O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance./ Grant victory unto Orthodox Christians over their adversaries,/ and by virtue of Thy Cross,// preserve Thy habitation. (Troparion, Tone 1)
On the occasion of the great feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, His Eminence Vladimir, Metropolitan of Chisinau and all Moldova, celebrated on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, the Divine Liturgy at the Metropolitan Cathedral “Nativity of the Lord” in Chisinau.
His Eminence was joined by Protopriest Vadim Cheibaș, Metropolitan Secretary and Dean of the Cathedral, together with an assembly of priests and deacons.
Unlike other feasts, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated with fasting because it reminds us of the Passion and death of the Saviour.
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Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship!
Today we celebrate the exaltation of the Holy and life-giving Cross; the cross on which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ suffered for our salvation… The Cross which, from being a shameful tool of shameful torture and condemnation, as it was before, has afterwards become the holy sign of our deliverance from the curse of sin, of victory over death, sanctified by the priceless blood that was shed upon it from the hands and feet of Him who was pierced with spikes and stabbed with the spear.
Many healings and other miracles have been and are being done both through the Cross of the Lord and through its image. Through it, the Lord guards His people from all enemies seen and unseen. The Orthodox Church solemnly commemorates the discovery of the Holy Cross, remembering also the appearance of the Cross in heaven to Emperor Constantine.
Today, when the efforts of worldly rulers to establish order on earth remain unheeded, the world’s only weapon of hope remains that of which the Church sings: ‘The Cross is the defence of the whole world, the Cross is the beauty of the Church, the Cross is the power of kings, the Cross is the strength of the faithful, the Cross is the glory of angels and the wound of demons’.
Synodal Sector for Institutional Communication and Media Relations