During Lent, a ceremony is performed in many churches

Every Thursday evening during the Evening service at the Saint Anna and Catholicos of the Holy Mother of God churches in Yerevan, the ceremony of the Cross or the Cross-Bearing is also performed. With prayer and the singing of hymns dedicated to the cross, the priest blesses the water with the cross, asking the heavenly Lord for spiritual and physical healing for all who drink from it. During the ceremony, the Old Testament story of the prophet Elijah purifying polluted water and making it drinkable for people and animals is read.

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