Archbishop Elpidophoros of America visited St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross on March 27, 2022.
During his visit, the Archbishop of America met with the basketball team and played with them.
Archbishop Elpidophoros celebrates Veneration of The Cross at L.A. Cathedral
“My friends: This is not an easy path; not an easy way to live. It requires the kind of self-denial that goes well beyond our choices on a menu during Lent. It means we give up on ourselves, so that we may give to others.”
“What is this cross that the Lord asks us to take up?” Archbishop Elpidophoros posed this question to the congregation on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross, March 27, 2022, at St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles.
“These Crosses are choices that we make,” the Archbishop rejoined, “choices to love, rather than hate; To forgive, rather than bear resentment; To be generous rather than tight-fisted—both emotionally and materially. Because it is only as we choose freely to be persons of integrity, virtue, mercy, and compassion, that we find ourselves on the road following Him. Being His disciples. Being in His image.”
Strands of sweet incense smoke wrapped around melodic voices, as the festal hymns reverberated against towering divine images, and Christ the Pantokrator gazed down from the heavenly dome of the Byzantine Revival-Renaissance Revival-influenced cathedral, where the Archbishop of America concelebrated the mid-lenten liturgy with Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, Bishop Spyridon of Amastris, Metropolis Chancellor Bishop John of Phocaea, Cathedral Dean Fr. John Bakkas, assistant priest Fr. Anthony Cornett, and other local and Archdiocesan clergymen.
“Christ does not ask us to die on our cross.” Archbishop Elpidophoros counseled, “instead, He asks us to follow Him, to deny ourselves, and bear the burden of our own crosses.”
The Archbishop will remain in California through April, visiting a variety of communities in the Metropolis and meeting with local and state leaders, including California Lieutenant Governor, Eleni Kounalakis.
