ON GRATITUDE TOWARDS OUR LORD AND CREATOR
[A homily on the Gospel on Healing of the Ten Lepers bySaint Nikolai Velimirovic, bishop of Ochrid, from "Homilies, vol. Two: Sunday after Pentecost," Lazaria Press, Birmingham.]

"As Jesus entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off; and they lifted up their voices, and said: 'Jesus, Master; have mercy on us!' And when He saw them, He said unto them: 'Go shew yourselves unto the priests.'

"O Invincible and incomprehensible and divine power of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, forsake not us sinners." (From the order of Great Compline)

The Cross is the mighty and profound symbol of Christianity, a symbol whose meaning is inexhaustible. The eight-pointed Cross is the symbol of Orthodoxy.

"Being lifted upon the Cross, Thou didst raise Adam with Thyself and, with him, our whole fallen nature, O our Lord. Wherefore, exalting Thy spotless Cross, we ask Thee, O Friend of man, for Thy power from above, as we cry out: O Thou Most High, save them that revere the divine, bright, and hallowed Exaltation of Thy Cross with fitting honor, since Thou art God the All-merciful."

The Cross finally, is the banner of the Church. From the day when the Savior bore the Cross on His shoulders to Golgotha and was crucified on the material Cross, the Cross became the visible sign and banner of Christianity, of the Church, of everyone who believes in Christ.

Theological testimony finds great expression in the hymns of the Church. The soul of the Orthodox hymnographer must possess real piety, humility, inner wakefulness and understanding. God-inspired, the hymnographer is flooded with boundless love of God, exultation and gratefulness. Ecclesiastical poetry is a great gift of God to the Church. Saint Symeon the New Theologian says, "Every prayer and psalmody is a conversation with God in which we entreat Him to give us those things which are proper for God to give men, or we thank Him for His gifts, or we glorify Him for all the creatures which He has made, or we narrate His wonderful and timely deeds for the salvation of men and the punishment of the unrighteous, or we narrate the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son and Logos/Word of God, and the like."