Feast of the Cross

Exaltation and Procession of the Holy Cross
Taking place at the end of the Great Doxology

At the “Holy God” the priest and altar servers begin the procession with the Cross. The priest incenses the Cross three times, makes there metanias, and led by the altar servers, processes around the Church three times, coming to stand before the Analogion. After the final “Holy God”, the priest exclaims, “Wisdom! Let us stand!” The Cross is placed on the Analogion. As the priest censes the four sides of the Analogion, the people sing:

The Troparion of the Cross in Tone One

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance. Grant victory to our country over its enemies, and preserve your community by the power of your Cross.

The priest makes three prostrations before the Holy Cross. He takes up the Cross and proclaims:

Priest: Have mercy on us, O God, in your great mercy; we pray to you, hear us and have mercy.

All: Lord have mercy! (forty times, after each priestly proclamation)

The priest makes the sign of the Cross three times, then slowly bends to the ground, rises, and raises the Holy Cross above his head. He lowers the Cross to the level of his chest, and again makes the sign of the Cross three times. Moving to the South side of the Analogion, facing North, he proclaims:

Priest: Again we pray for our civil authorities, protected by God, that they enjoy peace, health and salvation, and that the Lord God strengthen them in every good deed.

The priest elevates the Cross as before. Moving to the East side of the Analogion, facing West, he proclaims:

Priest: Again we pray for our father and Archbishop Cyril and all our brotherhood in Christ.

The priest elevates the Cross as before. Moving to the North side of the Analogion, facing South, he proclaims:

Priest: Again, we pray for all Orthodox Christians, and for their health, salvation and remission of their sins.

The priest elevates the Cross as before. Moving to the East side of the Analogion, facing West, he proclaims:

Priest: Again, we pray for all who serve or have served in this holy church, for their health, salvation and remission of their sins.

The priest elevates the Cross as before. Turning to the people, the priest makes the sign of the Cross over the people while the people chant

The Kontakion of the Cross in Tone Four

O Christ our God who chose by your free volition to be elevated upon the Holy Cross, grant your mercies to your new people who are called by your name. In your power gladden the hearts of our Public Authorities. Strengthen them in every good deed so that Your true alliance may be for them a weapon of peace and a standard of victory.

The Cross is placed on the Analogion. The priest makes two prostrations, kisses the Cross, and makes a third prostration while the Trisagion of the Cross is sung:

We bow in worship before your Cross, O Master,
and we give praise to your Holy Resurrection (three times)

Additional hymns from the Menaion (p. 123ff) are chanted while the people venerated the Holy Cross in a manner similar to the priest. After the final person has venerated the Cross, the Troparion of the Cross in Tone One is sung again and the Divine Liturgy begins.

Blessed is the Kingdom…

First Antiphon

O God, my God, attend to me; why have you forsaken me?

Through the intercessions...

(after each verse, and the Glory … Now and always…)

Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions

O my God, I will cry to you by day but you will not hear

But you, the praise of Israel, well in a sanctuary

Glory … Now and always…

Second Antiphon

Why, O God, have you rejected us for ever?

O Son of God, who was crucified in the flesh,
save us who sing to you: Alleluia (after each verse)

Remember your congregation which you have acquired from the beginning

This is Mount Sion where you have dwelled

God is our eternal King; he has worked salvation in the midst of the earth

Glory … Now and always ….O Only-begotten Son

Third Antiphon

The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble

Troparion of the Cross in Tone One

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance. Grant victory to our country over its enemies, and preserve your community by the power of your Cross. (after each verse)

He is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake

The Lord is great in Zion and supreme over all the peoples

Let them give thanks to your great name; for it is terrible and holy

Isodikon
(Entrance Hymn)

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain,
For the Lord our God is holy

O Son of God, who was crucified in the flesh,
save us who sing to you: Alleluia

Troparia and Kontakion
(Hymns of the day and seasonal hymn)

Troparion of the Cross in Tone One

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance. Grant victory to our country over its enemies, and preserve your community by the power of your Cross. (Three times)

The Kontakion of the Cross in Tone Four

O Christ our God who chose by your free volition to be elevated upon the Holy Cross, grant your mercies to your new people who are called by your name. In your power gladden the hearts of our Public Authorities. Strengthen them in every good deed so that Your true alliance may be for them a weapon of peace and a standard of victory.

At the Trisagion, the Trisagion of the Cross

We bow in worship before your Cross, O Master,
and we give praise to your Holy Resurrection (three times)

Prokimenon
(Responsory)

Chanter: Exalt the Lord our God! (all repeat)

Chanter: The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!

All: Exalt the Lord our God

Chanter: Exalt the Lord!

All: The Lord our God!

The Liturgy of the Word

The reading from First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians

Brethren: The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Alleluia

Remember your congregation
which you have acquired from the beginning

But God is our eternal king;
He has worked salvation in the midst of the earth

The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

At that time: The chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to dath; they led him to Pilate and crie out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him." The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God." When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid; he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin." When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gab'batha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

Hirmos to the Virgin in Tone Eight

O Mother of God, you became a mystical Paradise, when without tilling you brought forth Christ our God, by whom the life-giving Tree of the Cross was planted on earth. Therefore seeing Him on the Cross, we adore Him and we magnify you!

Kinonikon (Communion Hymn)

The light of your countenance
has been manifested toward us, O Lord. Alleluia