On the Finding of the Holy Cross

On the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross A Memra of Thirty On the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross A Homily Blessed is Christ, who by his Cross adorned his Church and scattered the idols of his crucifiers. By the power of the Cross the Creator revealed to the whole world the name of his being and the great power of his divinity. Like the image of the sun he set it upon the head of the wood. Its light shone upon the whole world, which had been in darkness. By the power of the Cross he purified the world with a razor and brought its shame under the laws of his proclamation. At the summit of Golgotha he placed the sign of the power of his victory, with which he subdued the heavenly and the earthly. Through a human being there was a beginning for the living, and they sinned in transgression and fell into the shame of mortality. Through a human being the Lord of all willed to revive the living, and he fixed him to the wood to abolish thereby the sin of the living. By his crucifixion he crucified with him the whole race, so that by it he might free the race of mortals from the birth of pains. By his death he died the death that kills the living, and by his resurrection he distributes life to the whole race. For our sakes the Lord of the world came into the world, and in the form of a body he showed his love for the living. With the tree by which Adam sinned in the midst of Paradise, by it he conquered and crowned Adam at the summit of Golgotha.

by his uprightness he humbled the arches and the authorities, and by the dissolution of his flesh he scattered the idols of the seers. Therefore, by the wisdom of God the All, the whole world did not comprehend the power of his wisdoms. The Creator desired, through the simplicity of the proclamation, to revive and save the children of men by the upright wood. He did not learn from the creatures whom he established his sign: the heaven above, by its extension and its spreading. The firmament from the waters like a canopy above the fire, and by its standing it shows the glory of the establisher of all. And also the lights that are set for the sacrifices to the light of fire, by their flames and their order they show his power. The air, then, by its changes and its mixtures, one creator shows to the children of men by its movements. By the cloud it becomes dark, and from it come also vapors, and from it are seen pits and thunders mightily. They give thundering sounds harshly on the faces of the height, and hail is formed and snow melts easily. The earth, by its expanse and its depth and its springs, brings forth and shows all forms to the seers. The boundary of the sea, the limit of the wave, set for it a sign, and cast into it a hard yoke that cannot be dissolved. The earth is enclosed and not dissolved by the force of the waters, and the waters are not annihilated from within the earth.

the power of the whole creation was confined as it were, and the natures that are in it are not completed, one from its fellow. By wisdom the world did not comprehend its Lord, and it was not confounded by the governor who holds all. By the mind, therefore, the foundation of the living was laid; they did not learn from him one creator who establishes all. The whole creation shows his glory like a book, and teaches man one teaching concerning one being. The whole world, in the idleness of its heart, was not confounded, and it did not become wise from the creatures to know its Lord. Because of this, the creator willed at the end of the times, by the simplicity of the proclamation, to warm man. By the crucified man, a shoot from the unbelievers, he willed to revive all; by his crucifixion he revives man. His death was placed and his pain was less than that of the martyrs, and by the simplicity of his proclamation he redeemed the captives. Then the speakers were silent, the wise fell, the rebels fell, and when the crucified man went under his lordship, where did the philosophers of the house of the Greeks go, who were perplexed by the reversals of their teachings? For they thought that by their arguments they would illuminate the world, but the cross shone and went and was hidden from their understandings. When they were confounded by the great power of the crucified man, they let go of their own, and all of them ran and clung to him.

Their efforts and their teachings ceased from the habitation where the cross dwelt, in its descent from within the world. Thus the word of Paul, the spiritual preacher, was fulfilled: that the wise men from the nations also ceased and perished. And also the Hebrews, who were exalted in their books, the cross that was crucified from their ranks abolished. The laws and their teachers among the Jews were dissolved, and it drove them away with its great power in the four directions. The Jews, the blind of heart, asked for signs like those they saw in the days of Moses when he redeemed them. Say to the Jews: What more does the whole world have than the signs that Moses performed? Did not the righteous man perform ten plagues in the land of Egypt, and not a single Egyptian was turned from his blindness? The goodness of the power of his signs went forth throughout the whole land, and not a single person approached his teaching. Not only did the uncircumcised nations not turn toward him, but even his own people did not keep his laws. He performed signs and showed the powers of the Creator, and the blind people provoked him with the shadow of death. They rejected Moses, erred with idols, worshipped the condemned, and all perished by the sword of judgment from God. They saw the cross at the end of the sacrifices, how it was completed, when the devil thought to announce it to the world after his glory.

The Jews fled and hid themselves at his proclamation, and the shame of their error was scattered to the four winds. All the peoples together took up his sign, and now they worship him with sincerity of heart, the man the cross. The sign of the cross became a remedy for the sick in its descent, and it placed them in the haven of immortal life. By the mystery of the spirit of the just one, it spread its light over the world that was laid waste, and by its raising up, it brings forth man from destruction. By the spirit of the just one, the world was delivered from evils, and it became a replacement for the whole world through the just one. By the spirit of truth, Christ the king makes all things new; he places the world in the haven of the sign of his cross. Like a tomb, his living cross became a remedy for the sick, and through it they were delivered from the bondage of the tyrant of judgment. Come, let us marvel at the great powers that the cross performed, how it set aright the hopes of man through its revelations. By the multitude of evils, the race of men had fallen, and they were hindered from divine worship. For they were hidden from the knowledge of the name of the Creator, and therefore they learned his glory through the work of his hands. They served and worshipped before creatures, man in his error, and they did not seek after that Creator who established them. They served the giants and honored images of senseless clay, and they despised the glory of that maker who created them.

The demons were all being praised by the blasphemers, and were being honored by the erring ones as a god. Vain also was the praise of God from their mouths and tongues, for they were wearying their tongues with vain repetitions in the glory of demons and in the folly of unclean spirits. It was not enough for them to honor the evil demons with the blood of animals and with offerings from the seeds; but in all this zeal they were found out, that with the blood of their own kind they were feeding the slayers of mankind. In shame, men of hardened mind served the evil demons, and with pure blood they were quenching the thirst of those thirsty for blood. In this abyss of the depth of iniquity, a pit was cast, and the accursed demons were trampling it in their rebellion. The hope of pure man was cut off from good things, and by the cutting off of hope, he served the passions of his desires. Because of this, the one who knows all let go and abandoned them to the passions of the madness of their heart. They erred and cast away their passions also from their bodies, and put on a garment from the turning of their vileness. By the mystery of the demons they corrupted the order established in purity, and perversely they were mingled together like beasts.

the male and the female defiled the bed of partnership by means of confusion and disgrace with the multitudes. They served also the male and the female outside the order with shame and vileness of a lawless people. All the wicked completed the mystery of demons, and the light of the door of eloquence was darkened from them. The streets and cities were filled with foul altars, and in every house they set up engravings and arranged images. The gods to whom they bowed were without number, and the goddesses who were served were without order. Great righteousness was among the priests for other priests, and each one loved his own error in the evil of his inclination. Many divisions and also contentions increased among the peoples, and endless wars troubled all the generations. From the evil of the demons, curses, evil things, and they were curses to shed the blood of their sacrifices. The sin that the world committed from the beginning is unspeakable, and the wickedness that was done in all times is incomprehensible. Small is the word to tell the deeds of the iniquity that they did, a woe before the coming of the king, the cross. All these the cross abolished by its revelation, from among the people and also from the peoples of the habitation. All the peoples now bow to it in one equality, to one God who was revealed in the man, the cross.

and they all deny in the name of the gods of the face of their error, and they confess Jesus who came in the power of his victory. And they all cry out one confession in their tongues to him who by his cross made peace with the adversary in height and depth. Woe to the cross by whose crucifixion he killed death, and proclaimed peace to all the distant and the near. The adversary who made two in one equality, and dissolved the boundary that stood before the face of man. He abolished all laws by one of his commands, and reconciled all by the sacrifice of his body with God. Woe to the cross by whose revelation the dead lived, and by it the spiritual and the corporeal were established. Woe to the cross that changed and abolished all blasphemies, and uprooted error from the people and the uncircumcised nations. Woe to the cross that changed and abolished all blasphemies, and uprooted error from within the people and the uncircumcised nations. Woe to the cross that equalized the lineage of the race of man, which from within the earth were heirs to the kingdom of Rome. This is the cross that purified creation from foulness, and removed from it the foul odor of the sacrifices. This is the cross by which the lineage of the race of man was gathered into one church for the hundred of the adversary of one God. And if you wish to learn the power of the man of the cross, look in your mind to where his proclamation reaches.

See in the East, like a fire, the power of his flames, and the light of Persia, which was the darkness of error, was in the worship of idols. But the thought of the West was raised, and see there the greatness of his power through his worshippers. All the kings and warriors, while in their midst, and he established the truth upon the foundation of his faith. Look in your thoughts as far as the south, and search there, how the cross completed by its terror against its inhabitants. Ascend with your knowledge also to the whole region of the north, and see the power of the name of his victory of the crucified man. Look and marvel at all the teachings that were in the earth, how like a fire and consuming, the crucified man became. From the flames of the living fire of his life fell terrors, and the demons fled, they trembled and their servants ceased. Four thousand years Chaldean doctrine held, and to make all its teaching subject to it was not possible. And when it held its root in the earth in its ancient state, the cross by its terror uprooted it, cast it down, and spread its foam. A thousand then with five hundred years it held, also the law of Moses, the firstborn of the religion. And when it held, priests and kings were its proclaimers, not one of the peoples turned and came to its teaching. A thousand years, behold, from when it began, also magic, and it held the roots of its disturbance among the deceived.

For it was not enough that when the good kings arose to help her, with the demons who aided her in the fury of their passions, they slew all the mighty ones with forces of powers and severe deaths, and they were unable to extinguish a single spark against their teaching. And when they grew good and advanced against the people of Jesus, they turned from their own unmeasured [ways] and believed in Jesus. They tasted from the Church the sweet mystery of baptism, and became confessors instead of the confession of faith. They hid the sparks of fire from the charred ones of blood, and multiplied the unmeasured births of the holy Church. The error of all sorcery was thus seized by the rulers and severe kings who sought from her. The Cross, therefore, more than five hundred years, scattered to all peoples, brought them to his victory. He destroyed the power of Chaldean sorcery, and scattered the wickedness of her deceit to the eyes of the beholders. He cast down the idols that did not receive her, swept her to the ground, and abolished from her the sorcerer, the priest, and the administrator. He overturned the temple of the house of idols with the people of the body, and set up in its place his own temples in all places. He dissolved the harsh law of bodily warnings, and taught the children of the heart with the power of his wisdom.

They abolished the rites of sorcery by the judgment of their error, and uprooted the altars of the idols of their error for the slanderer. He purified the air from the foul smoke of sacrifices, and cleansed the waters from the pollution of the demons’ names. He showed the way to the sons of darkness, the manifest truth, and taught the way in the glorious light of his proclamation. Let the strength of his power be shown in his terror for the salvation of our lives, and through his crosses fill the creation with the name of his victory. The cross that was a curse for humanity by the decree of his judgment, he changed and freed humanity from curses. The cross that was considered a disgrace for the nations and the Jews, he abolished the disgrace and decreed judgment away from the guilty. Sin that was present and death were dissolved in the crucified man, and they sought eternal life for the race of Adam. The gate of heaven he opened through his cross, a new path of heaven, and he brought up the earth-dwellers to delight in it. The whole creation, wandering, the type of this sign, and it shows the sign that is his own, as with a finger. The sign of the Lord is taken entirely and adorns him, and in its perfection, the mystery and type of his glory are lost. To the shame of the faces of the enemies who cannot be resisted, and to the joy of all the children of the holy Church. The whole world, through his forms, is lost in his victory, of the king, the cross that was revealed at the end for the salvation of humanity.

He strengthens the world by the pattern of his own [cross] through his mysteries, and he administers this mystery through his establishment. In the likeness of the cross, which is composed of four sides, his pattern shows the world through the body of his coming, his thought being errant. By the four elements, in the likeness of the cross, the foundation stands, and if one of these is disturbed, it is not completed. Also the sun, which illuminates the whole world with its light, without the order of the cross, is not fulfilled. Through the ascension and descent of its own degrees, in the four months, the thought of the heroic cross is shown. On the twenty-fourth of Ḥzīrān, opposite Kānūn, these in height and those in depth, on both sides. On the twenty-fourth of Ādār, the month opposite Īlūl, the straight measure of both sides, errant, together. On the twenty-fourth of the four seasons, the sun shows the thought of the cross through its descent and ascent. East and west, north and south, opposite each other, the complete pattern of the cross is taken together. If, then, one of its companions is justified, the dissolution of the bound one becomes for all of them without establishment. Look at the flight of the bird in the air, like a picture, the cross in its body, and it shows it to the many eyes.

She raises her head and stretches out her feet and spreads her wings, and like a pure bird she soars aloft from his midst. This is the mystery of everyone who confesses his Lord Jesus: he flies and ascends on the day of resurrection to the height above. And everyone who is not baptized and the cross is not signed upon his person remains on the earth and is bound by his face to the gate of mercies. Even the trees along with the seeds, along with all species, are immersed in the sign of the four sides of the body of the cross. Approach then the books of the Spirit and see his sign, as it is examined from before the ages by the hands of the priests. Abraham witnesses how he received the kingdom of the earth from God, whose love abounds over his household. Abraham received the inheritance of the earth through covenants, so that when he was established in faith, he became its lord. He left his land and the house of his fathers in Ur of the Chaldeans and went after the voice that called him toward his kingdom. The whole land of the Amorites he ruled, which was given to him—that one knows who is true in his love and not deceitful. He confirmed it to Abraham through his revelation, who saw the land when he commanded him to walk in it in the manner of a lord. Along its length, therefore, and also its breadth, he taught him to tread, so that by this the sign might be revealed by which he inherited it. The cross was formed by his journeys when he inherited it, so that he might make known by it that by this sign he inherited the land.

the Jews saw that the pattern of his head is the head of your tribes, the great type of the living cross in the land of Jireth. The likeness of a height, the land of Jireth took, Abraham, that sign which was destined to be revealed in the man of the cross. The sister of the two, the king of Rome placed in the heavens, and through her he desired to rest his ship of the world in the fullness of blessings. Whenever the living cross is signed upon the house of his eyes, he enters that kingdom which is not dissolved. This also resembles the deliverance of Isaac, whose birth was from old age and from barrenness. He ascended to the altar in the form of a lamb according to the command, and from before the likeness, the lamb of the ram brought him out. By the knife of the ram, the dead saw death, and the living lamb freed the ram by his resurrection. The ram saved Isaac, who was caught in the thicket, and the living blood of the crucified one saves creation. The elder Jacob saw in a revelation also the ladder, which is set in the earth and its head is above in the heavens. This revelation is the mystery of the man of the cross, by which, through the cross, the sick ascend to the height above. Jacob blessed Joseph, who learned from the revelation, and showed the mystery of the crucifixion in the sons of Joseph. Joseph set before his father his two sons, from his right, Manasseh, and from his left, Ephraim.

He changed his arms, one over the other, in the form of a cross, and he blessed and signed the sons of Joseph with the evil cross. To Ephraim he blessed with his right hand, the father of Jacob, and with his left he signed his brother who was the firstborn. This mystery was interpreted in the man of the cross, that he blessed the scattered peoples who were baptized in his name, a people who became the firstborn among the glorious peoples. He signed with the cross and became scattered in his arrogance. In that cross, the old Jacob marked his blessings, teaching everyone that without the cross there are no perfections. When he had completed all that he had said, he stood up from his bed and gave thanks to his Lord and paid him homage on the head of his staff. A revealed mystery, that he too performed a sign in his standing, and completed and finished the whole course of his vision. He bowed his head on the hard head and gave up his spirit, and in that cross he completed the mystery of the salvation of the fire. Come to the staff of Moses, the prophet of the house of the Hebrews, and see how in it the mystery of the man of the cross was hunted. For when Moses placed it on the ground, his staff was fallen and its help was null and void. And when it was raised to the heights by the hand of Moses, all the speaking and silent creatures obeyed him. When it was raised by the hand of Moses to the land of Egypt, many signs without number were performed against the Egyptians.

Great powers the Creator wrought with his rod of wood, he who had forgotten the mystery of the wood of his crucifixion. Moses raised the rod that was in his hand against the sea, and he divided the sea, and the waters stood up like a wall. The people walked in the depth of the water, not in their custom, and they received complete freedoms without end. Also the Egyptians who pursued and chased after the people, he raised his rod and stamped an image in the middle of the sea. Immediately, therefore, when the cross was raised over Golgotha, all the demons stamped with the cross as in the sea. Like the Egyptians, the rebels stamped with the cross of the hero, and his great power destroyed an image from within the world. Judaism and Samaritanism with paganism, the king who worshipped the cross loosed and reigned over all. In the battle that was a great war against the Amalekites, Moses set up his rod against Amalek. When the rod in his hand was bent, Amalek was strong, and when it was raised, the people prevailed by victory. The hands of Moses were chosen for him by faith, and by the raising of the rod in his hands, the sons of his people conquered. Joshua son of Nun, by the mystery of Jesus, conquered Amalek, and he destroyed an image by the power of the weapon of the rod of Moses. The son of God, Jesus the King, conquered by the cross, and by its raising he hid Satan and abolished death.

Moses who performed the mystery had forgotten the mystery of the crucifixion, and Joshua, who is the lord of mysteries, forgot the mystery of the cross. These mysteries he had prefigured with his rod, the son of the Hebrews, and through the crucifixion of the Son of God they received their completion. With the wood of the bitter, Moses sweetened the waters at Marah, and the people drank and were refreshed from their thirst. The cross of Jesus sweetened the bitter peoples, and they tasted the sweet taste of the name of the Creator. With the serpent that Moses set up in the wilderness, Scripture says, to reveal the hidden mystery of the man of the cross. That serpent, then, which was of bronze, that was set up, through its being raised up healed the people from the serpents' bites. Through the extension of the serpent, the Hebrew children lived, and by it they were delivered from the venom of the serpents. The great mystery of the man raised up, the serpent took, and through his crucifixion it heals pains from the suffering. On Golgotha was also raised up, in the likeness of the serpent, to redeem the man from the sickness of the demonic poison. The body of Adam, whose rib the serpent took in the garden, behold, through the cross it stands and receives life without death. Behold Elisha, the boy of the spirit, how he completes, as he makes him ascend to the only one of the Shunammite. It is said, then, that the boy fell upward from the child, and stretched out his feet and extended his hands in the likeness of the cross.

Elisha rose from the dead man, when he saw his flesh, and began to fashion the cross of Jesus with his staff. In the house he walked once to the length, once to the breadth of it, so that by it the dead man might come forth from the hand of death. The staff stretched out over him again three times, and then the dead man was separated from death and life and stood on his feet. Three times, a triple sign, he marked upon the youth, a great type by which all the dead are brought to life. That which is said, that the staff stretched out over the dead man, is the mystery of our Lord who was destined to be stretched out on the wood. By these types we find the staff that brings the dead to life, which shows us that by this mystery the dead rise. Great, therefore, is this also beyond all that which happened when the iron fell from the midst of the staffs into the depth of the water. It is written for us that the staff cut the hard wood and became dull, and the iron sank and floated up from the water. See that wonder which was shown through Elisha, that by the mystery of his Lord he increased powers among the passers-by. In the likeness of the iron, nature sank in the abyss of death, and the cross descended and the race ascended from death. The Son of God descended with his cross into the sea of Sheol, and the dead ascended from the summit of mortality.

By the wood of the cross the dead were conquered, who had sinned by the hand, and in place of the guilt that came from the hand, they lived by the cross. That which is extended and limited before these mysteries knows that its freedom is not for us. Before his Lord he signed his mysteries throughout all generations, with him he offers before his types and his proclamation. He says now before the pagans and with the Jews that by their folly he confounds them together in our preaching. The heretics thought that the holy Church worships the wood and honors it as a god instead of God. Because they worshipped the hands instead of the maker, they rose up in persecution and persecuted us by the wood of the cross. The erring ones are struck by the deceit of the slanderer and they weave iniquity bitterly against the true ones. It is not to the visible wood that the Church worships, but to the hidden one of the king, the cross that conquers by the wood. If indeed the Church worshipped the wood as they thought, why then also from other stones does she make the cross? From all stones, small and great, even precious ones, the Church makes his image, the hidden one of the king revealed. By his living sign she sets up victory for the chosen people and presses him with pure love without division. The Church does not err, neither in hands nor in images, nor in words and stones that were for the sake of a sign.

When he worships the living God where he is depicted, he worships the Lord, not the perishable colors. The people of the Jews bowed down to idols and honored images and denied the Lord who redeemed them from Egypt. Thus they said before that calf which they made in Horeb, when they worshipped it and honored it as a god. "These are your gods, O Israel," said the prophets, "and this is the one who redeemed you from the house of bondage in Egypt." Carved images and statues the people honored, as is written in the scriptures, and behold, iniquities are refuted from the books. The heart of the foolish people was set after demons, and because of this they loved images instead of their lives. All the wicked ones turned aside from the path of the straight and pure, and worshipped stones and beasts and even trees. They honored them as they would God in their services, and served them with rites that fill with wickedness. The wise ones saw that the wild beast by its power subdues all, and they erred and worshipped before the silent ones as before God. Into this wickedness they fell by their errors and were not ashamed, and they worshipped and served whatever was given to the evil ones. Into this wickedness they fell by their errors and were not ashamed, and they worshipped and served whatever was given to the evil ones. Woe to the church that confesses in these things like the pagans, and woe to it that it sets up a likeness of the handiwork of the erring ones.

The image of the Lord in which he was depicted is praised with glory, and they honor it as they do the impression of the king of kings. For whatever honors the king is honored above all because of the king, and if it is a common thing, it is honored because of the king. The wood of the cross, when it is depicted in colors, is nothing, but because of its cause it is very honored because of Jesus. The seal is the cross of Jesus for our faith, in which the economy of our salvation was accomplished. Even the contemptible image of the king of the earth, behold, the sons of the provinces receive it as they do the king. For the cause of the impression of the king is honored above all, and whatever despises it despises the king himself. In this manner, the venerable sign of the cross, which is despised in its appearance, is the great image of the king Messiah. To the seal of the king and to the forms of his writings, the wood gives honor and honors it as it does the king. The common wood, even a piece of papyrus, something small, is common in its colors and is considered nothing by the knowledgeable. For when the king writes his words on a papyrus, everyone honors it as they do gold and engraved silver. The common wood again, a reed from the ground, when the kings of the earth stamp it, it receives praise. When the signet of the king is sent with the impression of his hands, everyone stands and honors it as they do the king.

In the impression of his name the king reveals his hidden words, and nothing is sent forth from his hands apart from his seal. For how true is the seal of Jesus the king, who sealed his words with the great seal of his cross. He walked on the earth and completed all his governance, and showed the truth of his hidden words through his crucifixion. If then the seals of kings who rule are honored on earth, how much more honor is due to the seal of the cross of the high king. If nations kiss and worship the seal of kings, it is more fitting that the cross be honored by all. Kiss and worship the sign of Jesus for the sake of Jesus, that through it you may be freed from the slanders of the accuser. The seal of the Lord is the cross, a sign of victory, through which death fell and the error of the inhabitants of the world was abolished. To this sign the king, who is worshipped, bows in his church, that he may approach it as to the image of the king of kings. Through it even uncircumcised nations are sanctified and circumcised, and become a people for the great king who rules over all. All those who wish to be baptized are signed through it, and without his sign the church of Jesus is not established. Even the priesthood is signed through it for the completion of the mysteries, and in its name the orders and mysteries are perfected in the holy church. Through it all temples and houses are signed, and when they are consecrated by this sign, the Spirit dwells in them.

The seal of Jesus the king is impressed in the temple of the sanctuary, that it may be for the finding of the one who fills life for the body of man. By this cross also the mysteries of the Church are sanctified, and they become in its name a bestowal of immortal life. All these things the cross fulfills in the temple of the sanctuary, and it hides and sanctifies the sons of man in it. The truth of Jesus is revealed by it to the earthly ones, and in the form of his sign they receive blessings that cannot be carried away. By it the foul demons are driven from their dwellings, and from their lairs they flee and hide like partridges. By this sign sorcery and the power of demons are abolished, and by it every disease and every affliction are healed. This weapon the righteous took up, and by it they became mighty, and they overthrew the evil one and pierced him with the spear of the sign of the cross. They waged battles and took the victory, the cross of Jesus, and they gave a sign to Satan along with his angels from before them. This great deceiver in all regions, and he fled from the glorious martyrs in their contests. This one, the beauty of whose light shone in the whole world, and he fled from the sons of man who saw his glory. Like a helmsman he is with us at the head of the camp, and he guides the ship of the Church to the safe harbor. From the helmsman the cities trembled and the fortresses fell, and all the kings of the Amorites gave way and were overthrown.

The seal of Jesus the king is impressed in the temple of the sanctuary, that it may be for the finding of the one who fills life for the body of man. By this cross also the mysteries of the Church are sanctified, and the power of the cross of Jesus shakes the foundations of the wheel of Sheol and falls to the earth. The dead rose up by it and the weak in soul were strengthened by it. And it gave hope to the hopeless through its revelation. It humbled the might and force of the demons, slayers of men, and made the weak run swiftly before its worshippers. It showed its glory to the heavenly and earthly ones, in its high sign and on earth the image of its crucifixion. Constantine saw the cross above in the sky, as it shone in the likeness of the sun with great glory. And the letters were also inscribed in a line on its arms, by which sign the victorious king Constantine conquered. For this sign he hid and went out at the head of his camp, and before its sight the enemies who had fought with him fell. The king and his forces gave a cry of glory to the one who by his cross abolishes wars from all sides. The mother of the king followed after the venerated wood, and it was discovered by the fragrance of incense that came from within the earth. A sweet fragrance of good perfumes wafted from the earth, and the people and nations saw its glory and marvelled there. Because of this, also Helena, the mother of the king, built temples for its honour, adorned them, and celebrated its feasts. From that day when the venerated wood was hidden, men pursued it as in darkness until it shone forth.

Now the light of the cross shines in the four directions, and it rejoices in its beauty the heavenly and the earthly. O tree, which, when hidden in the earth among evils, you show your sign above in heaven in the place of light. Who would not be amazed at the great powers that the Lord performed, that he came in his love and set up his cross in the world. In the temple of his body on Golgotha he grew as a planting, and he illuminated the world with the glorious light of his praise. His rays flew like the sun in the four directions, and the darkness of idolatry vanished from the creatures. By his joy heaven and earth and the whole of them rejoiced, and the abundance of his glory filled the world through his preachers. This shepherd bore the cross for his flock; believe in his name and worship his sign without division. By this king, O mortals, gather together and imprint his cross steadfastly on your bodies. By his name complete your deeds and your ways, and do not approach to taste anything apart from his cross. With a pure heart believe and confess his living sign, and he will guard you from transgressions hidden and revealed. The power of his cross is over the high and the low, and when they see it, all demons tremble from him. This holy sign the Church adorns with glory, and honors him, and receives from him salvation and mercy.

in it they glory and in it they are adorned, all the churches which he freed from the servitude of death. Behold, they bow to it and honor it with hymns, and the choirs of the watchers and men praise it. Come, let one confession join with the spirits in giving thanks to him who, by his cross, exalts and magnifies his confession.