The Path Orthodoxy

Our View
Kristina Petrovic
Continued from p. 17
of food before it is blessed because the devil
can trick us at any time. So we bless the
food by making the sign of the cross over
it, so that it may protect us from all harm.
Salvation and protection is the definition of
the cross.
Throughout history, many of God’s followers
have been protected by the sign of
the cross. My favorite example of this is in
a story that my father used to tell my siblings
and me whenever we would quickly
make the sign of the cross as children and
not really put much thought into the meaning.
“There was once a great monk who
was often visited by demons who tried to
stray his thoughts away from prayer. One
day the demons decided to chase this monk.
The monk grew afraid and started running
and crossing himself quickly and numerously,
but whenever he would look back the
demons were still behind him. He thought
to himself, “O Lord, I am making the sign
of the cross and it is not helping at all.”
He goes on to say, “I am too tired, I have
to stop.” So he stopped and taking a deep
breath, crossed himself properly, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit, Amen. And in that moment
the demons disappeared.” As we can see,
only when the monk stopped and properly
made the sign of the cross, it protected him.
Through this I learned about the cross itself
and how it protects us.
In this modern day word heaven is almost
the last thing on our minds. We are
concerned with our safety and well-being,
and we always turn to artificial and manufactured
things to protect us, such as alarm
systems and security cameras. They may
help, but they can definitely not protect us
against true evil and danger. There are so
many examples on how the cross can truly
protect us from anything and everything.
For instance, once a boy told me about his
grandmother’s car accident. His grandmother
was on her way to work and was
waiting at a stop sign when a huge, monstrous
truck speeded up behind her and totaled
her car. When the paramedics came,
they said that the grandmother was still
in the front seat with, pardon me for saying,
blood dripping down her head and all
around her body, except for her chest where
her cross lay. The grandmother is still living
to this day. This example shows the great
power of the holy cross, and how it protects
us at all times.
The third Sunday of the Great and Holy
Lent is the Sunday of the Veneration of the
Holy Cross. The Kontakion of the feast day
says, “Now the flaming sword no longer
guards the gates of Eden, it has mysteriously
been quenched by the wood of the
Cross! The sting of death and the victory
of hell have been vanquished, for You, O
my Savior, have come and cried to those in
hell: ‘Enter again into paradise.’” This elaborates
on the definition of the cross as salvation.
It is portrayed by the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ, when he died for our salvation
on the cross and went to Hades to preach
the Good News inviting all into Eden. The
cross is also a symbol of God’s love and
care for us, of His mercy and forgiveness of
our sins, and of His willingness to let into
His kingdom of heaven all those who sincerely
want to live with Him forever.
The cross is something that we as Orthodox
Christians venerate and honor, but
we don’t always know why. I myself did not
Marija Petrovic
Continued from p. 18
The cross can be found in many places.
Of course, there is the physical cross, or
rather its many remaining pieces and innumerable
copies, including those around our
necks. If we stretch our hands, our body
forms a cross. We cross ourselves. When
there is no priest around to bless the food,
we make the sign of the cross, and we do
the same before going to bed, and when we
wake up. Our cross is our protection in addition
to a way of life. It is not only embedded
in our minds but in our hearts.
Recently I heard a story about a Protestant
family coming to a gathering at a local
Orthodox church. The priest at the church
asked the mother if it would be all right to
give the child a small cross. Because the
child was a little girl, the priest chose a cross
with some glitter on it so the child might be
more inclined to wear it. As I heard this first
part of the story, I presumed it would end
with the little girl wearing it as jewelry, refusing
to wear it, or simply not understanding
what it was. But then the story took a
different route. After the priest put the cross
around the little girl’s neck, she took it into
her small fingers and kissed the precious
cross. You can imagine the surprise of the
priest and the mother. Of course, the girl
may have seen a cross before, but she had
most likely never seen anyone kiss it. Why
would a child kiss two pieces of wood with
fully understand the cross until I wrote this
essay and still do not by any means know
everything about the cross, but through the
church hymns and life lessons I have come
to understand the meaning better. “Krst
spasava verne ljude od svih povreda; krst je
sila, krst je slava, krst je pobeda” – “The
cross saves the faithful people from all
harm; the cross is power, the cross is glory,
the cross is victory.”
Bibliography
“O Invincible and Incomprehensible and
Divine Power of the Precious and Life-giving
Cross, Forsake Not Us Sinners.” (From
the Order of Great Compline). Orthodox
Feasts and Fasts. Great Lent. Adoration of
the Holy Cross. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar.
2015.
“Dictionary.com.” Dictionary.com. n.d.
Web. 18 Mar. 2015.
“Diskusije - Forumi.” Diskusije - Forumi.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
some glitter on it? Maybe she saw beyond
the name tag. The child saw Christ. She saw
His struggle and His sacrifice. She felt His
love. She kissed the cross because it symbolized
what Christ had been through for
us, and now being that close to her heart she
could not refuse to say thanks in her own
way and lead a life in His footsteps.
This story touched me and was a great
inspiration for writing this essay. Children
have sweeter hearts and this young girl
must have felt the cross in her heart the
same way we as Orthodox Christians do
while crossing ourselves during services
and in everyday life.
The seed of our understanding the
cross seems to be implanted into us at our
very conception, for the cross encompasses
everything we are as Christians, human beings,
the children of God. From the time
I was an infant and little girl, too small
to contemplate about it, its meaning has
grown like a flower in my soul. The cross is
not just a symbol that those around us can
use to identify us. The cross is our compass,
our humility, our patience, our repentance,
our thanksgiving, our anthem and our joy.
The cross is our faith, our hope and our
love. The cross is our resurrection, our victory
and our life.
The essay of Tatiana Radunovic from
St. Nikola Serbian Orthodox Church in
Brookfield, IL will be featured in the next
edition of Our View in The Path.
The Path of Orthodoxy Winter 2016 • 19