Homilies on the Dormition of the Mother of God

Homily I — The memory of the just and the city of God§1.1

1.1A homily in praise of the falling asleep of our all-hymned, surpassingly glorious and blessed Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, by John of Damascus, a lowly and least monk and priest.

"The memory of the just is kept with praises," says the most wise Solomon (Proverbs 10:7). "For precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones," as David, the forefather of God, foretold (Psalm 116:15). If, then, the memory of all the just is kept with praises, who will not offer praise to the fountain of righteousness and the treasury of holiness? Not that he may give her glory, but that he himself may be glorified with eternal glory. For the dwelling-place of God has no need of glory from us: she is the city of God, of which glorious things were spoken, as the divine David says to her, "Glorious things have been spoken of you, O city of God" (Psalm 87:3). For what city of the invisible and uncircumscribed God, who holds all things in his own hand, shall we understand, if not her who alone, truly beyond nature and beyond being, contained without circumscription the Word of God who is beyond all being, she of whom glorious things have been spoken by the Lord himself? For what is more glorious than to receive the counsel of God, ancient and true (Isaiah 25:1)?

Homily I — Praise offered like a farmer's gift§1.2

1.2For neither human tongue nor the mind of the angels above the world can praise her as she deserves, she through whom it has been given to us to behold clearly, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). What then? Shall we keep silent, shrinking back in fear, because we cannot praise her as she deserves? Not at all. Shall we then, as the saying goes, step beyond the threshold, ignore our proper limits, lay hands freely on what may not be touched, and spit out the bridle of fear? By no means. Rather, let us blend fear with longing, and weave from the two a single crown; and with holy reverence, with a trembling hand and a longing soul, let us gratefully pay, as a debt, the poor first-fruits of our mind to the Queen and Mother, the benefactress of all nature.

For there is a story that some farmers, cutting furrows in the earth with their ploughing oxen, saw a king passing by, solemnly arrayed in purple, shining with the splendour of his diadem, and surrounded on every side by a countless throng of guards. Since they had nothing at hand to bring the ruler as a gift, one of them at once drew up water in his hands (for streams flowed abundantly close by) and brought it to the sovereign as a gift. The king said to him, "What is this, my boy?" And he answered boldly, "I have brought what I had, judging it best not to let my poverty hide my eagerness. For you have no need of what is ours, and want nothing from us but our goodwill. But for us, what we do is at once a debt and a source of praise; for glory usually follows those who are grateful." Then the king, in wonder, praised his wisdom, accepted his eagerness with goodwill, and generously repaid him with a great many gifts.

If, then, that haughty tyrant preferred goodwill to costliness, will not this truly good Lady, the Mother of the only good God, whose condescension is boundless, who preferred the two small coins to the many offerings (Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4), much rather accept our intention, judging it not by our ability? Yes indeed, she will accept us as those who bring what they owe, and she will repay us with what is beyond compare. Since, then, it is altogether necessary to speak, so as to discharge the debt, come, let us turn our speech to her in this way.

Homily I — A prayer for words, and the Word made flesh from her§1.3

1.3What shall we say to you, Lady? With what words shall we address you? With what praises shall we crown your holy and glorified head, you the giver of good things, the giver of riches, the ornament of the human race, the boast of all creation, through whom creation has truly been blessed? For him whom it could not hold before, it has held through you; him on whom it had no strength to gaze, it now beholds with unveiled face, as in a mirror (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Open, O Word of God, our slow-tongued mouth (Exodus 4:10). Grant us, in the opening of our lips, a most gracious word (Ephesians 6:19). Breathe into us the grace of the Spirit, by which fishermen become orators and the unlettered speak a wisdom beyond the human, so that we too, who are weak of voice, may find the means to tell, however dimly, the great things of your dearest Mother.

For she, chosen from ancient generations by the foreordained counsel and good pleasure of God the Father, who begot you timelessly, without flux and without passion, bore you, made flesh from her in the last times: you, who are propitiation and salvation, righteousness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30), Life from Life, Light from Light, true God from true God. Her childbearing was past all expectation; her giving birth was beyond nature and thought, and brought salvation to the world; her falling asleep was glorious, truly holy, and praised by all. The Father foreordained her; the prophets foretold her through the Holy Spirit. The sanctifying power of the Spirit came upon her, cleansed and sanctified her, and, as it were, watered her beforehand.

And then you, the Father's Definition and Word, dwelt in her without being circumscribed, calling back the lowest depth of our nature to the infinite height of your incomprehensible Godhead. Taking the first-fruits of our nature from the all-pure, undefiled and all-blameless blood of the holy Virgin, you framed about yourself flesh endowed with a rational and intelligent soul, giving it its subsistence in yourself; and you became perfect man, without ceasing to be perfect God and consubstantial with your Father, but taking on, through unspeakable compassion, our weakness.

Homily I — One Christ in two natures, and what he restored§1.4

1.4And you came forth from her one Christ, one Lord, one Son, the same both God and man: at once perfect God and perfect man, wholly God and wholly man, one composite hypostasis from two perfect natures, Godhead and manhood, and in two perfect natures, Godhead and manhood. You were not God bare of flesh, nor a mere man, but one Son of God and God incarnate, yourself at once God and man, neither undergoing confusion nor suffering division, bearing in yourself the natural properties of the two natures of different essence, united in hypostasis without confusion and at the same time without division: the created and the uncreated, the mortal and the immortal, the visible and the invisible, the circumscribed and the uncircumscribed; a divine will and a human will; a divine operation and, no less, a human operation; two powers of free choice, the divine and likewise the human; the divine miracles and the human passions, the natural and blameless ones, I mean.

For you assumed, Master, through your tender mercy, the whole first Adam as he was before the transgression, free from sin: body, soul, mind, and their natural properties, so that you might grant salvation to the whole of me; for truly what has not been assumed has not been healed. And so, becoming mediator between God and mankind (1 Timothy 2:5), you destroyed the enmity (Ephesians 2:14) and brought the rebels to your Father. You turned back what had gone astray, enlightened what was darkened, renewed what was broken (Ezekiel 34:16), changed the corruptible into incorruption. You set creation free from the error of many gods. You made human beings children of God; you made those who had been dishonoured sharers in your divine glory. Him who had been condemned to the regions beneath the earth you led up above every principality and authority (Ephesians 1:21); him who had been sentenced to return to the earth (Genesis 3:19) and to dwell in Hades you seated in yourself on the royal throne.

Who, then, has become the workshop of these boundless goods, which pass all mind and understanding? Is it not the ever-Virgin who bore you?

Homily I — The grace of this feast and the duty to speak§1.5

1.5You see, fathers and brothers dear to God, the grace of this present day. Do you see the height and majesty of her who is now being praised? Are not her mysteries awe-inspiring? Are they not full of wonder? Blessed are those who see, as it is most fitting to see; blessed are those who have gained the perception of the mind! What flashes of light make this present night bright! What escorts of angels make radiant the falling asleep of the Mother who is the source of life! What God-inspired words of the apostles bless the burial of the God-receiving body! How does the Word of God, who in his compassion was pleased to become her son, receive her holy soul, serving this all-holy and most divine woman with his sovereign hands as his mother?

O good Lawgiver! Though not subject to the law, he fulfils the law which he himself commanded. For it was he who laid down that children should render to their parents what is due: "Honour," he says, "your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12). That this is true is plain, I think, to anyone who has been initiated even a little into the divine oracles of Holy Scripture. For if, as divine Scripture says, "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord" (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1), does she not much more commit her soul into the hands of her Son and God? The word is true, and beyond all dispute.

But, if you are willing, let us go through who she is, and where she came from, and how, granted to this present life, she was given as a gift loftier and dearer than all the gifts of God; and what manner of life she led in this world, and of what mysteries she was found worthy. For if the Greeks, honouring the departed with funeral orations, eagerly brought together everything they saw that might appeal, so that the praise might be complete for the one praised, and for those left behind might be at once a spur to virtue and an encouragement; and if, for the most part, they wove their speech out of myths and endless fictions, since those they praised had no praise of their own; how shall we not incur great ridicule, and meet the same judgement as the one who hid the talent (Matthew 25:25), if we hide in the depths of silence, as the saying goes, things utterly true and worthy of reverence, things that truly bring every blessing and salvation to all? And we shall take care to keep our speech short, so that it may not become an enemy to the ears, as too much food is to the body.

Homily I — Joachim and Anna, and barren grace made fruitful§1.6

1.6Joachim and Anna were her parents. Joachim, like a shepherd of sheep, guided his thoughts no less than his flocks, leading them with authority wherever he wished. For, shepherded like a sheep under the Lord God, he lacked none of the best things (Psalm 23:1). But let no one suppose that by "the best things" I mean what pleases the many, what the minds of the greedy always gape after, things which by nature neither last nor know how to make their owner better: the pleasures of this present life, which cannot gain any lasting strength but run away and dissolve in an instant, even though they had these in great abundance. Away with them! It is not for us to admire these things, nor is this the portion of those who fear the Lord. I mean rather the good things that are truly desired and loved by those of sound mind, which endure for ever, which gladden God and bring forth ripe fruit for those who possess them: the virtues, I mean, which will yield their fruit in their season (Psalm 1:3), that is, in the age to come, the fruit of eternal life, to those at least who have laboured worthily and offered their own toils as far as they were able. For toil goes before, and eternal blessedness follows.

Within himself, as was his habit, Joachim shepherded his own thoughts: in a place of green pasture, making his dwelling in the contemplation of the sacred oracles; beside the water of rest, rejoicing in divine grace; turning them back from what was out of place, and leading them in paths of righteousness (Psalm 23:2-3).

Anna, whose name means "grace", was no less like him in her ways and was his partner in marriage, rich in every good thing, yet held fast, for some mystical reason, by the infirmity of barrenness. For grace was truly barren, having no power to bear fruit in human souls, because all had turned aside, together they had become worthless; there was none who understood, none who sought after God (Psalm 14:2-3). Then the good God looked down, and took pity on the work of his own hand, and, wishing to save it, loosed the barrenness of grace (of Anna, I mean, whose mind was set on God); and she bore a child the like of whom has never been before, nor ever will be again. The loosing of her barrenness showed most clearly that the world's barrenness of good things would be loosed, and that the stem of unspeakable blessedness would bear fruit.

Homily I — Her childhood in the temple and the angel's greeting§1.7

1.7So it is that the Mother of God comes forth from a promise. For an angel announces the conception of her who is to be born. For it was fitting that she who was to give birth, according to the flesh, to the only and truly perfect God should fall short of no one even in this, nor take second place. Then she is dedicated to the holy temple of God, and there she lives, showing a zeal and a way of life better and purer than the rest, kept clear of all unseemly company of men and women. But when she reached the prime of her youth, and the law barred her from staying any longer within the sanctuary, the company of the priests entrusted her to Joseph as her betrothed, which is to say, as the guardian of her virginity: a man who, compared with the others, had kept the law untarnished into old age. With him this holy and all-blameless maiden lived, keeping to the tasks of the house and knowing nothing of what lay outside its doors.

But “when the fullness of time had come,” as the divine Apostle says (Galatians 4:4), the angel Gabriel was sent from God (Luke 1:26) to this girl, who was truly God's own child, and said to her: “Rejoice, you who are full of grace; the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Beautiful is the angel's greeting to her who is above the angels, for it brings joy to the whole world. But she was troubled at the word (Luke 1:29), for she was not used to speaking with men; she had firmly resolved to keep her virginity. And she wondered within herself what kind of greeting this might be (Luke 1:29). And the angel said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God” (Luke 1:30).

Homily I — She found grace and answered the angel§1.8

1.8Truly she found grace, she who was worthy of grace. She found grace who had tilled the labours of grace and reaped a rich harvest. She found grace who brought forth the seeds of grace and reaped the full-flowing harvest of grace. She found a depth of grace, she who kept safe and whole the ship of her twofold virginity: for she kept her soul a virgin no less than her body, and that is why the virginity of her body was also kept. “And you will bear a son,” he says, “and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Jesus means Saviour, “for he will save his people from their iniquities” (Matthew 1:21).

And what does the treasure of true wisdom say to this? She does not imitate Eve, her first mother; rather, she sets right Eve's carelessness, and calls on nature as her advocate, arguing against the angel's word in some such way as this: “How will this be for me, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34). “You speak of impossible things,” she says. “Your word breaks the boundaries of nature that the One who fashioned it set in place. I will not bear to be called a second Eve and to cheat the will of the Maker. But if what you say is not against God, tell me the manner of the conception and resolve my doubt.” To her the angel of truth replies: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). What is being done here is no slave to the laws of nature. For the Creator and Master of nature changes the boundaries of nature by his own authority. And she, hearing with holy reverence that name ever longed for and honoured, spoke words of obedience full of fear and joy: “Here is the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Homily I — The depth of God's goodness: blessed among women§1.9

1.9“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” I too, at the right moment, join my voice to the Apostle's: “How unsearchable are his judgments, and how untraceable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). Oh, the boundless goodness of God! Oh, love that cannot be searched out! He who “calls the things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17), who “fills heaven and earth” (Jeremiah 23:24), whose throne is heaven and the earth his footstool (Isaiah 66:1), made the womb of his own servant a spacious dwelling, and in it he brings to completion the newest mystery of all. For, being God, he becomes man; at the due time of pregnancy he is born in a way beyond nature; he opens the womb (Luke 2:23) without harming the bolts of virginity; and he is carried as a baby in earthly arms, he who is “the radiance of glory, the exact imprint of the Father's being,” who upholds all things “by the word of his mouth” (Hebrews 1:3).

Oh, wonders truly divine! Oh, mysteries beyond nature and beyond thought! Oh, glories of virginity beyond anything human! What is this great mystery concerning you, holy mother and virgin? “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). You are blessed from generation to generation, you alone worthy to be called blessed. For see, “all generations call you blessed,” as you said (Luke 1:48). The daughters of Jerusalem (of the Church, I mean) have seen you, and the queens, that is, the souls of the righteous, have called you blessed, and they will praise you for ever (Song of Songs 6:9).

Homily I — The figures that foretold her§1.10

1.10For you are the royal throne beside which angels stood, seeing their own Master and Creator seated upon it. You have become a spiritual Eden, holier and more divine than the Eden of old. For in that one dwelt the earthly Adam, but in you the Lord from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:47). The ark foreshadowed you, keeping safe the seed of a second world (Genesis 7:1-3); for you gave birth to Christ, the salvation of the world, who drowned sin and stilled its waves. The bush sketched you in advance (Exodus 3:2); the tablets written by God engraved you beforehand (Exodus 31:18); the ark of the law told your story ahead of time; the golden jar and the lampstand, the table, and the rod of Aaron that budded plainly prefigured you (Hebrews 9:2-4). For from you came the flame of the Godhead, the Father's Definition and Word, the sweetest heavenly manna, the nameless Name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9), the eternal and unapproachable Light (1 Timothy 6:16), the heavenly Bread of life (John 6:48), the fruit no one had tilled: from you he sprang up in the body.

Did not the furnace foretell you, showing a fire that at once bedewed and blazed (Daniel 3:49-50), a figure of the divine fire that dwelt in you? And the tent of Abraham points to you most clearly. For to God the Word, who pitched his tent in your womb (John 1:14), human nature brought the loaf baked in the ashes (Genesis 18:6): its own firstfruits, taken from your pure blood, baked, as it were, and made into bread by the divine fire, subsisting in his divine person, and coming into the true existence of a body given life by a rational and intelligent soul.

Jacob's ladder, too, almost escaped me. What then? Is it not plain to everyone that it was drawn beforehand of you and is known as your figure? Jacob saw heaven joined to earth by the two ends of the ladder, and angels coming down and going up on it (Genesis 28:12), and the One who is truly strong and unconquerable wrestling with him in figure (Genesis 32:24). In the same way you too stood between, and became the ladder of God's coming down to us. He took up our weak lump, wove it into himself and united it to himself, and made man a mind that sees God; and so you brought together what had been parted. That is why angels came down to him, serving him as God and Master, while men, taking up the angelic way of life, are caught up to heaven.

Homily I — The prophets fulfilled, and the gathering at her death§1.11

1.11Where shall I set the proclamations of the prophets? Is it not upon you, if we wish to show that they are true? For what is David's fleece, on which the Son of the God and King of all, who is without beginning together with his own Begetter and reigns with him, came down like rain (Psalm 72:6)? Is it not, most clearly, you? And who is the virgin whom Isaiah, seeing ahead, foretold would conceive and bear a son, God who is with us (Isaiah 7:14): that is, one who remained God even after he became man? And what is Daniel's mountain, from which Christ, the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), was cut, never touched by a man's tool (Daniel 2:34, 45)? Is it not you, who conceived without seed and still remained a virgin? Let the most divine Ezekiel come and show us the gate that was shut, through which the Lord passed and which was not opened, as he foretold in prophecy (Ezekiel 44:1-2). Let him show how his words came true: he will surely show you, through whom God who is over all passed, taking flesh, and yet did not open the gate of virginity. For the seal truly remains for ever.

It is you, then, whom the prophets proclaim. Angels minister to you, apostles serve you: the virgin theologian serves the ever-Virgin Mother of God. For today, as you departed to your Son, angels attended you, with the souls of the righteous, of patriarchs and prophets. Apostles and a countless multitude of God-bearing Fathers escorted you: gathered by the divine command from the ends of the earth, as if on a cloud, to this divine and holy Jerusalem, they sang holy hymns with deep inspiration to you, the fountain of the Lord's body, the body that is the source of life.

Homily I — The fountain of life passes through death§1.12

1.12Oh, how the fountain of life is carried over to life through the midst of death! Oh, how she who in giving birth passed beyond the boundaries of nature now bows to its laws, and her spotless body is made subject to death! For it must lay aside what is mortal and put on incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:53), since the Master of nature himself did not refuse the experience of death. For he dies in the flesh, and by death he undoes death; through corruption he bestows incorruption, and he makes dying a fountain of resurrection.

Oh, how the Maker of all receives with his own hands her holy soul as it parts from its God-receiving dwelling! He duly honours her who was by nature his servant, and whom, in the untraceable oceans of his love for mankind, he made his own mother in his saving plan: he who truly became flesh and did not feign his becoming man. For they saw, it seems, the ranks of the angels waiting to welcome your departure from among men. Oh, most beautiful departure, which grants the departure to God! For even if this has been granted by God to all his God-bearing servants (and it has been granted, and we believe it), yet the difference between the servants of God and his mother is infinite.

Homily I — Not death but falling asleep§1.13

1.13What, then, shall we call this mystery that concerns you? Death? Yet even though your all-holy and blessed soul is parted from your most blessed and spotless body, as nature requires, and the body is given over to lawful burial, still it does not remain in death, nor is it dissolved by corruption. For she whose virginity remained unharmed in giving birth has had her body kept undissolved in her passing over, and it is moved to a better and more divine dwelling, not cut short by death, but lasting through endless ages of ages.

For this all-shining, ever-bright sun, when it is hidden for a little while by the body of the moon, seems in some way to fail, to be covered in gloom, and to have its brilliance traded for darkness; yet it does not lose its own light. It has within itself an ever-flowing fountain of light; or rather, it is itself a fountain of light that never fails, as God who created it ordained. So it is with you too, the ever-flowing fountain of the true light, the unspent treasury of Life itself, the rich upwelling of blessing, the cause and provider of every good thing for us. Even if for a space of time you are covered by death in the body, you still pour out for us freely unfailing, pure and inexhaustible streams of boundless light, of immortal life and of true blessedness: rivers of grace, fountains of healing, never-ending blessing. For you have blossomed like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, and your fruit is sweet in the mouths of the faithful (Song of Songs 2:3).

Therefore I will not call your holy passing death, but falling asleep, or departure, or, more fittingly, homecoming. For as you leave the things of the body, you come home to better things (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Homily I — Received into heaven with songs§1.14

1.14Angels, with archangels, carried you across. The unclean spirits of the air shuddered at your going forth. At your passing the air is blessed and the upper air is made holy. Heaven receives your soul with joy. The Powers come out to meet you with holy hymns and a radiant festival, all but saying: “Who is this who comes up in white bloom (Song of Songs 8:5), looking forth like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, chosen as the sun (Song of Songs 6:10)? How beautiful you have become, how sweet (Song of Songs 7:6)! You are the flower of the field, like a lily among thorns (Song of Songs 2:1-2); therefore the maidens have loved you. We will run after the fragrance of your perfumes. The king has brought you into his chamber (Song of Songs 1:3-4).” There Authorities stand guard, Principalities bless, Thrones sing praise; the Cherubim are struck with joyful wonder, and the Seraphim glorify her who, by nature and in truth, in God's saving plan, became the mother of their own Master.

For you have not gone, like Elijah, “as it were into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11); you were not carried, like Paul, as far as the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2). But you have reached the very royal throne of your Son, seeing him with your own eyes, rejoicing, and standing beside him with great and untold boldness: an unspeakable delight to the angels and to all the powers above the world, unceasing gladness to the patriarchs, joy beyond words to the righteous, lasting exultation to the prophets. You bless the world and sanctify all things. You are rest for the weary, comfort for those who mourn, healing for the sick, a harbour for the storm-tossed, forgiveness for sinners, kindly consolation for the grieving, ready help for all who ask.

Homily I — Death made blessed, and her burial§1.15

1.15O wonder truly beyond nature! O astonishing events! Death, once loathed and hated, is now praised and called blessed. What once brought mourning and gloom, tears and sadness, has now been shown to be the cause of joy and festival. It is true that for all the servants of God whose death is called blessed, it is the end that brings the security of having pleased God, and for this reason their death is called blessed. For death perfects them and shows them to be blessed, granting that their virtue can no longer change, according to the saying: 'Call no one blessed before his death' (Sirach 11:28). But we shall not take this to apply to you. For your blessedness is not your death; your passing did not become your perfecting, nor does your departure bestow your security. For in your case the beginning, the middle and the end of all the good things that pass understanding, and their security and true confirmation, were the conception without seed, the divine indwelling and the birth without corruption. That is why you truly said that you would be called blessed by all generations (Luke 1:48), not from your death but from the conception itself. So death did not make you blessed; rather, you made death glorious, undoing its gloom and showing death to be joy. And so your sacred and all-blameless body was given over to a holy burial. Angels ran before it, surrounded it and followed it, doing whatever it was fitting to do in service of the mother of their own Master, while the apostles and the whole fullness of the Church cried aloud hymns inspired by God, set ringing by the Spirit: 'We shall be filled with the good things of your house; holy is your temple, wonderful in righteousness' (Psalm 65:4–5). And again: 'The Most High has sanctified his dwelling' (Psalm 46:4). 'The mountain of God, a rich mountain, the mountain in which God was pleased to dwell' (Psalm 68:15–16). The company of the apostles lifted you, the true ark of the Lord God, on their shoulders, as once the priests lifted the ark that was a figure (Joshua 3:14–17); and laying you in a tomb, they escorted you through it, as through a kind of Jordan, to the true land of promise, I mean the Jerusalem above, the mother of all the faithful (Galatians 4:26), whose designer and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). For your soul did not go down into Hades, nor did your flesh see corruption (Psalm 16:10). Your undefiled and all-pure body was not left behind on earth; you have been carried over to the royal dwellings of heaven, you the Queen, the Lady, the Sovereign, the Mother of God, she who truly gave birth to God.

Homily I — The tomb that still pours out grace§1.16

1.16O, how did heaven receive her who became wider than the heavens? And how did a tomb receive the vessel that held God? Yes, it received her; yes, it held her. For she did not become wider than heaven in bodily size. How could a body three cubits long, forever wasting away, be compared with the breadth and length of heaven? Rather, by grace she outstripped the measure of every height and depth, for what is divine admits no comparison. O holy, wonderful, venerable tomb, worthy of reverence! Even now angels attend it, standing by with awe and great fear; demons tremble at it; people run to it in faith, honouring it, venerating it, greeting it with eyes and lips and the longing of the soul, and drawing from it an abundance of good things. For just as, when someone lays costly perfume on garments or in some place and then takes it away, traces of the fragrance remain even after the perfume has been removed, so now too that divine body, holy and all-blameless and filled with divine fragrance, the unfailing spring of grace, laid in the tomb and then caught up to a better and higher place, did not leave the tomb without honour. It gives the tomb a share of its divine fragrance and grace, and has left it a fountain of healings and of every good thing for those who come to it in faith.

Homily I — Closing prayer to the Mother of God§1.17

1.17We too wait upon you today, O Lady (and again I say, Lady), Mother of God who knew no marriage. We have fastened our souls to our hope in you, as to a most strong and unbreakable anchor (Hebrews 6:19); we have dedicated ourselves wholly to you, mind, soul and body; and we honour you with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16) as far as we can, for to honour you as you deserve is beyond our reach. For if, as the sacred teaching has instructed us, honour shown to our fellow servants is proof of goodwill toward our common Master, how could honour toward you, who gave birth to your own Master, be neglected? How could it not be pursued with all eagerness? How could it not be preferred even to the breath we cannot live without, and be a source of life? For in this way we would show all the more our goodwill toward our own Master. But why do I speak of what we show the Master? For those who remember you with reverence, the most precious gift of your memory is in truth enough, for it becomes the ground of a joy that cannot be taken away. With what gladness, with what good things is he not filled, who has made his mind a storehouse of your all-pure memory? This is our thank-offering to you, the first-fruits of our words, the choicest portion of our poor mind, which has been moved by longing for you and has forgotten its own weakness. Receive the longing kindly, knowing that it exceeds our power. And you, watch over us, good Lady, mother of the good Master. Lead and guide our affairs wherever you will; halt the onrush of our most shameful passions; guide us to the calm harbour of the divine will; and make us worthy of the blessedness to come, the sweet radiance, seen face to face, of God the Word, who took flesh from you. With him be glory, honour, might, greatness and majesty to the Father, together with his all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily II — Juvenal of Jerusalem and the empty tomb (the Euthymius History, cols. 747-750)§2

2You see, dear fathers and brothers, in what terms this most glorious tomb addresses us. And that this is so is also written, word for word, in the Euthymius History, book three, chapter forty: 'It was said above how Saint Pulcheria built many churches to Christ in Constantinople. One of them is the church built in Blachernae at the beginning of the reign of Marcian, of divine memory. When they had built there a venerable house to the all-hymned and all-holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and adorned it with every ornament, they began to search for her all-holy, God-receiving body; and summoning Juvenal, the archbishop of Jerusalem, and the bishops from Palestine who were then staying in the imperial city because of the council that had been held at Chalcedon, they say to them: "We hear that in Jerusalem there is the first and most distinguished church of the all-holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, in the place called Gethsemane, where her life-bearing body was laid in a tomb. We wish, then, to bring this relic here, to be a protection for this imperial city."'

Juvenal took up the word and answered: 'In holy and God-inspired Scripture the facts of the end of the holy Mother of God Mary are not recorded; but we have received from an ancient and most truthful tradition that at the time of her glorious falling asleep all the holy apostles (there was no small grief in the midst over this, Pulcheria not knowing these things), as they were traveling through the world for the salvation of the nations, were gathered in an instant, lifted up on high, to Jerusalem; and as they stood by her, an angelic vision appeared to them, and a divine hymnody of the higher Powers was heard. And so, in divine and heavenly glory, she gave up her holy soul into the hands of God, in a manner beyond words. And her God-receiving body, carried out and buried with angelic and apostolic hymnody, was laid in the tomb in Gethsemane; and in that place, for three days, the choir and hymnody of the angels continued without ceasing.'

'After the third day, when the angelic hymnody had ceased, the apostles who were present (one of them, Thomas, had been left behind, and arrived after the third day, and wanted to venerate the God-receiving body) opened the tomb. And her all-hymned body they could not find at all; finding only her grave-cloths lying there, and filled with the ineffable fragrance that came from them, they secured the tomb. Struck with wonder at the mystery, they could only conclude that the One who was pleased to take flesh in his own person and become man from her, and to be born in the flesh, God the Word and Lord of glory, and who after the birth kept her virginity incorrupt, himself was pleased, after her departure from this life, to honour her undefiled and unstained body with incorruption, and with a translation before the common and universal resurrection.'

Homily II — No tongue can praise her worthily§2.1

2.1There is no one among human beings who will be able to praise the holy departure of the Mother of God as it deserves, not even if he had ten thousand tongues and as many mouths; indeed, not even if all the tongues of the far-scattered peoples came together would they reach the praise that is due. For she stands above every rule of praise. But since God loves what is offered according to one's power, out of longing and zeal and a good will, and since what is dear and lovely to the Son is dear to the Mother of God, come, let us take up her praises once more. We obey your commands, O best of shepherds and most dear to God, and we call to our aid the Word who took flesh from her, who fills every mouth that opens to him, who alone is her adornment and her all-glorious praise. For we know that when we begin her praises we are paying our debt, and having paid it we begin the debt again, so that the debt always remains, always begun and always fulfilled. May she whom we hymn be gracious to us, she who is above all creatures and rules over all made things as Mother of God, the Creator and Maker and Ruler of all. And may you also forgive us, O company that loves to hear divine words: accept our goodwill, applaud our longing, and bear with the weakness of our speech. Think of the emperor, to whom the helm of his people has been entrusted by God. His table is always full and overflowing with every kind of dish; his palace is charmed by the vapours of costly perfumes. Then someone brings him, out of season, a violet the colour of the imperial purple, or a rose, the most fragrant shoot of the thorn, with green buds, opening from them in two colours and little by little coming to a lovely blush, and some fruit of late summer, sweet as honey. The emperor, judging well and understanding rightly, will look not at the cheapness of the gift but at its strangeness, and will wonder at how unusual it is, and he would reward the farmer with gifts and favours in great abundance. So too we, bringing to the Queen the flowers of words in winter, and arming an aged speech for the contests of praise, and striking our longing against the mind as flint against iron, or pressing out our story-making mind like an unripe cluster of grapes, and offering to you, lovers of words and lovers of hearing, some faint spark and dregs of speech, may we be welcomed all the more. For what shall we bring to the Mother of the Word, if not a word? Like rejoices in like, and so does a friend. Now then, let us open the starting gate of speech, or slacken the reins a little, and set it toward the course like a horse and send it off. But you yourself, Word of God, be my fellow worker and helper. Give speech to my speechless mind; make the path smooth for my speech; and direct its course toward your good pleasure, toward which every word and thought of the wise presses.

Homily II — Today the living ark comes to rest§2.2

2.2Today the holy and only Virgin is brought to the sanctuary of heaven, beyond this world: she who so loved virginity that it transformed her, as a most pure fire would. For every virgin loses her virginity in giving birth; but she remains a virgin before giving birth, in giving birth, and after the birth. Today the holy and living ark of the living God, who carried her own Maker in her womb, comes to rest in the temple of the Lord not made by hands; and David, her forefather and the forefather of God, leaps for joy (2 Samuel 6:14–16), and angels dance with him, archangels applaud, powers give glory, principalities rejoice together, authorities are glad, dominions exult, thrones keep festival, the Cherubim sing hymns and the Seraphim give praise. For they are glorified not least by offering glory to the Mother of glory. Today the most holy dove, the pure and innocent soul consecrated to the divine Spirit, flying out from the ark, I mean the body that received God and was the beginning of life, has found rest for her feet (Genesis 8:9). She has set out for the world known to the mind, and has made her dwelling in the spotless land of the inheritance above. Today the Eden of the new Adam receives the paradise endowed with reason, in which the sentence of condemnation has been undone, in which the tree of life has been planted, in which our nakedness has been clothed. For we are no longer naked and unclothed, without the splendour of the divine image and robbed of the Spirit's abundant grace; no longer shall we lament our old nakedness and say: 'I have taken off my tunic; how shall I put it on?' (Song of Songs 5:3). For in this paradise the serpent found no way in, the serpent whose false offer of godhead we craved (Genesis 3:5), and so were likened to the senseless beasts (Psalm 49:12). For the only-begotten Son of God himself, being God and of one being with the Father, formed himself into a man from this Virgin, this pure soil. And I, a man, have been made divine; I, a mortal, have been made immortal; and I have put off the garments of skin (Genesis 3:21). For I have stripped off corruption, and I am clothed in the robe of the Godhead. Today the Virgin, undefiled, who had no part in earthly passions but was nourished on heavenly thoughts, has not gone away into the earth; having become in truth a living heaven, she takes up her home in the heavenly tabernacles. For who would miss the truth in calling her heaven, unless perhaps someone, knowing well, should say that she is raised even above the heavens by a surpassing that admits no comparison? For the Maker and Sustainer of the heavens, the Craftsman of every work of creation within the world and beyond it, visible and invisible, he for whom nothing in all creation is a place (if indeed a place is defined as what contains the things in it), in her was fashioned by himself, without seed, into an infant; and he showed her to be a spacious storehouse of his Godhead, which fills all things and alone is uncircumscribed. He was wholly gathered into her without suffering, and remained wholly outside, being his own place, which nothing can contain. Today the treasure of life, the abyss of grace (I do not know how to say it with bold and fearless lips) is covered by a death that bears life; and she who conceived the destroyer of death approaches it without fear, if indeed we must call her all-holy and life-giving departure a death. For how could she who poured out true life for all fall under the power of death? But she yields to the law laid down by her own Son, and as daughter of the old Adam she undergoes the liability that came down from her father, since even her Son, who is Life itself, did not refuse it; but because she is Mother of the living God, she is fittingly carried over to him. For if God says, 'Lest the first-formed man stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life and taste it, and live forever' (Genesis 3:22), how shall she who received Life itself, without beginning and without end, bound by no limit of beginning or of end, not live for the age that has no end?

Homily II — Paradise opens to the new Eve§2.3

2.3Long ago the Lord God sent out of the paradise of Eden as exiles (Genesis 3:23) those who began the mortal race: they had drunk their fill of the unmixed wine of disobedience, had let the eye of the heart drowse in the drunkenness of transgression, had the eyes of their mind weighed down by the stupor of sin, and had slept the sleep of death (Psalm 13:3). But now she has shaken off the assault of every passion, has brought forth the shoot of obedience to God the Father, and has become the beginning of life for the whole race: will paradise not receive her? Will heaven not throw open its gates for joy? Indeed it will. For Eve lent her ear to the serpent's message and listened to the enemy's counsel; her senses were charmed by the onset of a false and deceitful pleasure; and so she carried away a sentence of grief and sorrow, underwent the pangs of childbirth (Genesis 3:16), was condemned to death with Adam, and was made to dwell in the depths of Hades. But this woman, truly all-blessed, bent her ear to the word of God, was filled with the working of the Spirit, carried in her womb through an archangel the good pleasure of the Father, conceived without pleasure or union the person of God the Word, who fills all things, gave birth without the pangs of nature, and was wholly united to God: how could death swallow her? How will Hades admit her? How could corruption dare to touch the body that received life? These things are alien and wholly foreign to the soul and body that bore God. Death is afraid even to look at her. For when it attacked her Son, it learned from what it suffered (Hebrews 5:8), and, taught by experience, it has come to its senses. For her the gloomy roads down to Hades are untrodden, and a straight, smooth and ready road to heaven has been prepared. For if Christ, the life and the truth (John 14:6), said, 'Where I am, there will my servant be also' (John 12:26), how much more will his mother dwell with him? 'Before she was in labour, she gave birth' (Isaiah 66:7); and her departure from this life is also without pangs. 'The death of sinners is evil' (Psalm 34:21); but what shall we call the death of her in whom sin, the sting of death (1 Corinthians 15:56), had been put to death, if not the beginning of a life that is unending and better? 'Precious' indeed 'is the death of the holy ones' of the Lord God of hosts (Psalm 116:15); but the passing of the Mother of God is beyond all price. Now let the heavens rejoice (Psalm 96:11), and let the angels clap their hands; now let the earth be glad, and let mortals leap for joy; now let the air ring gladly with songs, and let the lightless night strip off its cheerless, mourning-clad gloom, and brightly imitate the brilliance of day with the flashing of fire. For the living city of the Lord God of hosts is lifted on high; and kings bring a most precious gift (Psalm 68:29) from the temple of the Lord, from renowned Zion, to the Jerusalem above, the free, their own mother (Galatians 4:26): the kings are those whom Christ set up as rulers over all the earth (Psalm 45:16), I mean the apostles; the gift is the Mother of God, the ever-Virgin.

Homily II — Zion, where she lay§2.4

2.4It does not seem out of place to me to sketch in words, as far as I am able, to picture and to outline the wonders that were accomplished for this holy Mother of God, which we have received from of old, son from father, as the saying goes, in modest measure and very briefly. For I picture her, holier than the holy, more sacred than the sacred, more saintly than the saints, the sweet jar of manna (Hebrews 9:4), or rather, to speak more truly, its spring, lying on a pallet in the divine and famous city of David, I mean Zion, renowned and most glorious; where the law of the letter was fulfilled and the name of the spirit was proclaimed; where Christ the Lawgiver completed the Passover that was a figure, and the God of the old and new covenant handed down the true Passover; where the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), initiated his disciples into the mystical supper, sacrificed himself for them like a fatted calf (Luke 15:23), and trod in the winepress the cluster of the true vine (John 15:1); where Christ, risen from the dead, appears to the apostles and assures Thomas (John 20:27–28), and through him the ends of the earth, that he is God and Lord, bearing two natures in himself even after his return to life from the dead, and two operations that answer to them, with wills that are free, enduring into the endless age. This city is the citadel of the Churches; this is the lodging of the disciples; in her the coming of the all-holy Spirit, with many sounds, in many tongues and in the form of fire, was poured out on the apostles (Acts 2:1–4); in her the Theologian took the Mother of God to himself (John 19:27) and ministered to her needs; this mother of the Churches throughout the world became the dwelling of the Mother of God after her Son rose again from the dead. Here, then, the blessed Virgin lay on a thrice-blessed bed.

Homily II — The preacher embraces her bier§2.5

2.5But now that I have come to this point in my discourse, let me confess what I myself feel. Burning most hotly with the blazing torch of longing, I am seized with a kind of trembling and with tears that bring joy. As though I were embracing the very bed, blessed and lovely, full of wonders, which received the tabernacle that was the source of life and was granted holiness by having it laid there, I seemed to take into my own arms that sacred, all-holy dwelling, worthy of God. I pressed my eyes and lips and brow, my neck and cheeks, against her limbs, and I felt the touch, as though the body were there before me; and yet, when I looked, I could not see with my eyes what I longed for. How could I, when it has been caught up on high to the heavenly sanctuaries? But so much for that.

Homily II — The apostles gather like eagles§2.6

2.6And what honours were paid to her then by the One who made it law to honour parents (Exodus 20:12)? There were those who had been scattered over all the earth to fish for men (Matthew 4:19) through the many-voiced and varied tongues of the Spirit, and who with the net of the word were catching men alive (Luke 5:10) out of the depth of error, for the spiritual and heavenly table of the mystical supper, the sacred banquet of the spiritual wedding of the heavenly Bridegroom, which the Father gives, splendidly and most royally, for the Son who is equal to him in power and one with him in nature (Matthew 22:2): these a divine command drove toward Jerusalem, like a net or a cloud, pressing and gathering them like eagles from the ends of the earth. For 'where the body is,' said Christ the Truth, 'there the eagles will be gathered' (Matthew 24:28). For although this saying was spoken beforehand about the second, great and glorious coming of the very One who said it, and his descent from heaven, it will not be out of place to take it up here too, as a seasoning for the discourse. So there were present the eyewitnesses and servants of the Word (Luke 1:2), to serve his mother as well, as was their duty, and to draw from her the blessing as a costly and priceless inheritance. For whose mind is in doubt that she is the spring of blessing and the source from which all good things well up? With them were present their followers and successors too, to share both the service and the blessing; for those who share the labour share alike in the fruits. And there stood by as well the whole company of God's chosen in Jerusalem. It was fitting, too, that the foremost of the righteous and the prophets of old should attend and share in this sacred escort, those, that is, who had foretold that God the Word would be born from her in the flesh, for our sake and in his love for mankind. Nor was the assembly of the angels left without a share. For all of them who obeyed the King of their own will, and so were worthy to stand in his honoured presence, had to escort his Mother according to the flesh, truly all-blessed and happy, more excellent than all generations and the whole creation. All stood by her as she shone with the beacon-fire of the Spirit and with brilliant flashes lit up those who, with reverence and fear and unwavering longing, fixed on her the pure eye of the mind. For there is nothing among the things that are which is not of this nature, except the One alone: for by being beyond them it is none of the things that are, and, set beside nothing, it comes down, and indeed comes down to all, acting and not admitting of being acted upon.

Homily II — Hymns to the God who emptied himself§2.7

2.7There were words inspired by God and spoken by God; there were hymns worthy of God, songs for her departure. For on this occasion too it was fitting to sing of the goodness that is more than infinite, the greatness beyond all greatness, the power of boundless might, and his condescension to us, which lies beyond all height and greatness; the more than abundant wealth of his incomprehensible kindness, the bottomless depth of his love: how, without leaving his own majesty, he came down to the self-emptying that exalts (Philippians 2:7), the Father and the Spirit consenting together; how he who is beyond being took being from a woman's womb in a way beyond being; how he is God and has become man, and remains both at once; how he did not depart from the essence of the Godhead, and yet shared in flesh and blood as we do (Hebrews 2:14); how he who fills all things and upholds the universe by the word of his own mouth (Hebrews 1:3) dwelt in a narrow space; how the body of this woman, so worthy of song, a body of matter, like grass, received the consuming fire of the Godhead (Hebrews 12:29) and, like unalloyed gold, was not consumed. These things came to pass because God willed them; for when God wills, all things are possible, and when he does not will, they cannot be done. And on this a contest of words began, not so that each might outdo the other, for that belongs to a vainglorious mind and is far from what pleases God, but so that they might fall short in nothing of zeal and strength as they sang of God and honoured the Mother of God.

Homily II — Adam, Eve and the saints call to her§2.8

2.8Then, yes then, Adam and Eve, the forebears of our race, cried aloud with rejoicing lips: 'Blessed daughter, you have undone for us the penalties of our transgression. You inherited from us a body subject to corruption, and you bore in your womb a garment of incorruption for us. You took your being from our loins, and you gave us well-being in return. You put an end to the pangs; you tore apart the swaddling bands of death; you restored us to our ancient dwelling. We shut paradise; you threw open the entrance to the tree of life. Through us sorrows came out of good things; through you better things have come back to us out of sorrows. And how will you taste death, you who are spotless? For you death will become a bridge to life, a ladder to heaven, a ferry to immortality. Truly you are blessed, all-blessed one. For who, unless it be the Word, has offered himself to undergo the very thing he was supposed to be doing?' And the whole choir of the saints applauded: 'You have fulfilled our prophecies. You have brought us the joy we waited for. For through you we have been loosed from the bonds of death. Come to us, O divine and life-bearing treasure. Come to us who long for you, you who brought our longing to fulfilment.' But the crowd of saints still in the body, standing around her, pulled her back with words no less strong: 'Stay with us,' they said, 'you who are our consolation, our only comfort on earth. Do not leave us orphans (John 14:18), O Mother, as we face dangers for your compassionate Son. Let us have you as rest from our labours and relief from our sweat. If you wish to stay, you have the power; if you are eager to depart, nothing stands in your way. If you depart, tabernacle of God, may we too depart with you, we who have been called your people because of your Son. You alone are the consolation we have, left to us on earth. To live with you while you live, and to die with you as you die, is a blessed thing. But why do we say "as you die"? For you, death too is life, and a better life, one that surpasses this life beyond all comparison. But for us, how life is no life at all, if we do not have you with us!'

Homily II — The apostles' farewell hymns§2.9

2.9Words of this kind, I think, the apostles, with the whole fullness of the Church, spoke to the blessed Virgin. But when they saw the Mother of God hastening toward her departure from life and longing for it, they turned, filled with divine grace, to hymns for her going forth: they lent their mouths to the Spirit and were carried out of the flesh, longing to depart with the Mother of God as she departed, and departing ahead of her, as far as they could, by the strength of their resolve. And when all together had satisfied their longing and discharged their duty, and had woven a many-flowered and varied crown of sacred hymns, they received the blessing like a treasure given by God, as they spoke their words of farewell, their last words. These words, as far as I know, proclaimed how fleeting the present life is and how quickly it is swept past, and brought into the open the hidden mysteries of the good things to come.

Homily II — Into your hands, my Son§2.10

2.10Then, as it seems to me, things were done at that hour in keeping with these words and following on from them. The King comes to her who gave him birth, to receive in his divine and undefiled hands her holy soul, pure and spotless. And she, as one may suppose, said: "Into your hands, my child, I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46; Psalm 31:5). Receive my soul, which is dear to you and which you kept blameless. To you, and not to the earth, I hand over my body. Keep safe the body you were pleased to dwell in, you who at your birth kept me a virgin. Take me to yourself, so that where you are, you whom my womb conceived, I too may be, sharing your home (John 14:3). For I hasten to you, who came down to me without any separation. Be yourself the comfort of my departure to my dearest children, whom you were pleased to call brothers (Hebrews 2:11). Add blessing upon their blessing through the laying-on of my hands."

Then, raising her hands, as one may suppose, she blessed those who were gathered there, having spoken to them such words as these. And she heard: "Come, my blessed Mother, into my rest. Arise, come, my dear one, fair among women (Song of Songs 1:8); for see, the winter is past, the time of pruning has come (Song of Songs 2:10-12). You are fair, my dear one, and there is no blemish in you (Song of Songs 4:7). The fragrance of your perfumes is beyond all spices (Song of Songs 4:10)." Hearing these words, the holy one commits her spirit into the hands of her Son.

Homily II — Angels, healings and the washing of the body§2.11

2.11And what happens? A stirring and changing of the elements, as it seems to me at least; voices and sounds and crashes, and fitting hymns of angels, as they run ahead, escort her and follow after. Some formed a guard of honour for the blameless and all-holy soul and went up with it as it went up to heaven, until they presented the Queen at the royal throne; others encircled the divine and sacred body and hymned the Mother of God in songs fit for angels.

And what of those who stood beside the all-holy and most sacred body? With fear and longing and tears of joy they ranged themselves around that divine and all-blessed tabernacle; they embraced it, they kissed every limb, they pressed close to the body, and from its touch they were filled with holiness and blessing. Then diseases fled away, and swarms of demons were put to flight, driven together from every side into the regions under the earth, and there alone. Air, ether and heaven were sanctified by the ascent of her spirit, and earth by the laying down of her body. Nor did the nature of water go without a share in the blessing, for she is washed in pure water, which does not cleanse her but is rather itself made pure. Here hearing was restored to the deaf, the lame were made firm on their feet, sight was renewed for the blind, and for sinners who drew near in faith the records of their debts were torn up (Colossians 2:14).

What then? The pure body is wrapped in pure linen cloths, and the Queen is laid once more upon a bier. Then come torches and perfumes and hymns of escort: the angels singing in their own tongues the hymn most fitting for them, and the apostles and God-bearing fathers singing songs worthy of God, struck up by the Spirit.

Homily II — The new Solomon brings the ark home§2.12

2.12Then, yes, then the ark of the Lord, setting out from Mount Zion and borne on the glorious shoulders of the apostles, is carried by way of the tomb to the heavenly sanctuary. First she is led through the middle of the city, like a bride of great beauty adorned with the unapproachable radiance of the Spirit, and so she is brought to the most holy place of Gethsemane, with angels running before her, following after her and covering her with their wings, and with the whole body of the Church.

King Solomon, at the laying to rest of the ark in the temple of the Lord which he himself had built, assembled all the elders of Israel in Zion, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion; and the priests took up the ark and the tent of witness, and the priests and the Levites brought them up; and the king and all the people were before the ark, sacrificing oxen and sheep beyond number; and the priests bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, into the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim (1 Kings 8:1-6; 2 Chronicles 5:2-7).

Just as he did, so now too, at the laying to rest of the spiritual ark, the ark not of the covenant of the Lord but of the very hypostasis of God the Word, the new Solomon himself, the ruler of peace and master craftsman of the universe, has today assembled the ranks of the heavenly minds that are above the world, and the leaders of the New Covenant, I mean the apostles, with all the people of the saints in Jerusalem. Her soul he brings through angels to dwell in the Holy of Holies, the true and heavenly archetypes (Hebrews 9:24), upon the very wings of the four-faced living creatures (Ezekiel 1:5-10), and he has set it beside his own throne, within the veil, where Christ himself has entered bodily as forerunner (Hebrews 6:19-20). Her body is carried forward in the hands of the apostles, while the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15) covers it with the radiance of his invisible Godhead, and the whole company of the saints runs ahead, sending up holy cries and offering a sacrifice of praise, until it was laid in the tomb as in a bridal chamber, and through the tomb in the delight of Eden and in the heavenly dwellings.

Homily II — The man who seized the bier§2.13

2.13Some Jews too, perhaps, were present, those of them who were not wholly unreasonable. It is not out of place to mix into the story, like a relish added to a dish, what is passed around on many lips. For they say that when those carrying the blessed body of the Mother of God had come to the descent of a steep hill, a certain Hebrew, a slave of sin and a sworn ally of error, imitating the servant of Caiaphas who struck the divine face of the Master, Christ our God (John 18:22), became an instrument of the devil. Carried along by a reckless and senseless rush and an ill-fated impulse, he flung himself at that most divine tabernacle which the angels approached with fear, and seizing the bier with both hands, madly and out of his mind, he tried to drag it to the ground. This assault too came from the envy of the author of evil. But the fruit came before the labour was done, and he gathered a bitter cluster, well deserved by his own intent.

For they relate that his hands failed him. And one could see the man who had set his own hand to that monstrous outrage suddenly shown to have no hands, until he turned his mind to faith and remorse. For those carrying the bier at once stood still, and the wretched man laid his two hands on that tabernacle, the source of life and bearer of wonders, and from being maimed he was made whole again. For even hardships, as a rule, know how to bring forth sound and saving resolves. But let us return to our subject.

Homily II — Laid in the tomb and taken up on the third day§2.14

2.14From there she is brought down to most holy Gethsemane. Again there were kisses and embraces, and again praises, holy hymns, invocations and tears, and streams of sweat poured down from anguish and longing; one could see sweat and tears vying with each other in their flowing. And so the all-holy body is laid in the all-glorious and wondrous tomb, and from there, on the third day, it is lifted up to the halls of heaven.

For it was fitting that this dwelling worthy of God, the spring of the water of forgiveness, which no one dug; the unploughed field of the heavenly bread; the unwatered vine of the cluster of ambrosia; the evergreen and fruitful olive tree of the Father's mercy, should not be shut up in the hollows of the earth. Rather, just as the holy and undefiled body, which came from her and took its subsistence in God the Word, rose from the tomb on the third day, so she too had to be snatched from the tomb, and the Mother brought over to her Son; and as he had come down to her, so she, the dearly loved, had to be carried up to the greater and more perfect tabernacle, into heaven itself (Hebrews 9:11; Hebrews 9:24).

It was fitting that she who had welcomed God the Word as a guest in her womb should be settled in the dwellings of her own Son; and as the Lord said that he must be in the house of his own Father (Luke 2:49), so the Mother too had to make her home in the palace of her Son, in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God (Psalm 135:2). For if the dwelling of all who rejoice is there (Psalm 87:7), where should the cause of joy be? It was fitting that she who kept her virginity unharmed in giving birth should have her body kept incorrupt even after death. It was fitting that she who carried the Creator as an infant in her bosom should abide in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the bride whom the Father had espoused should live in the bridal chambers of heaven. It was fitting that she who had seen her own Son on the cross, and had received into her heart the sword of the pain she had escaped in giving birth (Luke 2:35), should behold him seated with the Father. It was fitting that the Mother of God should possess what belongs to her Son, and be venerated by all creation as the Mother and handmaid of God. For the inheritance always passes down from parents to children; but now, as a wise man said, the springs of the sacred rivers flow upward. For the Son has made all creation subject to his Mother.

Homily II — Not a goddess but the Mother of God§2.15

2.15Come then, let us too keep today a feast of departure for the Mother of God. We do not bring flutes and Corybants, nor do we celebrate the rites of the mother of the falsely named gods, as they themselves call her, whom fools make out in their myths to be the mother of many children, but whom the word of truth shows to be childless. These are demons and shadowy phantoms, idly playing the part of what they are not by nature, who have found an ally in the folly of those who are led astray. For how does what is bodiless beget by coupling? In what way will it mingle? And how is that a god which did not exist before but is brought into being? For it is surely plain to everyone, even to those who are blind in the eyes of the mind, that the race of demons is bodiless.

For Homer said somewhere in his poems, describing the condition of the gods worthy of him: "They eat no wheat, they drink no gleaming wine; therefore they are bloodless, and are called immortals." They do not eat grain, he says, they do not drink wine that warms; for this reason they are bloodless, that is, they have no blood, and are named immortal. He was truly apt in saying "are called". For they are called immortal, but they are not what they are called: they have died the death of wickedness.

But we, for whom the one we worship is God, God who did not come into being out of what was not, but who always is, from him who always is, beyond cause and reason and thought, beyond time and nature, honour and revere the Mother of God. We do not ascribe to her the timeless birth of his Godhead, for the birth of God the Word is timeless and co-eternal with the Father; but we confess a second birth, by his voluntary incarnation, and we both know and declare its cause. For he who is without beginning and bodiless becomes flesh for us and for our salvation, so that he might save like by like; and becoming flesh from this holy Virgin, he is born without coupling, himself remaining wholly God and becoming wholly man, the same wholly God with his flesh and wholly man with his transcendent Godhead. So, knowing this Virgin to be Mother of God, we celebrate her falling asleep, not proclaiming her a goddess (away with such fables, the trickery of the pagans!), since we also proclaim her death, but knowing her to be the Mother of God made flesh.

Homily II — Let us keep her feast in song and purity§2.16

2.16Let us praise her today with sacred songs, we who have been given the riches both of being and of being called the people of Christ. Let us honour her with vigils through the night. Let us delight her with purity of soul and body, her who after God is truly pure above all; and it is somehow natural for like to rejoice in like. Let us serve her with mercy and compassion for those in need. For if God is served by nothing so much as by mercy, who will deny that his Mother too is gladdened by the same?

She made known to all the unspeakable abyss of God's love for us. Through her the long war against the Creator has been ended for us. Through her our reconciliation with him was sealed, peace and grace have been given, human beings dance with angels, and we who before were dishonoured have become children of God. From her we gathered the cluster of life; from her we plucked the shoot of incorruption. She has become for us the go-between who brings us every good thing. In her God became man, and man became God. What is more astonishing than this? What more blessed? I grow dizzy with fear, in awe of what I am saying.

With Miriam the prophetess, O maiden souls, let us dance with timbrels (Exodus 15:20), putting to death our members that are on earth (Colossians 3:5); for this is the mystical timbrel. Let us raise a shout at the ark of the Lord God with the shouts of our souls, and the walls of Jericho will fall (Joshua 6:20), I mean the hostile strongholds of the opposing powers. With David let us leap in the Spirit (2 Samuel 6:14); for today the ark of the Lord has come to rest. With Gabriel, the first in rank among the angels, let us cry aloud: 'Rejoice, you who are full of grace; the Lord is with you' (Luke 1:28). Rejoice, inexhaustible sea of joy. Rejoice, you who alone wipe away sorrow. Rejoice, healing medicine for the pain of every heart. Rejoice, you through whom death is driven out and life is brought in.

Homily II — The tomb speaks§2.17

2.17You, most holy of holy tombs (after, that is, the Master's tomb, the beginning of life, which was the spring of the resurrection), I will speak to you as to a living thing. Where is the unalloyed gold that the apostles' hands laid up as treasure in you? Where is the inexhaustible wealth? Where is the treasure that received God? Where is the living table? Where is the new scroll in which God the Word was written, beyond words, without a hand? Where is the abyss of grace? Where is the sea of healings? Where is the spring that gave birth to life? Where is the body of the Mother of God, so longed for and so loved?

Why do you seek in a tomb her who has been lifted up to the heavenly dwellings (Luke 24:5)? Why do you demand from me an account of corruption? I have no power to resist the commands of God. The sacred and holy body has left the linen cloths behind; it gave me a share in its holiness, filled me with ointment and fragrance, and made me a divine sanctuary, and it has gone, caught up, with angels and archangels and all the heavenly powers as its escort. Now angels attend me. Now divine grace dwells in me. For the sick I have proved to be a place of healing that wards off pain. I am an ever-flowing spring of healings. I am a defence against demons. I am a city of refuge (Numbers 35:6) for those who flee to me.

Come forward in faith, you peoples, and draw gifts in streams like a river. Come forward, holding a faith that does not doubt. 'You who thirst, go to the water,' Isaiah urges, 'and you who have no money, go and buy without price' (Isaiah 55:1). I cry out to all, in the words of the Gospel: 'Whoever thirsts for the healing of diseases, for release from the passions of the soul, for the blotting out of sins, for deliverance from every kind of affliction, for the rest of the kingdom of heaven, let him come to me in faith (John 7:37), and draw a stream of grace that has great power and serves many needs.' For the working of water is simple and one, and so is that of earth and air and the all-shining sun; yet it is changed differently in each of the things that share in it, to suit each one's nature, and in the vine it becomes wine, in the olive oil. So too grace, simple and one, does good to those who share in it in many ways, in proportion to each one's need.

I do not have this grace from my own nature. Every tomb is full of foul smell, a bringer of gloom, an enemy of gladness. But I received a very precious ointment and shared in its fragrance; and the ointment was so fragrant and so powerful that by being laid beside me for a little while it gave me a share in it that cannot be taken away; for truly the gifts of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). I welcomed as my guest a spring of gladness, and I have been enriched with its ever-flowing outpouring.

Homily II — Dionysius at the tomb; the robes sent to Blachernae§2.18

2.18'There were present then with the apostles the most honoured Timothy, apostle and first bishop of the Ephesians, and Dionysius the Areopagite, as the great Dionysius himself testifies in the discourses he laboured over, addressed to the apostle Timothy just named, concerning the blessed Hierotheus, who was also present then. He speaks thus: "For even among our God-possessed hierarchs themselves, when, as you yourself know, we and many of our holy brothers had come together to behold the body that was the beginning of life, and James the brother of God was there too, and Peter, the chief and most venerable summit of the theologians, it then seemed good, after the beholding, that all the hierarchs should hymn, each as he was able, the goodness, boundless in power, of the strength of the Godhead. After the theologians, as you know, he surpassed all the other initiates in sacred things, wholly transported, wholly outside himself, undergoing communion with the things he hymned; and all who heard and saw him, both those who knew him and those he did not know, judged him to be possessed by God and a divine singer of hymns. And what should I tell you of the things spoken of God there? For unless I have forgotten even myself, I know that I have often heard from you some parts of those inspired hymns."

When the sovereigns heard this, they asked Archbishop Juvenal himself to send them that holy coffin, securely sealed, with the garments of Mary, the glorious and all-holy Mother of God, that were in it. And when it had been sent, they laid it in the venerable house of the holy Mother of God that had been built at Blachernae. So much for these things.'

Homily II — Make your memory her dwelling§2.19

2.19And what shall we say in reply to the tomb? Your grace is unfailing and ever-flowing; but the power of God is not confined to places, nor are the benefits of the Mother of God. For if they were bounded by the tomb alone, the gift would have been bestowed on only a few. But now it has been shared out without stint in all the ends of the world. Let us then make our memory a chamber for the Mother of God. And how will this be? She is a virgin, and loves virginity; she is pure, and loves purity. If, then, together with the body we purify the memory too, we shall have her grace dwelling within us.

For she flees all filth and turns away from the muddy passions. She loathes gluttony; she is the enemy of the passions of most shameful fornication; its foul thoughts she flees as from a brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7). She thrusts away shameful and coarse words and songs (Ephesians 5:4). She shakes off the perfumes of harlots. She hates the swellings of anger; she will not admit inhumanity and strife. She turns away from vainglory that labours for nothing. She sets herself as an enemy against swollen pride. She hates the remembering of wrongs, the adversary of salvation. Every evil she counts as a deadly poison, and she rejoices in their opposites; for opposites are the cures of opposites. She delights in fasting and self-control and the songs of the Psalms; she rejoices with purity and virginity and sober self-restraint. With these she keeps unending peace and greets them warmly. Peace and a gentle mind she embraces; love and mercy and humility she takes in her arms, as her own nurses. In short, at every evil she is grieved and downcast, but in every virtue she exults as in a gift of her own.

If, then, we eagerly shun the vices named first and love the virtues with all zeal, and make them our companions, she will come often to her own servants, drawing with her the whole company of all good things; and she will bring with her Christ, her Son, the King and Lord of all, to dwell in our hearts. To him be glory, honour, might, greatness and majesty, with the Father who is without beginning, and the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily III — A third hymn for the Mother of God§3.1

3.1It is the habit of those who love something passionately always to have it on their tongue, and to picture it in their mind by night and by day. So let no one find fault with me if, after the two that came before, I have made this present hymn a third for the Mother of my God, as a kind of parting gift. For I do this not as a favour to her, but to myself and to you who are here, O divine and holy assembly: I set before you a dish that profits the soul and brings salvation, suited to this holy night, and so I win spiritual delight. For a shortage of food, as you see, had overtaken us. That is why I am putting together this feast in haste: not lavishly, nor worthy of her who has invited us, but one that can at least comfort our hunger as need requires.

For she has no need of praises from us; it is we who need the glory that comes from her. For how can what is already glorified be glorified? How can the spring of light be given light? Rather, by what we do we weave a crown for ourselves. 'For as I live, says the Lord, those who glorify me I will glorify' (1 Samuel 2:30). Sweet indeed, sweet to drink is wine, and bread is nourishing as food; for the one gladdens, and the other strengthens the heart of man (Psalm 104:15). But what is sweeter than the Mother of my God? She has taken my mind captive; she has carried off my tongue as spoil; waking and dreaming I picture her. She is the Mother of the Word, and has become the giver of words: the child conceived by the barren woman, who makes barren souls fruitful. Hers is the holy and divine passing that we celebrate today.

Come, then, let us go up to the mystical mountain (Isaiah 2:3). Let us rise above the impressions of this life and of matter, and pass into the divine and incomprehensible darkness (Exodus 20:21), and, coming to be in the divine light, let us hymn the power that is boundless in might. How is it that he who came down from the surpassing height that is immaterial and beyond all things, into the virgin's womb, without leaving the Father's womb; who was conceived and took flesh, and of his own will travelled through sufferings to death; who won incorruption for what was corruptible, and went back up to the Father with a body that had its birth from the earth: how is it that he drew his Mother according to the flesh to his own Begetter, lifting her, who had been called an earthly heaven, up to the heavenly land?

Homily III — The tomb finer than Eden and the ark§3.2

3.2Today the spiritual and living ladder (Genesis 28:12), by which the Most High came down and was seen on earth and lived among men (Baruch 3:37), has used death as a ladder and gone up from earth to heaven. Today the earthly table, which without knowing marriage carried the heavenly bread of life (John 6:35), the coal of the Godhead, has been lifted from earth to heaven; and for the eastern gate of God (Ezekiel 44:1–2) the gates of heaven have been lifted up (Psalm 24:7). Today the living city of God is moved from the earthly Jerusalem to the Jerusalem above (Galatians 4:26). She who bore as her firstborn and only son the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), the Only-begotten of the Father, now dwells in the church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23); and the ark of the Lord, living and endowed with reason, passes over to the rest of her Son (Psalm 132:8). The gates of paradise are opened and receive the field that bore God, from which sprang the tree of eternal life that undid the disobedience of Eve and the death of Adam.

This tree is Christ, the cause of life for all. A hewn cave receives the mountain no hand had quarried, from which a stone cut without hands has filled the whole world (Daniel 2:34–35). The bridal chamber of the divine incarnation of the Word rests in the all-glorious tomb as in a chamber. From there she goes up to the heavenly bridal hall, reigning in full view with her Son and God; and she has left the tomb behind as a bridal chamber for those on earth.

The tomb a bridal chamber? Yes, more splendid than any bridal chamber: not flashing with the gleam of gold, the brightness of silver and the clear sparkle of precious stones, not woven of silken threads, of robes spun with gold and of purple, but with the radiance of the all-holy Spirit, bright with the light of God. It does not bring about the joining of bodies for those who love the earth; for those who are prisoners of the Spirit it brings about the life of holy souls, a state with God better and sweeter than any other.

This tomb is lovelier than Eden. I will not speak of what happened there: the goodwill of the enemy, his kindly advice, if I may call it that, the envy, the deceit, the weakness of Eve, the persuasion, the sweet and bitter bait, through which her mind was stolen and she in turn stole away her husband, the disobedience, the exile, the death. I will not speak of these, so as not to make the feast an occasion of gloom. This tomb raised a mortal body from earth to heaven; Eden brought the father of our race down from on high to earth. For was it not in Eden that he who had been made in the divine image (Genesis 1:27) was condemned with the words, “You are earth, and to earth you shall return” (Genesis 3:19)?

This tomb is more precious than the tabernacle of old (Hebrews 9:2). It has received the living lampstand, endowed with reason and shining with the light of God, and the life-bearing table, which held not the bread of the presence but heavenly bread, and received not material fire but the immaterial fire of the Godhead. This tomb is more blessed than the ark of Moses, for its portion was not shadows and figures but the truth itself. For it received the pure and golden jar that bore the heavenly manna as its fruit (Hebrews 9:4); the living tablet which, by the finger that is the all-powerful Spirit (Exodus 31:18), received the Word of God who was to become flesh, the Word who subsists in his own person; the golden censer, she who conceived the divine coal and filled all creation with fragrance.

Homily III — A new exodus song, and why she had to die§3.3

3.3Let the demons flee; let the thrice-wretched Nestorians and their leader, the new Pharaoh, the bitter destroyer and tyrant, wail as the Egyptians did long ago. For they have been buried in the depths of their blasphemy (Exodus 15:4–5). But let us who were saved with dry feet (Exodus 14:29) and have crossed the salt sea of ungodliness sing to the Mother of God the song of her exodus.

Let Miriam, the Church, take the timbrel in her hands and lead off the festal song (Exodus 15:20–21). Let the young women of the spiritual Israel go out with timbrels and dances, shouting for joy. Kings of the earth and judges with rulers, young men and virgins, old men with the younger (Psalm 148:11–12): let them sing hymns to the Mother of God. Let assemblies, and words of every kind, and the varied tongues of nations and peoples compose a new song. Let the air resound all around with spiritual reeds and trumpets, and let it fashion a new day of salvation with flashes of fire. Rejoice, you heavens, and let the clouds rain down gladness (Isaiah 45:8). Leap, you rams of God's chosen flock, you divine apostles, raised up like high and lofty mountains by the loftiest contemplations; and you lambs of God, holy people, nurslings of the Church, like hills reaching up by your own choice toward the high mountains (Psalm 114:4).

Ah! Ah! Has the fountain of life died, the Mother of my Lord (Luke 1:43)? Yes, for what was put together from earth had to return to earth (Genesis 3:19), and so pass over to heaven, receiving from the earth, through the laying of her body in it, the gift of a life wholly pure. For like gold she had to cast off the earthy and lustreless thickness of mortality, and, with death as the furnace, to rise from the tomb with her flesh incorrupt and pure, shining with the light of incorruption.

Homily III — All creation escorts her to the tomb§3.4

3.4Today she receives the beginning of a second existence from him who gave her the beginning of her first existence: she who gave the beginning of a second existence, I mean bodily existence, to him who had no beginning in time of his first and eternal existence, even though he had the Father as his beginning, as the cause of his divine existence.

Rejoice, Zion, holy mountain of God, in which the living mountain of God dwelt; the new Bethel, in which a pillar has been anointed (Genesis 28:18–19), human nature anointed with the Godhead. From you her Son was raised up to the height of heaven, as from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9–12).

Let a cloud be made ready, as wide as the world and encircling it, and wings of winds to carry the apostles across from the ends of the earth to Zion. Who are these that fly like clouds (Isaiah 60:8) and like eagles to the body (Matthew 24:28) that is the cause of resurrection for all, to serve the Mother of God? Who is this who comes up, all in white (Song of Songs 8:5), all fair (Song of Songs 4:7), shining like the sun (Song of Songs 6:10)? Let the harps of the Spirit sing, the tongues of the apostles. Let the cymbals sound aloud, the foremost of the theologians. Let Hierotheus, the chosen vessel (Acts 9:15), consecrated to the divine Spirit, who in divine union both underwent and learned divine things, go wholly out of the body; let him wholly go forth with her in his will, and beat time to the refrains.

Let all the nations clap their hands (Psalm 47:1); let all sing hymns to the Mother of God. Let angels serve a mortal body. Daughters of Jerusalem, follow after the queen, and as virgins near her, youthful in the Spirit, be brought along with her to the Bridegroom (Psalm 45:14), to stand at the right hand of the Master (Psalm 45:9).

Come down, come down, Master, and as one in her debt repay your Mother what is owed for your nursing. Spread out your divine hands; receive your mother's soul, you who on the cross committed your spirit into your Father's hands (Luke 23:46). Speak to her some sweet whisper: “Come, my fair one, my close one (Song of Songs 2:10), you who shine brighter than the sun with the beauty of virginity. You gave me a share in what is yours; come, enjoy with me what is mine. Come, Mother, to your Son; come, reign with him who, born of you, became poor with you (2 Corinthians 8:9).” Depart, Lady, depart; not as Moses did, “Go up, and die” (Deuteronomy 32:49–50), but rather die, and so go up. Commit your soul into the hands of your Son. Give back to the dust what belongs to the dust, since it will be taken up along with you.

Lift up your eyes, people of God, lift them up. See, the ark of the Lord God of hosts is in Zion, and the apostles stood beside it in the body, burying the body that is the source of life and that received God. Immaterially and invisibly, angels attend it in awe, standing by the Mother of their own Master as servants. The Lord himself is present, he who is present everywhere, fills all things and encompasses the universe, who is in no place; for all things are in him (Colossians 1:17), as in the cause that makes them and holds them together.

See, the Virgin, the daughter of Adam and Mother of God, because of Adam gives her body over to the earth, but because of her Son gives up her soul to the dwellings of heaven. Let the holy city be sanctified, and in addition to its blessings let it reap an eternal blessing. As the divine tabernacle passes, let angels go before it and make the tomb ready. Let the radiance of the Spirit adorn it. Let perfumes be prepared and poured over the all-blameless and all-fragrant body. Let a pure stream be at hand and draw blessing from the undefiled spring of blessing. Let the earth rejoice at the laying down of the body. Let the air leap at the going up of the spirit. Let breezes blow, dewy and full of grace. Let all creation keep festival for the going up of the Mother of God. Let choirs of the young shout for joy. Let the tongues of orators flow with hymns; let the hearts of the wise reflect on the wonder; let the old, whose grey hair is worthy of respect, quietly bring forth the fruit of their contemplation. Let all creation bring its share to the common feast. For not even so would they reach the smallest part of what she deserves.

Homily III — Greeting her at the tomb, and the closing prayer§3.5

3.5Come, let us all go out in spirit with her as she departs. Come, let us all, with the longing of our hearts, go down with her as she goes down to the tomb. Let us stand around the most holy bier. Let us sing holy hymns, chanting something like this: “Rejoice, you who are full of grace; the Lord is with you (Luke 1:28). Rejoice, you who were foreordained to be Mother of God. Rejoice, you who were chosen beforehand in the counsel of God before the ages: most divine shoot of the earth, dwelling-place of divine fire, most holy ornament of the Holy Spirit, spring of living water, paradise of the tree of life, living branch of the divine cluster of grapes that pours out nectar and ambrosia, river full of the fragrances of the Spirit, field of the divine ear of grain, rose most radiant in virginity and breathing out the fragrance of grace, lily of the royal robe, ewe who bore the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), workshop of our salvation, higher than the angelic powers, servant and mother.”

Come, let us stand around the undefiled tomb and draw divine grace. Come, let us carry the ever-virgin body in the arms of our souls, and go in with her into the tomb, and die with her, dying to the passions of the body, but living with her a life free of passion and undefiled. Let us listen to the divine hymns that come from the immaterial lips of the angels. Let us go in to venerate, and come to know the strangeness of the mystery: how she has been lifted up, how she has been raised on high, how she has been taken up to heaven, how she stands beside her Son above all the ranks of angels. For nothing stands between Mother and Son.

This third discourse on your departure, after the two before it, I have made for you, Mother of God, in reverence and love for the Trinity, whom you served when, by the good pleasure of the Father and the power of the Spirit, you received the Word who has no beginning, the all-powerful wisdom and power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). Accept, then, my eagerness, which goes beyond my ability, and grant us salvation: freedom from the passions of the soul, relief from the diseases of the body, release from hardships, a peaceful course of life, the illumination of the Spirit. Kindle our longing for your Son; make our life pleasing to him; so that we too, having attained the blessedness of that world and seeing you shining with the glory of your Son, may send up holy hymns, rejoicing for ever in the assembly of those who keep festival in a way worthy of the Spirit, to him who through you built our salvation, Christ, the Son of God and our God. To him be glory and power, with the Father who has no beginning and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to all the endless ages of ages. Amen.