On Sunday, September 29 our Parish family held celebration of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. The Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.

After the Gospel lesson he preached a homily in Russian concerning the meaning of the Savior’s sacrifice on the Cross. It is not easy to comprehend by our limited human mind why we are venerating the Cross, a tool of execution and torture. St. Paul also wrote that the preaching of the Cross is a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness for the Greeks (1 Cor. 1, 21) but for us it is God’s power and God’s wisdom.
God’s power is manifested in the Cross because through the Cross the Lord opened paradise for us. And God’s wisdom was shown through the Cross because the Lord did not command us from heavens what to do but descended to us, took upon Himself our sufferings and redeemed us.
Therefore, preaching of the Cross is our way to eternal life. And if we venerate the Cross of Christ, we answer to the highest love of God towards us.

The choir prayerfully performed hymns of the Exaltation of the Cross before Holy Communion.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector and the altar servers performed glorification of the feast and veneration of the Cross in the middle of the church. Then Fr. Igor preached a short sermon in English. He also greeted our parishioner, Lyudmila Galtseva on the occasion of her name day. Traditional Polychronion (Mnogaia leta!) was performed.