Christianity without the pass is ‘sterile,’ says Pope Francis at Byzantine Divine Liturgy

a large Byzantine pass with three transverse arms hung above the out of doors altar in Prešov, flanked via an icon of Mary, mother of God, and the Christ the instructor icon.

Vatican Media.

"'We proclaim Christ crucified … the energy of God and the knowledge of God.' So St. Paul tells us, but he doesn't conceal the incontrovertible fact that, when it comes to human knowledge, the cross appears as some thing fully distinct: it is 'scandal' and 'foolishness,'" the pope observed in his homily.

"The pass became an instrument of demise, yet it became the supply of life. It become a horrendous sight, yet it published to us the fantastic thing about God's love. that's why, in these days's feast, the people of God venerate the go and the Liturgy celebrates it."

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy pass dates returned to the 4th century, when the solemn consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre took place on Sept. 13, 335, on the web site of Christ's crucifixion in Jerusalem.

Vatican Media.

"we are able to fail to settle for, apart from possibly in words, a vulnerable and crucified God, and like instead to dream of a God who's potent and effective. here's a very good temptation," Pope Francis referred to.

Papal go back and forth pool.

"How commonly will we long for a Christianity of winners, a triumphalist Christianity this is important and influential, that receives glory and honor? Yet a Christianity with no move is a cosmopolitan Christianity, and indicates itself to be sterile."

Vatican Media.

Pope Francis arrived on the Divine Liturgy in Prešov in the popemobile, which passed via crowds of individuals standing along the streets waving Vatican flags. around forty,000 people attended the liturgy, according to native authorities.

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Prešov turned into a part of the dominion of Hungary until the mid twentieth century and is home to many of the country's greater than 200,000 Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics.

The Ruthenian Catholic Church is one of 23 eastern Catholic church buildings in communion with the Holy See.

Vatican Media.

In April, Byzantine Catholics in Slovakia and all over celebrated the 375th anniversary of the Union of Uzhhorod, an settlement that brought the Ruthenian Orthodox Church into communion with the pope after basically six centuries of schism.

Papal shuttle pool.

given that the Union of Uzhhorod, eparchies had been created to shepherd Ruthenian Catholics at any place they are living, together with the Metropolitan Eparchy of Pittsburgh and its three suffragan eparchies within the u.s., and the Metropolitan Eparchy of Prešov in Slovakia with its suffragans, in addition to a Slovakian eparchy in Canada.