The week of veneration of the cross. For you, Lord, the Cross, and for us, the Resurrection

The veneration week of Lent 2019 falls in its middle. Each week of Lent has a special name, reminiscent of one or another event associated with the holy great martyrs, metropolitans, miracle workers, Jesus Christ himself, the Mother of God and the Holy Trinity.

The names convey special differences in church services and in who should offer prayer and worship. This is also connected with special spiritual instructions, perceiving which Christians must unite in a single impulse, supporting each other in deed and word, let it be reflected only in prayer.

The Third Week of Great Lent is dedicated to the veneration of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross. The editors of the site found out when there will be a week of veneration of the cross, in which week of Lent in 2019. What traditions exist, traditions and rituals, as well as the history of this wonderful holiday. And we will share the best recipes for Lenten Cross cookies, which are traditionally baked at home during the week of the Cross.

What is the Week of the Cross and when does it occur?

The name “cross veneration” comes from the fact that in the named week, services in the church are accompanied by bows to the sacred cross on which the Son of God was allegedly crucified (“allegedly” means that Jesus was not crucified on each of the crosses in all churches).

This action - bowing after reading a prayer - occurs four times, starting on Sunday, which is called the Worship of the Cross, and then on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Bowing means tribute to the feat of Christ, the desire to follow him, as well as the acceptance of one’s own burden, one’s destiny, which manifests itself every day in everyday life, such seemingly small deprivations in the form of a reduced portion of food and a complete rejection of worldly entertainment.

The meaning of the Week of the Cross lies on the surface. The people have an expression “carry your cross”; it is directly related to the explanation. During Lent, every Christian tries to bear the burden that lay on the shoulders of Jesus during the days of forty days of abstinence. Everyone experiences their own temptation based on their “weak” point.

This means that in the middle of Lent, the Christian already knew “his cross” and fully felt all the temptations that accompany abstinence, against which he raised his spirit. This is a kind of act of recognizing one’s burden as voluntary, desired.

Also, the cross is a symbol of a reminder of the death of Christ and the result of the entire fast, after which comes the sacred resurrection. Thus, on the Week of the Cross, everyone can feel inspired to continue their fast, realizing for what purpose and what result they are holding their will in their fist.

Story

During the Iranian-Byzantine War in 614, the Persian king Khosroes II besieged and took Jerusalem, taking the Jerusalem Patriarch Zechariah captive and capturing the Tree of the Life-Giving Cross, once found by Equal-to-the-Apostles Helen.

In 626, Khosroes, in alliance with the Avars and Slavs (yes, Slavs!) almost captured Constantinople. Through the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, the capital city was delivered from the invasion, and then the course of the war changed, and in the end the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius I celebrated the victorious end of the 26-year war.

Presumably on March 6, 631, the Life-Giving Cross returned to Jerusalem. The emperor personally carried him into the city, and Patriarch Zacharias, rescued from captivity, walked joyfully next to him. Since then, Jerusalem began to celebrate the anniversary of the return of the Life-Giving Cross.

It must be said that at that time the duration and severity of Lent were still being discussed, and the order of Lenten services was just being formed. When the custom arose of moving the holidays that occur during Lent from weekdays to Saturdays and Sundays (so as not to violate the strict mood of weekdays), then the holiday in honor of the Cross also shifted and gradually became assigned to the third Sunday of Lent.

Just from the middle of Lent, intensive preparation began for those catechumens who were going to be baptized on Easter this year. And it turned out to be very appropriate to begin such preparation with the veneration of the Cross.

Starting next Wednesday, at each Presanctified Liturgy, after the litany about the catechumens, there will be another litany - about “those preparing for enlightenment” - precisely in memory of those who diligently prepared and were planning to be baptized soon.

Over time, the purely Jerusalem holiday of the return of the Cross became not so relevant for the entire Christian world, and the holiday in honor of the Cross acquired a more global meaning and a more applied meaning: as a remembrance and help in the middle of the strictest and most difficult of fasts.

When and how does the Orthodox week of veneration of the cross take place?

Many of these sources call the 4th week of Lent the Worship of the Cross, which seems quite logical and memorable, given the clue that it falls exactly in the middle of Lent. However, in fact the name

The veneration of the cross begins the week with the Sunday of the same name, which ends the 3rd week of Lent. Consequently, the week of the Veneration of the Cross is the third, despite the fact that a greater number of services with veneration of the cross take place in the 4th week.

On the mentioned Sunday, the first service with bows to the cross takes place. The next one takes place on Monday, exactly one day later. Also on Wednesday and Friday evening of the 4th week, the last service of the Cross takes place, after which the cross takes its place in the altar.

The veneration week of Lent in 2019 falls on March 5th. On this day, the traditional removal of the cross to the middle of the temple hall will take place, so that every worshiper can bow to the ground before it and be inspired by the feat done by Jesus to continue the fast.

During the liturgy these days, the prayer to the Most Holy Trinity, which traditionally accompanies the service every day, is replaced by the prayer hymn “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and holyly we glorify Your Resurrection,” after which bows should be made.

If possible, you should visit all 4 services. The single voice of dozens, turned into prayer, can create a miracle, especially if our will has weakened under the pressure of routine.

Church service

On Saturday evening, at the all-night vigil, the Life-giving Cross of the Lord is solemnly brought into the center of the church - a reminder of the approaching Holy Week and Easter of Christ. After this, the priests and parishioners of the temple make three bows in front of the cross. When venerating the Cross, the Church sings: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.” This chant is also sung at the Liturgy instead of the Trisagion.

The Holy Cross remains for veneration during the week until Friday, when it is brought back to the altar before the Liturgy. Therefore, the third Sunday and fourth week of Great Lent are called “Worship of the Cross.”
According to the Charter, there are four venerations during the Week of the Cross: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Sunday, the veneration of the Cross occurs only at Matins (after the removal of the Cross), on Monday and Wednesday it is performed at the first hour, and on Friday “after the dismissal of the hours.”

Liturgical texts in honor of the Cross are very sublime and beautiful; they are replete with contrasts, allegories, and artistic personification.

Lent 2019: meals in the third week (March 24 - 31)

March 24 – Sunday

Second week of Lent (second Sunday of fasting). Memorial Day of St. Gregory Palamas.
St. Gregory Palamas lived in the 14th century. In accordance with the Orthodox faith, he taught that for the feat of fasting and prayer, the Lord illuminates believers with His gracious light, as the Lord shone on Tabor. For the reason that St. Gregory revealed the teaching about the power of fasting and prayer and it was established to commemorate him on the second Sunday of Great Lent.

March 25 – Monday

March 26 – Tuesday

March 27 – Wednesday

Dry eating: bread, water, greens, raw, dried or soaked vegetables and fruits (for example: raisins, olives, nuts, figs - one of these every time). Once a day, around 15.00.

March 28 – Thursday

Hot food that has been cooked, i.e. boiled, baked, etc. No oil. Once a day, around 15.00.

March 29 – Friday

Dry eating: bread, water, greens, raw, dried or soaked vegetables and fruits (for example: raisins, olives, nuts, figs - one of these every time). Once a day, around 15.00.

March 30 – Saturday

Hot food that has been cooked, i.e. boiled, baked, etc. With vegetable oil and wine (one bowl 200g) twice a day. Pure grape wine without alcohol and sugar, preferably diluted with hot water. At the same time, abstaining from wine is highly commendable.

On Saturday of the third week, during Matins, the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord is brought into the middle of the church for the worshipers to worship, therefore the third week and the next, fourth, week are called the Worship of the Cross.

Cookies in the shape of crosses for the week of the cross

There was such an interesting Russian folk tradition - baking cookies in the form of crosses on the Cross. Crosses may differ in size, but they are always of a similar shape; most often they are made symmetrical, equilateral, with four rays.

To do this, two equal strips of dough are placed on top of one another in a cross shape (these are “simple” crosses). or the rolled out dough is cut into “crosses” with a mold or knife (these are “cut-out” crosses).

Sometimes they are made even simpler - in the form of round cakes, on which the image of a cross is applied. According to legend, such Crosses “drived away” everything bad from the house and household members.

Ivan Shmelev in his book “The Summer of the Lord” described this custom well. I will give an extensive quote here - Shmelev very vividly showed how such a tradition is inscribed in the order of life and thinking of an Orthodox, church child. Shown the “presentation angle” of this custom:

“On Saturday of the third week of Lent we bake “crosses”: “Cross Worship” is suitable.
“Crosses” – special cookies, with almond flavor, crumbly and sweet; where the crossbars of the “cross” lie – raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed down with nails. They have been baking this way since time immemorial, even before great-grandmother Ustinya - as a consolation for Lent. Gorkin instructed me this way:
– Our Orthodox faith, Russian... it is, my dear, the best, the most cheerful! It eases the weak, enlightens despondency, and brings joy to the little ones.

And this is the absolute truth. Even though it’s Lent for you, it’s still a relief for the soul, “crosses.” Only under great-grandmother Ustinya there are raisins in sadness, and now there are cheerful raspberries.

“Worship of the Cross” is a sacred week, a strict fast, something special, “su-lip,” Gorkin says so, in the church way. If we kept it strictly in the church way, we would have to remain in dry eating, but due to weakness, relief is given: on Wednesday-Friday we will eat without butter - pea soup and vinaigrette, and on other days, which are “variegated”, - indulgence... but on The snack is always “crosses”: remember the “Worship of the Cross”.
Maryushka makes “crosses” with prayer...

And Gorkin also instructed:
– Taste the cross and think to yourself: “The venerable cross” has arrived. And these are not for pleasure, but everyone, they say, is given a cross in order to live an exemplary life... and to bear it obediently, as the Lord sends a test. Our faith is good, it does not teach evil, but brings understanding.”

Recipe for almond cookies "Cross"

Products:

150 g peeled almonds,
1⁄2 cup boiling water,
100 g honey,
1 lemon slice with skin about 1 cm thick,
1⁄2 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg,
1⁄4 cup olive oil,
250 g wheat flour,
50 g rye flour,
2/3 sachet of baking powder.

How to cook:

Wash the almonds and pour boiling water for 10 minutes. Add honey, butter, a slice of lemon and grind with a blender. Mix flour, baking powder and spices. Pour the nut-honey syrup into the flour and knead the dough, which should eventually be rolled into a ball.
Leave the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour, then roll it out into a thin layer (about 5 mm) and cut out crosses. Bake at 190 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Honey cross cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour,
300 g honey,
2-3 tbsp. spoon of vegetable oil,
100 g peeled nuts,
1 teaspoon of spices,
1 lemon,
1 teaspoon soda, raisins.

Preparation

Grind the kernels of nuts (walnuts, almonds or hazel) thoroughly or mince them, combine with honey, add vegetable oil, spices and finely grated lemon with zest.

Mix the mixture, add flour mixed with soda and knead the dough.

Roll it out, cut crosses with a notch or a knife, put the raisins on top and bake in the oven.
To flavor cookies, you can use various spices: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, etc., as well as their mixtures.

Lemon crosses

Required:

250 g lean margarine,
3 cups flour,
1 cup potato starch,
1 tbsp. l. baking powder,
2 packets of vanilla sugar,
zest of 1 lemon,
1 glass of water.

We bake Lenten lemon cross cookies:

Chop margarine with flour and starch. Add sugar, baking powder, finely grated zest and replace the dough with very cold water (from the refrigerator). Make crosses by pressing raisins into the crossbars and bake.

Cookies Crosses with cucumber pickle

Products:

1 glass of cucumber pickle,
1 cup refined sunflower oil,
1 cup of sugar,
100 g coconut flakes,
2-3 cups of flour.

A simple recipe for Lenten crosses in brine cookies:

Mix butter, sugar, brine, half the chips and flour. Knead the dough as thick as shortbread. Roll out, sprinkle with remaining coconut shavings. Cut out the crosses, place on a baking sheet lightly sprinkled with flour and bake at 180 degrees for 5-8 minutes. Instead of coconut flakes, you can use poppy seeds, lemon zest, candied fruits, dried apricots, cut into small pieces or dried orange peels crushed in a coffee grinder.

Lenten cookie dough Crosses with poppy seeds

Cookies ingredients:

25 g poppy seeds,
1 cup flour,
4 tbsp. spoons of sugar,
5 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil,
0.5 teaspoon of soda,
3 tbsp. spoons of water with lemon juice

Lenten cookies with poppy seeds Crosses during the week of the Cross - step-by-step recipe with photos:

Mix poppy seeds with 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, add 100 g of water, heat for 10 minutes until the water boils. To cover with a lid. Rub the poppy seeds in a mortar until milk of the poppy appears and the characteristic poppy smell appears.
Pour flour, poppy seeds, 3 tbsp into a bowl. spoons of sugar and rub with your hands.
Add oil.
Add soda with lemon juice, add 2 tbsp. spoons of water and knead the dough. Wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Roll out the dough 0.5 cm thick, cut out crosses. Press a raisin into the middle of each cross. Bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

In the old days, on Wednesday during the week of the Cross, people congratulated people on the end of the first half of Lent. It was customary to bake cross-shaped cookies from unleavened dough. Cookies were baked with prayer. In these crosses they baked either rye grain to make bread, or a chicken feather to raise chickens, or human hair to make the head easier.

A person was considered happy if he came across one of these objects. The cookies were a reminder of the suffering of Christ and that every person has his own cross in life.

There was a custom on the third Sunday of Lent to fumigate the house with vapors of vinegar and mint in order to cleanse the home and drive out the spirit of any disease.

Mk., 37 credits, VIII, 34 - IX, 1.

And calling the people with His disciples, He said to them: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Me and the Gospel will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels. And he said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The Sunday of the third week of Lent in the Orthodox Church is called the Week of the Cross.

On this day, we see in advance what we will hear on Passion Day, especially the solemn and significant stichera, which will once again bring us before the mystery of the Cross. So it is said in the stichera: “Today the Lord of creation, and the Lord of glory, is nailed to the Cross and pierced in the ribs, tastes gall and sap, the Sweetness of the Church, crowned with thorns, covering the sky with clouds, clothed with the robe of reproach, and strangled with the mortal hand, with the hand that created man. When he is splashed, he is beaten, covering the sky with clouds, he accepts spitting and wounds, reproaches and strangulations. And he endures everything for the sake of the condemned, may my Savior and God save me from delusion, for he is gracious."

And the entire service, especially in its content and in its form, is unlike anything else and is entirely dedicated to the Life-giving Cross of the Lord.

Already on Saturday evening, after the all-night vigil, the Life-giving Cross of the Lord is solemnly brought into the center of the church - a reminder of the suffering, of the death of the Lord for the sake of our salvation. Without Death on the Cross, the Holy Resurrection is impossible, to which fasting leads.

The cross is the main instrument of our salvation, and our whole life is bearing our own cross.

On this day, the Holy Church begins a special glorification of the Cross of Christ and reminds. Worship of the Cross strengthens the spirit of those who fast and inspires them to further feats of fasting.

The removal of the cross takes place at the end of the all-night vigil.

During the singing of the Great Doxology, the rector of the temple censes the cross. After this, taking a dish with a cross on its head, he leaves the altar preceded by the priests and the censing deacon. During the singing of the Trisagion, he stops in front of the open Royal Doors and at the end of the singing, he exclaims: “Forgive Wisdom.” The clergy sings the troparion “Save, O Lord, Thy people and bless Thy inheritance, granting victories against the resistance and preserving Thy residence through Thy Cross.” During the singing, the priest places the cross on the lectern, censes it and sings the troparion three times before it: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection.” This chant is also sung at the Liturgy instead of the Trisagion. While singing, the cross is venerated three times and kissed by the clergy, and then by the people. After this, anointing occurs.

And such a service, with the wearing of the Honorable Cross and special veneration of it, is performed only three times a year.

The Holy Cross remains for veneration for a week until Friday, when it is solemnly brought back to the altar before the Liturgy. Therefore, the third Sunday is the beginning of the fourth week of Great Lent, which also carries the meaning and name “worship of the cross.”

Let me remind you how at the entrance to Capernaum, when the Lord Jesus Christ was entering there, one day a crowd gathered, as always - and in this crowd there was a woman who had been bleeding for many, many years. She made her way through this crowd to the Savior, she only wanted to touch the hem of His robe and did so - she made her way and touched the hem of Christ the Savior’s robe. And Christ stopped and asked: “Who touched Me, because I feel that My power has gone out, gone out from Me?” - The power of Christ healed this woman instantly.

And when we worship the Cross of the Lord and touch It, we kiss this Image, honoring It, then this is also, as it were, touching the hem of Christ’s garment, due to the fact that the properties of the prototype pass into the image. The power that is in Christ - we receive something from it, brothers and sisters, and not “something”, but the resurrection and ascension - this is what gives warmth to the repentant sinner. But only one thing is needed - it is necessary that our faith and our repentance, which takes its source in faith, so that they are at least somehow similar to the faith with which that woman sought to touch the hem of the Savior’s robe, and then from everyone forces contained in the Cross, in the image of the Holy Trinity, in the Cross of the Lord, we will receive a complete change in our entire internal and bodily composition.

That is why the hearts of warmly repentant Orthodox Christians are filled with immeasurable joy and, moreover, a special, quiet joy, not at all noisy, not stormy, but a grace-filled quiet joy when we, together with the entire Orthodox Church, sing: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection "

Heading:

With full confidence in its miraculousness and in amazement at its power to drive away invisible enemies, rejoicing in their hearts, they cried out to the cross: “Rejoice, O most honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord, drive away demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was cast upon you and who gave us your honorable cross.” to drive away every adversary,” and without any doubt they spoke to him as if he were alive: O most honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord, help me with the Most Holy Virgin Mary and with all the saints forever.”

Lord, Your Cross, which demons fear, is such an amazing remedy that when you touch it, the dirty pages of our lives burn away. Our task is not to write new bad pages with fasting.”

We have reached the middle of the post. We succeeded in some things, we failed in others. Feels the need to make a new start

Week of the Worship of the Cross

Gospel teaching on the Way of the Cross

“And he called the people with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for the sake of Me and the Gospel will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels. And he said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 8:34 - 9:1).

The general meaning of the celebration of the Week of the Worship of the Cross

The Cross of the Lord carried into the middle of the temple for worship is our military banner, which is carried out to inspire in us, the soldiers of Christ, good spirits and courage to successfully continue the struggle and the final victory over our own passions. Looking at this glorious banner, we feel a surge of new strength and feel the determination to continue the “battle” with ourselves for the Kingdom of God.

The Holy Church compares the Cross with the heavenly Tree of Life. According to the interpretation of the Church, the cross is also similar to the tree that Moses planted among the bitter waters of Marah to delight the Jewish people during their forty years of wandering in the desert. The cross is also compared to a good tree, under the shadow of which weary travelers, led to the promised land of eternal inheritance, stop to rest.

According to the Charter, there are four venerations during the Week of the Cross: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Sunday there is veneration of the Cross only at Matins (after the removal of the Cross), on Monday and Wednesday it is performed at the first hour, and on Friday the reading of the “Hours” is completed.

History of the establishment of the Week of the Cross

The spring celebration in honor of the Holy Cross appeared almost fourteen centuries ago. During the Iranian-Byzantine War in 614, the Persian king Khosroes II besieged and took Jerusalem, taking the Jerusalem Patriarch Zechariah captive and capturing the Tree of the Life-Giving Cross, once found by Equal-to-the-Apostles Helen. In 626, Khosroes, in alliance with the Avars and Slavs, almost captured Constantinople. Through the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, the capital city was delivered from the invasion, and then the course of the war changed, and, in the end, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius I celebrated the victorious end of the 26-year war.

Presumably on March 6, 631, the Life-Giving Cross returned to Jerusalem. The emperor personally carried him into the city, and Patriarch Zacharias, rescued from captivity, walked joyfully next to him. Since then, Jerusalem began to celebrate the anniversary of the return of the Life-Giving Cross.

It should be said that at that time the duration and severity of Lent were still being discussed, and the order of Lenten services was just being formed. When the custom arose of moving the holidays that occur during Lent from weekdays to Saturdays and Sundays (so as not to violate the strict mood of weekdays), then the holiday in honor of the Cross also shifted and gradually became fixed on the third Sunday of Lent.

Lenten edification

On the third Sunday of Great Lent, a Cross decorated with fresh flowers is placed on a lectern in the middle of the church. There are still more than three weeks left until Good Friday, and Orthodox Christians are already standing before the crucified Son of God. For what spiritual need? Church writers rightly point out that the carrying of the Cross is carried out to “stir up vigor of spirit,” “all the sorrows and difficulties of fasting hitherto endured at the sight of the Cross are, as it were, forgotten, and we, according to the words of the Apostle, “forgetting those things which are behind, we stretch to those things which are before” (Phil. 3:13) with even greater zeal we begin to strive for the desired goal - victory over sin, victory over the devil, for the sake of achieving “the honor of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). But is the Cross worn out only for “spiritual invigoration”?

The Church determined to erect the Life-Giving Cross in the center of the temple after the resurrection, dedicated to St. Gregory Palamas and his teaching about the Tabor uncreated light. There is a special logic to the linkage of the Lenten weeks. They follow one after another not in any random order, but along the links of a strictly verified spiritual path, called by the Church “the ladder of Lent.” The close connection of two resurrections about the Light of Tabor and the Worship of the Cross is also not without reason. The Church teaches us that the initial experience of being in the grace of the Holy Spirit leads a person to the Cross. Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov writes about this difficult period in spiritual life:

“He is naive who thinks that the path to follow Christ can be walked without tears. Take a dry nut, put it under a heavy press and see how oil flows out of it. Something similar happens to our heart when the invisible fire of God’s word scorches it from all sides.

The acquisition process goes through three stages: the first union with God is possible as a gift of favor at a certain moment that God finds favorable: when a person receives the visit with love. This is an act of Self-revelation of God to a given person: the Light of God gives a genuine experience of Divine eternity.

When God sees that nothing in the whole world can again tear the soul away from His Love (cf. Rom. 8: 35-39), then a period of trials begins, difficult ones indeed, but without which the depths of the created and uncreated images of Existence would remain unknown . This test is “cruel”: an invisible sword cuts you off from your beloved God, from His eternal Light. A person is amazed in all planes of his being. It is completely incomprehensible to him: where is the reason for the fact that the “union of love” that seemed to be final in a prayer like Gethsemane was replaced by the hell of God-forsakenness.

The second stage: a long period of God-forsakenness of varying strength. In its extreme degrees, this is scary: the soul experiences its fall from the Light as death in terms of the spirit. The Light that has appeared is not yet an inherent state of the soul. God touched our hearts with love, but then walked away. There is a feat ahead that could last for years, even decades. Grace sometimes approaches, and thus gives hope, renews inspiration, and leaves again. Elder Silouan spoke about it this way: “The Lord sometimes leaves the soul in order to test it, so that the soul shows its mind and its will. But if a person does not force himself to do it, he will lose grace; and if he shows his will, then grace will love him and will no longer leave him.”

The Mystery of God's Love has been revealed to us: the fullness of exhaustion precedes the fullness of perfection. Truly spiritual crying is a consequence of the influence of the Holy Spirit. Together with Him, the Uncreated Light descends on us. The heart, and then the mind, acquires the power to include the entire universe, to love all creation. “Grace will love a person and will no longer leave him” - the completion of the feat of acquiring grace. This is the third stage, the final one. In perfection, it cannot be long-lasting, like the first, for the earthly body cannot withstand the state of deification by grace: the transition from death to eternal life will certainly follow.”

So, by carrying the Cross, the Church affirms that the Cross of the Lord stands on the path to the Resurrection. Everyone who follows the flow of Great Lent - the spiritual path of perfection in Christ - cannot avoid it! “I can’t go around and go around” on the side, I enjoy exclusively “the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

The Cross of Christ and our “life cross” are different phenomena.“Carrying your cross” does not necessarily lead every person to the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. Two thieves were crucified along with Christ. One of them - the “prudent” one - inherited heaven, the second - descended into hell. If “our cross” remains only “ours”, not transformed by the grace of Christ, not united with the Cross of the Son of God, then it will lead us to a spiritual dead end, to the pride and despair of dark individualism. Special spiritual, “Lenten” efforts are needed in order to add one’s own small cross to the great power of the Life-giving Cross.

The selfish consciousness of modern man turns everything into “benefit”, into a means for his own “separately constructed” happiness, hygienic improvement, individual success, personal creative fulfillment. It innocently manages to use even the Cross - the sacrificial grace of God's Love, its Height and Depth, as a kind of almost physical force, for its well-being in life, to ensure a trouble-free, protected earthly existence on all sides. This consumer attitude towards God and His Love on the Cross is especially clearly revealed during liturgical prayer.

We cross the threshold of the temple and take part in the Liturgy of the Lord, sincerely wanting to join in the life of Christ, in His Eternity, in His Resurrection from the dead, in His Sonship of God, in His Body and Blood, in everything that was the result of the spiritual life feat of the Son of God on earth. Do we think that “communion” means a common life, and not just some shared episodes of existence? Are people who call us their friends only when we are in joy and prosperity our friends?

It is impossible to join the life of Christ without excluding the Cross from it. Will everything really turn to the point where we, in a fit of spiritual “generosity,” exclaim: “Lord, you are the Living God, the Cross and Resurrection are for you, but I am a mortal sinner, your glorious Resurrection alone will be enough for me!” I can't bear more! Hallelujah!" Sounds killer! But isn’t this what our “spiritual experience” comes down to, “communion” with Christ, when we go to the Liturgy, partake of the Mysteries of the Lord, in the hope that we will come to life in soul and body, that our earthly path will become straight and happy, that we will emerge from church with “cheerful legs” (Easter Canon) with new strength, an unprecedented rise of spirit “towards new achievements and victories”?

The Lord in the Sacrament of Communion gives us all of Himself. In the Body and Blood of Christ, Paschal eternity shines for us, “the dawn of the future age.” But how spiritually shallow and cruel it is to consider the entire Mystery of Salvation as a bridge thrown over an abyss, simply by walking along which I accomplish my personal “salvation in Christ,” completely not noticing that this is the Living Bridge, that I am walking along the Cross of Christ, for it was the Cross of Christ that united Heaven and earth, temporary and Eternal, man and God!

At each Liturgy, not only the sacred Feast of Grace, the feast of the “Future Century” is “remembered” and celebrated. If we truly desire to partake of “this Bread that is broken” and “this Blood that is shed” for the remission of sins, then we are called to partake in our lives, in every day and night, of the words of Christ: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

Only then will our small personal cross become a living, flowering branch on the great life-giving Tree of the Cross of the Lord and in due time bear fruit “thirty, sixty, and a hundred” (Matthew 13:8).

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

Come, faithful ones, let us worship the Life-giving Tree... - today the Holy Church calls its children to the foot of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord. This Golgotha, having stepped over time, approached us, invading our consciousness with the memory of itself. For on it the Cross ascended - which is the ladder to heaven, and on the Cross - the One who said: “...I am the way and the truth and the life...” ().

The Cross of Christ is the great saving power of all earthly beings. It extends both into the longitude of all times and into the breadth of all places, its height to heaven, and its depth to the abysses of hell.

And today, on the day of the half-life of the saving feat of fasting, the Lord condescends to those who are tired and exhausted under the burden of fasting, giving them His love, and strength, and a gentle reminder that they have not yet fought sin to the point of bleeding. The Lord today reminds us of the uniqueness and immutability of the path of salvation - the path of the Cross and suffering - and inspires us with hope. The light of Christ's Resurrection is visible only from the Cross.

The life-giving Tree of the Cross - the Cross of Christ - was grown in the middle of the earth by God's love for people, so that the destructive cross - from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, taken upon oneself in paradise by man's self-will and disobedience to God - could be transformed into a saving Cross, again opening the doors of heaven.

The Cross of Christ has been raised above the world since the time of the Lord’s saving suffering. But every person who comes into the world from birth inherits the cross of his forefathers and invariably carries it through life until the end of his days. The earth is a vale of weeping and sorrow, a place of exile for those who transgress God’s commands - full of sorrows and suffering. The thistles and thorns of sinful habits and passions, with which we become familiar and enjoy, simultaneously wound the soul and inflame the circle of life.

Take a closer look, our friends, at the life of people outside of Christ. How often it ends in spiritual death much earlier than physical death. Evil and sin devour everything human in a person, evil is insatiable, and man is insatiable in evil. And this is also suffering, but suffering is not saving; The reward of this suffering will always be inevitable death and destruction of the soul. The cross of life without Christ is vain and fruitless, no matter how heavy it may be.

One’s cross can be transformed into a saving cross only when one follows Christ with it.

Christ our Savior "...He Himself bore our sins in His Body on the tree, so that we, having been delivered from sins, would live for righteousness..." ().

The Cross of Christ became a sign of the glory of Christ Himself and a weapon of His victory over sin, curse, death and the devil. And we today, standing before the Cross of Christ, feeling on our shoulders* (*Ramo, ramen - shoulder, shoulders) the weight of our life's crosses, we must look carefully at the only saving Cross of Christ, so that in Christ we can recognize the truth of life, in order to understand its bright meaning.

And today, at the Cross of the Lord - the preached Holy Gospel and from the Cross of the Lord - the sight of the Divine Sufferer, they proclaim to us for our salvation the all-holy commandment: “...if anyone wants to walk after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me.” ().

Our friends, let us rise from the ground, look at the Cross of Christ, before us is an example of complete and true self-sacrifice. He, being the Son of God, came into the world in the form of a slave* (* image - appearance, image), humbled Himself and was obedient even to death, and death on the cross. He denied life itself to save us. The Lord Savior calls us to reject sin and death, which sin feeds for us.

The work of our salvation begins with the denial of ourselves and our sinfulness. We must reject everything that constitutes the essence of our fallen nature, and must extend to the rejection of life itself, surrendering it entirely to the will of God. God! You know everything; Do with me as you please.

We must recognize our everyday truth before God as the most cruel untruth, our reason as the most complete unreason.

Self-denial begins with a struggle with oneself. And victory over oneself is the most difficult of all victories due to the strength of the enemy, because I myself am my own enemy. And this struggle is the longest, because it ends only with the end of life.

The struggle with oneself, the struggle with sin will always remain a feat, which means it will be suffering. And it, our internal struggle, gives rise to another, even more severe suffering, because in a world of evil and sin, a person walking the path of righteousness will always be a stranger in the life of the world and will encounter hostility towards himself at every step. And every day the ascetic will more and more feel his dissimilarity with those around him and experience it painfully.

And self-sacrifice inevitably continues to demand that we begin to live in all its fullness for God, for people, for our neighbors, so that we consciously and uncomplainingly accept and submit to all sorrow, all mental and physical pain, so that we accept them as God’s permission for the benefit and salvation of souls ours. Self-sacrifice becomes part of our saving cross. And only through self-sacrifice can we raise our life-saving cross.

The cross is an instrument of execution. Criminals were crucified on it. And now the truth of God calls me to the cross as a criminal of the Law of God, because my carnal man, who loves peace and carelessness, my evil will, my criminal pride, my pride still resist the life-giving Law of God.

I myself, having recognized the power of the sin living in me and blaming myself, grasp at the sorrows of my life’s cross as a means of saving me from sinful death. The consciousness that only sorrows endured for the Lord will assimilate me to Christ, and I will become a participant in His earthly fate, and therefore in heaven, inspires me to feat and patience.

The cross of Christ, a nail, a spear, thorns, abandonment by God - these are the continuous, uneasy suffering of Golgotha. But the entire earthly life of the Savior from birth to the grave is the path to Golgotha. The path of Christ is from suffering to greater suffering, but with them also the ascension from strength to greater strength, His path to death, which swallows up death. “Where is your sting, death, where is your victory?”

The Cross of Christ is terrible. But I love him - he gave birth to the incomparable joy of Holy Easter for me. But I can only approach this joy with my cross. I must voluntarily take up my cross, I must love it, recognize myself as fully worthy of it, no matter how difficult and difficult it may be.

To take up the cross means to generously endure ridicule, reproach, persecution, and sorrow, with which the sinful world is not stingy to bestow upon the novice of Christ.

To take up the cross means to endure, without grumbling and complaining, hard work on oneself that is invisible to anyone, invisible languor and martyrdom of the soul for the sake of fulfilling the truths of the Gospel. This is also a fight against the spirits of evil, which will violently rise up against the one who desires to throw off the yoke of sin and submit to Christ.

To take up the cross is to voluntarily and diligently submit to the hardships and struggles that curb the flesh. While living in the flesh, we must learn to live for the spirit.

And we must pay special attention to the fact that each person on his life’s path must lift his own cross. There are countless crosses, but only mine heals my ulcers, only mine will be my salvation, and only mine will I bear with the help of God, for it was given to me by the Lord Himself. How not to make a mistake, how not to take the cross according to one’s own will, that arbitrariness that in the first place should be crucified on the cross of self-denial?! An unauthorized feat is a self-made cross, and bearing such a cross always ends in a great fall.

What does your cross mean? This means going through life along your own path, outlined for everyone by the Providence of God, and on this path to experience exactly those sorrows that the Lord allows (You took vows of monasticism - do not seek marriage, are bound by family - do not strive for freedom from your children and spouse). Do not look for greater sorrows and achievements than those on your path in life - pride will lead you astray. Do not seek liberation from those sorrows and labors that are sent to you - this self-pity takes you off the cross.

Your own cross means being content with what is within your bodily strength. The spirit of conceit and self-delusion will call you to the unbearable. Don't trust the flatterer.

How diverse are the sorrows and temptations in life that the Lord sends to us for our healing, what is the difference among people in their physical strength and health, how varied are our sinful infirmities.

Yes, every person has his own cross. And every Christian is commanded to accept this cross with selflessness and follow Christ. And to follow Christ is to study the Holy Gospel so that only it becomes an active leader in carrying our life’s cross. The mind, heart and body with all their movements and actions, obvious and secret, must serve and express the saving truths of Christ’s teaching. And all this means that I deeply and sincerely recognize the healing power of the cross and justify God’s judgment over me. And then my cross becomes the Cross of the Lord.

“Lord, in bearing my cross, sent down to me by Your right hand, strengthen me, who is completely exhausted,” my heart prays. The heart prays and grieves, but it already rejoices in sweet submission to God and its participation in the sufferings of Christ. And this bearing of one’s cross without grumbling with repentance and praise of the Lord is the great power of the mysterious confession of Christ not only with the mind and heart, but with deed and life itself.

And, my dears, so imperceptibly a new life begins in us, when “... it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (). A miracle incomprehensible to the carnal mind takes place in the world - peace and heavenly bliss are established where only groans and tears were expected. The most sorrowful life praises the Lord and rejects from itself every thought of complaint and grumbling.

The cross itself, accepted as a gift from God, gives rise to gratitude for the precious fate of being Christ’s, imitating His suffering, and gives birth to incorruptible joy for the suffering body, for the yearning heart, for the soul that seeks and finds.

The cross is the shortest path to heaven. Christ Himself passed through them.

The cross is a fully tested path, for all the saints have traversed it.

The cross is the surest path, for the cross and suffering are the lot of the elect, these are the narrow gates through which they enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

My dears, today we worship the Cross of the Lord in body and spirit, let us graft our small crosses to His great Cross, so that His life-giving powers nourish us with their juices to continue the exploits of Great Lent, so that fulfilling the commandments of Christ becomes the only goal and joy of our lives.

Honoring the Honest Cross of Christ today, with submission to the will of God, let us thank Him for our small crosses and exclaim: “Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom.” Amen.

We worship Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection.

Our cathedral contains a particle of the true Cross of the Lord, but it is very small. This particle comes from the Holy City of Jerusalem, precisely from the ark where the remaining part of the Cross is kept. The Ark containing part of the Holy Cross was captured when Jerusalem was captured by the Persians in 614. In 624, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius defeated the Persians and returned this shrine to Jerusalem, where it has remained continuously since then. In 2002, Archbishop Mark received from the Jerusalem Patriarchate this small piece of the Holy Cross, which had broken off during the cleaning of the ark. The particle is immersed in wax under glass in the center of a carved cross (see photo). Church holidays with the removal of the Cross

The origin of the honest trees of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

3rd Sunday of Great Lent, Worship of the Cross 03/31/2019.

In the middle of Lent on Saturday evening, at the all-night vigil, the Cross is solemnly carried into the middle of the church and laid on it in order to inspire and strengthen those who fast to continue with the reminder of the suffering and death of the Lord. Worship of the Cross continues in the fourth week of Lent - until Friday, because the entire fourth week is called the Worship of the Cross and liturgical texts are determined by the theme of the Cross. This week marks the middle of the Lenten season.

The meaning of the holiday is that Orthodox Christians, making a spiritual journey to Heavenly Jerusalem - to the Passover of the Lord, find in the middle of the path the “Tree of the Cross” in order to gain strength under its shade for the further journey. And the Cross of the Lord precedes Christ’s victory over death - the Bright Resurrection. In order to further inspire us to be patient in our struggles, St. The Church today comfortingly reminds us of the approaching Easter, chanting the suffering of the Savior together with His joyful Resurrection: “We worship Your Cross, Master, and glorify Your Holy Resurrection.”

Divine service The Week of the Cross (3rd Sunday of Lent) is similar to the service on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and the Origin (destruction) of the venerable trees of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord (August 14). According to tradition, it is customary to wear purple vestments in churches on this day. The evening before, an all-night vigil is held. According to the rules, this all-night vigil must include small vespers. At Little Vespers, the Cross is transferred from the altar to the throne. However, now the celebration of Little Vespers can be found only in rare monasteries. For this reason, in parish churches the Cross is placed on the altar before the start of the service (the Gospel is placed behind the antimension). At Matins, the Gospel is read in the altar, after reading the Gospel, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ” is sung, regardless of the day of the week. Kissing the Gospel and anointing with oil after reading the Gospel are not performed. Before the Great Doxology, the rector puts on full vestments. During the Great Doxology, while singing the Trisagion, the clergyman censes three times around the throne with a cross placed on it, after which, holding the Cross on his head, preceded by a deacon with a candle, constantly censing the Cross, carries out the Cross through the northern door. Stopping at the pulpit, the clergyman says, “Wisdom, forgive,” then, while singing the troparion, “Lord, save Thy people and bless Thy inheritance, granting victories to the Orthodox Christians against the resistance, and Thy preserving residence by Thy Cross,” transfers the Cross to the middle of the temple and places it on the lectern. During the general veneration of the Cross, another troparion is sung: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and glorify Your holy resurrection,” during which prostrations to the ground are made three times and special stichera are sung, during which the priest anoints with oil. This is followed by a special litany and the usual end of the all-night vigil with the first hour.

Feast of the All-Merciful Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos.

On August 1 (and according to the new style, August 14), the strict Assumption Fast begins. On the first day of the Dormition Fast, the Orthodox Church celebrates the removal, or the so-called “Origin of the Honest Trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.” The Russian name for the holiday “origin” means a solemn ceremony, a procession of the cross, or briefly, “carrying out” (according to the exact meaning of the Greek word). From the time the Son of God sanctified the Cross with His suffering, the Cross was granted extraordinary miraculous power. The history of the holiday testifies to its manifestation.

The cross began to be carried around in Constantinople during the epidemic of the disease, and then, in memory of the healing, from year to year on August 1, the life-giving cross of the Lord was carried out from the royal palace to the church of St. Sofia. The blessing of water was performed there, and then, for two weeks (coinciding with the time of the Dormition Fast), the Holy Cross was carried around the city. On August 14, and according to the new style on August 27, the Life-Giving Tree of the Cross returned to the royal chambers. Following the example of the Church of Constantinople, this celebration was introduced in Rus'. Here it is combined with the memory of the Baptism of Rus' on August 1, 988.

According to the rite now accepted in the Russian Church, on this day, at Matins after the Great Doxology, the solemn carrying (descent) of the Holy Cross into the middle of the temple for kissing is performed and worship is performed according to the rite of the Week of the Cross, and after the liturgy - the rite of the small consecration of water. Along with the consecration of water, according to custom, the consecration of honey from the new harvest is performed (see: Menaion-August. Part 1, pp. 21–31). People call August 14 the Honey Savior, and the Transfiguration - the Apple Savior. The consecration of honey and fruits has nothing to do with the theological meaning of the holidays, but these are our centuries-old folk traditions, and the Church blessed them. It is good to consecrate both the first honey and the first fruits. If only this does not cover the main, spiritual essence of holidays and fasts - repentance and mercy. From the very beginning of Christianity in Rus', Russian people knew the power of fervent prayers, sincere repentance and deeds of piety, as well as the commandment of mercy, which the believing people tried to make their law of life. Let us follow this bright path, and may the merciful Heavenly Father grant us victory over passions and eternal bliss, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the All-Merciful Savior and the power of the Honest Life-Giving Cross.

The Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord is September 14/27, the celebration of the holiday is September 21/October 4.

At the end of the all-night vigil on September 26 (according to the present day), the rite of the Exaltation of the Cross is performed on this day. just like how it happened in those distant times in Jerusalem, when, through the care of St. Queen Helena received the Cross of Christ. With a huge crowd of people, it was not possible for everyone to come up and venerate the Cross. Therefore, Patriarch Macarius raised the Cross so that everyone could see it (that is, he erected it - glory.) The people worshiped the Cross and prayed: “Lord have mercy!”

When Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great (306 - 337), the first of the Roman emperors to recognize the Christian religion, ascended the kingdom, he, together with his pious mother Queen Helena, decided to renew the city of Jerusalem and re-consecrate the places associated with the memory of the Savior. Blessed Queen Helena went to Jerusalem. Arriving in the Holy City, Holy Queen Helen destroyed the idol temples and cleansed the city of pagan idols. The buried Holy Sepulcher and the Place of Execution were discovered. During excavations on Golgotha, three crosses were found and thanks to the miracle that took place, through touching the True Tree, the Cross of the Savior was recognized and identified...

Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord - Sermon by Bishop Agapit in the Cathedral in Munich"...(Queen Helen) - where did she get the confidence that she could find such a shrine of Christ? This is a mystery that will remain forever - how can such a person be courageous, so that against the backdrop of pagans, a pagan state where pagans predominated , where for three hundred years the pagans oppressed Christians, tried to keep them in lower social conditions all the time - here suddenly a woman finds herself in power, who in Rome did not at all have the honor that she would later receive in Byzantine times, a woman stands and guesses only, not knowing will she find with confidence, will she gain this Cross. And the Lord did not disgrace her hopes and the Life-Giving Cross was found..."

In the greatest joy, the Blessed Queen Elena and Patriarch Macarius raised the Life-Giving Cross high and showed it to all the standing people. Immediately after the most historical event, the discovery of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord by the pious Empress Helena, the ancient Church established the Rite of the Exaltation and has since been an integral part of the service of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.

After finding St. After the Cross, Emperor Constantine began the construction of a number of churches, where services were to be performed with the solemnity befitting the Holy City. Ten years later, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on Calvary was completed. Hierarchs of the Christian Church from many countries took part in the consecration of the temple on September 13, 335. On the same day the entire city of Jerusalem was consecrated. The choice of September 13 and 14 as the date of the Feast of Renewal (i.e., consecration) could be due both to the very fact of consecration on these days, and to a conscious choice. According to a number of researchers, the Feast of Renewal has become a Christian analogue of the Old Testament Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), one of the 3 main holidays of Old Testament worship (Lev 34.33–36), especially since the consecration of Solomon’s Temple also took place during Tabernacles. The Day of Renewal of the Martyrium, as well as the Rotunda of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulcher) and other buildings at the site of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Savior began to be celebrated annually with great solemnity, and on September 14, the remembrance of the discovery of the Honorable Cross, which was found here, with the ceremony of raising the Cross for viewing by all worshipers , was included in the festive celebration in honor of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. In the ancient monthlies this holiday was called “The Worldwide Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.” The temple was consecrated on September 13, 335. The next day, September 14 (old style), it was established to celebrate the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross. It was then that a wonderful chant arose, connecting the Cross and the Resurrection: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection.”

Initially, the Exaltation was established as an additional holiday accompanying the main celebration in honor of the Renewal; subsequently, the holiday of the Renewal of the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection, although preserved in liturgical books until the present day, became the pre-holiday day before the Exaltation, and the Exaltation became the main holiday. Especially after the victory of Emperor Heraclius over the Persians and the triumphal return of St. The Cross from Captivity in March 631, the holiday became widespread in the East. This event is also associated with the establishment of calendar commemorations of the Cross on March 6 and on the Cross Worship Week of Lent.

Believers should perceive this holiday, of course, not only as a remembrance of the greatest historical event that took place more than one and a half thousand years ago. The holiday has the deepest significance in the destinies of the whole world. The Cross is directly related to the second coming of the Savior, for according to the true word of the Savior, the Last Judgment will be preceded by the appearance of a sign - this will be the second erection of the Cross of the Lord.
It is when we clearly see the sea of evil and all the cruelty of this world that it should be clear to us that Christ on the Cross takes this attack of evil upon Himself at the very center, in its very essence, and with His presence reveals a completely new meaning to what is happening. Here is the victory of love, which seeks to absorb us into itself with the fullness of a transformed life - infinite goodness. This is what we are called to do in complete freedom: To listen to such an unheard of event. Silence reveals this depth.

Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross

In modern practice of the Russian Orthodox Church, fasting is observed on the day of the Exaltation. The Rite of the Exaltation of the Cross is performed at the All-Night Vigil (i.e., September 26) only in cathedrals; in parish churches, on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, the cross is brought to the middle of the church, and there it relies on analogies, then the veneration of the Cross follows, since on the Sunday of the Exaltation of the Cross ( 3rd Sunday of Lent). In the Jerusalem Rule, from the earliest editions to modern editions, the rite of the Exaltation of the Cross retains the features known from studio monuments: it is performed after the great doxology and singing of the troparion of the Cross, consists of 5 times overshadowing the Cross and raising it to the four cardinal points. Before raising the Cross, the bishop must bow to the ground so that his head is a span from the ground. A change in the Russian Orthodox Church compared to the Studite monuments is the addition of 5 deacon petitions to the rank. After each petition, the repeated “Lord, have mercy” is sung. The bishop, while singing “Lord have mercy,” raises the Cross to the east, to the west, to the south, to the north, and for the last time to the east. The cross is again placed on the lectern and all those praying kiss the cross decorated with fresh flowers and fragrant herbs. The clergyman anoints it with holy oil. The cross lies on the lectern until October 4 - the day of the Exaltation. To be given at the end of the liturgy after the prayer behind the pulpit, while singing the troparion and kontakion to the Cross, the Cross is carried by the priest to the altar through the Royal Doors.

Limburg Stavroteka

In memory of the finding of the Cross of the Lord, St. Queen Helen Equal to the Apostles, mother of Emperor Constantine, places the Cross in the middle of churches at the end of the all-night vigil. Bows are placed in front of him while singing: “We bow to Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection!”

In Germany, a Byzantine stavrotheque (gr. stavros - cross), which contains two large pieces of the Savior's Cross (see photo), is kept in the city of Limburg on the Lahn River. Around these two cross-shaped pieces there are small doors above the compartments for various relics. The Stavrotheque was taken with them by the crusaders, who ravaged Constantinople in 1204 and captured a large number of shrines. The Stavrotheque is exhibited in the diocesan museum of Limburg Cathedral. Film about the Limburg Stavrothek with details and commentary in German.

Every Wednesday and Friday the Cross is chanted at Church services.

Troparion to the Cross: O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thy inheritance, granting victories to Orthodox Christians against resistance, and preserving Thy life through Thy Cross.

Kontakion to the Cross: Having ascended to the Cross by will, grant to Your namesake new residence Your bounty, O Christ God; make us glad in Thy power, giving us victories as adversaries, aid to those who have Thy, weapons of peace, invincible victory.

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

Involved - Cross: The light of Your countenance shines upon us, O Lord.