“O Invincible and incomprehensible and divine power of the precious and life-giving Cross, forsake not us sinners.” (From the order of Great Compline) The Cross is the mighty and profound symbol of Christianity, a symbol whose meaning is inexhaustible. The eight-pointed Cross is the symbol of Orthodoxy. Gazing upon the Cross with his mind and
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THE THIRD SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT: ON CARRYING YOUR CROSS
Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mk. 8:34), said the Lord to his disciples, calling them unto Him, as we heard today in the Gospels. Dear brothers and sisters! We too are disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we are Christians. We
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THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT: THE CROSS AS A MEANS OF TRANSFORMING THE WORLD
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 unrestrained or to avoid pain and death. If we, in the same way, ward off the temptations of sin and patiently suffer the pain
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On Patience: For the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross
If, according to the word of Christ, patience is so salutary, then it can be placed next to the queen of all virtues: humility, right next to meekness, and we need to ponder deeply about the Lord’s word about patience. In the Gospel according to Luke, we read the profoundly important word of Christ: In
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Craft Project for Orthodox Sunday of the Cross
Sunday of the Adoration of the Holy Cross Source: Creative Hands The Third Sunday of Lent in the Orthodox Church is the Adoration of the Holy Cross. We decorated our own Russian style crosses with markers and pretty paper scraps. I drew a blank Russian style three bar cross on card stock and then let
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The Cross Sweetens the Bitterness of Life
In the morning, finding at least a minute in the midst of your normal daily tasks to stand before His countenance, you will feel how He is gazing at you lovingly and summoning you to labor. God’s blessing is with you in labor during every minute of life. The Kingdom of God, which is coming
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Deny Thyself!
And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s,
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The Foolishness of the Cross
We nailed ourselves to the cross once and for all in order to say that we renounce everything that the world has to give, to say that we are needy for the grace of our Lord and not needy for the wealth of this world. The cross has many meanings, but I will attempt to
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We Are at War
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
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The Russian Cross Explained
(also called the Eight-pointed Cross) The symbolism of the “complete” Cross (much of which is contained in the Old Rite Russian prosphora seal and on metal and wood icons) is quite complex. Since the OId Rite tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church is much richer than the New Rite Church in its use of symbolism to teach
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