We Are At War

Fr. James Guirguis

Source: Out of Egypt ...

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 8:34-9:1

Today we are officially at the half-way point of Great and Holy Lent. For some of us this is a warning that half of the race is already over. If we have not started to make an effort yet, now is the time to do so! Now is the time to reach out and try to wrestle for the blessings that God has to offer.

However, on this day, at the mid-way point of Lent, the Church assumes that we are already struggling to keep the fast, the increase in prayer and almsgiving, to increase our spiritual struggle. And for this reason the Church brings out her most treasured possession.

SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY OF THE CROSS

Today all over the world, Orthodox Christians in every nation gather in their churches to celebrate the Precious Cross of Our Saviour Jesus Christ. In every Orthodox Church the Cross is lovingly decorated with flowers and greenery and then solemnly carried through the church with incense and candles as the faithful sing hymns about the Glorious Cross. The pious devoutly bow down before the Precious Cross and venerate it.

The Angels accompany the Holy Cross as it is carried through our churches and the demons turn their faces away in terror and revulsion. This Cross that we honor defeated them, this Cross that we venerate has put them to shame.

The Cross, The Archpriest Christ’s Symbol of Redemption

The feast of the Veneration of the Cross is undoubtedly one of the greatest in Orthodoxy and is especially loved and honoured by members of the Church.

The focus of the feast- which the faithful are invited to venerate- is the Precious Cross, upon which Christ, after He had stretched out His holy palms, ‘united what had been divided’. God died in the flesh and, with His ultimate sacrifice, His love and submission, which culminated in the mystery of divine self-emptying, He atoned for sinful people before our holy God, satisfied divine justice for the sins and guilt of the whole world, redeemed His creation from the evil of the devil and the snare of death, pledging His most holy Blood as ransom. This blood was not that of an ordinary person, but of the Son of the Virgin and God. With His passion, He demolished the separating wall of hatred which had been created between people and God from the time when we were cast out from the ancient paradise of Eden because of our senseless disobedience. Through His death on the Cross, Christ dispelled the power of the devil, dealt death to death and opened wide the path which leads to the bright tabernacles of the heavenly kingdom. On the Cross of Christ, humankind once again became citizens of Paradise, we returned to our true home, mounted the real pedestal of our existence and cast off the threadbare tatters in which we were clothed by our senseless misdemeanour in Eden. […]

The Cross, the Symbol of Victory

Varnavas, Metropolitan of Neapolis and Stavroupolis

In the middle of Holy and Great Lent, the Church places before the faithful the Honourable Cross of the Lord for us to venerate and draw strength from, so that we can continue the gruelling but lambent journey towards Great Week.

This decision is judicious and full of meaning, my brothers and sisters. Because the Cross of Our Lord is the pre-eminent symbol of life and sanctification in our lives. Whereas, through the wood (that is the tree) of disobedience, Adam lost the delights of Paradise, through the wood of the Cross, the new Adam, Christ, has again opened up the gates of Eden to humankind. The sacrifice of the Cross is the means by which the great chasm created by human sin has been bridged and by which God has been reconciled to us. This is why the principal throne of Christ is His Cross, rather than any worldly dominion.

THE TREE HEALS THE TREE

A birch tree on Anzersk Island, Solovki. This tree, which marks otherwise unmarked graves of victims of Soviet repression in the Solovki camps, miraculously grew in the form of a cross.

The Third Sunday of Great Lent is given to meditation on the Holy Wood of the Cross. I offer this mediation.

Readers of the New Testament are familiar with St. Paul’s description of Christ as the “Second Adam.” It is an example of the frequent Apostolic use of an allegoric reading of the Old Testament (I am using “allegory” in its broadest sense – including typology and other forms). Christ Himself had stated that He was the meaning of the Old Testament (John 5:39). Within the Gospels Christ identifies His own death and resurrection with the Prophet Jonah’s journey in the belly of the fish. He likens His crucifixion to the serpent raised on a staff by which Moses healed the people of Israel. Without the allegorical use of the Old Testament – much of the material in the gospels and the rest of the New Testament would be unintelligible.

Orthodox Christians are very accustomed to this manner of handling Scripture – the hymnography (largely written during the Patristic period) of the Church’s liturgical life is utterly dominated with such a use of allegory. The connections between New Testament and Old – between dogma and the allegory of Scriptural imagery is found in almost every verse offered within a service. Those who are not familiar with the Eastern liturgical life are unaware of this rich Christian heritage and of its deep doctrinal piety and significance.

THE CROSS OF SALVATION

O, thrice-blessed wood of the Cross,

O, life-bearing wood of the Cross,

O, God-bearing Wood of the Cross,

Show us the path to salvation

Photo: Kobozev V./Agionoros.ru

The cross of life signifies the sorrows, the burdens of our earthly life which each one of us must overcome. As they say “for some the cross is for salvation, for others to their doom.”

Christ was crucified between two thieves. For one of them, the cross was unto his salvation; for the other, the cross was the weapon of his final death.

The cross of life is just the same. In order for it to work towards our salvation, the Lord set down only one condition, but without it, we cannot bear the cross. The words of the Lord are well known to us: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

First of all: in order to bear all your sorrows without grumbling, all the burdens, all of life’s misfortunes, you must deny oneself, that is, deny your own desires, yearnings, refuse your pride, deny your identity, and deem yourself worthy of all punishment. Whoever endures all of life’s sorrows with such an attitude, for them these sorrows will bring salvation, and for those who do not have patience, but grumble, these sorrows will bring not salvation but death.

But the fact is that no one will escape sorrows. They will exist one way or the other for each one of us. If man only rejects himself, for him these sorrows will not be a burden, they will be easy to bear.

This is the sole means for the sorrows of life, for the cross of life, to be easy to bear; for this cross to bring salvation and lead us into the Kingdom of God. Amen.

Protopriest Rostislav Gan
(excerpted from the thesis of Deacon Gabriel Makarov, student of Holy Trinity Seminary)

The Third Sunday of Great Lent

S. V. Bulgakov

Handbook for Church Servers

In the services for this Sunday the Holy Church glorifies the holy cross and the fruits of the death of the Saviour on the cross. She will carry out the holy cross into the middle of the temple for veneration, and is why the Sunday is called the Veneration of the Cross. In the hymns for this day the holy Church, inviting us to honour the holy cross, tenderly appeals:

"now the angelic hosts gather in reverence and bear aloft the honoured Wood, and calling together all the faithful for the veneration. Come therefore and illumined by the fast, let us fall down before it with joy and fear".

"Cleansed by abstinence let us draw near, and with fervent praise let us venerate the all-holy Wood on which Christ was crucified, when He saved the world in His compassion".

"Come, faithful, and let us venerate the life-giving tree, on which Christ, the King of Glory voluntarily stretched out his hands. He raised us up to the ancient blessedness, whom the enemy despoiled of old through pleasure, making us exiles far from God. Come, faithful, and let us venerate the tree whereby we have been counted worthy to crush the heads of our invisible enemies. Come, all kindred of the nations, let us honor in hymns the Cross of the Lord".

Glorifying the most Holy Cross, the Holy Church sings:

"Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, the beautiful Paradise of the Church, the Tree of incorruption that brings us the enjoyment of eternal glory",

"The indestructible foundation, and the victory of kings and the praise of priests".

"Rejoice, life-bearing Cross, piety of invincible victory, door to paradise, foundation of the faithful, protection of the church: through you the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks, haven of salvation".

"Rejoice, O Cross, complete salvation of fallen Adam! Glorying in you, our faithful kings by your might laid low the people of Ishmael. We Christians kiss you now with awe, and glorifying God who was nailed on you, we cry aloud: O Lord, Who was crucified on the Cross, have mercy on us, for Thou art good and loves mankind".

The Third Sunday Of Great Lent: Sunday Of The Veneration Of The Holy Cross

Introduction

On the Third Sunday of Great and Holy Lent, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Services include a special veneration of the Cross, which prepares the faithful for the commemoration of the Crucifixion during Holy Week.

Historical Background

Icon of the Veneration of the Holy Cross used with permission and provided by: ΕΚΔΟΣΗ και ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ , ΓΑΛΑΚΤΙΩΝΟΣ ΓΚΑΜΙΛΗ ΤΗΛ. 4971 882, ΕΚΤΥΠΟΣΗ Μ. ΤΟΥΜΠΗΣ Α.Ε., http://www.toubis.gr

The commemoration and ceremonies of the Third Sunday of Lent are closely parallel to the feasts of the Veneration of the Cross (September 14) and the Procession of the Cross (August 1). Not only does the Sunday of the Holy Cross prepare us for commemoration of the Crucifixion, but it also reminds us that the whole of Lent is a period when we are crucified with Christ.

As we have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24), and will have mortified ourselves during these forty days of the Fast, the precious and life-giving Cross is now placed before us to refresh our souls and encourage us who may be filled with a sense of bitterness, resentment, and depression. The Cross reminds us of the Passion of our Lord, and by presenting to us His example, it encourages us to follow Him in struggle and sacrifice, being refreshed, assured, and comforted. In other words, we must experience what the Lord experienced during His Passion - being humiliated in a shameful manner. The Cross teaches us that through pain and suffering we shall see the fulfillment of our hopes: the heavenly inheritance and eternal glory.

A Rule of Self-Attentiveness For Those in the World

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)

Written in consequence of a certain pious layman’s desire to conduct an attentive life amidst the world. 

The soul of all exercises in the Lord isattention. Without attention, all these exercises are fruitless and dead. He who desires to be saved should arrange things in such a way that he can safeguard self-attentiveness not only in seclusion, but also among the very scatteredness into which he is sometimes drawn against his will. On the scales of the heart, let the fear of God prevail over all other feelings: then it will be easy to safeguard self-attentiveness, both in the silence of one’s cell and amid the noise surrounding one on all sides.

Prudent moderation in food, by reducing heat in the blood, contributes greatly toself-attentiveness; but inflammation of the blood – such as from excessive consumption of food, from increased physical movement, from the swelling of anger, from the flush of vainglory, or from other causes – generates a multitude of thoughts and fantasies, in other words, scatteredness. For those desiring to be attentive to themselves, the Holy Fathers prescribe, first of all, moderate, uniform, and continual abstinence in food (St. Philotheus of Sinai in The Philokalia).

ABOUT SECRETS OF THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE ADORATION OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

In the Annunciation - all our holidays. All grows and blossoms of the Annunciation. It - Christmas : "I bring you joy, which shall be to all people." In it - the Cross and the Resurrection, and finally Pentecost. Our Lady, the whole is full of the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by the angel: "Hail, full of grace," hear the gospel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you." This proclamation of Pentecost, the Church is called for from now rise from Pentecost to Pentecost, to reach the deification of man, Assumption, Ascension of the sacred humanity.

In Annunciation hidden secret worship the Cross of Christ, which the Church of Christ brings today.Our Lady receives the good news of the birth of the Word in the flesh eternally giving us eternal life: "May it be to me according to thy word." "Word of the devil deceived Eve - says St. John Chrysostom, - erected a tree which Adam was expelled from paradise. Word of Our tree erected a cross, which the robber - the image of Adam - is again in a paradise. "

Homily on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) Translated for OrthoChristian.com

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

Распятие. Московский Сретенский монастырь. Фото: А.Поспелов / Православие.Ru

The attitude in the Church of God towards the Lord’s Cross sometimes seems unusual and surprising to the world. And since we are in many ways sensual rather than spiritual, we too sometimes share this perplexity with the world. For example, why has the Cross been treated as a special, incomprehensible, but real living power in the Church’s Tradition for two thousand years already? Even now, during Great Lent, we daily pray the following during the divine services: “O Invincible and incomprehensible and divine power of the precious and life-giving Cross, forsake not us sinners.”

Moreover, the Church boldly asserts such astounding truths as these: “The Cross is the guardian of the whole world; the Cross is the beauty of the Church, the Cross is the might of kings; the Cross is the confirmation of the faithful, the Cross is the glory of angels and the wounding of demons.”

And yesterday, at the All-Night Vigil, we heard an astonishing hymn addressing and glorifying it: “Rejoice, life-giving Cross”—addressed the Church to the Cross as a kind of mystical person—“invincible victory of piety, door to Paradise, confirmation of the faithful, rampart set about the Church. Through thee the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven: invincible weapon, adversary of demons.” Perhaps this is all exaggeration and hyperbole?

What does it mean to “take up one’s cross and follow Christ”? We know that this is something very important, something that is no less than a necessary condition for the salvation of each of us. People ask: “But what does it mean to take up one’s cross?” How can we understand where this cross is? How can we take it up? How can we correctly choose our own cross, blessed by God, and not a contrived one that has nothing to do with our salvation?    

In fact, it is easy to understand the power of the Church’s words about the Holy Cross. One simply needs to grasp one truth.

HOMILY ON THE ANNUNCIATION. THE POWER OF THE CROSS OF GOD’S LOVE

Valaam Monastery, 2006

Schema-Igumen Seraphim (Baradell)
Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees)

“Today is the crown of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery that is from all eternity.” Today the Holy Spirit descended upon mankind in the person of the Most Pure One, and the Power of the Most High, the Word of God, overshadowed her and took up His abode in her. The ladder joining heaven and earth was established; man received the power to become God by grace, for the God-Man is conceived today in the womb of Her who is full of grace.

The annunciation, the crown of our salvation, is also the beginning of the Theophany, for in it the activity of the entire Holy Trinity begins to be revealed: the Father wills, the Son descends, and the Holy Spirit overshadows. This day is also the anticipation of Pentecost, for creation in the person of the Most Pure One has been vouchsafed to receive the Holy Spirit into itself, in a tangible action of the conception of God. That day also manifested in itself the power of God’s incarnation, for Mary became the Mother of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross

Written by Anthony, Metropolitan of Sourozh.

This homily delivered on the Sunday of the Adoration of the Precious Cross, 18th March 1990, London.

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

As we progress deeper and deeper into the weeks of Lent, we can say with an ever-growing sense of gratitude and of joy, of a serene and exulting joy the words of a Psalm, ‘My soul shall live, and with gratitude I will give glory to the Lord'.

In the first week of Lent we have seen all the promises of salvation given in the Old Testament fulfilled: God became man, salvation has come, and all hopes are possible. And then, in the second week of Lent, we had the glorious proclamation of all the saints of Christendom that not only did God come and dwell in our midst, but He has poured out upon us, into the Church and into every human soul ready to receive Him the presence, the transforming gift of the Holy

The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of the World

Fr. Dimitrios Staniloae

Through the Cross, Christ sanctified His body- the link with the world. He rejected the temptations sent to Him by the world, that is to taste the pleasures, to satisfy His needs unrestrainedly or to avoid pain and death. If we, in the same way, ward off the temptations of sin and patiently suffer the pain of death, sanctity can spread from His body to all bodies and throughout the world.

Hidden Joy

Igumen Nektary (Morozov)

Somewhere I happened to read a line written by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), “Grace comes to the heart that has suffered.” It seems it was in a letter to Hieromonk Dimitry (Balfour)… And a line by the Apostle Paul was something I didn’t come across by chance—I have read it many times, over and over: For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ (2 Cor. 1:5)…

Photo: Archbishop Maximillian of Vologda and Veliki Ustiug.

So, on Saturday at the Vigil Service, during the Polyeleos I was looking at the icon of St. Gregory of Palamas and thought about his amazing life, about the light of Mt. Tabor, the nature of which he so wisely explained and in which he himself abided—being transformed, illumined, “reaching for the heights”. What grace he live in! But then it was as if a spear pierced my heart: How he also suffered!

And not only he, but anyone who with time had become no longer a slave but a friend of God, one of those who pleased Him, and became like unto Him insofar as that is possible for a human being. No matter whom we talk about—martyrs and passion-bearers, holy hierarchs and monastic saints, about righteous women and fools-for-Christ—they all had to suffer. Only they had all different kinds of sufferings—some were physical, others emotional, caused by ill-intentioned people, or sometimes from the demons, hateful and inhuman.

But no one, absolutely no one, as St. Isaac the Syrian said, “has ever ascended to heaven by living coldly.” And from what we have come to know and are still learning, he also testifies that a person is especially looked after by God when the Lord sends him constant sorrows. Abba Isaac also adds that there is no other path to draw closer to Christ other than the path of sorrows.

But what is truly curious is that he writes about all this with joy and not sorrow, in fact celebrating and rejoicing. Well, it cannot be that he did not feel the spear of sorrow wounding his heart! If he had not felt it he would not have written so precisely and wisely about the passions of despondency and despair. I cannot be that that the physical blindness, which forever deprived him of reading the Holy Scriptures and the works of other holy fathers, did not bother him in the least!

And other saints—what didn’t they endure in this life! But if lamentation visited them in the evening, in the morning would follow joy (cf. Ps. 29:6). Joy… Whence did it come? Was it not from the understanding of the truth of which St. Isaac so convincingly speaks? Was it not from the comprehension of it with all their being, the assimilation of it with all their soul? Most likely that is how it is.

So here is another strange thing: we read St. Isaac’s Ascetical Homilies, the Saving Instructions of Abba Dorotheos, theLadder of Divine Ascent, and especially the New Testament. We supposedly know everything. Then what is the matter? Why don’t sorrows give us joy, but rather make us sad—although we know that they are medicine administered to us by the hand of the most experienced and wise doctor? Why is there such a vast difference between us and the saints? Is it because they are holy, and we are sinful? But after all, they are people just like us in every way, with basically the same “starter kit”, as they say today.

I have had occasion to visit various hospitals numerous times—not spiritual ones, but ordinary, earthly ones. I have seen how some patients were happy to have operations or procedures that could help them, while others were ready to fight with the doctors just to escape the pain, without which any cure would be unthinkable. Well, it seems to me that we differ from the saints in just the same way when we fail at those small things that the Lord allows us to experience. We tear off the bandages, push aside the caring hand, and run away from the hospital somewhere during the night—into the cold, rain, and darkness.

Is it strange that it is so hard for us? The Lord battles for every soul, for every person—He battles with his passions, with the devil, and with the person himself. The saints fought in this battle alongside side the Lord. But all too often, we fight… against Him.

How we wish that this battle would end, how we would like to finally resolve not before anyone—before Him—to capitulate. To accept without murmuring, without any ridiculous, unruly resistance against everything that He has prepared for us, to humble ourselves, and bend our necks under the heavy yoke of sorrows—then suddenly and unexpectedly to us, to feel the joy hidden within them; hidden from them…

The Third Week of Great Lent 

S. V. 

Handbook for Church Servers

In this week the Holy Church, as well as in the past weeks, inspires us with the necessity to offer "to Christ our God"; "gifts that are pleasing", "a pure fast and abstinence from evil", abstention from "anger, wrath and every sin", "tears and prayer, to works of compassion, and to a contrite way of life, to upright thoughts and a pure way of life". In particular the Holy Church, calling us to avoid food, as "the begetter of passions ", and to love fasting as "the mother of virtues ", in detail it opens, "if it is good, if it is great, if it is grace given by God", it is a fast. "Let us love the fast", sings the Holy Church, "it makes the stubborn passions of the soul to wither, and gives us strength to do the works of God; it makes our mind ascend to heaven, and gains for us the forgiveness of our sins". "By fasting Elisha gave back to the Shunnamite her child alive", "Daniel in the den tamed the wild beasts with the muzzle of abstinence: let us also subdue the passions by fasting", "for this strengthens the body, and illuminates the mind and heart". Together with this during all the days of this week the Holy Church prays to the Lord that He grant us to see His cross. "With our flesh cleansed by abstinence," cries the Holy Church, "and our souls enlightened by prayer, O Lord, grant us to look upon Thy holy and honourable cross" "and to reverence it uncondemned with fear and love", "to kiss it with undefiled lips", "in Psalms and songs let us celebrate the light", "in our illumination". In such a way it follows that the third week is essentially a sort of Forefeast to the cross of the Lord.

On this Friday at Compline we sing the service from the Menaion, for those saints whose day fell during the third week of the Fast.

On Saturday at Little Vespers the carrying out of the cross and placing it on the altar (throne) is done according to the rubrics, as it was done on August 1 (see page 264).

S. V. Bulgakov, Handbook for Church Servers, 2nd ed., 1274pp., (Kharkov, 1900) pp. 517-518.

Translated by Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris © March 7, 2004. All rights reserved.