Many different disasters and cataclysms shocked the world. Civilizations and cities fell, entire nations and states disappeared. But the Church of Christ, persecuted and driven, forbidden and even internally divided, stands undying to this day, revealing to the world the truth of Christ and the light of God.

Because we are told: the doors of hell will not overcome it.

From the history we can see that the efforts fell flat, and the strifes of the world leaders were fruitless, trying to destroy the Church of Christ and Its clergy in order to freely establish their rules against the Divine. The presence of the Church bothered them to violate justice. It viewlessly comminated them.

The names of such figures and their deeds went west. The memory about them was erased, and the commandments of God remain as the main law, and the only true weapon of Christians is the Cross.

“The Cross is the guardian of the whole world; the Cross is the beauty of the Church; the Cross is the might of kings; the Cross is the confirmation of the faithful; the Cross is the glory of angels and the ruining of demons,” the Church sings.

The Church is ineradicable, just as the grace of God is ineradicable. Exactly by grace the Church is being strengthened from within, and by the Cross the Lord preserves His faithful children from visible and invisible enemies.

And we have nothing to be afraid of: God and His strength, His Cross and His grace are with us.

From the very beginning of its existence, the Cross has been accompanied by miracles.

It changed the original symbolic meaning to the exact opposite — from the instrument of execution, causing horror and fear among people, the Cross miraculously became an instrument of human salvation, its hope and support.

This happened after the death of the Savior on the Cross.

Christ crushed and shamed the devil with the Cross. He went from the Cross into hell, where He freed the tormented people and led them into the Kingdom of Heaven. Since then, the image of the Cross is terrible for demons and saving for believers. It’s evidenced by the many healings and miracles that occur through prayers at the Lord’s Cross or at His images.
There is no greater confidence among Christians than the confidence in the power and help of the Lord’s Cross.

The cross was revealed to the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine in the sky as a sign of God with the words "In this sign thou shalt conquer" when he went to Rome to repulse the tormentors.

Having won battles triply with the help of the Cross of the Lord, King Constantine asks his mother, the pious Queen Elena, to go to Jerusalem in search of the Cross on which the Lord was crucified.

And here the first miracle of healing took place. After long searchings, the queen managed to find out that the Cross was buried in a pagan temple. During the excavations, there were found: the Holy Sepulcher, three crosses lying nearby, a plaque with the inscription "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews", made by order of Pilate, and four nails that pierced the body of the Lord.

Since it wasn’t clear on which of the three crosses the Savior was crucified, they decided to bring them one by one to the seriously ill woman. And when the third cross was laid, the woman was immediately healed of her illness.

Near this place someone wascarrying man for burial, and when the Cross was placed on him, he came to life. After the resurrection of the deceased, it was clear that this was the Life-Giving Cross.

Fulfilmentof the will of God in earthly life without regard for obstacles, difficulties, sufferings and death  — this is the cross for each of us.

Let’s remember which cross the Lord took upon Himself, when He saved us from the power of sin and death. Let us respond with love to His love. Let us respond with our humbling in the front of the earthly cross to His sufferings on the Cross.

Let us feel the reality of His Cross and worship His sacrifice. Let us not remain indifferent to His call, to what His sacrifice was made for.

He died for those who hated Him, for our crimes. Let’s not pass by His love and His Cross, not be broken and not be afraid, not betray Him.

Let us pray these days in order that the Lord grants His favours not only to us and our loved ones, but also to all Orthodoxy, to the whole fullness of the Church, that He protects all of us and strengthen us with His Cross.

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova