Forefeast of the Exaltation of the Cross - 9/13/26
Sunday, September 13th, is the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. On this day we celebrate the Forefeast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. We also commemorate:
the Founding of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulcher) at Jerusalem (335)
Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion (1st c.)
Martyrs Chronides, Leontius and Serapion, of Alexandria (237)
Martyrs Macrobius and Gordian at Tomi in Romania (4th c.)
Hieromartyr Julian of Galatia (4th c.)
St. Peter of Atroë (9th c.)
Greatmartyr Ketevan, Queen of Georgia (1624)
Ven. Hierotheus the Younger of Ivḗron (Mt. Athos—1745).
Readings for Sunday, September 13th:
-
6
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
8
We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed –
10
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
11
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
12
So then death is working in us, but life in you.
13
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,
14
knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.
15
For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
-
35
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,
36
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37
Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38
This is the first and great commandment.
39
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
41
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
42
saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
43
He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying:
44
‘The LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?
45
If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”
46
And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.