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

Out of the Mouth of Babes and the Wisdom of the Elders

This morning I highly recommend the Ochlophobist's posting: girls, uninterrupted . Also, a blog I wandered across called Archangel's Wanderings. At the latter site, the particular entry entitled Can We Make a Difference? This moving existential contemplation is thoughtful on its own, but I particularly want to point your attention the the sole comment. When I read the posting, I wanted to add a note, but when I read the comment I realized what needed to be said (and recalled by us all) had already been said with more eloquence than this rambler would have contributed.

Go. Read them. Now. Smile and hug someone.

Words of Wisdom from the Church Fathers

On Living Simply
XLIV
St. John Chrysostom

"How should the Church be governed? Should the patriarchs act like emperors, issuing decrees which all believers must obey? Should bishops see themselves as local governors, demanding unquestioning submission of the people? Should the clergy be a kind of spiritual army, enforcing the will of the patriarchs and the bishops, and meting out punishment on sinners? The first consideration for the Church is not how to punish sins, but how to prevent sins from being committed... Moreover, each individual is answerable not to a priest, bishop or patriarch, but to God. So the primary authority of those within the Church is not to issue decrees, but to stir up the souls and enliven the consciences of believers... In short those in authority within the Church should see themselves not as rulers, but but as preachers and pastors."

I discovered the above quote on another website and found it such a beautiful and inspirational statement that I had to cop it for inclusion here. I account myself most blessed to serve in a Church whose superiors are exemplary of the kind of clergy the good Patriarch John endorses. For those of you who read or follow this rambling blog, please pray for me that I may grow in humility, obedience, and tenderness as a pastor and preacher. May I ever grow more deeply in love with the Gospel that is life and light for all who will accept it.

Note to self: Find a copy of Patriarch John's book and study it. Then pray it and study it again!

Sacrifices, Priorities and What the New Year Offers

Today is the first Sunday of the new Liturgical (Church) year. As we noted last week, the Church year begins on September first. With September the first two of a series of Holy Feasts begins to unfold. The first of these is the Nativity of the Theotokos (The “Birthgiver of God”) the Virgin Mary. The spiritual significance of this feast becomes apparent as the year progresses and we come to realize the great role the Virgin makes in our salvation. Next week we will celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the anniversary of St Helena, the mother of St Constantine, finding the True Cross in the fourth century.

Together, these Feasts (two of the Twelve Great Feasts that along with Pascha are our holiest annual celebrations) remind us that our Faith is not tied to fables of a never-never-land. The Truths of Christianity are solidly grounded in the rock surface of real history. The Holy Trinity does not inhabit a make believe era cut off from reality, He reveals Himself in the sweat and blood of human life.

This should immediately alert us to the fact that Christ can be active in our lives today. I say can be because we actually have a say so in our own salvation. Because God is Love, it is against His Nature (so to speak) that He would impose Himself on us. To be real, love must be freely given and freely received. Therefore, God offers us His saving Love, but it is up to us whether we will accept it or not. And just as we must prioritize our lives for any earthly thing we truly want, we must also make choices and decisions about how to live if we are to accept God’s love and the salvation that comes with it.

We all know that certain earthly goals require us to spend time, money and sweat if we are to achieve them. “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, and it took effort and determination to put the first stone on top of another to get things started. Growing in the image and likeness of God requires no less of us. Keeping the fasts and taking the time for Holy Day celebrations; giving to the Church of our time, our talents and earthly resources are but minor sacrifices in comparison to the spiritual rewards we can achieve in Christ, both here now and tomorrow.

Our Lord sacrificed Himself on the Cross for us, and is it not a little thing for us to make the small sacrifices of effort, prayerful focus, offering of our time, or giving a few dollars for Him? And the best part? The abundant life our Lord wishes to give us now in this world is but a foretaste of the fullness of eternal life He is offering on the Day of Resurrection in exchange for our commitment to Him today!

Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through Faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on Faith; that I may know Him and the power of his Resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like Him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3.8-14)

Thanks be to God!

The Past, the Present, and the Future - A Reflection

De unione ecclesiarum presents a well-reasoned reflection on the present world situation, Christian hope, and human responsibility. I encourage all to read it. It is entitled "On time passing".

A snippet (that reveals little of the main thrust of the post) is here to peak your interest:

None of this is perhaps very important. Yet it helps give me a sense of
perspective on current events. Two years, or twenty five years, or seventy
years, is not a long time in historical terms, much less so in geological ones.
Human life is very brief. But, by the same token, much can change in a very
short time.

Joyous New Year!

Troparion of the New Year

Maker of the Universe, O Lord who alone have power over seasons and times: bless this year with Your bounty, preserve our country in safety and keep Your people in peace, through the payers of the Mother of God and save us.

Kontakion of the New Year

O Creator and Master of time and eternity, super-substantial God of All, O Merciful One: bless the course of this year, and in Your boundless mercy, save all those who worship You, our One and only Master, and who cry out to You in fear: O savior grant a happy year to all mankind.

New Beginnings

The Church year officially begins Today, on the first day of September. As the Liturgical (church) day begins with sunset, the Liturgical year begins in the month traditionally considered to be the end of the harvest — a time to celebrate the fruits of the growing cycle and the occasion to rest before the preparations for the new farming seasons to come.

It is in this context that the timing of such celebrations as the Nativity of our Lord reveal the profound spiritual insight of the Church Fathers in setting the dates for Feast Days. The Nativity occurs close to the Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and therefore symbolically reveals the coming of Christ (the Bridegroom who comes “in the middle of the night”) and the Light in our lives He brings, even as the light of the days themselves begin to grow longer.

The new Church Year offers us the opportunity to recommit our lives to the Most Holy Trinity. We can start again to take part in that mystical journey of Faith, we can grow in our appreciation of the sequence of Holy Feasts that unite us to the Life of Christ. We can dedicate just a bit more of our time and treasure to supporting the Church’s mission of salvation.

Indeed, it is a little thing to commit ourselves to but a few more minutes of prayer on a daily basis; or to put just a little more effort into keeping the fasts. We can choose to make attending Holy Day services falling on a weekday a priority at least equal to the more mundane things we readily go out of our way to include in our 'secular' lives. We can choose to read the Scriptures, learn more about the Faith, and the lives of saints versus indulging in the latest “best seller” or hit movie release. We can give a few more pennies to the Church, to worthy charities and as alms to the needy.

Let us accept this challenge provided by the new Church year and give more of ourselves to Christ. Let us strengthen our spiritual life through prayer, fasting, supporting the Church’s mission and living the life of Love that fulfills our humanity’s potential and brings true peace, joy and the blessings of Eternal Life.

Thanks be to God.