Oration

the Cherubic Hymn exhorts all from then on and until the end of the sacred service to keep their mind more attentive, casting off every worldly care, as they are about to receive the great King through the participation of His holy body. And when the chanters recite the same hymn together with the people, ^A it is signified that the angels also sing along in the highest.

21. The sacristy where the *proskomide* takes place represents the place of Calvary, as it was prefigured to Abraham when he prepared the wood, and placed it upon his son, and offered up the ram. The priest standing alone in the temple, while the Cherubic Hymn is being sung, represents the figure of the heavenly Father who receives the Son as He arrives. The fans, in the place of the Cherubim and Seraphim, are carried forward, and the scepters, and the swords as symbols of royalty. The archdeacon who bears the *omophorion* walks by, like the angels; for the grace of the old law vanishes when that of the new law has appeared. The deacons, like winged creatures in body, move forward after the manner of the Cherubim, who bear the Divinity resting upon the throne; the holy gifts are carried from the *prothesis* to the altar, to figure the earthly life of Christ from the manger to His tomb; and [it signifies] that God Himself also guided the Magi to see His saving advent in the flesh among us; the entrance of the Lord from Bethany into Jerusalem is also revealed.... The rest is missing.

THE ORATION OF SAINT SOPHRONIUS

^C Trinity, supersubstantial, superlatively good, transcendent, omnipotent, all-seeing, invisible, incomprehensible, Creator of intellectual substances and of rational natures, the innate goodness, the inaccessible light, illuminating every man coming into the world: shine also upon me, Thy unworthy servant, and illuminate the eyes of my mind, that I may dare to praise Thy immeasurable beneficence and power. May my prayer for the standing people be well-received, so that my transgressions may not hinder Thy Holy Spirit from arriving here. But grant me to cry out to Thee blamelessly and to say even now, superlatively good Lord, we praise Thee, Master, Lover of mankind, Pantocrator, King before time, we praise Thee—the Creator and Architect of all; we praise Thee who art without father from a mother, and without mother from a father. For in the preceding feast, we saw Thee as an infant; but in the present one, we behold Thee as perfect, ^D the perfect God of ours manifested to the world from the perfect [Father]. For today the season of the feast is with us, and the choir of saints assembles with us; and angels celebrate with men. For today the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, upon the waters ad-

- venit. ^A Oritur hodie Sol occasum nesciens, et Domini luce mundus perfunditur. Hodie luna lucidis radiis mundo effulget. Rutilantes hodie stellæ splendore lucis orbem illustrant. Hodie nubes imbribus justitiæ humanitatem cœlitus irrorant. Increatus hodie propriæ creaturæ manui sponte supponitur. Hodie propheta et Præcursor ad Dominum accedit: sed et tremore corripitur, cernens Dei erga nos condescensum. Hodie Jordanis fluenta in medicamenta, Domini præsentia convertuntur. Mysticis hodie fluentis omnis irrigatur natura. Hodie mortalium crimina Jordanis unda absterguntur. Hodie paradisus hominibus aperitur et Sol justitiæ nobis illucet. Hodie populo Mosaico, Domini præsentia, amara convertitur aqua. Hodie veteri luctu liberati, velut novus Israel salutem nacti sumus. Hodie tenebris exempti divina luce splendescimus. Hodie ^B Domini apparitione caligo mundi expurgatur. Omnis hodie creatura superne scintillat. Error hodie dissolvitur: et viam salutis Domini adventus operatur. Hodie superna cum inferis diem festum agunt: et infera cum supernis conversantur. Hodie sacer et sonorus fidelium conventus exsultat. Hodie Dominus ad baptismum contendit, ut in altum genus humanum attollat. Inflexus Dominus hodie proprio famulo inclinatur, ut nos servitutis jugo depressos erigat. Hodie cœlorum regnum comparavimus; regni enim Domini non erit finis. Terra et mare hodie sibi mundi gaudium diviserunt: et lætitia mundus repletus est. Viderunt te aquæ, Deus, viderunt te aquæ, et timuerunt. Jordanis conversus est ^C retrorsum, ignem Deitatis intuitus corporaliter descendentem, et in se subintrantem. Jordanis conversus est retrorsum, Spiritum sanctum contemplatus in columbæ forma demissum, et tibi circumvolitantem. Jordanis conversus est retrorsum, edoctus Deum invisibilem, visibilem factum: Creatorem incarnatum, Dominum in servi habitu demonstratum. Jordanis conversus est retrorsum, et montes exsultaverunt, Deum in carne cernentes. Vocem etiam dederunt nubes, admiratæ eum qui adveniret, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero. Dominicam celebritatem hodie in Jordane contemplamur: ipsum vero, transgressionis mortem, erroris stimulum, inferni nexum, in Jordane demergentem, et salutis lavacrum mundo elargientem. Unde et ^D ego peccator et indignus servus tuus magnalia miraculorum tuorum enarrans, timore correptus, in compunctione tibi exclamo, etc.