Great Lent third Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Christ Cross

Monday, 23rd March 2020

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Today is the third Sunday of the Holy Christ Cross Holy Feast (Кръстовден / The day of the Cross).
Each of the Great Lent time period has its own Sunday dedicated to very important events or saints.
This one has been set over the centuries by the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church to accent the Great unbeatable power of the Holy Cross. Which is the greatest power through which each of us Christians is victorious over sin, flesh, passions, temptations and everything visible and invisible.
The cross provides every person and us as socieity with 'The power of God and Wisdowm of God' to those who venerate it for those being saved as pointed in Holy Bible in scriptures (1 Corintians 1:24).
This Sunday was set to help people recharge their spiritual powers in feat of Lentin hardship weakness and temptations. It is to remind the faithful Christians of the redemption received through Christ's sufferings for our sins. But besides the joy of the Cross it is to remind us another important fact – "He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Mt 10:38).

The hymnology (the Church songs) accent over the Holy Liturgy morning service is the victory and joy of the cross, not the suffering. The Church fathers equate the life-giving cross with the tree of life and plant it in the middle of the Lenten pilgrimage. It was the tree that was planted in Paradise; it is to remind the faithful of both Adam's bliss and how he was deprived from it.

The Church teaches that it is Christ's cross that saves. One cannot take up his own cross and follow Christ unless one has Christ's cross which he took up to save mankind. Partaking of this tree, one will no longer die, but will be kept alive.

 

History of the Veneration of Holy Cross
 

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.

As they who walk on a long and hard way and are bowed down by fatigue find great relief and strengthening under the cool shade of a leafy tree, so do we find comfort, refreshment, and rejuvenation under the Life-giving Cross, which our Fathers “planted” on this Sunday. Thus, we are fortified and enabled to continue our Lenten journey with a light step, rested and encouraged.

Elevation-of-the-Holy-Cross-feast

Hymns

As at the feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross on September 14, the Trisagion is replaced by the hymn:

Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify. (Thrice)
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
And Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.
Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.

Тропар Църковнославянски (Българска Православна Църква) / Troparion Old Bulgarian (Church Slavonic) Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Спаси, Господи, люди Твоя и благослови достояние Твое, победи православному болгарскому народу на сопротивния даруя, и Твое сохраняя Крестом Твоим жительство.

Troparion (Tone 4) [1]

O Lord, save Your people,
And bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians,
over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your Cross
Preserve Your habitation!
Kontakion (Tone 7) [2]

Now the flaming sword no longer guards the gates of Eden;
It has mysteriously been quenched by the wood of the Cross!
The sting of death and the victory of hell have been vanquished;
For You, O my Savior, have come and cried to those in hell:
"Enter again into paradise."

Elevation-of-the-Holy-Cross-of-Christ

It is worthy to remind my dear readers for the Cross, because nowadays everyone is scared from the Coronavirus COVID-19 mysterious virus who is plaguing the death and who makes people who have no faith to tremble besides a simple flu, but do not tremble in front of the Cross of Christ and the near coming Great Judgement day in which each of us will have to give account for his good and bad deeds …
Also through the centuries the Cross has been a reason for many miracles. In this scareful days where constitutions of many countries has been breached and a military regimes are pushed into our countres.

Lets pray and bow the holy cross of Christ to protect our lands, Countries families and loved grand parents, mothers, fathers, children, friends and every living creature from the evil that is lurking the earth!

 

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