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At the ending of the third week of Lent, on the day of the veneration of the Cross, Patriarch Moses called upon the faithful to listen and fulfill the precepts of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." (Марка 8:34).
Today, as at those times, every God's soul dreams of the approaching of the God's Kingdom to the Earth. Such a soul dreams of salvation and strives for bearing own cross of spiritual serving with joy. Every kindly soul strives for following Jesus - for His truth and verity, notwithstanding with the temptations and delusive satisfactions of this world.
During the Divine Liturgy Patriarch Moses blessed deacon Yaroslav for the ministration to God as archdeacon. He came to church to serve near the altar, being a little boy. And now archdeacon Yaroslav gladdens God with his sincere ministration and his voice, as if been created for liturgical chant, adorns the general prayer.
At the ending of the Divine Liturgy, the bringing in of the Holy Cross for the worship of the faithful took place.
Under the Roman reign, the death on the cross was considered to be a shameful punishment. The evil forces, using such a method of death for Jesus longed for humbling His salutary teaching to humble the Verity of God, which He had brought for people. But God has risen and ascended to Heaven whereof proved the truth of His words.
From that time, especially from the 4th century, a cross has become the symbol of the victory of life over death. Thus the dreadful weapon used against the God turned against the Satan.
And nowadays the Holy Cross helps and protects those, who believe sincerely and follow Jesus the Saviour, His teachings and the Verity of God.
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