We celebrate the Feast of the Cross twice a year in our church: the first, on September 27, commemorates the discovery of the Holy Cross by the Empress Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine; and the second, on March 19, commemorates the manifestation of the Holy Cross in the seventh century during the reign of Roman emperor Heraclius.

St. Athanasius the Apostolic wrote in his Festal Letters, 22.1 in the year 350 A.D.:

When Our Lord Jesus Christ, who took it upon Himself to die for all, stretched forth His
hands not somewhere on the earth beneath, but in the air itself, in destroying the devil
who was working in the air; and that He might consecrate our road up to heaven and
make it free."

St. Paul writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians, "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:8)

St. John Chrysostom comments on this saying that, "St. Paul desires for us to celebrate the cross because 'Christ is the Passover, and has been sacrificed for us.' (1 Corinthians 5:7) The cross is the altar on which the Son was sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins. This is the sacrifice whose aroma the Father has accepted on behalf of humanity. The sins of humanity have indeed been forgiven through the sacrifice of the cross."

May the blessings of the Holy Cross be with us all. Amen.

By: Fr. Mikhail E. Mikhail, D. Min.