🙏 How Do We Pray the Cross of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit? 🕊️ In baptism, the Holy Spirit plants us in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; for we are buried with Him, so that we may rise with Him. We must learn how to pray the Cross, not just to make the sign of it. This is the way to pray the Cross: to make the Lord's words on the Cross our personal prayers. These words brought the Cross exceedingly close to our thoughts. They remind us of the Lord's Prayer "Father," of forgiveness, of the Kingdom, of care for relatives as John cared for the Mother of God, and of all bodily needs "I thirst." Generally, these words plant us in the Cross. And as the apostle said, "I show you a more excellent way" (1 Cor 12:31), let us pray the Cross in this manner: First: To begin by accepting death, our physical death, as a reality, and to carry this death with us into faith in the crucified Christ, transforming natural death into the death of grace of the Crucified One, the death of the Cross, by stripping ourselves of every thought and every desire during prayer. Second: To ask the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly King, to fix our gaze on the meanings of the Cross: self-sacrificing love that gave everything, kept nothing, but left all things, titles, names, and even attributes of glory and power, and accepted shame, scourging, death, mockery, the denial of friends, and the cruelty of enemies... What more can we add? Is this not the realm of daily life?! Let us pray to approach all these things by the power of the Holy Spirit, making them the nails of the spiritual life and the wounds of love, so that we may rise with the Lord in the glory of the Holy Spirit. #Prayer #TheCross #HolySpirit #SpiritualLife #UnionWithChrist #Baptism #Contemplation

💪 In Him We Are Conquerors ✝️ Christ appeared superior to, and stronger than, every sin and worldly hindrance; and since He has conquered, He will also bestow the power to conquer upon such as are tempted for His sake. (…) The power of His acts will surely extend even unto us, since He who conquered was one of us, insomuch as He was Incarnate Man. And as we overcome sin that wholly died in Christ first, Christ, that is, being the purveyor to us of the blessing as His own kindred; so also we ought to be of good cheer, because we shall overcome the world; for Christ as Man overcame it for our sakes, being herein the Beginning and the Gate and the Way for the race of man. For we who once were fallen and vanquished have now overcome and are conquerors, through Him Who conquered as one of ourselves, and for our sakes. For if He conquered as God, then it profits us nothing; but if as Man, we are in Him conquerors. St Cyril the Great, On John 16:33; LFC 2, 476-477. #VictoryInChrist #OvercomingTheWorld #Incarnation #UnionWithChrist #BiblicalHope

🤝 Let Us Become Like Christ, Since Christ Became Like Us 👑 Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him. But let us offer to Him Who died and rose again for us—you will think perhaps that I am going to say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere passing material of earth.... Let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most akin.... Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become gods for His sake, since He for ours became Man. He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich (2Cor 8:9); He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonoured that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the Fall of sin. Let us give all, offer all, to Him Who gave Himself a Ransom and a Reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like oneself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for ours. St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration I, on Easter; NPNF, 2nd Ser.; Vol. VII, p. 203. #Theosis #Deification #UnionWithChrist #EasterSermon #ChristianLife