Among the many precious relics that the monastery has been blessed to have in safekeeping is a piece of the Life-Giving and Precious Cross of the Lord.  This relic is contained in a pectoral cross which belonged to the ever-memorable Archbishop Averky, the well-known former abbot bishop of the Holy Trinity Monastery.  This cross in contained within a larger cross, which is kept in the sanctuary of the cathedral of the monastery and brought out for certain feasts of the Cross.

So it is for the great feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  Towards the end of the All-Night Vigil service, during the Great Doxology, our abbot, His Grace Bishop Luke, after censing the altar table three times, raises the cross, decorated with flowers, out of the sanctuary in procession with the monastery clergy and lays it upon an analogion in the middle of the church.  Thereupon, he takes the cross and stands upon his cathedra, and thus begins the service of the Exaltation.  

This consists of raising the cross and lowering it in all four directions with the choir singing “Lord Have Mercy,” a hundred times for each raising, while the deacons intone petitions before each raising.  While the cross is being raised, rose water is poured over the cross, symbolizing how the Lord’s saving grace is pouring upon the world.  This water flows upon a large receptacle of cut flowers, which are later handed out to the faithful.

This service reminds us approximately half a year after and before the commemoration of Great Friday, of the importance of the Cross in our salvation.