The Services of the Feast. Entrance: When Saint Helena, sent by her son, the Emperor Constantine the Great, was deemed worthy to find the honorable Cross, on which Jesus Christ was crucified, the people of Jerusalem sought to worship it – a difficult task – at least to see it. Then, the Blessed, Patriarch of the Holy City, raised the honorable Cross upon the pulpit. Seeing this, the people began to shout "Lord, have mercy," and from then on, this great Feast prevailed.
Three hundred years later, Emperor Heraclius succeeded in recovering the honorable Cross from the hands of the Persians, who had taken it after the conquest of Jerusalem. Victorious and triumphant, he entered Constantinople, and for the second time, the life-giving wood was "exalted" in the "Great Church," in the presence of the faithful who worshiped it, rejoicing and glorifying God.
Aside from the salvific Cross of Christ, our Lord also spoke about the personal cross that every worthy disciple must bear in his life: "Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:38). In another instance, he said to the Twelve: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).
The significance of the Cross in the life of a Christian is so great that not only the great Fathers devoted numerous inspired sermons to it, but also renowned hymnographers composed troparia, praises, and canons, crucifixion-like stichera, sittings, exapostilaria, and stichera of the Psalms, etc.
And every pious Christian can reverently chant: "Cross, the guardian of the entire world; Cross, the beauty of the Church; Cross, the strength of kings; Cross, the support of the faithful; Cross, the glory of angels, and the wound of demons" (Exapostilarion).
