September 2, 2009
HIS EMINENCE`S REFLECTIONS ON THE FEAST DAY OF THE ELEVATION OF THE HOLY AND LIFE-GIVING CROSS
Soon we will celebrate the blessed Feast Day of the Elevation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross.

The finding of the Holy Cross is of course an historical event. Naturally we all know the story of how St. Helena discovered the Cross in the foundation of the Temple in Jerusalem. St. Helena was born in Bithynia, about 250AD; died in Nicomedia, 330AD. She knew both the heights of exultation and the depths of humiliation, yet she remained faithful. The daughter of an lowly innkeeper, she married the Roman general Constantius Chlorus and bore him a son, Constantine. In 293, when Constantius was proclaimed caesar, he renounced Helena and married the emperor`s stepdaughter. While her husband ruled the empire, the repudiated Helena waited patiently in exile. But her son never forgot his mother. After his victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312, Constantine entered Rome and seized the title of emperor. He then conferred the title "augusta" on his mother, and ordered that she be honored as the mother of a sovereign.

In 324, Helena made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Emperor Hadrian had built a Temple to Venus over Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre. Helena ordered its removal, and there she found the True Cross. Afterward she remained in the Holy Land to supervise the building of a magnificent new church on the site where she found the Cross.

But Helena is not a saint simply because she found the Cross of Christ. She loved the poor, and went about dressed humbly and modestly. In her last years in Palestine, Eusebius wrote that she "continually worshipped in church in the sight of all, humbly dressed among the women praying there. In addition, she beautified the churches with ornaments and decorations, not forgetting the chapels of the least significant towns and villages." She built basilicas on the Mount of Olives (the Eleona) and in Bethlehem, travelled throughout Palestine, and was known for her kindness to soldiers, the poor, and prisoners.

These are the actual historical events that we celebrate, and if we think about the meaning of the Cross itself, we can more readily understand the love of the Son of God for us all. The Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Divine Logos, gave Himself out of love for us so that all human beings could be reconciled and restored to relationship with God, which had been destroyed by the devil and by man`s disobedience.

This is the lesson that we need in today’s society more than ever. In order to live in peace and harmony, we must strive to work at loving one another, as He first loved us. The practice of love is something that is not always easy, but we must continue to share with others, so that we will have the abundant life that He promises us. As St. Paul tells us, no matter what other gifts and abilities we have, "if we have not love, it profits me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3)but he also assures us that "Love never fails."


September 16, 2009
HIS EMINENCE METROPOLITAN ALEXIOS` REFLECTIONS ON ST. SOPHIA AND HER DAUGHTERS
My dearly beloved,

“And now exulting in the vision of His most radiant countenance, together with thy holy daughters, do thou enlighten us, that we may be preserved in the virtues of faith, hope, and love and be deemed worthy to glorify and stand in the presence of the most holy, uncreated, and life-bestowing Trinity, unto the ages of ages. Amen.”
The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints,
compiled by St. Demetrius of Rostov

The Holy Martyrs Saint Sophia was a pious Christian widow in Italy who named her daughters for the three Christian virtues: Faith, Hope and Love, and raised them to love the Lord Jesus Christ. St Sophia and her daughters did not hide their faith, but openly confessed it before everyone. Naturally in those times, this brought them to the attention of the authorities. Even when they were threatened with torture and death, they still maintained their faith. After undergoing brutal and unspeakable torments, while their mother was forced to watch, the young girls were beheaded, still steadfast in their love for Christ.
In a similar way, in today’s society it often seems as if our children, especially our daughters, are being somehow forced or coerced to renounce our Orthodox Christian values in one way or another. Often temptations and dangers may be subtle or difficult to discern, but the reality is that if we do not resist the “sirens” of modern day society, our children can be lured to their spiritual and physical destruction. So St. Sophia and her daughters are examples for us to resist the snares and temptations that surround us and proclaim as St. Sophia did, “I am a Christian and in that honorable name I rejoice!”
Paternally yours with love in Christ,

+ALEXIOS
Metropolitan of Atlanta