Cross-Worshipping Week of Lent with children. Mozhaisk deanery

07.09.2019 Finance

Mid-Lent

And we, together with the children, remember that these days are the very middle of the Holy Pentecost. Half of the post is already over, and there is still a lot left to go. By the way, this week is also called the Middle Cross. “Orthodox Christians, making a spiritual journey to Heavenly Jerusalem - for the Easter of the Lord, find in the middle of the journey the “Tree of the Cross” in order under its shade to gain strength for the further journey” (Rev. John of Damascus).

So, halfway through the post. First, the good news: there's not much time left until Easter.

Secondly, a reason to think: how did we fast during the first half of Lent? Usually, already in the first week, we invite the children to decide what each of them, each of us, will try to correct in themselves for this fast. For example, learn not to snitch. Or don't be rude. Try to overcome such a sin that has become a habit.

And now, on the eve of the Week of the Worship of the Cross, we will remind the children, we will remind ourselves of our plans for Lent. Did we manage to do any of the things we planned three weeks ago? It often turns out that little has been achieved. And it’s time to get down to business on this matter. Try, pray, hope. At the beginning of the post it seemed like an eternity ahead, but now it’s clear that we need to try to get at least something done.

And there is also the everyday side of the issue. For Easter we usually clean the house, clean it, wash it. The children and I are preparing some interior decorations and gifts and crafts for the holiday. If we leave all this for the days before Easter, it will turn out that instead of divine services Holy Week, instead of prayer and remembrance of the suffering of Christ, we will have vanity of vanities, washing chandeliers and painting wooden eggs. To manage everything, or rather, to manage at least something, you will have to prepare for the holiday in advance.

And the completed half of the post reminds us of this prose of life. I usually write a list: what needs to be done to clean the house for the Holidays. And I see what can be done from this list in advance. I distribute all this over the remaining three weeks. Wash the curtains and soft toys, finally put away the skis, wash the washing machine- in general, a lot can definitely be done now. Do everything that careless housewives like me put off for general cleaning. In this case, only current affairs and home decoration will remain for Strastnaya.

It’s the same with crafts, poems, and other pedagogical decorations. Everything that we have planned with the children to prepare for Easter can be done in the next three weeks. This is all we are now remembering and planning.

Divine service

But still about the main thing. On the Week of the Worship of the Cross (that is, on Sunday), the service of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord is served. And this service begins on Saturday evening.

We tell the children in advance what they will see in the temple.

During the all-night vigil, after the great doxology, the priest will take a Cross decorated with flowers in the altar. The choir will sing the Trisagion: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” and under this singing the priest will solemnly bring the Cross to the middle of the temple. Place it on the lectern. And then all the priests, deacons - everyone will bow to the ground to the Life-giving Cross and sing: “We worship Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection.” And we will sing along with them, and we will make these three prostrations. By the way, we remind the children that the anointing on this day does not happen at the usual time, but at the very end of the service. Then it will be possible to venerate the Cross.

Children will know what to expect - and will be able to follow the service more closely.

If you come to church with small children, it will be difficult to endure the entire all-night vigil. In this case, we try to do this: we come to church with the children not towards the beginning, but towards the end. If the service started at 17:00, then we arrive around 18:30. Then we will just get to the removal of the Cross and the anointing of oil.

Home prayer

We will return home after the all-night vigil, have dinner and get up for evening prayers with the children. And after the usual prayers, we will also sing, as in the temple. Three times, drawn out: “To Your Cross...” And at the same time we will bow to the ground before the Crucifixion. This is what we will do until Friday of the coming week, after our general evening prayers.

Children love these bows. Such prayers before the Cross happen three times a year - and children easily remember them. The last time this happened, on the Feast of the Exaltation, our three-year-old daughter said: “I really like it when we sing such a prayer. Let’s always sing and bow like that.”

This singing with three prostrations to the ground is short-lived and not difficult. But this allows us to remember and remember every day throughout this week. About why and for Whom we fast. That we are preparing to worship the Passion of Christ and His glorious Resurrection...

It reminds us - if we prepared our children for this holiday, if we talked about such moments and if we brought this holiday to our home, to our children.

Holiday day

Sunday morning is, of course, Liturgy in church. And we all attend it together, we usually take communion - in general, we try to take communion more often through fasting. After the Liturgy at the Worship of the Cross, they usually do not give a cross to kiss, as happens on other days. But all the people approach the Cross on a lectern, taken out from the altar the day before. So we can venerate it again.

And at home we will start lunch (or brunch, depending on how you look at it) with reading. Just a couple of minutes, just a couple of paragraphs: from some sermon on the Cross or Week of the Cross.

The Pravoslavie.ru portal always has good selections for every holiday - you can open any text you like and read it. Recently, we didn’t even read it ourselves, but turned on an audio recording of one sermon and listened a little at the table. But it’s still better to read it yourself: you can skip something, you can, while reading, clarify it or retell it in words that children can understand.

For example:

sermon by St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) in the third week of Great Lent, the Worship of the Cross;
sermon of Archimandrite John (Peasant): “Come, faithful ones, let us worship the Life-Giving Tree.”

Let's read just a little, just the beginning, or grab something from the middle. If you really want to, we’ll read it ourselves later, without the children. Let's stop now.

Or maybe we won’t read it. Let’s just remember again, let’s talk about what we heard today during the sermon in church. Maybe one of us, as they say, “has something to say” about today’s holiday. And we'll talk about it. Let it be a little. Sometimes it’s even very good, if just a little. But with this conversation, with this reading, we will set a certain tone for our small common feast. Let's return to what we lived in the temple - or rather, how we should have lived. And maybe these words will really linger in the heads of our children. Or at least in our heads.

Cookies in the form of crosses

There was also such an interesting Russian folk tradition - baking cookies in the form of crosses on the Cross.

Ivan Shmelev in his book “The Summer of the Lord” described this custom well. I will give an extensive quote here - Shmelev very vividly showed how such a tradition is inscribed in the order of life and thinking of an Orthodox, church child. Shown the “presentation angle” of this custom:

“On Saturday of the third week of Lent we bake “crosses”: “Cross Worship” is suitable.

“Crosses” - special cookies, with almond flavor, crumbly and sweet; where the crossbars of the “cross” lie, raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed down with nails. They have been baking this way since time immemorial, even before great-grandmother Ustinya - as a consolation for Lent. Gorkin instructed me this way:

Our Orthodox faith, Russian... it is, my dear, the best, the most cheerful! and lightens the weak, enlightens despondency, and brings joy to the little ones.

And this is the absolute truth. Even though it’s Lent for you, it’s still a relief for the soul, “crosses.” Only under great-grandmother Ustinya there are raisins in sadness, and now there are cheerful raspberries.

“Worship of the Cross” is a sacred week, a strict fast, something special, “su-lip,” Gorkin says so, in the church way. If we kept it strictly in the church way, we would have to remain in dry eating, but due to weakness, relief is given: on Wednesday-Friday we will eat without butter - pea soup and vinaigrette, and on other days, which are “variegated”, - indulgence... but on The snack is always “crosses”: remember the “Worship of the Cross”.

Maryushka makes “crosses” with prayer...

And Gorkin also instructed:

Eat the cross and think to yourself - “The venerable cross” has arrived. And these are not for pleasure, but everyone, they say, is given a cross in order to live an exemplary life... and to bear it obediently, as the Lord sends a test. Our faith is good, it does not teach evil, but brings understanding.”

In our family, every Lent, “crosses” are also baked. This custom is really a “comfort” for children in the great Lenten time. Makes the Week of the Worship of the Cross something to look forward to, even for little ones. We told the children in words about the Week of the Cross. And these cookies are a good visual accompaniment for verbal learning. And not only visual, but tangible. And also edible.

Besides the visual appeal, baking these cookies in itself is a good idea for activities with children of all ages. We're all going together. And parents, and teenagers, and kids - everyone. This is a joint and fun common thing. Which in itself is worth a lot. Making these crosses from dough is very simple: roll two sausages, cross them, press in the middle so that they stick together - and you're done. It's fun for older people. For younger schoolchildren - culinary skills. For kids - fine motor skills, modeling, but instead of plasticine crafts, children make useful and tasty things. Yes, together with all the elders. And at the same time we are preparing something delicious for tea. So many advantages - and all in one and such a simple task.

You can bake these cookies from any dough.

The simplest thing is the store bought one. You can buy yeast for pies. We will defrost it, as it says on the package, and we will make sausages. You can take puff pastry - then you will not need to sculpt, but simply cut the dough into small strips.

The big advantage of buying dough, of course, is that we reduce the cooking time. This is especially true on weekdays, when there is practically no time for anything. Then the finished dough allows us to spend only ten minutes on these cookies: that’s how much it will take to remove the defrosted dough from the package, cover the baking sheet with foil or paper and let the children sculpt.

But you can still work hard and make the dough yourself.

Rye is the healthiest. In addition, Lenten: rye flour, water, salt, honey. You can do it without honey, you can use it with yeast or sourdough, but add more salt. My husband loves these.

Yeast - prosphora: premium flour, yeast and water. From this dough you need to make thick sausages, about 2 cm in diameter. It is enough to roll one sausage yourself to the correct thickness and show it to the children - they will stick the same size according to this pattern.

Gingerbread - sweet. Dissolve a third of a glass of water, two-thirds of a glass of sugar, and two tablespoons of honey on the stove. Cool slightly. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the resulting syrup, baking powder on the tip of a knife and flour - so much flour that the dough becomes like plasticine. You can add half a glass of vegetable oil or 100 g of margarine for baking. But it’s also good without oil. From this dough you will need to make sausages with a diameter of about 8 mm. Ready-made gingerbread dough crosses can be coated with protein-free glaze. These cookies sell out immediately. However, my children eat all flour with great pleasure, as long as they give it to them.

In the middle of these crosses you can stick a raisin, a marmalade. It will be good for the crosses from yeast dough. Puff pastry cookies can be sprinkled with granulated sugar before placing in the oven to create a caramel crust.

We bake these “crosses” on the Saturday before Cross Sunday and eat them after returning from church, at lunch. And then we bake them again almost every day of this strict week of the Worship of the Cross.

In such cases, when we revive such folk customs, there may be some embarrassment. For example, baking crosses can become the actual main content Week of the Cross. And this can really happen. We see that in modern reality, as in history, external, essentially insignificant folk traditions or even though time-honored, but only the “traditions of the elders” overshadow for many the meaning of the events of the church year, they become more important than the “commandments of God” and the teachings of the Church.

But this happens when the holiday is exhausted by such customs. When there is a Christmas tree and gifts under it, but there is no church, no worship, no reading of the Gospel, no “teaching of the Lord.” And when we really celebrate the holiday together with the Church, when we learn and accept its teachings, when we at least try to lead our children to God, to the temple, to “true” education - then all external attributes will take their rightful place. Namely: they will highlight the celebrated event from the series of everyday life. They will become a visual aid for kids and a joy for adults.

But for this it is precisely necessary that we ourselves do not turn cheese week into a gorging on pancakes under a smoked scarecrow, that we do not turn the beginning of Lent into a big cleaning called “Clean Monday”, and good friday- on the day of baking Easter cakes.

It is important that we ourselves live the life of the Church.

And they brought their children into this life.

So that our children not only come - but come with us. Not only did they come, but they also understood where they ended up. They didn’t just come, they came with joy. So that they come to the temple and then return to it again. Already on your own.

But even the most diligent, truly righteous parents do not always have children who choose life with God. And what can we say about families like ours? But we have hope - we have a special weapon in this battle for life, for the real life of our children. After all, we have the opportunity to call for help on the invincible, incomprehensible and divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross. So that our children always return under the shadow, under the canopy of this mysterious Tree of Life. So that they themselves would look for him, love him, rely on him, and use him to defeat enemies visible and invisible. So that the paths and paths of our children will eventually reach this Tree of Paradise.

The blessed time of Great Lent is approaching. In order for it to benefit our children, we must try to convey to them the meaning and objectives Orthodox fasting. A good help on this path would be to jointly produce a special Lenten calendar.

Such a calendar makes the post “visual” and more understandable for children. The post will be divided into certain stages that you will expect and experience together.

By actively participating in the work, children will be able to better remember and understand the contents of the calendar. The calendar clearly shows how many weeks the fast lasts, what each of them is called, and what its features are. It is also useful to add weeks preparatory to fasting.

The days of the strictest fast are highlighted in color. The holidays that we celebrate are shown, and the traditions associated with these holidays are indicated.

The appearance of the calendar creates a special mood. The very fact of its existence emphasizes the separation of the time of Lent from the rest of the year: it is as if we are beginning to live in a different time, in a different calendar.

The design of the calendar depends on your desire and mood. We recommend making it joyful, spring-like, so that children do not associate the time of fasting with something gloomy and painful, but, on the contrary, to emphasize the spiritual joy that fasting brings us. Let's be inspired by the words of St. John Chrysostom:

“Spring is pleasant for sailors and pleasant for farmers; but spring is not as pleasant for sailors and farmers as the time of fasting is pleasant for those who want to philosophize - this spiritual spring for the soul...” (Collected Works, Vol. 2, book 2, p. 727).

Children understand visual images better, so the calendar can be decorated with the sun, flowers, birds and butterflies.

Progress

We will need a sheet of thick paper in A3 or A2 format (you can take 4 landscape sheets and glue them from the inside with tape).

1) Draw the sheet so as to get 10 horizontal stripes (3 preparatory weeks and 7 weeks of fasting). We will leave margins at the top and bottom for artistic decoration of the calendar.

2) Vertically draw a sheet of paper into 8 cells: according to the number of days of the week plus a place for the name of each week. It is advisable to make the left column wider than the others.

3) Paint the top field of the calendar with blue paint or cover it with colored paper; We paste the sun, clouds, birds - this is the sky. The top can be cut into the shape of a roof, a semicircle, or left straight.

4) We paint the lower field with green paint, decorate it with colored paper, stick flowers and butterflies on top - this is grass. In our example, the child cut a sheet of colored paper into individual blades of grass with curly scissors. We bent some blades of grass to give the “clearing” volume.

5) In the left column, opposite each week, indicate its number and name. Preparatory: About the Publican and the Pharisee, About the Prodigal Son, Meat Eating (Maslenitsa). Next are the weeks of Great Lent: First, Second (Light-giving Fasts), Third, Worship of the Cross, Fifth, Sixth, Passion. Additionally, you can paste photographs of temples, views of spring nature, or other thematic images to your taste into these cells.

6) Now fill in the days of the week. Enter the date and day of the week in all the cells. On every Sunday afternoon(in Slavic - week) we also write the date and name: Triumph of Orthodoxy, Gregory Palamas, Worship of the Cross, John Climacus, Palm Tree, . Now we color the cells in accordance with the severity of the fast. Don't forget about preparatory weeks: fast days on Wednesday and Friday there will be only the second of them. We have highlighted the strictest days in black. You should immediately agree on how children will spend ordinary days of fasting, days of strict fasting, as well as Saturdays and Sundays, when fasting is weakened according to the rules. Children's fasting depends on the lifestyle of your family and the blessing of your confessor.

Strict days: all Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, the first, fourth (Worship of the Cross) and last (Holy) weeks.

7) We organize the preparatory weeks. Just above the first of them we paste or draw an illustration for the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. Next Sunday is dedicated to the parable of the Prodigal Son (we pasted up a reproduction of a Rembrandt painting). This is followed by a week about the Last Judgment (you can print and paste a reproduction of the icon). Cheese Week ends with Forgiveness Sunday, on this day the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise is remembered (we used a reproduction from an engraving by Gustave Doré depicting this event). If the preparatory weeks include immovable holidays (for example, Candlemas), we also highlight them. Don’t forget to indicate meat-free parental Saturday (we drew a burning candle).

If you wish, you can indicate the popular name for each day of Maslenitsa and paste photographs of pancakes.

8) We highlight the important days of Lent. We marked the first four days on which the Great Penitential Canon of Andrew of Crete is read with an open book with a candle. We draw the same icon in the cell on Wednesday of the fifth week, when the Station of Mary of Egypt is celebrated at Vespers.

We depict a lit candle in the cells parent's Saturdays: second, third and fourth weeks.

On Saturday of the first week, the celebration of the Great Martyr Theodore Tiron is celebrated - this day can be decorated with an icon or image of a koliva.

The first Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated to the celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Here it is appropriate to paste a reproduction of an icon or cut out a dome from gold paper Orthodox church with a cross.

We marked the week of Gregory Palamas with a symbolic image of the uncreated Light, which the saint taught about.

The Week of the Worship of the Cross, undoubtedly, should be marked with the image of a cross. Immediately tell your children about the tradition of the celebration so that they look forward to this day.

We will decorate the week of John Climacus with a symbolic image of a ladder.

On Lazarus Saturday, the regulations allow the consumption of caviar, so you can depict it. Or cut out the icon of the Raising of Lazarus from last year’s wall calendar and paste it in the appropriate box.

The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem can be decorated with a real willow tree, preserved from last Easter, or its image.

April 7, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will decorate with an image of a white lily or paste a reproduction of the icon.

March 22, the day of remembrance of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, is appropriate to decorate with the image of a lark (it is on this day, according to tradition, that housewives bake larks from Lenten dough).

You can indicate in the calendar not only church but also secular holidays, for example, Defender of the Fatherland Day, birthdays or name days celebrated in your family.

9) Special attention must be paid to the days of Holy Week.

On Holy Monday we remember the curse and drying up of the barren fig tree by the Lord.

On Holy Tuesday we remember the Lord’s denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees.

On Great Wednesday we remember the sinner wife who washed the Savior’s feet with her tears and anointed them with precious myrrh.

The main event of Maundy Thursday is the Lord's establishment of the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Good Friday is the most terrible day in the history of mankind, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

IN Holy Saturday Orthodox Church remembers the bodily burial of Jesus Christ and His descent into hell.

All these days can be marked with iconographic images of events or just make appropriate inscriptions.

10) Finally, we make the most solemn and festive decoration for the day of the Bright Resurrection of Christ.

11) To the right edge of the almost finished calendar, opposite each week, we glue a piece of paper with a short spiritual lesson. These could be proverbs, sayings from Holy Scripture or the Fathers of the Church. They should remind of something important that can be achieved during fasting, of virtues, of a pious life. These phrases can be aimed at children, and then it will be very short words. For example, the Ten Commandments of Moses, or the gifts of the Spirit listed by the Apostle Paul, or the definitions of love from the letter to the Corinthians.

If you don’t focus only on children, but choose one for yourself, children will also benefit, and there will be a reason to talk to them about what these phrases mean.

We bend the leaves with texts under the calendar sheet. At the beginning of each week we will fold back the corresponding sheet. This creates the effect of anticipation and clearly shows what part of the post has already been completed.

We wish your family a favorable fast!

You can get advice, download images and sayings for the calendar in the comments to

On the Holy Cross,
Illuminated by a sea of light
Father takes it out in the temple
Cross decorated with flowers.

And singing a prayer,
Glorifying the cross with a bow,
We praise the Lord Christ
During the days of Great Lent.

On the third Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday of the Worship of the Cross, after the Divine Liturgy, our well-wishers, having venerated the Cross, received from the hands of the new rector of our church, Father Andrei, a small but tasty-smelling cross, covered in beautiful colored sprinkles.

This one is kind Orthodox tradition baking crosses in memory of the suffering of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ has already become a beloved tradition of our Sunday school “Dobrokhotiki”.

The same beautiful and delicious-smelling crosses, only larger in size, were given to the priests of our church - two Fathers Andrei. This is our “story”: Andrei’s two fathers. And, of course, we have not forgotten about our dear father Kirill. Crosses for him and Mother Maria were given with best wishes through Mother Valentina (our Mashushka’s mother).

After drinking tea in the refectory, the well-wishers went to Sunday school.

Father Andrei, the new rector of the church, came to our lesson to see how we live and get to know the students. It was very nice to feel his complicity (this is such a “butter”, but it conveys our state :)), because the priest came to us with gifts! “My mother, the kids and I looked at what we had at home and found these !»

sheep

Funny sheep family. Dad is a lamb in a checkered vest with a smart book in his “hands” and mom is a lamb with her little son – a lamb in her arms! Father Andrei also brought as a gift an icon of the Apostle of the 70, Hieromartyr Onesimus, who has a lamb in his arms. It turns out that this saint is popularly considered the patron saint of sheep. After all, it is known that many saints loved animals very much. And among them there are those who are depicted with animals on holy icons.

Here is the information on the website of the Russian Ethnographic Museum:

Onisim-ovchar Memorial Day of St. Onesimus, celebrated by the Church on February 15/28. It is known that Onesimus, originally from the city of Colossus in Phrygia, was one of the seventy apostles. He received baptism from the Apostle Paul. With Onesimus and Tychicus, Paul sent a letter to the Colossians. According to legend, Onesimus was appointed bishop of Ephesus; in 109 in Rome he was stoned to death by opponents of the Christian faith. In the folk tradition of St. Onesimus was considered the patron saint of sheep, and therefore he was called the shepherd, that is, the shepherd of sheep. On Onisim the Shepherd, in some places the Russians had a custom of calling out to the stars so that the sheep would lamb well. In Voronezh province. This ritual took place as follows: in the evening, with the appearance of stars in the sky, the owner of the sheep and the shepherd walked outside the outskirts and bowed three times in all four directions. Then the shepherd stood on and pronounced the spell: “Shine a clear star in the heavens, for the joy of the baptized world. Light up with an unquenchable fire for the joy of the Orthodox. Look, star, at the yard of the slave (name of the rivers). You, clear star, illuminate the white sheep with unquenchable fire. Just as there are countless stars in the sky, so the slave (name of the rivers) would have more sheep” (Nekrylova A.F., 1991, p. 110).

The comparison of sheep with stars, characteristic of traditional consciousness, also formed the basis for the use of metaphor in the riddle genre:
“The field is not measured, the sheep are not counted, the shepherd is horned”;

“One shepherd tends a thousand sheep”;

“The sheep are running, running
on a linden board;
saw the dawn -
fell into the water."

The day of Onisim the Shepherd in the southern Russian provinces - Ryazan, Tula, etc. - was marked by the custom of “spinning yarn”: they hung it out in the morning frost, believing that this would make it white, clean and strong.

In some places, grain intended for sowing was also exposed to frost so that the grain harvest would be better. With the help of “spotting” on Onisim the Shepherd, hemp oil was purified: it was mixed with snow and placed in the sun, causing the snow to melt and absorb dark impurities from the oil. The contaminated water settled below and froze at night, leaving purified and clarified oil at the top.

Of course, our well-wishers treat conspiracies with the proper sense of humor, but the information itself is interesting. This is the history of the culture of the people.

The children and their teachers thanked Father Andrey for the interesting story and gifts, and showed in photographs how we celebrated the holiday of the “Good Sheep” in past years.

And then, having worked on the “lamb in flowers” craft, they began to prepare for the Easter performance “Chicken’s Gift”. After all, three weeks of Lent are already behind us and the Lord’s Easter will be very soon!

God bless us all with the power of the Honest Life-Giving Cross.

The Holy Church offers the Holy Cross for spiritual strengthening of those undergoing the feat of fasting, just as food, drink and rest serve for bodily strengthening. Just as a traveler, tired from a long journey, rests under a spreading tree, so Orthodox Christians, making a spiritual journey to Heavenly Jerusalem for the Passover of the Lord, find the “Tree of the Cross” in the middle of the path, so that under its shade they can gain strength for the further journey. Or just as before the arrival of a king returning with victory, his banners and scepters march first, so the Cross of the Lord precedes Christ’s victory over death - the Bright Resurrection!

The third Sunday is called Week of the Cross. Its name comes from the fact that on Saturday evening, according to a special rite, veneration of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, which has become for us tree of life” and opened the entrance to the blissful heavenly Fatherland lost by pristine man. Remembering the suffering on the cross that the Lord endured for the sake of our salvation, we ourselves must strengthen ourselves in spirit and continue our fasting feat with humility and patience.

History of the establishment of the Week of the Cross

“On the same day, in the third week of Lent, we celebrate the veneration of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, for the sake of sin. For the sake of the fourty-day fast, in some way we are crucified, killed by passions, and the feeling of grief, the imams, is despondent and falling. The Honest and Life-Giving Cross is offered, as if to repose and strengthen us, remembering the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and consoling us. Even if our God were crucified for our sake, how much we owe to Him for the sake of His work.

... Just as the path is traversed by duty and sharply, and burdened by labor, even where the tree is blessed and leafy, they rest little while sitting, so now, in Lenten times, the sorrowful path and feat, planted in the midst of the God-bearing Father, the Life-Giving Cross, gives us weakness and peace , and arranging those who were useful and easy for the work before them.
... The Holy Pentecost is like a bitter spring, for the sake of contrition and the grief and sadness that exists for us from fasting. Just as in this environment, the divine Moses placed a tree and sweetened it, so God, who led us through the wise Red Sea and Pharaoh, with the Life-giving Tree of the Cross, delights, even from the fourty-day fast, grief and sadness. And consoling us, as if we were in the desert, He will lead us all the way to wise Jerusalem with His resurrection" ( Lenten Triodion, Synoxarion on the Sunday of the Cross ).

The Gospels do not provide much detail about the cross on which Christ was crucified. The discovery of the Holy Cross took place in 326, when it was found Saint Queen Helena during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem:

...divine Constantine sent blessed Helen with treasures to find the life-giving cross of the Lord. Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem met the queen with due honor and together with her looked for the desired life-giving tree, remaining in silence and diligent prayers and fasting. (“Chronography” of Theophanes, year 5817 (324/325))

The history of the discovery of the Holy Cross is described by many authors of that time: Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397), Rufinus (345-410), Socrates Scholasticus (c. 380-440), Theodoret of Cyrus (386-457) .), Sulpicius Severus (c. 363-410), Sozomen (c. 400-450).

For the first time in surviving texts, a detailed history of the acquisition of the Cross appears in Ambrose of Milan in 395. In his “Word on the Death of Theodosius,” he tells how Queen Helena ordered to dig at Golgotha and discovered three crosses there. According to the inscription " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews“She found the true Cross and worshiped it. She also found the nails with which the Lord was crucified. All the few indications from historians closest in time to the search boil down to the fact that the crosses were found not far from the Holy Sepulcher, but not in the Sepulcher itself. There was a possibility that all three crosses used in the execution that day could have been buried near the site of the crucifixion. Sozomen in his work he puts forward the following assumption about the possible fate of the Cross after the body of Jesus Christ was removed from it:

The soldiers, as the story tells, first found Jesus Christ dead on the cross and, having taken Him down, gave Him away for burial; then, intending to hasten the death of the robbers crucified on both sides, they broke their legs, and threw the crosses themselves one after another, at random.

Eusebius of Caesarea describes the excavation site as follows:

Some atheists and wicked men intended to hide this saving cave from the eyes of people, with the insane intention of hiding the truth through this. Having used a lot of labor, they brought earth from somewhere and filled the whole place with it. Then, raising the embankment to a certain height, they paved it with stone, and under this high embankment they hid the divine cave. Having completed such work, they only had to prepare a strange, truly tomb of souls on the surface of the earth, and they built a gloomy dwelling for dead idols, a hiding place of the demon of voluptuousness Aphrodite, where they brought hated sacrifices on unclean and vile altars. (Eusebius of Caesarea, “Life of Constantine.” III, 36)

The place where the Cross was found is located in the chapel of the Finding of the Cross of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, in a former quarry. The location of its discovery is marked by a red marble slab with an image of a cross; the slab is surrounded on three sides by a metal fence; this is where the Cross was initially kept. 22 metal steps lead down to the chapel of the Finding of the Cross from the underground Armenian Church of St. Helena, this is the lowest and easternmost point of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher - two floors down from the main level. In the chapel of the Finding of the Cross, under the ceiling near the descent, there is a window marking the place from which Elena watched the progress of the excavations and threw money to encourage those who worked. This window connects the chapel with the altar of St. Helen's Church. Socrates Scholasticus writes that Empress Helen divided the Life-Giving Cross into two parts: one she placed in a silver vault and left in Jerusalem, and the second she sent to her son Constantine, who placed it in his statue mounted on a column in the center of Constantine Square. Socrates reports that this information is known to him from the conversations of the residents of Constantinople, that is, it may be unreliable. The remaining part of the Cross in Jerusalem was located there long time, and the believers worshiped the honest tree. In 614, Jerusalem was besieged by the Persian ruler Khosra II. After a long siege, the Persians managed to capture the city. The invaders took away the Tree of the Life-Giving Cross, which had been kept in the city since it was acquired Equal to the Apostles Helen. The war continued for many years. Having united with the Avars and Slavs, Persian king almost captured Constantinople. Only the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos saved the Byzantine capital. The Persians were defeated. The Cross of the Lord was returned to Jerusalem. Since then, the day of this joyful event has been celebrated annually.

At that time, the order of Lenten church services had not yet been finally established and some changes were constantly being made to it. In particular, I practiced transfer of holidays that occurred on weekdays of Lent to Saturday and Sunday. This made it possible not to violate the strictness of fasting on weekdays. The same thing happened with the Feast of the Life-Giving Cross. It was decided to be celebrated on the third Sunday of Lent. On these same days, it was customary to begin preparing the catechumens whose sacrament of baptism was scheduled for. It was considered correct to begin instruction in faith with the veneration of the Cross of the Lord. This tradition existed until the 13th century, when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders. From then on, the further fate of the shrine is unknown. Only isolated particles of the Cross are found in some reliquaries.

Divine service on the Week of the Cross. Troparion and Kontakion

At Matins on the Sunday of the Cross, after the Great Doxology, the priest takes the Cross out of the altar. When singing the troparion “Save your people…” The cross is placed on a lectern in the center of the temple. “We worship Your Cross, Master...” the priest proclaims and bows to the ground. After the clergy, they approach the lectern in pairs and all the worshipers, first male, then female, bow and kiss the Cross, and at this time the choir sings special stichera dedicated to the redemptive suffering of Christ the Savior.

R aduisz life-giving places, red flowers of paradise2, the imperishable tree, the pleasure that has given us eternal glory. and 4 also the cruelty of the Poltsy 2, and 3 the festivities of the festivities are celebrated, and 3 the assemblies of the faithful celebrate. weapons are invincible, affirmation is indestructible. This is a victory, congratulations2. xt0you are not in the same age, and3 wait for us to achieve, and3 great mercy. (Lenten Triodion, stichera on the Sunday of the Cross)

In a similar way, the veneration of the Cross of the Lord is performed two more times a year - on the first day of the Dormition Fast (August 14, n.st.), when the “Origin of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord” is celebrated, and on the twelfth holiday (September 27, n.st.). During the Week of the Cross, the fourth week of Great Lent, during the daily service, the veneration of the Cross also occurs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a special rite during the reading of the hours.

Troparion, tone 1.

With 22 gD and your people, and 3 blessings 2 of your dignity, grant victories to the Russian power against resistance, and 3 your preserving the people.

Kontakion, tone 7.

No one else ardently guards the gates of the world. so you will find the most glorious thing, the great tree, the mortal sting, and destroy the year’s victory2. I have come for all of you, who are in this place, come back to heaven.

Folk traditions of the Week of the Cross

In Rus', on Wednesday of the Week of Cross Worship, it was customary in all peasant houses to bake crosses from unleavened wheat dough according to the number of family members. They baked either a chicken feather in the crosses, “to make the chickens grow,” or rye grain, “to make bread grow,” or, finally, human hair, “to make the head easier.” Anyone who came across a cross with one of these items was considered lucky.

On Wednesday of the Week of the Worship of the Cross, the fast was broken, and small children went under the windows to congratulate their owners on the end of the first half of the fast. In some areas, this custom of congratulations was expressed in a very original form: congratulatory children were placed like chickens under a large basket, from where they sang in thin voices: “ Hello, master-red sun, hello, hostess-bright moon, hello, children-bright stars!... Half of the shit broke, and the other bent" It was customary to pour water on the simple-minded congratulatory children, and then, as if as a reward for the fright they had endured, they were given crosses made of dough.

Iconography of the Week of the Cross

As usual, the crucified Christ is depicted on the cross. Below, under the feet of the Savior, a footstool is depicted, on the top of the cross there is a board with the initial letters of Pilate’s inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (I.N.C.I) or the inscription “Jesus Christ”. On large temple images, crucifixes are depicted on both sides of the cross. Holy Mother of God and the Apostle John the Theologian, who, according to the Gospel, stood at the very cross during the execution. The icon “Worship of the Cross” depicts a cross surrounded by heavenly forces.

Churches dedicated to the Holy Cross

In Jerusalem, on the spot where, according to legend, the Tree of the Cross grew, a monastery was founded. Monastery of the Holy Cross and its location are mentioned in many tales and legends. According to one of the legends, the time of creation of the monastery is the period of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helen, that is, the 4th century AD. e. According to another legend, the founding date of the monastery is the 5th century. And this event is associated with Tatian, the king of Iberia (Georgia). It is believed that Tatian, king of Iberia (Georgia), made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and decided to build an Iberian monastery west of Jerusalem, on land that Constantine the Great had granted to Mirian, another Iberian king. According to the third legend, the monastery was built during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (610-641). Returning victoriously from the Persian campaign, Heraclius camped at the place where the monastery is now located. This place was revered due to the fact that the Tree of the Cross grew there - the tree from which the Cross of Christ was made. The Holy Cross itself, which Heraclius returned from Persia to the Holy Land, was erected on Calvary. Irakli ordered to build a monastery on the chosen site.

In the city of Aparan, Aragatsotn region of Armenia, there is Church of the Holy Cross. It was built at the end of the 4th century. In 1877 the temple was restored. Belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church

Also on the island of Akhtamar (Türkiye) there is an early medieval Armenian Monastery of the Holy Cross. Built in 915-921.

Soulful teaching on the Week of the Worship of the Cross

The Cross of the Lord is a sign of victory over death and the forces of hell, the royal banner of Christ God, preceding His glorious appearance in the Holy Resurrection, as stated in the synoxarion of the Week of the Cross. The cross is our shield and weapon in the fight against invisible enemies and our own mental and physical passions and vices; in it we find true spiritual strength and strength when we strive to follow our Savior. Honoring the Cross and the suffering of the Lord, we shed both sorrowful and joyful tears, in hope of our own inner renewal and resurrection, which would have been impossible without the Great Sacred Sacrifice, which took place two thousand years ago on Calvary.

If the Sinless Lord Himself endured so much and suffered in His Most Pure Flesh for the sake of our salvation, then all the more we, sinful people, defiled by passions and vices, must suffer and endure, subduing carnal whims and lusts for the sake of the purification and enlightenment of the immortal soul.

The Christian religion is a “crusader” religion, as the Apostle Paul says: “It has been given to you for Christ’s sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.”(Phil. 1:29). AND “Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of God”(Acts 14:22). Carry your cross within your strength, i.e. crucifying bodily lusts and desires is a narrow and cramped path of salvation for every Christian. Worshiping the Holy Cross of the Lord and “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.”(Heb. 12:2), we are encouraged in spirit and gain courage for exploits in order to reject conceit and pride and patiently follow in the footsteps of the holy fathers, who left us a worthy image and example to follow. Many edifying teachings also speak about the fact that sorrow and patience are truly necessary for internal self-education and spiritual growth, instructing us on the path of virtue and improvement.

“...It is impossible for anyone to be saved without suffering and inconvenience, O my soul. What can I tell you about the Creator Himself of heaven and earth, of all creation, visible and invisible?! Wanting to save the human race from enslavement to the devil and hellish prisons, to save our forefather Adam from the curse and crime, God became man, incarnate from the Holy Spirit. The Father sent His Son - Word in Holy Virgin and was born without male seed. And the Invisible became visible. And he stayed with people. And He accepted reproach, dishonor, spitting and beatings on His most pure face from mortal man. And he was crucified on the Cross, and struck on the head with a cane, and, having tasted vinegar and gall, was pierced in the ribs with a spear, and put to death, and placed in a tomb. And He rose again on the third day by His power. O great miracle, amazing both to the angel and to people: the Immortal wanted to die, not wanting to see how the creation of His hands was tormented by the violence of the devil in hellish confinement!
Oh, your utmost meekness and indescribable love for mankind for our impoverishment and orphanhood! Oh, terrible and amazing sight of Your long-suffering, Lord! My mind is terrified and great fear attacks me, and my bones tremble when I talk about this. The Creator of all invisible and visible creation - but He wanted to suffer from His creation, from corruptible man! And the angels are horrified before Him, and all the powers of heaven incessantly glorify their Creator, and all creation sings and serves with fear, and the demons tremble. And so he endures all this and suffers: not from powerlessness, not from subordination, but by His will, ours for the sake of salvation, showing us an example of humility and suffering in everything, so that they would also suffer, just as He suffered, which my soul heard about.” (“Flower Garden” of Hieromonk Dorofey ).

At Sunday Liturgy per week of the Worship of the Cross read Gospel of Mark(chapter 37), in which the Lord speaks about the path of self-sacrifice for the sake of eternal salvation souls. Blissful Theophylact of Bulgaria deeply and edifyingly reveals to us the meaning of this church Gospel Word.

And calling the people with His disciples, He said to them: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it; but whoever loses his life for Me and the Gospel will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? (Mark 8:34–37)

Since Peter reproached Christ, who wanted to hand himself over to be crucified, Christ calls on the people and speaks publicly, directing his speech mainly against Peter: “You do not approve of the fact that I take up the cross, but I tell you that neither you nor anyone else You will not be saved unless you die for virtue and truth.” Notice that the Lord did not say: “He who does not want to die will die,” but “whoever wants to die.” As if to say, I don’t force anyone. I call not for evil, but for good, and therefore whoever does not want it is unworthy of it. What does it mean to deny yourself? We will understand this when we learn what it means to reject someone else. Whoever rejects someone else, whether his father, brother, or someone from his family, even if he watches him being beaten or killed, does not pay attention and does not sympathize, having become alien to him. So the Lord commands us, that for His sake we too should despise our body and not spare it, even if they beat or reproach us. Take up your cross, it is said, that is, a shameful death, for the cross was then considered an instrument of shameful execution. And since many robbers were crucified, he adds that with the crucifixion one should also have other virtues, for this is what the words mean: and follow Me. Since the command to give oneself up to death would seem heavy and cruel, the Lord says that, on the contrary, it is very humane, for whoever loses, that is, destroys his soul, but for My sake, and not like a robber executed or a suicide (in this case death will not be for My sake), he says, he will save - he will find his soul, while the one who thinks to save his soul will destroy it if he does not resist during the torment. Do not tell Me that this last one will save his life, for even if he acquired the whole world, everything is useless. No amount of wealth can buy salvation. Otherwise: he who acquired the whole world, but lost his soul, would give everything when he burned in the flame, and thus would be redeemed. But such a ransom is impossible there. Here the mouths of those who, following Origen, say that the state of souls will change for the better after they are punished in proportion to their sins are stopped. Yes, they hear that there is no way to give a ransom for the soul and to suffer only to the extent that it is supposedly necessary to satisfy for sins.

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels. (Mark 8:38)

Internal faith alone is not enough: verbal confession is also required. For since man is dual, sanctification must also be twofold, that is, the sanctification of the soul through faith and sanctification of the body through confession. So, whoever is ashamed to confess the Crucified One as His God, He will also be ashamed and recognize him as an unworthy servant when He comes no longer in a humble form, not in humiliation, in which He appeared here before and for which some are ashamed of Him, but in glory and with the army of angels » (Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, interpretation of the Gospel of Mark, ch. 8, 34-38).

The Word of the Cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18).

It may seem hard and strange to modern man listen to instructions about abstinence and “submission of the flesh to the spirit,” about various self-restraints and even some (however, moderate and reasonable) exhaustion of the flesh. The Holy Fathers point out that the root of such an opinion and reasoning lies in our voluptuousness and self-pity, our favorite habits, when the Church Charter sets clear boundaries and standards of behavior in the life of a Christian, and the inner old “I”, according to carnal wisdom, begins to object and asking “why?!”

That is, why fasts, bows, long prayer rule? Isn’t there a kind of ostentatious ritual action here, the so-called “ritual belief”, which has a clearly defined external form and is devoid of any internal spiritual content? But only ignorant people can speak and think this way, who themselves have not yet tasted exactly that spiritual, quiet joy that is given to us after testing, after sorrows and deeds, enlightening the eyes of the heart for pure and concentrated prayer. When we bow to the ground, we confess our fall into sin and humility before God, the consciousness of our unworthiness, we remember that we ourselves are dust, and to dust we will return. And when we rise from bowing, it is as if at the same time we rise in soul to a better and new life, which we find in observing the Christian commandments. What is difficult to explain in words, a person himself easily understands when he learns the corresponding life experience.

The Cross and Resurrection of the Savior reveal to us the highest heavenly mysteries, incomprehensible to any scientific philosophy, because they teach not earthly sciences, but the true path of virtue, which alone leads to the Eternal Heavenly Fatherland. For, as the holy fathers say: “There are many so-called wisdoms on earth, but all of them will remain on earth. The deepest wisdom of all is to save one’s soul, since it lifts the soul to heaven into the Kingdom of Heaven and places it before God” (“Flower Garden” by Hieromonk Dorotheus). The power and wisdom of Christianity is the Cross of the Lord, by worshiping which we hope to reach the day Happy Easter, where we will find a worthy reward for the ascetic labors and hardships endured.

The third Sunday of Great Lent is the Worship of the Cross, in Church Slavonic - the Week of the Worship of the Cross. From this day until the end of next Friday is the fourth week of Lent - the Week of the Cross.

Let us begin purification by abstinence, kissing warmly in praise of the All-Holy Tree on which we crucify Christ, who saved the world, as He is blessed.

This is how it is sung in the canon for this holiday.

For an event to become meaningful for children, it must become expected. Therefore, we tell children in advance about the main milestones of Lent, including, of course, the Week of the Worship of the Cross. And we raise this topic in more detail on the eve of the event - on Friday of the previous week, at a common dinner. Or at breakfast on Saturday: children don’t go to school, parents don’t have to go to work, you can talk calmly at the table.

Or you can tell it in your own words, focusing on the perception of your children.

Taking this opportunity, it would be good to remember with your children about the types of the Cross in the Old Testament. This is the rod of Moses and the brass serpent in the desert. But first of all - tree of paradise, tree of life:

Having come to know another paradise, the Church, as before had a life-giving tree, Thy Cross, Lord, from which we partook of immortality by touch.

The images of the Old Testament help to tell children about the Cross - not about the suffering and crucifixion of the Lord, but specifically about the Cross, about the life-giving Tree. Not by chance Old Testament called a “schoolmaster”: the Old Testament images are very bright and, as it were, three-dimensional. Especially for children, they turn out to be a good help in understanding the meaning of many New Testament events. Moreover, the entire service of the same Week of the Cross is permeated with similar references to Old Testament paintings.

Mid-Lent

And we, together with the children, remember that these days are the very middle of the Holy Pentecost. Half of the post is already over, and there is still a lot left to go. By the way, this week is also called the Middle Cross. “Orthodox Christians, making a spiritual journey to Heavenly Jerusalem - for the Passover of the Lord, find that under its shadow they can gain strength for the further journey” (Rev. John of Damascus).

So, halfway through the post. First, the good news: there's not much time left until Easter.

And there is also the everyday side of the issue. For Easter we usually clean the house, clean it, wash it. The children and I are preparing some interior decorations and gifts and crafts for the holiday. If we leave all this to the days before Easter, it will turn out that instead of the services of Holy Week, instead of prayer and memory of the suffering of Christ, we will have a vanity of vanities, washing chandeliers and painting wooden eggs. To manage everything, or rather, to manage at least something, you will have to prepare for the holiday in advance.

And the completed half of the post reminds us of this prose of life. I usually write a list: what needs to be done to clean the house for the Holidays. And I see what can be done from this list in advance. I distribute all this over the remaining three weeks. Wash the curtains and soft toys, finally put away the skis, clean up the washing machine - in general, a lot can definitely be done right now. Do everything that careless housewives like me put off for general cleaning. In this case, only current affairs and home decoration will remain for Strastnaya.

Divine service

We tell the children in advance what they will see in the temple.

Children will know what to expect - and will be able to follow the service more closely.

Home prayer

We will return home after the all-night vigil, have dinner and get up for evening prayers with the children. And after the usual prayers, we will also sing, as in the temple. Three times, drawn out: “To Your Cross...” And at the same time we will bow to the ground before the Crucifixion. We will do this until Friday of the coming week, after our general evening prayers.

It reminds us - if we prepared our children for this holiday, if we talked about such moments and if we brought this holiday to our home, to our children.

Holiday day

And at home we will start lunch (or brunch, depending on how you look at it) with reading. Just a couple of minutes, just a couple of paragraphs: from some sermon dedicated to the Cross or the Week of the Cross.

For example:

sermon by St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) in the third week of Great Lent, the Worship of the Cross;
sermon of Archimandrite John (Peasant): “Come, faithful ones, let us worship the Life-Giving Tree.”

Let's read just a little, just the beginning, or grab something from the middle. If you really want to, we’ll read it ourselves later, without the children. Let's stop now.

Cookies in the form of crosses

There was also such an interesting Russian folk tradition - baking cookies in the form of crosses on the Cross.

“On Saturday of the third week of Lent we bake “crosses”: “Cross Worship” is suitable.

Our Orthodox faith, Russian... it is, my dear, the best, the most cheerful! and lightens the weak, enlightens despondency, and brings joy to the little ones.

Maryushka makes “crosses” with prayer...

And Gorkin also instructed:

In our family, every Lent, “crosses” are also baked. This custom is truly a “comfort” for children during Lenten times. Makes the Week of the Worship of the Cross something to look forward to, even for little ones. We told the children in words about the Week of the Cross. And these cookies are a good visual accompaniment for verbal learning. And not only visual, but tangible. And also edible.

You can bake these cookies from any dough.

But you can still work hard and make the dough yourself.

Rye is the healthiest. In addition, Lenten: rye flour, water, salt, honey. You can do it without honey, you can use it with yeast or sourdough, but add more salt. My husband loves these.

In the middle of these crosses you can stick a raisin, a marmalade. This will be good for crosses made from yeast dough. Puff pastry cookies can be sprinkled with granulated sugar before placing in the oven to create a caramel crust.

In such cases, when we revive such folk customs, there may be some confusion. For example, baking crosses can become the actual main content of the Week of the Cross. And this can really happen. We see that in modern reality, as in history, external, essentially insignificant folk traditions or even time-honored, but just “traditions of the elders” overshadow for many the meaning of the events of the church year, becoming more important than the “commandments of God” and the teachings of the Church .

But for this, it is precisely necessary that we ourselves do not turn cheese week into a gorging on pancakes under a smoked scarecrow, that we do not turn the beginning of Lent into a big cleaning called “Clean Monday”, and Good Friday into the day of baking Easter cakes.

It is important that we ourselves live the life of the Church.

And they brought their children into this life.