The divine service reveals to us that the Nativity of the Mother of God had significance not only for those who lived in Nazareth in those days, but was accomplished "for our sake and for our salvation," that with Her birth "a bridge of life is born today" (Service of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, canon 1, ode 2), which leads us into eternity.

In glorifying the Lord, we conclude each doxology with the words: "Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages." With these words, St. The Church tells us that the divine service that we perform "today" will be performed "ever and unto the ages of ages," because even now it is performed in Eternity and unites us with eternal life.

This is the great mystery of the divine services, which the Holy Church reveals to us.

Take away from the divine service its innermost meaning, contained in the words "now and ever, and unto the ages of ages," and the source of eternal life flowing in it will be closed to us, you will forever remain cut off from what was and has gone into the irretrievable past, for no one can be present at the birth of his mother or father. But we know that the best of our ascetics, those who were the creators of liturgical hymns and canons, drank from this source of eternal life. They learned from experience that divine services reveal to us the knowledge of Eternity.

And for us, sinners, the most important thing (and this must always be remembered) is to touch this source of knowledge, which is revealed to us through the mystery of divine services.

And for this, while you are still here on earth, with faith, reverence and fear of God, perceive everything that you see and hear in church – everything that is done, sung, read during the divine services.

And when we again enter the annual cycle of divine services, let us remember WHO we are and WHAT WE ARE CALLED TO DO.

And as we enter it, the great mystery of Eternity will be revealed to us more and more.

St. The Church believes that we are not alone in performing divine services, that together with us the angelic powers and the entire Heavenly Church pray and glorify the Lord. "Now the powers of heaven serve with us invisibly," we sing during Great Lent at the Presanctified Liturgy.

And not only on these great days, but also on all the days of the church year, at each Liturgy, before the Little Entrance, the priest prays: "And do with our entrance, the entrance of the holy angels, to be those who serve with us and glorify Thy goodness." It is from here, from this co-presence and co-service with us, who have already attained Eternity and live eternal life in the Lord of angels and saints, that the aspiration to Eternity is born in us.

Therefore, during the Divine Liturgy, the priest, after offering the Lord a service of thanksgiving for all the saints and "for the Most Holy, Most Pure, Most Blessed and Glorious Lady our Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary," commemorates the living and the departed and prays that the Lord would remember them in His Kingdom, that is, that He would unite them to His Eternal Memory, which is the Kingdom of God.

From this it should be clear to us that the divine services performed here on earth are nothing other than the successive revelation in time of the mysteries of Eternity. And for each of us, believers, it is the path that leads us to Eternal Life.

That is why the feasts of the Church are not a random collection of memorable days, but points of Eternity shining in our temporal world, the passage through which is subject to an unchanging spiritual order. These points succeed each other in a certain sequence, they are connected with each other as rungs of a single ladder of spiritual ascent, so that, standing on one of them, we already see the light illuminating us from the other step. And today – the reading of the canon is accompanied by the singing of the Exaltation of the Cross "The Cross Inscribed by Moses". It would seem that it has nothing to do with today, but in fact it is not. It tells us about the indissoluble spiritual connection of the church holidays that follow one another.

It is the light of the Exaltation that illuminates us from afar, so that today we begin to enter into it.