Lenten Meditation on the Cross -- The Veneration of the Cross

Source: pixnio.com

The meaning of all this is clear. We are in mid-Lent. On the one hand, the physical and spiritual effort, if it is serious and consistent, begins to be felt, its burden becomes more burdensome, our fatigue more evident. We need help and encouragement. On the other hand, having endured this fatigue, having climbed the mountain up to this point, we begin to see the end of our pilgrimage, and the rays of Easter grow in their intensity. Lent is our self-crucifixion, our experience, limited as it is, of Christ’s commandment heard in the gospel lesson of thatSunday: If any many would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). But we cannot take up our cross and follow Christ unless we have his Cross which he took up in order to save us. It is his Cross, not ours, that saves....

The emphasis shifts now from us, from our repentance and effort, to the events that took place “for our sake and for our salvation.”

—Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent