We
give glory to you, Lord, who raised up your cross to span the jaws of
death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the
dead to the land of the living. We give glory to you who put on the
body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every
other mortal man. You are incontestably alive. Your murderers sowed
your living body in the earth as farmers sow grain, but it sprang up
and yielded an abundant harvest of men raised from the dead.
Come
then, my brothers and sisters, let us offer our Lord the great and
all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of
hymns and prayers before him who offered his cross in sacrifice to
God for the enrichment of us all.
--
Saint Ephraem of Syria from a
homily
