On the feast of the Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Head of the Don Metropolia, Metropolitan Mercury of Rostov and Novocherkassk, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Army Cathedral of Christ’s Resurrection.

The Liturgy was sung by the Metropolitan choir under the direction of the Protodeacon of the Rostov Cathedral Vladimir Zubritsky. During the Divine Liturgy, after the Great Entrance, the Head of the Don Metropolia made a consecration: hierodeacon of the Holy Don Efremov Monastery Simon (Romanenko) to the presbyterian rank. Also during the divine service, His Eminence the Metropolitan ordained Clement (Kryuchkov) a monk of the monastery as deacon.

At the end of the Liturgy, the Head of the Don Metropolia congratulated all those gathered on the beginning of the Dormition Lent. Also, in his archpastoral speech, His Eminence Metropolitan emphasized the importance of today’s feast. In his speech, he stressed that the Cross of Christ has a great life-giving power for each of us: “Today, on the first day of the Dormition Lent, according to the ancient tradition of Constantinople, we wear out the Cross of Christ, and then worship it, so that no spiritual or bodily pernicious perdition can befall us. So it was in the time of Byzantium, so it is done now. And there is a lot of this spiritual harm. That is why the Church sanctifies us with the sign of the Honest Cross of the Lord, giving us to draw from the Cross of Christ those forces that strengthen our good qualities given to us by God Himself: free will, reasonableness, personality, eternity… But they are very often subject to some distortion through the sinful way of our life. However, we must remember that by the power of the Cross of the Lord, these qualities can be revived and re-established in us.“