Message of His Eminence Metropolitan Aetolia and Acarnania and Damascenes for Sunday September 20, 2026translated

My beloved Fathers and Brothers,

My beloved children in the Lord,

In the middle of September, the Holy Cross is raised, the ultimate symbol of the sacrifice and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Literally, the whole month is dedicated to him. Proof is the desire of our Church to name the Sunday before this great feast "Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross", and the following Sunday "Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross". In this Sunday, therefore, we find ourselves today.

Today's Gospel is both an invitation and a revelation. The Lord himself, through the passage of the Gospel of the Evangelist Mark, addresses us, who have chosen to be called Christians. With austerity, but also with complete clarity, he invites us and at the same time reveals to us what the content of the word "Christian" is.

This nickname appeared for the first time in Antioch and, since then, billions of people have made it synonymous with their identity, declaring to the world that they belong to Christ, that His teaching and example regulate their lives and that they wish to follow...