Third Sunday of Great Lent: Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross
Categories: hymns, feast-days
Date: 30 March 2008 03:39:30
Troparion (Tone 1):
O Lord, save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to Your people
over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your Cross
preserve Your habitation!
Kontakion (Tone 7):
No longer does the flaming sword guard the gate of Eden,
for a marvelous quenching is come upon it, even the Tree of the Cross.
The sting has been taken from death, and the victory from Hades.
And, You, my Saviour, has appeared unto those in Hades saying:
Enter again into Paradise.
In the middle of Great Lent, we recall the Life-Giving and Precious Cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Cross is the means of our salvation, and, as Jesus himself said in the Gospel we read today (Mark 8:34-9:1), we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. During these hard days of Great Lent, we are refreshed and encouraged to continue our journey to Pascha by the remembrance of the Cross.
As the second hymn above reminds us, by a tree we were alienated from God and forced out of Paradise, and it is by a tree, the tree on which our Saviour hung, that we are reconciled to God and able to return to Paradise. Thanks and praise be to God.
For more information on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross in Orthodoxy, please see this article from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Being March 30, it is also the Feast Day of my Patron Saint, St John Climacus, who will will also remember next Sunday, on the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent. Through his prayers, may the Lord have mercy on me.
A blessed Feast Day to all.