Sermon on the Apostolic Reading for the Sunday after the Elevation of the Precious Cross (Galatians 2:16-20)
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios Today, on this Sunday after the Elevation of the Holy Cross, we are once again reminded of the blessings that our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross has given us. The Lord was crucified on Golgotha, and it was there that He took upon Himself the...
The Meaning of Basil at the Elevation of the Cross
When I was a child, I would frequently visit my grandmother (Yiayia) and grandfather (Papou) who lived in a small town east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They had a large yard with a view of the Monongahela River. The climate created the perfect conditions to grow a beautiful garden every summer....
How to Really Enjoy Helping Others
Have you ever done something nice for somebody…but you didn’t want to do it? Maybe you shared a treat with a brother or sister, or played with somebody you didn’t want to play with, or helped somebody you didn’t want to help. But then, did you complain about it? When...
The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of the World
Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae 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 Cross and the Resurrection
Protopresbyter Vasileios Kalliakmanis a) The Cross leads to the Resurrection, Great Friday bears fruit on the bright Sunday of Easter. Sorrow, listlessness and despair make way for the joy and peace of the Resurrection. Without the Cross, the Resurrection is inconceivable and without the Resurrection the Cross has no point....
The Cross and the Crucified Lord
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios Our Orthodox faith, my beloved friends, is called ‘symbolic’, because it’s expressed in symbols. In other words, it’s expressed in simple signs, though these actually have profound significance and meaning. One of these signs, the most important and most sacred, is the Cross. We shouldn’t...
The Precious Cross as Herald of the Lord’s Resurrection
Hierodeacon Rafael Misiaoulis, Theologian What is the Precious Cross for Orthodox Christians? The Cross is the symbol of sacrifice, the ransom for the salvation of our soul, the guarantee of eternal life. However, apart from being a symbol of sacrifice, triumph and victory, it’s also a symbol of pain...
Taking up our own Cross (Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross)
Pavlos Mouktaroudis In today’s Gospel, Christ wants to talk to us about the mystery of His passion and the cross. How, through the cross and death, He made human nature, which He had assumed, a sharer in eternal life. For this reason His death on the cross became a...
Lifting Up the Precious Cross That We Love
The Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross that we celebrate every year on September 14 reveals an important lesson: there is a difference between the Cross as a theological construct and the Cross as a lived experience. Suffering with Gratefulness and Grace Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–1993) was...
Sermon on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross (John 3: 13-17)
Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios Today, on this Sunday before the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Lord presents the central theme of the Gospel in a few words: God saves the world from the devil and sin driven by endless love alone! To help in understanding,...
