Beholding the Beauty

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) NOTE: All OT references taken from the Septuagint. Cf. Ps. 2:1 Ps. 73:13 Cf. Hab. 3:3 Cf. Matt. 27:57, 58; Mark 15:43 Cf. John 19:38, 39 John 5:8 John 1:9 Ps. 87:4 I.e., on the earth. The Greek, although being a play on "below," can also mean "formerly." Cf. Jonas 2:2. Ps. 129:1. Ps. 79:4. Ps. 79:2. Ps. 79:3. Ps. 78:8. Cf. Ps. 85:12. Cf. Ps. 29:3. Cf. Ps. 15:10. Jonas 2:6. I.e., subdued. Ps. 75:3. The Greek word also means "bow-string." Cf. Eph. 2:14. Cf. Matt. 26:53. Ps. 23:7. Ibid. Cf. Ps. 67:4,

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) As these things, therefore, and more than these were coming to pass, were proclaimed and made known, and all things were in an uproar, and the Master's presence was about to reach the very bottommost realm of the nethermost regions, then Adam, the first of men to be created, the first-fashioned and first-mortal, who lay in the innermost recesses bound with great security, heard the sound of the Master's feet as He came to the imprisoned, and he recognized His voice which sounded in the prison as He walked. Thereupon Adam turned towards all his fello

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) The God of tender mercies verily heard all these cries, and so Christ judged that it was not right that His love for man should only be shared with them that lived in His days and after Him, but that those also that before His coming had gone down to Hades and that sat in darkness and the shadow of death should be partakers of the same as well. Thus God the Word visited with body and soul men who were still in the flesh, but to the souls which were bereft of bodies He manifested Himself in Hades with His Divine and blameless soul, bereft of a body but not o

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) Whither does He go? Where comes His path, He Whom death cannot dominate? What is the reason [of these things]? What the means? What is the intent of His descent into Hades? Perhaps He descends so as to bring up Adam the condemned, our fellow servant? Verily, He goes to seek out Adam, the first-created, the lost sheep. It is certain that He wishes to visit those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death; it is certain that He goes to loose Adam the captive and his co-captive Eve from affliction, He that is both God and her Son. ¶ But let us descend

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) When these things Joseph spake to Pilate on this wise, Pilate commanded that the all-holy body of Jesus be given him. And he went to the place called Golgotha and took God in the flesh down from the Cross and laid Him on the earth, naked God in the flesh, Him that was not merely a man. Lo, He is beheld lying low Who drew all men on high. And He for a brief time is bereft of breath Who is the Life and Breath of all. He is seen bereft of eyes Who created the many-eyed beings. He lies prostrate Who is the resurrection of all. And God is slain in the flesh

( Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981  © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) But as to how Christ, our Life, was placed in the tomb, and when, and by whom, let us listen to the sacred words. ¶ "When even was come," he says, "there came a rich man of Arimathaea named Joseph, and went boldly unto Pilate and begged from him the body of Jesus." 4  A mortal went in before a mortal, asking to receive God; the God of mortals he begs; clay stands before clay so as to receive the Fashioner of all! Grass asks to receive from grass the Heavenly Fire; the miserable drop seeks to receive from a drop the whole Abyss! W

( Part 1 ,  Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved.) And these things, where did they take place? In Sion, the city of the great King, where He "wrought salvation in the midst of the earth." 2  In the midst of two living beings was Jesus, the Child of God, known, 3  in the midst of the Father and the Spirit, two living Beings; Life from Life, he says, known as a living Being, and in the midst of angels and men He was born in a manger. In the midst of of two peoples He lies as the Cornerstone; in the midst of the Law and the prophets He is preached; in the midst of Moses and Elias He is seen upo

( Part 2 , Part 3 ,  Part 4 ,  Part 5 ,  Part 6 ,  Part 7 ,  Part 8 ) (Note: This sermon reproduced from it's translation as found on page 33 of "The Lamentations of Matins of Holy and Great Saturday", translated from the Greek and published by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery,  Boston, Massachusetts , 1981 © Copyright  Holy Transfiguration Monastery ,  Brookline, MA , used by permission. All rights reserved. Note 2: These are originally posted by me, with permission, on my blog at theologica.ning.com, under the username steve95054.  However, as that site is in danger of being has been taken down, I am reproducing them here, under the assumption that the permission granted was to me, for my blog, wherever that is.  If the copyright holders did not intend this, and do not grant the permission for me to post these here, they may contact me via the comments for this post, which I moderate and will see.) (Note 2: I have added some paragraph breaks here also, si