στερέωσαν με, Χριστέ,

“On the rock of Thy commandments
Fix me firmly, lest I slide:
With the glory of Thy Presence
Cover me on every side;
Seeing none save Thee is holy,
God, forever glorified!”

New immortal out of mortal,
New existence out of old:
This the Cross of Christ accomplished,
This the Prophets had foretold:
So that we, thus newly quickened,
Might attain the heavenly fold.

Thou who comprehendest all things,
Comprehended by the tomb,
Gav’st Thy Body to the grave-clothes
And the silence and the gloom;
Till through fast-closed doors Thou camest
Thy Disciples to illume.

Every nail-print, every buffet.
Thou didst freely undergo.
As Thy Resurrection’s witness
To the Twelve Thou cam’st to show:
So that what they saw in vision.
Future years by faith might know.

-ST. JOHN DAMASCENE.