". . . no to abolish but to fulfil" - Wednesday of the 3rd Week of Lent

FIRST READING  (Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9)

Moses spoke to the people, saying: "And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you.

"Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, `Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'

"For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

"Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children."

GOSPEL  (Matthew 5:17-19)

Jesus said to his disciples, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

"Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

REFLECTIONS

Living in the peace, joy, and righteousness of the Holy Spirit

(Word of Life Community)

Jesus fulfils and completes the Law
(India Cath News)


FURTHERMORE . . .

You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well. (Deuteronomy 4:9)

Our God is a faithful and loving God. A God whose covenant "I will be your God and you will be my people" remains intact, even when Israel didn't remain all that faithful.

As a parent, I have unconditional love for my children. God Is love, agape (1 John 4:8), pure self gift. Self gift in giving His Son Jesus to be crucified and die on a cross for my redemption and yours. How could I not want to know, love and serve God!

Staying in this intimate relationship, not rupturing it requires obedience. Jesus says in Mt. 5: 17-19 he has not come to "remove (the Law), but to fulfill them". He invites me to go deeper into their meaning, He challenges me to transformation, to find freedom and peace, through loving obedience and discipleship.

Mary Bruesch

"The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know the invinsible companionship of God."

Thomas Merton

PRAYER

Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith. 

I trust in you: strengthen my trust. I love you: 

let me love you more and more. 

I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.

I worship you as my first beginning. 

I long for you as my last end. 

I praise you as my constant helper, 

and call on you as my loving protector.

Guide me by your wisdom, 

correct me with your justice, 

comfort me with your mercy, 

protect me with your power.

I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you; 

my words: to have you for their theme; 

my actions: to reflect my love for you; 

my sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory.

I want to do what you ask of me: 

in the way that you ask, for as long as you ask, 

because you ask it.

Lord, enlighten my understanding, strengthen my will, 

purify my heart, and make me holy.

Help me to repent of my past sins, 

and to resist temptation in the future. 

Help me to rise above my human weakness 

and to grow stronger as a Christian.

Let me love you, my Lord and my God, 

and see myself as I really am: 

a pilgrim in this world, 

a Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, 

those in authority over me or those under my authority, 

my friends and my enemies.

Help me to conquer anger by gentleness, 

greed by generosity, 

apathy by fervour. 

Help me to forget myself and reach out toward others.

Make me prudent in planning, courageous in taking risks. 

Make me patient in suffering, unassuming in prosperity.

Keep me, Lord, attentive in prayer, 

temperate in food and drink, 

diligent in my work, 

firm in my good intentions.

Let my conscience be clear, 

my conduct without fault, 

my speech blameless, 

my life well-ordered.

Put me on guard against my human weaknesses. 

Let me cherish your love for me, keep your law, 

and come at last to your salvation. 

Teach me to realise that this world is passing, 

that my true future is the happiness of heaven, 

that life on earth is short, 

and the life to come eternal.

Help me to prepare for death with a proper fear of judgment, 

but a greater trust in your goodness. 

Lead me safely through death 

to the endless joy of heaven. 

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Attributed to Pope Clement XI (1670-1676)

Drinking the Cup - Wed of the 2nd Week of Lent

FIRST READING  (Jeremiah 18:18-20)

They said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words."

"Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to my plea. Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them."

GOSPEL (Matthew 20:17-28)

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day."

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom."

But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" They said to him, "We are able."

He said to them, "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." 

REFLECTIONS 
1. Authority and sacrificial love 
(Word of Life Community) 

2. Can you drink the chalice?

Twice before, Jesus warned His disciples that His life was moving inexorably toward suffering and death. Now, as they walk along the road that leads up to Jerusalem, Jesus predicts His death for the third time. This prediction is somewhat more specific, for Jesus actually names the precise events that will occur: Mockery, flogging, and crucifixion. “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” Jesus asks James and John. If they want to sit next to Jesus at the Kingdom banquet, they must drink from the same chalice He drinks, the chalice of suffering. This image of a chalice filled with bitter wine of suffering is taken from the Old Testament (cf Is 51:17; Jer 25:15; Lam 4:21). James and John respond to Jesus’ question by vowing that they are, indeed, able to drink this chalice. In a sense, they are correct. James and John, as leaders in the early Christian community, will endure its persecutions and suffer for their faith; James will die a martyr’s death by Herod Agrippa’s sword (cf Acts 12:2). In another sense, though, they are not able. After only a meager taste of the caustic wine, James and John, as well as the others, throw down the chalice; in Jesus’ passion, “all the disciples left Him and fled” (Mt 26:56).

3. Can they REALLY drink that cup??
(Lutheran Church Augusta, MO)

FURTHERMORE . . .

I find today's gospel quite funny, it has the air of a black comedy about it, mainly due to the misunderstandings of the disciples. In today's Gospel Jesus is journeying to Jerusalem with his disciples. On the way he breaks the news of his impending death. He tells them that when they reach the city he, Jesus, will be handed over to the temple officials and the Romans to be killed. He also tells them that he will rise again on the third day.

How do the disciples react? Do they get upset? Do they try to get Jesus to turn away from Jerusalem? No, they do none of these things, but rather begin to argue over stupid things. The mother of Zebedee's sons approaches Jesus to try and get places of honour for them in the kingdom of Jesus, completely misunderstanding what he meant by kingdom. Jesus tries to inform her that to gain places of honour in his kingdom is to take up the cross and suffer as Jesus himself soon will, and that it is his Father who will give out places there.

You would think that this would have been the end of the discussion. But no, the other ten disciples obviously have the words "places of honour" stuck in their heads, and they begin to get annoyed, one suspects because they didn't get their request in first! Again Jesus tries to give a lesson on what a Christian leader ought to be like, one that follows his example, to serve those over whom they have authority. This is a reversal of what we think someone in a position of authority ought to be like. Yet that is what we are called to be.

So Jesus has told his disciples he is going to die horribly, they fight among themselves for positions of honour, then Jesus has to give them a lesson in Christian leadership! Their reaction to his news is not what one would expect. That is what sin, in the form of ambition in this case, does. It prevents us from hearing clearly the word of God, which means that we cannot follow it. But by being the type of people that Jesus instructs his disciples to be we will hear his word, and be able to follow it.

(From the English Dominicans)

PRAYER
O gracious Father,
we humbly beseech thee for thy holy Catholic Church;
that thou wouldest be pleased to fill it with all truth,
in all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purify it;
where it is in error, direct it;
where in any thing it is amiss, reform it.
Where it is right, establish it;
where it is in want, provide for it;
where it is divided, reunite it;
for the sake of him who died and rose again,
and ever liveth to make intercession for us,
Jesus Christ,
thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Archbishop William Laud (1573-1645)

St Thomas Becket's Day (and T.S. Eliot's thoughts on suffering & joy in the Christian life)

The martyrdom of St Thomas Becket

Go HERE for an outline of St Thomas Becket’s story.

Today I share with you some words from T.S. Eliot’s play, “Murder in the Cathedral,” which is all about Becket’s death. They are applicable to all martyrs, and indeed, all Christians, for they are T.S. Eliot’s meditation on the intertwining of sorrow and joy in the Christian life.

The Archbishop preaches in the Cathedral 

on Christmas morning, 1170:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The fourteenth verse of the second chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Dear children of God, my sermon this morning will be a very short one. I wish only that you should ponder and meditate on the deep meaning and mystery of our masses of Christmas Day. For whenever Mass is said, we re-enact the Passion and Death of Our Lord; and on this Christmas Day we do this in celebration of His Birth. So that at the same moment we rejoice in His coming for the salvation of men, and offer again to God His Body and Blood in sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. It was in this same night that has just passed, that a multitude of the heavenly host appeared before the shepherds at Bethlehem, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”; at this same time of all the year that we celebrate at once the Birth of Our Lord and His Passion and Death upon the Cross. Beloved, as the World sees, this is to behave in a strange fashion. For who in the World will both mourn and rejoice at once and for the same reason? For either joy will be overcome by mourning or mourning will be cast out by joy; so that it is only in these our Christian mysteries that we can rejoice and mourn at once for the same reason. But think for a while on the meaning of this word “peace.” Does it seem strange to you that the angels should have announced Peace, when ceaselessly the world has been stricken with War and the fear of War? Does it seem to you that the angelic voices were mistaken, and that the promise was a disappointment and a cheat?

Reflect now, how Our Lord Himself spoke of Peace. He said to His disciples: “My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” Did He mean peace as we think of it: the kingdom of England at peace with its neighbors, the barons at peace with the King, the householder counting over his peaceful gains, the swept hearth, his best wine for a friend at the table, his wife singing to the children? Those men His disciples knew no such things: they went forth to journey afar, to suffer by land and sea, to know torture, imprisonment, disappointment, to suffer death by martyrdom. What then did He mean? If you ask that, remember that He said also, “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” So then, He gave to his disciples peace, but not peace as the world gives.

Consider also one thing of which you have probably never thought. Not only do we at the feast of Christmas celebrate at once Our Lord’s Birth and His Death: but on the next day we celebrate the martyrdom of his first martyr, the blessed Stephen. Is it an accident, do you think, that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ? By no means. Just as we rejoice and mourn at once, in the Birth and Passion of Our Lord; so also, in a smaller figure, we both rejoice and mourn in the death of martyrs. We mourn, for the sins of the world that has martyred them; we rejoice, that another soul is numbered among the Saints in Heaven, for the glory of God and for the salvation of men.

Beloved, we do not think of a martyr simply as a good Christian who has been killed because he is a Christian: for that would be solely to mourn. We do not think of him simply as a good Christian who has been elevated to the company of the Saints: for that would be simply to rejoice: and neither our mourning nor our rejoicing is as the world’s is. A Christian martyrdom is no accident. Saints are not made by accident. Still less is a Christian martyrdom the effect of a man’s will to become a Saint, as a man by willing and contriving may become a ruler of men. Ambition fortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates with deception, cajolery, and violence, it is the action of impurity upon impurity. Not so in Heaven. A martyr, a saint, is always made by the design of God, for His love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. A martyrdom is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God. The martyr no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of martyrdom. So thus as on earth the Church mourns and rejoices at once, in a fashion that the world cannot understand; so in Heaven the Saints are most high, having made themselves most low, seeing themselves not as we see them, but in the light of the Godhead from which they draw their being.

I have spoken to you today, dear children of God, of the martyrs of the past, asking you to remember especially our martyr of Canterbury, the blessed Archbishop Elphege; because it is fitting, on Christ’s birthday, to remember what is that peace which he brought; and because, dear children, I do not think that I shall ever preach to you again; and because it is possible that in a short time you may have yet another martyr, and that one perhaps not the last. I would have you keep in your hearts these words that I say, and think of them at another time. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Going forth weeping . . . coming back rejoicing

The old city of Corinth (Korinthos) today. 

In today’s Gospel (John 16:20-23) Jesus assures his disciples that although there will be weeping and wailing, this will give way to joy, like that of a woman’s pain in labour being forgotten when her baby is born. Of course, he was speaking about his impending death and then the joy of the resurrection, but we know that in every human life – and especially in the lives of those who are in Gospel ministry – there are seasons of weeping and wailing when it takes every ounce of spiritual energy we have just to hold on to the Lord. But we DO, because of his promise to support and sustain us. 

We see in today’s first reading (Acts 18:9-18) that St Paul had his crosses to bear – and they were mostly other people! It must have come as a shock to be assured that the Lord had “so many people” among the 400,000 inhabitants of the bustling, prosperous, cosmopolitan and sex crazed city of Corinth – on the face of it, a most peculiar culture in which to try and plant a church! In fact, scholars think that during apostolic days the church there would have been no larger than 150 to 200 converts, some Jews, but most Gentiles, meeting, not in an auditorium, but as a number of smaller “house churches.” We know from St Paul’s correspondence that they had a host of problems in coming to terms with what it means to be part of God’s new creation in Christ (1 Corinthians 5:17), and they caused the apostle an enormous amount of grief and pain. 

It was just as well that St Paul could look back to the night when Jesus appeared to him in that vision and said, "I am with you and no one will be able to harm you." Not without irony, St Luke tells us about an incident in which some of the Jewish people tried to use the civic authorities against Paul, who is arrested and dragged into court. If that had been you or me, the first thing we might think is that Jesus was not keeping his word! But, as we see, it all turned out OK. Faith gets tested. Does that happen to you? Of course it does! Trusting Jesus, and hanging on, we shoudn’t fear. We keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, and trust his promise to provide for us – even when we are weeping and wailing on the inside. 

I think it is not impossible that St Paul was encouraged by the words of Psalm 126: 

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, 

we were like those who dream. 

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, 

and our tongue with singing. 

Then they said among the nations, 

“The Lord has done great things for them.” 

The Lord has done great things for us, 

and we are glad. 

Turn again our captivity, O Lord, 

as the streams in the South. 

Those who sow in tears 

shall reap in joy. 

He who goes forth weeping, 

bearing seed for sowing, 

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 

bringing his sheaves with him.

We CAN trust him

It's human nature to want everything to be "just perfect" – in spite of the fact that we all experience life as a combination of joy and pain. There are no exceptions. And the Bible goes out of its way to emphasise this mingling of joy and pain when talking about the first Christmas.

Mary has to tell Joseph that the child within her is not his. Think of trying to convince one’s betrothed that the pregnancy is due to nothing less than the power of God! (God himself had to help convince Joseph!)

The arduous journey to Bethlehem resulted in the birth of Jesus among animals in a cave.

The Holy Family trudged to Egypt as refugees, and stayed there for two years, until it was safe to go home.

The blood of all those slaughtered little boys two years old and younger ran in the streets of Bethlehem while their inconsolable parents wailed in grief.

For thirty years at Nazareth God in earthy human flesh loved, ate, spoke, slept and sweated, his hands bearing the calluses of weariness and work.

The joy of his coming is mingled with pain, for his journey to the cross overshadowed his birth and life. As it was the real world into which he came, the real world he set out to save, it could not be otherwise.

God the Father didn’t smooth out the pathway ahead of Jesus or those who were closest to him. Jesus suffered greatly; and the others shared in his suffering, his poverty, his labour and his pain. This was crucial to God’s way of saving the world. These things are, as we might say “the birth-pangs of the new age.”

Thank God that Christmastide is a time of joy, sharing, singing and praise; a time for exchanging gifts and greetings; a time even for rekindling faith, as treasured childhood memories and religious sentiments are revived by the trappings of the holy season. Let’s celebrate as sumptuously as we can. God would want that.

As long as we don’t forget that Christmas is also for those who find their faith journey a bit of a trudge: those in poverty; those who suffer pain at this time of the year because they have outlived their friends; or their families and other relationships have crumbled; or they are separated by great distance from loved ones; or they struggle with psychological illnesses; or they just - in all honesty - find it so hard to believe.

Gathering at the altar with the spirit-filled community is still the best way of entering into the joy of this season, because every Mass is ANOTHER CALVARY, where the “one perfect sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” is offered to the Father; and every Mass is ANOTHER BETHLEHEM where Jesus comes among us in as real a way as when he lay in the manger.

Whatever circumstances we face in our lives at this particular moment, we can trust the Lord. In leaping from the throne of glory via the Virgin’s fiat into this world which - for all of its beauty and wonder - we had turned into the gutter of the universe, he has already shown how much he loves us.

Dear reader, he is “the same, yesterday, today and forever,” and if you reach out to him today, you will know his love, his strength, and his healing power supporting and sustaining you . . . in your joy as well as in your pain.

Or, in the words of St Paul: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

HAPPY EASTER!

“It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

That little cliché got worked into a Gospel song many years ago (admittedly a bit corny by today’s standards!) performed by friends of mine, for which I, in my teens, provided the keyboard accompaniment. The thing about clichés and other proverbial sayings is that we’ll never stamp them out because in their own way they capture the paradoxes we know to be real, including the compulsive yearning and dreaming that is as much part of what it means to be human as the sense of hopelessness we sometimes endure.

Well, we need to remind ourselves that it IS always darkest before the dawn!

One of the most graphic images of this in the Gospels is when Jesus, the night before he died, spoke of the devastation his disciples were about to experience - of course, nothing like the suffering and pain of the cross, but nonetheless real to them. He said,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:20-21)

A woman’s extraordinary - and split second - transition from the anguish of labour to the joy of birth, is a great wonder. The Lord said that the pain to be suffered by the disciples would just as swiftly give way to joy, “and no one will take your joy from you.”

The last twelve months have been rough for many people who regularly read this blog ... floods, cyclones, bushfires, economic hardships, earthquakes and difficult insurance companies. (I must say, in the case of Queenslanders ... you’re a special people with a great capacity for resilience that I came to know for myself when I moved to Brisbane in 1995, and I salute you. That resilience and your courage has been on show to the whole world in recent times.)

But just as painful – and in some respects more so - has been the great and ongoing struggle for Anglican catholics to discern the Lord’s will in terms of “staying” or “going.” In England I know personally many priests and laypeople just barely hanging on who are in spiritual and emotional turmoil while they await the appointment of a new Bishop of Fulham and PEVs. (In Australia it’s a hundred times worse, because such episcopal ministry continues to be refused as a matter of principle.)

Also difficult to manage is the animosity that has developed between old friends. We need to remember, whatever decisions we feel in conscience we must make, that the Tiber is not a very wide river!

Maybe this year during Holy Week – and perhaps for a long time beforehand - we have entered into the sorrow of those disciples in a special way. To be honest, I know that is true for me. If it’s your experience, too, and even if outwardly things don’t seem to get much better for a while, you could do worse than pray through the following little bits that I have decided to share with you. They certainly encourage me.

Jesus is Lord; he is gloriously and triumphantly risen from the dead (though his body still bears the wounds he suffered). He shares his victory with us here and now as we journey through this life. His love is real, and his light scatters the darkness and gloom. We hang on, we press on, knowing that we are already "risen with Christ" and "sit with him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)." In fact, one interpretation of the Sursum Corda in the Mass is that when the priest sings "Lift up your hearts" and we reply "We lift them up to the Lord", what we are really saying is - in defiance of all that would drag us into the depths - "by the power of the Holy Spirit we hold our hearts up, we keep holding them up in the heavenly places, the real epi-centre of our worship where the victory of Jesus is already manifest."

It's all a matter of perspective.

Let's pray for a renewal of our perspective as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

With the assurance of my love and prayers, I say to everyone, especially family, friends and colleagues: “Happy Easter.”

"With you, Lord, I will flee,

that I may gain in you Life in every place.

The prison with you is no prison,

for in you man goes up into Heaven:

the grave with you is no grave,

for you are the Resurrection."

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

(The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: 2nd Series Vol. XIII; p. 236)

Easter says to us: have faith! Faith does not mean that we first try to see things in a coherent and intelligible shape and then conclude that God is true. Faith is more like when the women came to the tomb while it was still very dark, and they wondered who could move away the stone as it was very heavy: and look - the stone is gone!

When things are very dark, when human possibilities are exhausted, when we are at the end of our tether, God acts. Easter defines for all time the character of Christian faith: human weakness; divine power; I can't. God can; I am weak, God is strong; I am a sinner, God forgives. Does this sound fanciful?

lt was such a faith that enabled the aposties to carry the gospel into a hostile world. It was such a faith that sustained Christian men and women again and again throughout the centuries. lt is like a coin that is always on one side - frailty, penitence, death, and on the other side - power, forgiveness and life. Let the words of St John sound in our hearts today: 'This is the victory that overcomes the world - our faith' (1 John 5:4-5).

- Michael Ramsey

(Canterbury Pilgrim p 161)

The Eucharist sets you on the way of Christ.

It takes you into his redeeming death

and gives you a share

in the most radical deliverance possible.

And already the light of the resurrection,

the new creation,

is streaming through it from beyond.

Whenever you sit at table with the risen Lord,

it is the first day of the week,

very early in the morning.

- Rule for a New Brother

(Dutch Blessed Sacrament Fathers)

Alleluia!

This holy and blessed day is the first of the week,

the king and master of all days,

the feast of feasts and the season of seasons.

On this day we bless Christ forever and ever.

O faithful, come,

celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Christ.

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad.

Alleluia!

Now that we have seen the resurrection of the Christ,

Let us adore the all-holy Lord Jesus,

the only sinless One.

We bow in worship before your cross, O Christ.

We praise and glorify your resurrection

for you are our God and we have no other.

We magnify your name.

All your faithful come.

Let us adore the holy resurrection of the Christ.

Behold, through your cross joy has come to the world!

Let us always bless the Lord.

Let us sing his resurrection.

By enduring for us the pain of the cross,

He has crushed death by his death.

- Orthodox Liturgy