September brings us the Church New Year on September 1, the Nativity of the Theotokos on September 8, and the Exaltation of the Precious Cross on September 14.  The Church New Year, the Nativity of our beloved Theotokos and the Exultation of the Holy Cross each require our personal attention and prayers.  

 

 September 1 starts the Church New Year and encourages us to further our involvement with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and enrich our lives with a renewed and revitalized relationship with Him for the coming year.   We start this wonderful cycle all over again to come back to Him in gratitude and love.

 

 At Divine Liturgy on the Nativity of the Theotokos, we sing the Prokeimenon:  My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!  For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”      The Church’s devotion to the Theotokos surpasses its love for any of the other saints.   Her image is the only saint found in every iconostas in every Orthodox Church, where it occupies a place of honor next to the icon of her Son.  Let us humbly pray to our beloved Mother of God:  “O Most Holy Theotokos, pray for us sinners.”

 

September 14 is the Exaltation of the Most Holy and Precious Cross.  As we enter the church for Divine Liturgy on that Holy day, we approach the Cross that has been placed in the center of the church wreathed with flowers and we humbly bow to the ground and pray: “Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.”


 

The Cross symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, who bore the sins of humanity. This act of selfless love is captured in John 3:16-17:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  It is hard for anyone to know or understand the love God possesses.  

 

 

He took these things upon Himself for us men and for our salvation. Christ entered the world becoming like all men in all things except sin.  Jesus was tempted, but He did not sin.   At His Crucifixion Jesus took on our sins and, true to His human nature, suffered sin’s consequence, namely, death in this truly painful and torturous manner.  In this final act of selfless love and service, Jesus Christ died and burst the bonds of death.  Jesus came to reunite us with God.

 

 

Jesus of Nazareth is God, or more accurately, the divine Son of God in human flesh,  He is a true man in every way.   He was born.  He grew up in obedience to His parents.  He increased in wisdom and statue.  As a man Jesus experienced all normal and natural human experiences such as growth and development, hunger, thirst, fatigue, sorrow, pain, and disappointment.  He also knew human temptation, suffering and death.   The cross was originally a Roman instrument of execution, designed to inflict a slow and painful death, and He truly and deeply felt His torturous death.  However, in 1 Corinthians 1:18 St. Paul tells us: “For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the Power of God.”   The Cross has become a formidable and powerful emblem of faith, hope and salvation for us all.

 

To show your appreciation for what He suffered, attend church on the 14th and sing “Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify”  and renew your relationship with God!