work to find the Cross of Christ, since the enemies of Christ hid the Cross by burying it in the ground. Finally, she was pointed to an elderly Jew named Judas, who knew where the Cross of the Lord was. After much questioning and persuasion, he was forced to speak. It turned out that the Holy Cross was thrown into one cave and covered with garbage and earth, and a pagan temple was built on top. Queen Helen ordered the destruction of this building and the excavation of a cave.

When they dug up the cave, they found three crosses in it and a tablet lying separately from them with the inscription: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” It was necessary to find out which of the three crosses is the Cross of the Savior. The Jerusalem Patriarch (Bishop) Macarius and Queen Helena firmly believed and hoped that God would indicate the Holy Cross of the Savior.

On the advice of the bishop, they began to bring crosses one after another to one seriously ill woman. No miracle happened from the two crosses, but when the third cross was laid, she immediately became healthy. It happened that at that time the deceased was being carried past for burial. Then they began to lay crosses one after another on the deceased; and when they laid the third cross, the dead man came to life. In this way they recognized the cross of the Lord, through which the Lord performed miracles and showed life-giving the power of His Cross.

Queen Helena, Patriarch Macarius and the people around them bowed to the Cross of Christ with joy and reverence and kissed it. Christians, having learned about this great event, gathered in countless numbers to the place where the Cross of the Lord was found (found). Everyone wanted to venerate the holy life-giving Cross. But since it was impossible to do this due to the crowd of people, everyone began to ask to at least show it. Then Patriarch Macarius stood on an elevated place and, so that everyone could see, several times erected(lift) him. The people, seeing the Cross of the Savior, bowed and exclaimed: “Lord, have mercy!”

The Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Kings Constantine and Helena, over the place of the suffering, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, built a vast and magnificent temple in honor of Resurrection of Christ. They also built temples on the Mount of Olives, in Bethlehem and in Fevron near the Oak of Mamri.

Queen Helena brought part of the Holy Cross to her son, Tsar Constantine, and left the other part in Jerusalem. This precious remnant of the Cross of Christ is still kept in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

Icons of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The most common plot of the icon of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross developed in Russian icon painting in the 15th-16th centuries. The icon painter depicts a large crowd of people against the backdrop of a single-domed temple. In the center on the pulpit stands the Patriarch with the Cross raised above his head. The deacons support him by the arms. The cross is decorated with plant branches. In the foreground are the saints and everyone who came to worship the shrine. On the right are the figures of Tsar Constantine and Queen Helena.

Prayers

Troparion, tone 1

Kontakion, tone 4

Greatness

We magnify You, Life-Giving Christ, and honor Your Holy Cross, through which You saved us from the work of the enemy.

Choruses

Irmos of the 9th song

Hymns to the Cross of the Lord

Choir of the Orthodox Brotherhood in the name of the Archangel Michael.

Save, O Lord, Thy people and bless Thy inheritance, granting victories to Orthodox Christians against resistance, and preserving Thy residence through Thy Cross.

Participated in the Exaltation of the Cross and on the Sunday of the Cross

Having ascended to the cross by will, grant to Your namesake new residence Your bounty, O Christ God; We rejoice in Thy power, giving us victories as our companions, Thy benefits, weapons of peace, invincible victory.

Choir of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra and MDA

Rejoice Life-Giving Cross .

Rejoice, life-giving Cross, invincible victory of piety, the door of heaven, the affirmation of the faithful, the fence of the Church, by which aphids were ruined and abolished, and the mortal power was trampled upon, and we ascended from earth to heaven, an invincible weapon, resisting demons: glory to the martyrs, the saints, as truly fertilizer: refuge salvation, grant the world great mercy.

Prayers to the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord

First prayer

Be the Honest Cross, guardian of soul and body: in your image, casting down demons, driving away enemies, exercising passions and bestowing reverence, life, and strength, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and the honest prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God. Amen.

Second prayer

O Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord! In ancient times you were a shameful instrument of execution, but now you are a sign of our salvation, ever revered and glorified! How worthily can I, the unworthy, sing to You and how dare I bend the knees of my heart before my Redeemer, confessing my sins! But the mercy and ineffable love for mankind of the humble Boldness crucified upon you gives me, so that I may open my mouth to glorify You; For this reason I cry to Ti: Rejoice, Cross, the Church of Christ is the beauty and foundation, the whole universe is the affirmation, all Christians are the hope, kings are the power, the faithful are refuge, Angels are glory and praise, demons are fear, destruction and driving away, the wicked and infidels - shame, the righteous - pleasure, those burdened - weakness, those overwhelmed - refuge, those who are lost - a mentor, those possessed by passions - repentance, the poor - enrichment, those floating - a pilot, the weak - strength, in battle - victory and conquest, the orphans - faithful protection, widows - intercessor, virgins - protection of chastity, hopeless - hope, sick - a doctor and the dead - resurrection! You, typified by the miraculous rod of Moses, are a life-giving source, watering those thirsty for spiritual life and delighting our sorrows; You are the bed on which the Risen Conqueror of Hell rested royally for three days. For this reason, morning, evening, and noon, I glorify Thee, blessed Tree, and I pray by the will of the One who has been crucified on Thee, may He enlighten and strengthen my mind with Thee, may He open in my heart a source of more perfect love and may all my deeds and paths be overshadowed by Thee May I take out and magnify Him who is Nailed to You, for my sin, the Lord my Savior. Amen.

Worship of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, it is necessary to celebrate the All-Night Vigil and Liturgy. But now they rarely serve all night long, so the central point is the festive divine service on the eve of the holiday - a vigil.

The Exaltation is the Twelfth Feast of the Lord (dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ). Therefore, its service does not connect to any other service. For example, the memory of John Chrysostom is postponed to another day.

It is interesting that during Matins on the Exaltation of the Cross the Gospel is read not in the middle of the church, but in the altar.

The climax of the holiday is when the leading priest or bishop, dressed in purple vestments, carries out the Cross. All those praying in the temple kiss the shrine, and the primate anoints them with holy oil. During the general veneration of the Cross, the troparion is sung: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.”

The cross lies on the lectern until October 4 - the day of the Exaltation. At the offering, the priest takes the cross to the altar.

Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross

The Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross is performed at Matins after the great doxology and singing of the troparion Save, Lord, Your people..., consists of a five-fold overshadowing of the Cross and its elevation to the cardinal directions (east, south, west, north and again to the east). An important change, compared to studio monuments, is the addition of five deaconal petitions to the rite (corresponding to the five overshadowings of the Cross), after each of which a hundredfold Lord have mercy. In addition, according to the Jerusalem Rule, before raising the Cross, the primate must bow to the ground so that his head is a span from the ground (Greek. spithame, about 20 cm). During the correction of liturgical books in the Russian Church in the 2nd half. XVII century The order of the overshadowing of the cardinal directions during the rite was changed: the Cross is erected to the east, west, south, north and again to the east. This order has been maintained to this day.