The temple was built for ten years and was consecrated on September 13, 335, and the next day the Cross of the Lord was erected in the temple, and on this day it was established to celebrate the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

And the Church for the first time on this day sang: "We worship Thy Cross, O Master, and glorify Thy holy Resurrection!"

And on the same day, another, third event is remembered, connected with the life of the Cross of the Lord.

From 614 to 628, the Venerable Tree was captured by the Persians. God's Providence preserved the Tree even there, in a foreign land. The pagans, amazed by the miracles that accompanied the ark with the Cross, did not dare to boldly touch the Christian shrine. The victory of the Greek Emperor Heraclius over the Persians returned the Cross to Jerusalem. Both the return of the Cross and its elevation over the Holy Sepulchre took place precisely on the day of the feast of the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Wood of the Cross of the Lord.

Thus, my beloved, three events of different times from the life of the Cross of the Lord illuminate this day. And I repeat as a reminder to you – this is the discovery of the Tree of the Cross, and the construction of the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord on Golgotha, and the bringing of the Life-Giving Cross into this church, and the last return of the Life-Giving Tree from captivity and its installation on Golgotha, in its original place.

Twenty centuries have passed since the greatest event of the Savior's sacrifice on the cross on Golgotha, when Christ ascended to heaven in glory. The Cross remained on earth, continuing to do the great work begun on Golgotha. And to this day the Cross lives as a living person, as a human being, taking upon itself both boundless love and equally boundless hatred.

And just as love and malice, faithfulness and betrayal confronted each other at the first Saving Cross of the Lord, so the Cross is destined to be a stumbling block at all times in the life of the world. For some, the atheists, it is a cruel and hateful field of suffering, leading to death. Sorrows and sufferings of earthly life are the lot of all earth-born. For others, the followers of Christ, the cross of the same sorrows and sufferings becomes a favorite field of supreme spiritual delight, a path of marching after the beloved Christ into eternal life to glory.