On 27 September the Orthodox Church prayerfully celebrates one of the Twelve Great Feasts, the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-giving Cross of the Lord!
On this festal day the Divine Liturgy was celebrated at Saint Alexius Cathedral. The service was celebrated by the rector of the church, Priest Igor Babakov.
On the eve, the evening of 26 September, the All-Night Vigil was served with the bringing out of the Cross of the Lord, and all the worshippers were able to venerate and kiss the Cross.
The feast that the Orthodox Church celebrates on 27 September was established in memory of the finding and the exaltation of the Cross of Christ. It is perhaps the only feast that began at the same time as the event to which it is dedicated. This momentous event took place under Emperor Constantine the Great, the first of the Roman emperors to end the persecution of Christians. On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross we remember how Empress Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the mother of Emperor Constantine, found the Cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. The Cross was found in 326 near Mount Golgotha in Jerusalem.
The feast of the Exaltation shows us that man can be victorious over evil, sin and death if he accepts the love of Christ and desires to respond to it with his own. The Cross of Christ is the love of the God-Man, and it is open to people. A Christian's cross is his love, directed toward God and all people.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, after the veneration of the Precious and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, Fr. Igor addressed the parishioners with greetings on the occasion of the Great Feast.
"May the power of the Precious and Life-giving Cross, which overshadows us on the paths of our life, strengthen our desire to follow Christ, placing at the center of our life the Cross of Christ and our own cross-bearing. May this grace-filled power help us to travel to the end the path that was laid from Heaven to Earth and that today leads man up to the Heavenly Mansions."
Before Your Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Your holy Resurrection we glorify!
