Rejoice! Rejoice!

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels! 

Exult, all creation around God's throne! 

Jesus Christ, our King, is risen! 

Sound the trumpet of salvation! 

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, 

radiant in the brightness of your King! 

Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! 

Darkness vanishes for ever! 

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!

The risen Savior shines upon you! 

Let this place resound with joy,

echoing the mighty song of all God's people! 

It is truly right

that with full hearts and minds and voices

we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful Father, 

and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood, 

and paid for us the price of Adam's sin 

to our eternal Father! 

This is our Passover feast,

when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,

whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers. 

This is the night when first you saved our fathers: 

you freed the people of Israel from their slavery 

and led them dry-shod through the sea. 

This is the night when the pillar of fire 

destroyed the darkness of sin! 

This is the night when Christians everywhere,

washed clean of sin

and freed from all defilement,

are restored to grace and grow together in holiness. 

This is the night when Jesus Christ 

broke the chains of death

and rose triumphant from the grave. 

What good would life have been to us,

had Christ not come as our Redeemer? 

Father, how wonderful your care for us! 

How boundless your merciful love! 

To ransom a slave 

you gave away your Son. 

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, 

which gained for us so great a Redeemer! 

Most blessed of all nights, chosen by God 

to see Christ rising from the dead! 

Of this night scripture says:

"The night will be as clear as day: 

it will become my light, my joy."

The power of this holy night

dispels all evil, washes guilt away,

restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;

it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride. 

Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth 

and man is reconciled with God! 

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this night, 

receive our evening sacrifice of praise, 

your Church's solemn offering. 

"It is Accomplished"

The Cross as the Cosmic Tree 

This Tree is my eternal salvation.

 It is my nourishment and my banquet. 

Amidst its roots I cast my own roots deep: 

beneath its boughs I grow and expand, 
reveling in its sigh as in the wind itself. 

 Flying from the burning heat,

 I have pitched my tent in its shadow, 

and have found a resting-place of dewy freshness. 

 I flower with its flowers; 

its fruits bring perfect joy - 

fruits which have been preserved for me since time's beginning, 

and which now I freely eat. 

This Tree is a food, 
sweet food, for my hunger, 
and a fountain for my thirst; 

it is a clothing for my nakedness; 
its leaves are the breath of life. 

Away with the fig-tree, from this time on! 

If I fear God, this is my protection; 

if I stumble, this is my support; 

it is the prize for which I fight and the reward of my victory. 

This is my straitened path, 
my narrow way; 

this is the stairway of Jacob, where angels pass up and down, 

and where the Lord in very truth standing at the head.

This Tree, 

vast as heaven itself, 

rises from earth to the skies, 

a plant immortal, 

set firm in the midst of heaven and earth, 

base of all that is, 

foundation of the universe, 

support of this world of men, 

 binding-force of all creation, 

holding within itself all the mysterious essence of man. 

 Secured with the unseen clamps of the spirit, 

so that, adjusted to the Divine, 

it may never bend or warp, 

with foot resting firm on earth 
it towers to the topmost skies, 

and spans with its all-embracing arms 
the boundless gulf of space between.

He was All, 
and in all, 

filling it with himself; 

stripped naked for battle against the powers of the air.

With him two thieves were extended, 

bearing within themselves the marks of those two peoples, 

the marks of those two types of mind. 

When this cosmic combat came to an end ... 

the heavens shook; 

almost, the stars fell from the skies;

the light of the sun was extinguished for a time; 

rocks were split asunder; 

the entire world was all but shattered ... 

But great Jesus breathed forth his divine Soul, 

saying: 
"Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit." 

 And lo, 
even while all things shuddered 
and heaved in earthquake, 

reeling for fear, 

his divine Soul ascended, 

giving life and strength to all; 

and again creation was still, 

as if this divine Crucifixion and Extension 
had everywhere unfolded and spread, 

penetrating all things, 

 through all, 
and in all.
0 Thou who art alone among the alone, 

and all in all! 

 Let the heavens hold thy Godhead; 

and paradise, thy soul; 

and earth, thy blood . 

For the Indivisible has become divided, 

so that all might be saved, 

 and the world below might not remain ignorant of the coming of God...

(Excerpt from Pseudo-Chrysostom)

The Passion of the Christ

St Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

"Francis, repair my church, which you see is falling down"