the power of the cross

We adore You, Christ, and we bless You, for through Your cross You have redeemed the world.
"...for all our power is in the power of Christ who was crucified; all our sinfulness is mortified by the death of Christ on the cross; and all our exaltation and all our glory are in the humility of God, who humbled himself to such an extent that he was pleased to die even between evil-doers and thieves. For this very reason Christians who believe in Christ sign themselves with the sign of the cross not simply, not just as it happens, not carelessly, but with all heedfulness, with fear and trembling, and with extreme reverence. For the image of the cross shows the reconciliation and friendship into which man has enetered with God.
Therefore the demons also fear the image of the cross, and they do not endure to see the sign of the cross depicted even in the air; but they flee from this immediately knowing that the cross is the sign of the friendship of men with God...
To the degree of the reverence which one has toward the cross, he receives corresponding power and help from God." Saint Symeon the New Theologian + 1022 (from the First-Created Man, Seven Homilies)