Kiev, October 4, 2016
Photo: http://news.church.ua/
On September 27, 2016, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, during the Divine Liturgy at the Kiev Caves Lavra His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine spoke of the spiritual power of the Cross in the lives of Christians, reports the information and education department of the UOC-MP.
“The Cross of Christ is a great relic and we, believers in Christ, venerate the Cross of the Lord as the tree on which our salvation was accomplished and our sins were forgiven,” the archpastor stressed.
His Beatitude noted that a Christian receives great power from that tree—“that power which we need to have in order to vanquish the devil, and to struggle with our passions, sins and vices.”
The Cross accompanies Christians throughout their lives. “We wear crosses—we absolutely must wear it—on our chests and make the Sign of the Cross. Thus the Sign of the Cross blesses us, blesses all that is inside us and around us,” the primate said.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry emphasized the need to “make the Sign of the Cross correctly—not in a slipshod way, but prayerfully – in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Correctly and prayerfully making the Sign of the Cross brings great power. “We even cannot imagine what great power we receive by making the Sign of the Cross of the Lord,” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry pointed out. “If it were not for theCcross, if it were not for the grace of God, the demons would destroy the whole of mankind in one moment; but it is by the power of the Lord’s Cross that the universe is upheld.”
