When you are baptized, you will wear a cross around your neck as a sign that you are an Orthodox Christian. You bear the Cross because you belong to Jesus Christ and have become a faithful member of His Holy Church. Follow Christ as an obedient disciple. In a world full of death and darkness, be an agent of Life and Light in the lives of others.
Let the chain around your neck that holds the cross remind you of all the Saints who have gone before you. Throughout history, Saints have walked the same Way that you now walk. Through their prayer and repentance, they knew Christ with their hearts and acquired the mind (phronema) of His Church. This golden chain of Saints linking generation to generation through history is why the Holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church does not change. Since there is One True God, everyone who knows the True God with their hearts, through the personal experience of Divine Grace, holds and expresses the same Orthodox theology.
In your generation, strive to know Christ, to acquire the mind of the Church, and to boldly serve as a faithful living witness of Jesus Christ in the world.
Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees