Sermones

Sermons of Saint Eleutherius. A Sermon, or Confession on the Holy Trinity. Most beloved, confessing the Lord of all, Christ Jesus, and venerating the Holy Trinity in unity, be subject to Him alone, fear the immortal God, to whom is honor throughout eternal ages. The Holy Trinity is God, one God, since the Father is the begetter of the living Word, the perfect begetter of the perfect one, who had no beginning from anything, nor will be contained by any end. For He who is by reason the unbegotten Father of the only-begotten Son would have his being from another, who both was and is. But the only Son of God willed to be born from the one Father God, who is the wisdom of the Father, through whom all things that exist, that flourish, that have flourished, that will be born, that will perish, were created. The true Son from the true Father, eternal from the eternal, immortal from the immortal, incorruptible from the incorruptible, invisible from the invisible, and one Holy Spirit, in whom remains the perfect life of believers, in whom are sanctity and the source of sanctity and the minister of true edification: through whom God is in all believers and over all, and the Son, who is through all. But although the Father has his being from no one, and the Son obtains his origin from Him, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, yet these are not three gods, but one true God, whose Trinity is to be venerated in persons, whose unity is to be adored in substance. The perfect Trinity is glory, the eternal kingdom, the perennial and undivided kingdom.

For never was the Son lacking to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son. The Father is equal to the only-begotten Son; the Son is equal to the unbegotten Father according to the power of the divinity, but lesser in the assumption of our humanity. The Holy Spirit also is not less than the Father and the Son, but coeternal, the comforter of the grieving, the strength of the weak, sevenfold, everlasting, and the most subtle bestower of grace. The true Son is the true image of the paternal light, and the true splendor of inner brightness, desiring that all men should come to the knowledge of his name, for the sake of their salvation and the washing away of sins, he descended from the heavens to the earth. He was incarnate, he was made man, he suffered, then he was made obedient unto death. Concerning whose obedience the apostle Paul bears witness, saying: When the Son of God was, he learned obedience from those things which he suffered; and perfected, he became for all who obey him the cause of eternal salvation, called a high priest by God according to the order of Melchizedek. The same Christ also on the third day rose from the dead, then ascended into the heavens, whence he had descended, and led our captivity captive by his wondrous power. Therefore all catholic servants of me believing, let them believe that he will come from there, and will judge the dead and the living. Those who assert that Christ is convertible or changeable, the holy and catholic Church ought to anathematize.

Therefore, having been made man, that is, taking on flesh from the holy Virgin Mary, although He was made in the assumption of flesh and blood, nevertheless He persisted in what He was, namely God by nature and truth. Do not say that the flesh was converted into the nature of the divinity, nor that the inseparable essence of the Word of God was changed into the substance of flesh. For the Lord Almighty, who is blessed unto the ages of ages, remains inseparable, unchangeable, and unconvertible, the same according to the Scriptures. He cannot be greater; He cannot be lesser; He is not bounded by magnitude, nor comprehended by time. For what is celestial or divine is known without quantity and without mass, and is contained by no limits. Confess the Word of God according to subsistence; adore the one Son and our Lord Jesus Christ, not separately, nor place God and man apart, as if joined to each other by a unity of dignity and authority. Do not specially name Christ the Word of God, which is from God, nor another Christ specially who was born of a woman. Rather, recognize, venerate, and adore only one Christ, the Word of God the Father, with His own flesh. For there is one Christ, Son and God, not as if any kind of conjunction were held in a unity of dignity and authority of man and God. Can nature unite by equality of dignity alone? Far from it.

For the shepherd of the Lord’s flock, Peter, and the chosen virgin, John the Evangelist and Apostle, are of equal dignity with one another; for this reason they are called disciples of Christ and suitable witnesses of the truth. Yet each of them is not one. Therefore, my dearest little children, do not assert that Christ, the Word of God the Father, is God or Lord, lest again you more openly divide the one Christ and Lord into two and fall into the crime of sacrilege. Making themselves God and Lord. Indeed, as we have said, the Word of God is united to flesh according to subsistence. God is indeed the ruler of all, the creator of the universe of all things, and the redeemer of men by His most precious blood. But he who divides into two Christs the one who is one evidently denies the unity: that man is an apostate, and truly wretched, truly to be subjected to perpetual torment. The devil and his angels rise up to seize him, evil spirits rush to receive his soul: innumerable torments are prepared for him, and the evils he did in his life are set before his eyes. Therefore, lest you come to these terrible places, confess that one Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is understood, to be venerated with a single worship together with His own flesh. Confess with a pure mind, praise with a perfect heart, glorify with a kind mouth, the only-begotten Son God, who was born from God the Father.

Although by his own nature he was without experience of suffering, yet for us, according to the Scriptures, he suffered in the flesh; and in his crucified body, he impassibly referred the passion of his own flesh to himself. But by the grace of God, he tasted death for all men, also surrendering his own body, although he is naturally himself life and the resurrection of the dead. For in order to trample death by his ineffable power, his admirable virtue, and his inestimable magnificence, and to become first the firstborn from the dead in his own flesh, and the first fruits of those who sleep, and to make a way for human nature to the refuge of incorruption, the grace of God, as has been said, tasted death for all, and rising on the third day, despoiled the most savage jaws of hell. And therefore, although it is said that the resurrection of the dead was accomplished through a man, you must understand that the man was made, the Word which is from God, and that through him the dominion of death was destroyed. But as Scripture attests, in the last times one Son and Lord will come in the glory of the Father, to judge the world in equity. It is also necessary that you believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, his nativity, circumcision, epiphany, Gospels, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. For this is the right faith. But since the virgin conceived God united with flesh according to subsistence,

A virgin gave birth; therefore, profess her to be the mother of Christ: not because the nature of the Word took its beginning of existence from the flesh. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and He Himself is the creator of the ages, the Father of the universe. There are indeed three who give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; these three are one. Therefore, confess the one creator of all in substance, the Trinity in persons, that you may merit to attain to heavenly joys, where the merits of the saints flourish, whose joy and exultation will not cease unto eternity, with our Lord Jesus Christ reigning with the coeternal Father, with the cooperating grace of the Holy Spirit, to whom be praise and dominion, through all ages of ages. Amen. THE PASSING OF SAINT ELEUTHERIUS, BISHOP. In those times, while the blessed Eleutherius, second bishop of the church of Tournai, presided, a great dispute arose among the clerics of Tournai. For certain heretics put forward some novelties of their own heresy, and attempted to destroy the preaching of the truth, daring to corrupt the mystery of the divine dispensation and denying that the heavenly messenger had announced the virgin birth. Other heretics, however, introducing confusion and wickedly composing one nature of flesh and divinity, spread abroad that by such confusion the divine nature of the Only-begotten was passible, and impudently asserted that He who was born of the most blessed Virgin Mary was a mere man.

Others, however, opposed the Holy Spirit. But others, devoted to God and serving, believed the truth, not obeying falsehood. So great was the contention among them that even heretics invaded the Catholic sons of the Church of Tournai and drowned many, cut down, in the river called the Scheldt. At the same time, the blessed bishop of the Church of Tournai had gone to Rome and had brought back with him the head of Mary of Egypt. For he secretly received it from the Roman Church of the blessed apostle Peter and conveyed it to the Church of the Mother of Christ, Mary. In this way, therefore, the man of God, having been sent from Rome, is received with great exultation by the whole people. The clergy rejoice, and, clothed in dalmatics, go forth to meet their blessed pastor, but unexpectedly the joy of all is doubled. For the pontiff himself was bringing the relics of blessed Mary, who endured so many and such great evils. But when he entered the Nervian Gate, a great miracle was manifested by God in that same place. As the rejoicing peoples and likewise the ranks of the clergy came forth, the blessed bishop, wearing a pallium, ascending the mountain which was called the Mount of the Hidden Treasure—now, however, it is called Mount Saint Andrew—showed the relics of Saint Mary of Egypt and the shoulder of the blessed protomartyr Stephen to all the people. Suddenly, a certain brightness coming from heaven appeared around the relics of the head of Saint Mary, which was also seen by all until it entered the Church of the Mother of Christ.

On the shoulder of the blessed Stephen, however, a brighter clarity in the form of a circle, as if of silver, was seen. But when the church, surrounded by a crowd of the whole people, entered, four men and two women were in danger from a great infirmity, which is called the fire of Gehenna. Then the man of God, piously moved, placed his head before the women, but his shoulder before the men, saying: Let us all pray. And as they were prostrating themselves and praying, he said: Holy Stephen, protomartyr, help these men; Holy Mary, have mercy on this female sex. For indeed we shall not rise from prayer until they are made well. At this word, all were freed. Moreover, the flesh which they had lost in that infirmity was restored in that same hour. A mute also, standing by, spoke, saying: Behold the relics of the blessed Stephen and of holy Mary. Then all, stupefied, marveled. In those times, the relics of saints were not placed in gold or silver. These things were done on the nones of October. For the blessed Eleutherius had already ruled the church of Tournai for thirty-one years, and the new church of Blandain. And he, hearing that the sons of the Church were disturbed, grieved. Then, by the authority of the Roman pope, he decreed that all heretics should be cast out from that city, so that they might unanimously confess Christ as the Son of God the Father. Therefore, compelled by the bishop, they chose a suitable day on which the bishop of Christ, Eleutherius, would convoke his synod.

The day arrived on which the synod had been convoked; the catholic children also arrived, confounding the sect of the heretics; and some of the heretics were present, contradicting them. But the holy man of God, Eleutherius, rising and making silence with his hand, said: "Hear, all of you who confess the Lord the Father and His Son, together with the Holy Spirit." Sermon on the Trinity. Believe in one God, the Father almighty, and in His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was born from God the Father as the only-begotten Son, immense from the immense, immortal from the immortal, invisible from the invisible, eternal from the eternal, through whom and with whom the Father made everything that is contained in heaven, or on earth, or in the sea. Therefore I exhort you, most beloved, believe that our Lord Jesus Christ descended from the heavens for the salvation of men and the liberation of the world, was incarnate, and suffered as a man under the governor Pilate. Moreover, that on the third day he rose from the dead, and again ascended into the heavens, whence he had descended. These decrees, my dearest children, you must hold and observe. You must devoutly obey these, if you wish to merit the joys of heaven. Obey these dogmas and decrees of the ancient Fathers, considering and most clearly perceiving what it is for the Word of God to be incarnate and to become man.

You ought not to assert that the nature of God has been changed, but rather that He united to Himself a rational soul and animated flesh, and that Christ the Son of God irreprehensibly, ineffably, and substantially became man, and was also called the son of man. Thus Christ Jesus, who before all ages was born from the eternal Father, was also carnally begotten from a woman, that is, from the blessed Virgin Mary—not because His heavenly nature took its beginning from the holy Virgin, nor because He Himself had need to be born a second time after that glorious nativity which He had from the Father. For it is not fitting, but rather foolish, to affirm that our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all ages is coeternal with the Father, after the generation from the Father sought another generation, so that through that which He assumed in the Virgin He might begin to exist. But the holy catholic universal Church affirms and believes that for the salvation of men and the washing away of sins He united human nature to Himself, and came forth from the virginal womb, an undefiled womb, but one most worthily preserved by the heavenly angels. Therefore the catholic Fathers assert, and we by the authority of our predecessors, that He was carnally born. He, kind and merciful, wishing to turn all to the path of divinity, joined flesh to Himself from that virginal and uncontaminated womb, as was said above, and underwent a carnal generation, making the nativity of His own flesh His own.

Next, believe that He was crucified and rose from the dead on the third day: not because God the Word in His own nature was beaten with fists under the governor Pilate, then affixed to the gibbet of the cross, or because He endured for us the piercings of lances and nails and so many wounds (for God is incorporeal and beyond passion), but because that body, which became His own, endured these things for us. All these things are said to have been suffered by Him for all men for the redemption of sins. For in that body which suffered, God was present, who could in no way suffer. Likewise, you ought to understand His death. For the life-giving Word of God is by nature incorruptible and immortal. But because, by the grace of God, His own body, according to the opinion of the teacher of the Gentiles, Paul, tasted death, therefore God is said to have suffered death for us, not because He Himself experienced death as far as His own nature is concerned (for it would not be fitting, but absurd to assert this), but because, as we said above, His true flesh tasted death. Thus, with His flesh rising again, assert the resurrection, not because He fell into corruption, but because the same body rose again.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, I beseech your fraternity to venerate the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, with devotion, to adore Him with a kind heart, to praise Him with a pure mind, to confess Him with tearful sighs, not glorifying Him as a man in word, lest you introduce some form of division, but honor one and the same: for His body (with which He Himself also sits at the right hand of the Father) is not alien from the Word. Nor should you contend as if two sons were sitting, but one with flesh through unity. Moreover, your faith must believe that Christ our Lord became the mediator between God and men, and the reconciler for peace with God the Father on our behalf, offering Himself as a sweet fragrance. For thus He said through the prophet: "You have desired neither sacrifice nor offering; holocausts for sin have not pleased you, but you have perfected a body for me. It is written on my head that I should do your will, O God." For He did not offer His own body for its own sake, but for us as a sweet fragrance. My brothers, who among you would still doubt that the true and spotless lamb was sacrificed for the salvation of the human race, and crucified by the impious Jews?

It is He who redeemed us by the wondrous virtue and ineffable power of His divinity, who conquered the rebellious and proud Jews, and who despoiled the very confines of hell, leading forth the captive from their bonds, releasing the imprisoned from the places of darkness, crying out and saying: "O good triumphator of the age, O valiant vanquisher of diabolical deceit, our lamentations, most merciful Jesus, awaited Thee in these torments of punishment; Thy sighs, O compassionate Christ, cried out for the weeping in the shadowy places. Behold, Thou hast come, whom we have awaited from ancient times. Free us, whom, placed upon the earth, we once devoutly venerated." It is He who, after the destruction of the devil and the liberation of the saints crying out from the darkness, rose on the third day, and ascending into the heavenly kingdom, sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is the Son of Mary, who conceived as a virgin from the Holy Spirit, who in inviolate virginity gave birth to God and man, who also after childbirth remained a Virgin and Mother of the Savior. He offered Himself, as was said above, as an immaculate sacrifice, a sacrifice pleasing to God the Father. But if anyone should say that He offered the sacrifice to God as much for Himself as for us, he will not escape the ultimate punishment, but will give eternal penalties in destruction with the impious.

Concerning the Holy Spirit also, He said to His disciples: "He will glorify me." This, sons, you will understand: one Christ and Son, not as one in need of another's glory, but you will acknowledge the glory obtained from the Holy Spirit. He is not superior to me, nor better than Himself; and indeed in His own substance His Spirit exists, and the property of person is bound, according to what is His rite, and the Son, yet He is not alien from Him. For He is called the Spirit of truth, and truth is His. Therefore, from the Son likewise, as from the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds. For the Holy Spirit, working miracles through the hands of the holy apostles, glorified God Jesus Christ, after He ascended into heaven (whence He had descended for the liberation of our souls) through His glorious resurrection. Hence, by us and by certain catholic men, Christ is believed to be God by nature, demonstrating virtues and glorious miracles through His Spirit to the peoples scattered throughout the whole world. Hence our Lord Jesus Christ said: "He will receive from me, and will announce to you." But by no means is the same Holy Spirit said to be powerful or wise by participation of another, because He is perfect through all things and in all things, and in need of no good whatsoever. For the Holy Spirit is believed to be of the paternal virtue and celestial wisdom, that is, of the Son, and therefore, by the very thing and subsisting virtue, He is proven to be virtue and wisdom.

Dearly beloved brothers, this is the right faith, to be held by all catholic men, in which unless each one believes firmly and rightly, he will not be able to be freed from the company of the devil. Confess one in substance, three in persons, so that you may merit to reach the heavenly kingdom and rejoice perpetually in eternal goods; where the angels rejoice, the apostles are gladdened, the glorious multitude of martyrs exults, the throng of confessors and virgins applauds, whom the Redeemer of the world crowns with an everlasting laurel, who lives and reigns as God, omnipotent, invisible, eternal, incorruptible, to whom belong honor, praise, glory and dominion, unfailing power, unfading majesty, perpetual glory and ineffable virtue, with the Father and the Holy Spirit through all the ages of ages. Amen. But if anyone has contradicted these decrees by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let him be anathema. Having said these things, the blessed pontiff Eleutherius sat down. But the catholic men who had been summoned to the holy synod, raising their voice with joy, glorified God, saying: We venerate and worship the Trinity in unity, we profess unity in substance, and we devoutly adore; on the contrary, let the heretics be confounded, then they depart from the sacred synod confounded. But as the synod returned to its own, the holy Eleutherius likewise returned to his court, which was contained in a town, with the catholic men, being now seventy-one years of age.

Meanwhile, for five years the church of Tournai, over which the most invincible priest presided, was elevated by catholic men. In the meantime, however, the party of the heretics was confounded. What were they to do? They held a council, inquired what was to be done about him, and said: "If he prevails among us, our way of life will be despised; but if we prevail, we shall have achieved the glory of victory." As they were thus conversing one day, behold, the blessed pontiff, together with the deacon Athanasius and the faithful disciple Audocnus, was coming out of the church of blessed Mary of Tournai; seeing him, the heretics, lurking around a corner (for they were plotting against him in many ways), said: "Behold the destroyer of our law, come, let us kill him." Therefore, having raised clubs, they struck him severely, and having left him half-dead before the church, after inflicting wounds, they secretly departed. The disciples likewise, having abandoned their shepherd, fled. Hearing this, Censorinus Caesar would have affixed them all to the gibbet of the cross, had not the prayer of the man of God prevailed. A tumult of the people arose throughout the city: young men shouted, matrons mourned, and virgins were sprinkled with ashes; old men vied to see the half-dead prelate. He himself lay lifeless, and blood flowed from his holy head and from both sides. Then, on a bed of goat-hair prepared at his own request by the citizens of the city, he was carried into his own house. He lived for five weeks thereafter, and during that same illness he gave sight to a blind man and cured several sick persons.

Therefore, the end of the most blessed Eleutherius’s days drew near; he summoned his brothers and the cultivators of the true religion, and openly received the body and blood of Christ, predicting that he would depart from the bodily prison in the same week. What were they to do? They saw their father preparing for heavenly things, and they thought he was already abandoning the Christians, whom he himself gently addressed, saying: “About to enter the end of all flesh, about to receive the eternal joys promised to me by the Lord, I exhort you, dearest ones: flee hatred, sow concord, shatter schisms, equal virtue, suffer temporal evils for the sake of your judge, so that you may merit to offer Christ the worthy fruit of penance. For every man is hay, and his flesh like the stubble of the field. In the morning it flourishes green, in the evening it withers, falls, and becomes worthless. Be patient, remain chaste, fear the Lord, persevere in all good things. For you have heard David saying: ‘Man has been made like vanity.’ Therefore, we are rotten; at the judgment we shall rise again before the tribunal of Christ; as Scripture testifies, we shall all stand there.” With these words spoken, such a brightness shone upon the town where he was born that all who had come to the funeral of such a father, as if in an ecstasy of mind, saw his spirit being lifted up by an angel in a cloud, and with the brightness of the cloud penetrating the heavens, and the brightness flying with him, it appeared no more. Thus, bathed in a wave of sacred blood, the true martyr and confessor departed in peace.

On the day before the Kalends of July. These things were done by the heretics on the seventh day before the Kalends of June, and in that same year the blessed Eleutherius fell asleep in peace, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor and power through all the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON ON THE INCARNATION OF THE LORD. Paternal authority exhorts fraternal charity to believe, and gently demands that it cease from evils. We cry out, no mortal hears. We invoke Christ, Christ in heaven hears. Yet let the unfaithful hear faithfully, the unwise understand wisely. We believe in God the Father almighty, creator of the visible and the invisible. We adore Christ, the perfect son of the perfect one. We venerate the Paraclete, the Spirit proceeding from both. Just as the Father is without beginning, so also the Son, whose Father is God, remains without beginning. The only-begotten, descending from the unbegotten, was always God, who always remained the Son, whose Father we confess to be God. Before the world was made, the Father had the Word, he possessed wisdom, and he did not lose power. The Word, the Catholic Fathers declare, is the strength of God, the wisdom of God, which we do not doubt always existed. But that we may more certainly believe that wisdom itself existed from the beginning, let us hear what it openly says: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High. For when the Most High established the firmament, made the earth firm, and the fountain of water burst forth from the depth of the abyss, I was in the highest with the Father, arranging all things with him.

And again it is said: All wisdom is from the Lord God, and was always with Him, and is before time. So that even the Father Himself might show that the Word was from the beginning, He declares more plainly, saying: My heart has belched forth a good Word (Ps. 44:1). We believe that He is so much God that the Father always remains; because the Word, Wisdom, and Strength of Him is the Son. Indeed, concerning the birth from the Virgin Mary, the prophets have proclaimed. For concerning the nativity of Christ, the prophet Isaiah bears witness, saying: Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb, and will bear a son, and he will be called the counselor of the mighty God; whose power and dominion will remain forever (Isa. 9:7). Therefore, the only-begotten of the unbegotten Father, Christ, was born according to the flesh from the seed of David, made a visible man, whose Father is the invisible God. It was indeed necessary for the human race that the one whom the Father had begotten invisible from the beginning, a virgin would conceive, a virgin would produce him visible to us, and a virgin would remain after childbirth, and that He would be in God (or from God; Christ, begotten before all ages without female intercourse from the heavenly Father: and a perfect man would be born from the virginal womb, without a carnal father. For the Holy Spirit, entering the virginal hall of chastity, caused such a Christ, made man from her, to proceed, who would restore what was lost, and would remit the sins of all, who innocent, innocent blood.

his blood for the redemption of human frailty, and through a visible man the invisible God presented His only-begotten Son, visible to men. Thus Jesus Christ was born in the flesh and was circumcised on the eighth day. In the circumcision of His flesh, just as circumcision brought an end, so through the baptism of Christ the consecration of baptism had its beginning. For the water of the Jordan did not sanctify Him by washing, but He purified those same waters by entering them as the Son of God. Therefore, as the Father had foretold through His prophets, the virgin conceived, and the creature brought forth her Creator to the earth. That He rose on the third day after His passion and ascended into heaven, with the apostles witnessing, is attested. Concerning His glorious passion, the apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, says: “Who, though He was in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man: He humbled Himself, obedient unto death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2). Therefore, we, thinking thus about God, do not say that He who was born of the Virgin Mary is a mere man, nor do we preach separately one son of man and another Son of God, nor do we make one person of the flesh and another of the Godhead, but in the Word of God and in the flesh we profess and believe one Christ, and we testify and worship Him as the only-begotten Son by nature.

We also openly declare that the Word of God likewise had a beginning of flesh and blood, and specially made our body His own, and proceeded as a perfect man from the virgin, yet without casting aside the celestial Deity, so as to lose that generation which He had from the eternal Father. This, indeed, the reason of the Catholic faith attests. In this religion we have learned that the holy Fathers, and the elect soldiers of God, and true champions, believed truly that the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ was a virgin: not because the Deity and nature of the Word received a beginning in her, but because that most sacred body of Christ, animated by a rational soul, was born from the immaculate womb of the same virgin, to which body the Word of God, substantially united, we know was born carnally. Hence the apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says of him: "For they themselves announce concerning you, what kind of entrance we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from the heavens, whom He raised up, Jesus, who delivered us from the coming wrath." We, therefore, as worshippers of this holy faith and followers of the Christian law, profess that the Word of God is united to flesh according to substance, and that one Christ, God and the same man, is to be adored with His own flesh.

We testify with the heart, we declare with pure mind, we confess with modest mouth, that the Son of God was crucified in the flesh, suffered death in the flesh, and became the firstborn from the dead, according to which in Him the perfect life of believers endures, who as God is the giver of life to all the faithful. These things, most beloved, I write so that the peace and concord of the Churches may be preserved, and the indissoluble bond of charity may remain, and the gifts of divine bounty may not be diminished. We venerate and believe the Trinity in unity, and that the Father and Son were from the beginning in such a way that we confess and worship the Paraclete proceeding from both, not three gods, but only one God: to whom we faithfully pay what is due, so that the Lord and our Redeemer, who works such wonderful miracles in His servants, may not disdain to remit our sins, and we shall see greater things than these, with the help of Him whose majesty and beauty, unfading glory, power and inestimable honor endure for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON ON THE BIRTH OF THE LORD. Behold now the acceptable time, behold now the day of salvation. Behold in these days we see fulfilled what is spoken by the voice of the prophet Isaiah: Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel. Behold, a virgin conceived without male seed, a virgin gave birth without any assault of the flesh. For by the nativity of this same son the joy of the human people is increased; by whose birth the enemy of our substance is confounded with grief. For that adversary of ours, who rose at dawn like Lucifer, who in the paradise of God delighted in the foods of delights, fell from heaven and deserved to hear: If you have been exalted like an eagle, you will be shamefully dragged down from there by the Lord. Indeed, that enemy of human substance, who had said he was like the Most High, having slipped through pride, roaring like a lion, seeks whom he may devour. He does not seek an unfaithful man, not an angry man, not those who are outside, but he seeks a humble, modest, reasonable man, or he strives to cast down someone from the Church of Christ. This envious one cast man, expelled from the paradise of God, into this misery and valley of tears, and wished to remove the blessed Job far from God, but could not. For to that immaculate and simple man it is said: His strength is in his loins, and his power in his navel. Therefore, through the disobedience of the first man, death and misery entered the world; through the birth of the second man, salvation and joy entered.

The star gave birth to the sun: the Virgin gave birth to God the man without a man; the rod brought forth a flower. If Mary had not remained a virgin, she would certainly not have given birth to the Son of God. How praiseworthy is virginity! The most blessed Isaiah says: A virgin came forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower from her root shall ascend (Isaiah 11:1). The Virgin is the mother of Christ, simple, humble and immaculate, with no external seed adhering, and fruitful in union to the image of God. It was indeed necessary for men that a virgin should conceive the Son of God, troublesome to Satan, but fruitful for us. Concerning that flower which the rod of Jesse brought forth, it is written: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys. If virginity were not beneficial to the virgin, the prophet would not have signified that a Virgin would be born of a Virgin. Yet widowed continence is good, but virginal chastity is better. However, the law of Moses was given differently. For it is written: Blessed is he who sows seed in Zion. And: Cursed is the barren woman who does not give birth. And elsewhere: There was no weak one among their tribes. But in the law of our Lord Jesus Christ it is said: Rejoice, barren woman: do not consider yourself a dry tree. You will have a place for your sons and daughters in eternity. Now even hell is made stronger, as the Apostle testifies, who says: I will gladly glory in my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, because Christ was born from the eternal Father before all ages, it was an ineffable sacrament of divine power.

But when He appeared to us visible from a virgin, as a man, He existed for the grace of human salvation. Death entered the world through Eve; lost life, however, is restored through Mary. After the Virgin conceived Him in her womb, the Virgin gave birth to the light that illuminates every man coming into this world: whose principality is upon His shoulder, who is the strong God, the father of the future age (Isaiah 9:7). The curse pronounced against the whole human race was dissolved. But who could estimate the secret of this divine plan, that the Virgin would receive in her womb, that the Virgin would give birth to God, begotten without a mother by the Father before all things, and that the invisible God would appear through a visible man, and, undergoing death by the condition of human mortality, conceived by no law of bodily generation, would come forth from the original womb under the law of humanity, and the same Mother would remain an incorrupt virgin? Thus Christ, born without a mother before the ages from an invisible father, and necessary not for Himself but for the human race, is born a second time without a carnal father from a visible mother. And because we were in peril through the disobedience of the first woman, it was necessary that we be saved through a woman. Let the human race rejoice, for Christ is born, and wrapped in humble swaddling clothes, He is placed in the manger of animals. Indeed, the lowliness of the swaddling clothes is a great and ineffable sacrament.

That lowliness of the swaddling clothes is adored by the Magi, and to the boy himself lying in the manger and reigning over the angelic creation, gold, frankincense, and myrrh are offered. Gold befits a king, the offering of frankincense a high priest, myrrh the burial of the dead. Gold indeed signifies that the Son of God, born of a Virgin, already reigns on earth. Frankincense, however, that the high priest offers himself as a sacrifice to the heavenly Father for us. Myrrh, that the same Virgin’s Son is buried and rises again for the salvation of the human race. The swaddling clothes, therefore, with which the Virgin mother binds the infant, we know to be our sins, as the prophet says: Truly He took our infirmities and Himself bore our sins. Through these lowly swaddling clothes it is manifest that He Himself took upon Himself our offenses. But that He is placed between two animals is an inestimable mystery of God. Behold, what is spoken by the voice of the prophet Habakkuk is fulfilled: Lord, I have heard Your report and I feared; I have considered Your works and I was amazed: between two animals. Well, then, is the Son of Man placed between animals. For He is the life of men, the pasture of angels, and the fodder of beasts. It was fitting, therefore, that He who was the living bread should be placed, crying in the manger, between two animals. For He it is who says: I am the living bread, who descended from heaven. He is the pure Lamb, whose undefiled body, after it has been handled by the priest and eaten by all the faithful people, remains unharmed and unconsumed.

After this, therefore, when what the prophets had foretold and the patriarchs had proclaimed concerning the Virgin’s childbirth was fulfilled, and all things that had to be accomplished through the angel Gabriel concerning Christ were completed, it was fitting that a new man, proceeding pure from a man, a virgin born from a virgin, should acquire for himself a new family: so that he who was adored in heaven by angels might also establish angels for himself on earth. Then he wished to be baptized by John, a king by a soldier, the Lord by a servant. Not because he had committed any crimes, but so that our sins might be blotted out through his baptism. For the water did not cleanse him, but he blessed it by his entry, he who baptizes in Spirit and truth. Then, proclaiming the word of life and truth to the people, he has some as disciples, others as evangelists. For the twin brothers, that is James and John, having left their father Zebedee and their boat, following the Savior, set aside the care of their family and the affection of blood, abandoning them with one mind. After this, many other disciples, to whom it was said by the Lord Jesus: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” For thus divine Scripture contains. No soldier goes to battle with a wife. If anyone wishes to follow the footsteps of the Redeemer, let him leave everything behind, nor look back, as Lot’s wife did: for no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

If anyone, moreover, wishes to redeem his soul from the deceit of the enemy, let him feed the poor, pursue hospitality, and cover the naked or those with scanty clothing. When Christ wished to ascend from the earth to the heavens, to pass from the underworld to the higher realms, as he had long before foretold to his disciples, he underwent death, to free the dead from sin. He preached, to show us the way of salvation. He rose again, to make the living live. Following whose footsteps, dearest ones, let us not please ourselves, but God and our neighbor. For thus Jesus, when he proclaimed peace to the people, said to the disciples: I have not come to do my own will, but that of him who sent me. For when the Son of Man was fulfilling the will of God, the Jews said that he was sinning against God, they who, by not receiving the Son whom he had sent, rather reproached the Father, and therefore they affixed the Son of God, who had committed no wrong, to the gibbet of the cross without cause. Thus the sins of the sinners fell upon Christ, who, found innocent, was killed as though a blasphemer. Then the victorious Lord Jesus, stripping the places of darkness, rose on the third day, and happily ascended into the heavens from which he had descended. But how did the humanity ascend, except because the divinity first descended into the lower parts of the earth, so that it might be united with human nature? For the celestial divinity descended, so that the humanity of the Redeemer might ascend. He is one and the same person. For he was always in the Father, always with the Father, always was with the Father.

After the ascension of his humanity, he also sent the Holy Spirit, appearing in fiery tongues, to the disciples. Indeed, the Spirit is the power of the Son, which went forth from him and healed all. Yet it is said to proceed from the Father, and is customarily referred to him: from whom both he himself is, and what is his. For Christ himself bears witness, saying: “My teaching is not mine, but that of him who sent me.” For the Son has from the Father that he is God. For he is God from God. From him he has that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. Therefore, dearest brothers, let us frequent the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ with due veneration. Let us flee pride, lest we be overwhelmed into hell, like the evil angels. For by pride man is puffed up, by avarice he is shaken, by ambition he is delighted. Do not glory in worldly riches; do not prefer yourselves to others, lest evil thought steal in; and may it please you, who now covet gilded garments, to sit in squalor henceforth, so that you also may please Christ: to whom, together with the invisible Father, honor is given through all ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon on the Feast of the Annunciation. Concerning the threefold solemnity of the most blessed Virgin Mary, dearest brothers, in which the angel announces, the Virgin conceives, and the only-begotten Son of the unbegotten Father is clothed in flesh, a few things are to be said, although the one who announces is worthy of manifold praise, the one who conceives through the ear is worthier, but the one who is conceived is most worthy. This is the salvific day, to be celebrated by us with due veneration, which reconciles earthly things with heavenly; on which the divinity of the Redeemer descended to us, so that our humanity might ascend to the heavens. This is that solemn day which takes its beginning from the angel, how he announced that the Virgin would be born from a Virgin, how the power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin, how the intangible God deigned to be touched, who is the eternal light that illuminates every man coming into this world. This is the solemn day which lifts and elevates us from the earth to the heavens, and honorably exalts us above the heavens of heavens, as the present sermon will declare. For after the first man was cast out through the tree of knowledge forbidden by the Lord and improperly tasted, the deceit of demons led men astray through the allurements of vices, deceived them, captivated them by deceiving, and plunged them into outer darkness. There weeping and gnashing of teeth are heard, as the Lord testifies.

For the glory of the devil had stirred up ambition, ambition had provoked envy, and he grieved that the human race was being transferred from the earth to the heavens. For because it had fallen miserably, it was through this that it brought itself solace in its misery. Therefore the Father, considering the perdition of the human race through the deceit of the serpent, deigned to liberate the world through the incarnation of His only-begotten Son, so that, since a woman had been cast out from the abodes of paradise through the exhortation of demons, she might, through the salutation of an angel, merit to receive the glory of immortality. The exhortation of the enemy deceived Eve; the salutation of Gabriel strengthened Mary. The angel announces so that the deceit of the devil may be destroyed; the Virgin is overshadowed by the power of the Most High, the angel announcing, so that the woman long ago deceived by the messenger of Satan might be restored. The incorruptible God clothes Himself in flesh and descends, so that through this second man, Jesus, the old man might ascend, who, having tasted the fruit improperly, came to this misery and valley of tears. For it is read that when the woman had deceived her husband, it was said to her by the Lord: "In pain you will bear children, and your turning to your husband, and he will rule over you." These three disadvantages are suffered by all women who do not imitate the virginity of Mary: as if the Lord were saying to her: "When your turning to your husband occurs, you will be subjected to his servitude; when you give birth, you will suffer the losses of pain and sorrow.

These three things, however, are excluded from the happiness of the Virgin Mary, and not only from the Virgin herself, but from all those who have devoted their virginity to Christ. Come, therefore, virgins, who vow virginity to the Virgin, vow to the Virgin the integrity of the body, who exhibited to the Lord an unstained chastity. Hear, then, of how great merit this same Virgin was. For she merited not only to be visited by angelic address, but within the enclosure of her virginal womb to contain Him who could in no way be contained. Our mother Eve is weighed down by three evils, but blessed Mary is excluded from these and rejoices in a threefold happiness. For she is strengthened by the angelic salutation, strengthened she is blessed, and she is announced to be fruitful with the fullness of grace. For thus it is written: An angel was sent to the virgin. We confess this to be the virgin of whom it is read in Isaiah: A rod shall go out from the root of Jesse (that is, the Virgin Mary), and a flower shall rise from its root, that is, Christ. For He Himself in the Song of Songs bears witness, saying: I am the flower of the field. And entering to her, he said: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. O angelic voice full of sweetness and joy! For when he said, Hail, Mary, he offered a heavenly salutation to the Virgin.

When, however, he said, "Full of grace," he showed that sentence to be excluded, through which the first parents were made far from God, and the grace of the heavenly blessing was restored, through which, freed from servitude, they were led into paradise. When, moreover, he uttered: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," he expressed not only the fruit of her womb as blessed, but also all those who, following the Virgin Mary, have persevered in virginity. Blessed Virgin, O Virgin pre-chosen by the Creator of the world! You will conceive him who was born before all ages, without a mother from the eternal Father, having become a mother without the union of any man. For there, the ear was the wife, and the angelic speech was the husband. Virgin, you will conceive, and after childbirth you will remain a virgin, and the Son of God will descend into you, so that he who was to ascend with the power of sublimity and the glory of his brightness to the East, might turn the grace of his majesty to the West. Let not the hearing confound you, let not the conception disturb you. For this conception is not a necessity, but the inestimable power of God. He will be clothed with flesh, and will hide himself in your virginal womb, and the Son of God will begin to be the son of man, always remaining what he was. For we believe him to be immutable, but mercifully assuming what he was not, so that he whom the whole world could not bear might be comprehended in you.

Through this conception, virginal chastity will not be diminished, but rather the integrity of your chastity will be increased in you. You have become the Mother of the Creator, while He Himself was with the Father; and when He was born from you, as Mother, He remained with the Father. For He is always with the Father, because, being without beginning, He has no temporal beginning. For He is always with the Father, who abides without beginning and without end. You have become a heavenly ladder; you have blossomed as the rod of Aaron before all others, that is, you have shone forth as worthy of virginity before all others. You have become a ladder upon which heavenly glory descends to the lower regions, so that humility might be raised up to the higher reaches of heaven. A new and unheard-of union! An ineffable and wondrous mingling! For He who created all things from nothing is created; He who could not be contained is comprehended; He who makes all abound in riches becomes poor; Christ, who is perfect, deigns to be emptied. For He is said to have emptied Himself from the form of His Divinity in time, so that we might be enriched with that same heavenly perfection. Therefore, dearest brothers, let us beseech the Virgin that she reconcile God to men, and join earthly things to heavenly ones. Let her intercede for past things, imploring her Son for future things. Virgin, give not only bodily food, but the bread of angels descending within the enclosure of your womb; make us fear the Son of God. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. For if anyone fears the Lord, he will keep His commandments; then the purification of the flesh will follow, so that we may be able to contemplate the rays of divine light.

For after the carnal purging will be given to us, the illumination of our heart will follow. Hearken, therefore, and incline your ear to our prayers. Virgin, who are deservedly praised by us, who, remaining a virgin after childbirth, are venerated by us, pray for us to God, that He may grant constancy, bestow patience: that concord may be strengthened, tolerance increased, so that when the grief of sorrow and misery, of calamity and sadness comes, you may deign to present us to your only-begotten Son, who is the one God: whom we confess as one in substance, three in persons; who is in all, and over all, and in all of us; who is sought in part, but known in part; who does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be turned from his evil way. Pray, that we may become perfect light; that we may praise you in the glory of your Son: to whom is honor and power, through all the ages of ages. Amen. THE PRAYER OF THE BLESSED ELEUTHERIUS, IN HIS AGONY, TO GOD FOR THE FAITH AND THE CHURCH

The Catholic faith does not believe and confess, adore and venerate three gods, but one God. Unity remains in the Trinity; the perfect Trinity consists in unity. The true God, the same our Lord Jesus Christ, was born from the true Father according to divinity; according to humanity, however, he was begotten from the undefiled virgin. From both proceeds the Holy Spirit, who causes the hearts of unbelievers to be turned to the recognition of truth. The Son is equal to the unbegotten Father; the Holy Spirit is equal to the only-begotten Son. The Son, an eternal light, proceeded from the eternal light; an inexhaustible lamp shone forth from that invisible brightness, when the Virgin Mary, foretold as the Mother of the eternal Judge, conceived from the Holy Spirit, and, remaining a virgin in chastity, brought forth the Son of God to the earth, and, persisting in virginity after the wondrous birth, nourished Christ Jesus with divine milk. O that holy angelic announcement! The angel Gabriel is sent to the Virgin, unaware of the mystical matter. The Mother of the Redeemer is likened to a handmaid, when she responds to that angel; for she says: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." Therefore the Son of God, made flesh, so that the angel's word might be fulfilled, is born from the glorious Virgin by divine inspiration; he is laid in a manger, then announced to shepherds by the angel. He rules all things, reigning in heaven, and the little Son of God lies in the manger. He is nourished by his virgin mother, and is adored by the Magi with gifts.

To show us the humility of His power and the magnificence of His divinity, He deigned to possess everything as a man without sin. He had no sin, He endured death, and by His death He bestowed immortal life upon us. Wondrous is the nativity of the only-begotten God! Marvelous is the preaching of the Son of Man! Unheard-of is the wisdom of such a young man! The Son of God had come forth in the synagogues, and He confuted all the scribes and teachers of the law through the Holy Spirit; yet no power was conferred upon Him by that same Spirit according to what He is as Son of God. For the Son, who is coeternal with the eternal Father, never needed the help of another, because He is perfect and blessed for ever and ever. The wise men marvel at the wisdom unheard-of in the world. For what reason do the Jews scourge the Son of Man, betrayed by the impious and most wicked traitor Judas, and pursue Him with insults? Thus Christ Jesus, who for the salvation of human frailty inclined Himself to voluntary emptying, offered His own body, not for Himself, but for our redemption, a true sacrifice, a sacrifice pleasing to God as a sweet odor. For what sacrifice or offering would He need, since He existed as God, free from all sin? But if all have sinned and need the grace of God—for by sins and evil deeds human nature has languished—He Himself was not so, although He took on the image of a servant and underwent death by His own free will. From the Father of our Lord.

David the prophet sensed this of Jesus Christ when he said: “Give me the joy of your saving grace, and confirm me with the principal spirit” (Ps. 50). For the Father is the beginning of all things, with whom the Son, King of kings, Father of the universe, and restorer of the falling world, made everything. Amid these words of the holy man, the pain of his wounds and of his spirit harshly constrained him. What was he to do? He saw that the day of his death was imminent, and he knew that the churches he had built within the walls were about to fall. Therefore, turning with tears, he prayed, saying: Almighty, most merciful God, who in your three holy patriarchs, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, wished your glorious name to be invoked with a threefold invocation, so that through your only-begotten Son Jesus, the distinguished cultivators of the Catholic faith might recognize and perfectly believe that in the perfect Trinity you are God the Father unbegotten, equal to the only-begotten Son, and co-equal to the Holy Spirit: the true Father, who begot the true Son before the constitution of the world and before the stability of things, who sent the Holy Spirit proceeding from you from the heavens to strengthen the hearts of your disciples and to clarify the name of Christ to men: whose true Trinity consists in unity, one Godhead remains in the Trinity, equal to the Son, equal to the Holy Spirit. For nothing is greater to you, nothing lesser to the other.

For you are the same God everywhere, your majesty, your dominion, your power everywhere, who formed all things from nothing through your Only-Begotten Son: who deigned to descend into the womb of the immaculate Virgin and to take on the form of our servitude, and as perfect God to clothe yourself in perfect man, so that, made flesh, you might come to the aid of men, and, incarnate as man, convert the unbelieving to the path of truth. Who, after the Virgin’s childbirth, placed as a child in the cradle, exhibited to yourself the humility of the human condition: who, to the watching shepherds and the Magi of Ethiopia, with a star leading the way, was shown by rejoicing angels: who endured the temptations of the devil and, for our sake, the insults and other torments, so that you might free us from the snares of visible and invisible enemies, and wash away the stains of our crimes; you bore the gibbet of the cross, so that you might restore us to the glory of the heavenly court, which we lost through Adam; and the Son of Man was incarnated, so that he might make the sons of men sons of God and participants in heavenly goods: I beseech you, who stood forth as the author of our resurrection, that you might open for us the heavenly entrance, and take captive the dominion of the devil, and, ascending into heaven with your wondrous power, lead our captivity captive: you who by your death restored life to the dead and healing to the captive.

I clemently invoke you, I mercifully appeal to you, that you preserve and defend, exalt and extol the Churches of Tournai, raised up as much as my littleness could, and all the dwellings of the saints from every disturbance of demons. Guard my few sheep, present and to come, until the last generation: that they may know that you are gentle, Father of mercy and piety; giver of knowledge and truth. But to those who have pursued me, your unworthy servant, with swords and clubs even unto death, benignly forgive, and deign to gather me with your saints into your granary. Also, most pious God, to those who have devoutly cultivated my memory, grant faith, bestow friendship, most clement God, such that they may delight in the Catholic faith, in the Christian religion—your mercy knows not. For all things are naked and open to your eyes. Behold, now the time of my dissolution approaches. Eternal God, what shall I do? Send me to follow David saying: As the hart desires the springs of water, so my soul desires you, God. And again he says: My soul thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God? If it can be done, permit me to be likened to blessed Job, saying: I am compared to mud and likened to dust and ashes. In you I trust, my God, you I seek, you I desire to see, whom I have always worshipped while placed on earth: to whom I have devoted myself with all love, free me, O blessed one, throughout the ages of ages.

And soon, again bursting forth in praise of God, he says: The Catholic faith attests that He is the Offspring to whom the Father cries out through the prophet and says: You are my Son, today I have begotten you. And again: With you is the beginning on the day of your power in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I have begotten you. He is our Lord Jesus Christ, equal to the Father, invisible, proceeding from the invisible, one from the eternal, immortal from immortal: who, uniting the nature of our humanity to Himself according to subsistence, sustained birth in that same corporeal and virginal womb. Not that He needed that glorious birth out of necessity, but so that He might sanctify the very firstfruits of our substance: so that even when Christ, united with flesh, had come forth from the blessed Virgin Mary, that wretched curse which had been pronounced against the whole human race would cease, and would no longer destine souls and mortal bodies to death, and so that He might show it to be true, which He had foretold with the voice of the prophet: Death has been swallowed up in victory. And elsewhere: God has removed every tear from every face: He is Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, who restored hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, walked on the sea with dry feet, put demons to flight, calmed winds and seas, cleansed lepers, healed paralytics, raised the dead, and said to the unbelieving Jews: If you do not believe my words, at least you ought to believe in the powers and miracles.

There is one Son of God in Christ, who, just as He is truly the invisible Son of God, so also He is truly the visible Christ. For the perfect God put on the perfect man, in order to present perfect salvation to men. And concerning the Holy Spirit, let us hear the prophet praying and saying: Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. It is indeed great temerity to separate the Son from the Father, the Father from the Son, and the Holy Spirit as if not proceeding from both. For God is inseparable, immutable, and impassible. The Son, as was said above, is equal to the Father; the Holy Spirit is neither superior nor better than He, but is equal to the Father, equal to the Son, proceeding from both. Almighty God sent the Holy Spirit into the world, so that He might glorify His Son, the unbegotten only-begotten. But because Christ the Son of God performed human miracles, healed lepers, raised the dead, and other things unheard of in the world, and for the demonstration of His divinity He used the power of His own Spirit, He was said to be glorified by that Spirit. However, it is not fitting to affirm that our Lord Jesus Christ was glorified by the Holy Spirit, as if He had used a power foreign to Him through that Spirit, and had assumed power against unclean spirits through that same Spirit; but rather we ought to confess that it was through His own Spirit that He performed such glorious miracles.

It is also fitting for every believer to affirm that he offered that oblation or sacrifice not for himself, but for the redemption of the human race, to the Father, since he who knew no sin uncontaminated had no need of any oblation. Therefore let the Catholic faith believe and affirm that the flesh of the Word Himself has been made life-giving and His own. For Life, as God existing, because it is properly united to the flesh, has professed it to be life-giving. But because He says: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have eternal life," we must not, however, consider it as that of a single man. For according to its nature, how could the flesh of a single man be life-giving? Let the wretched Jew flee; let the heretic who denies the nativity of Christ be destroyed. The faithful praise God as three in persons, but one God in subsistence; whom the wretched await in wrath, given over to infernal punishments, in whose company the evil angels rejoice, but the just await for the reward of their labors, in whose company the angels of God rejoice, with the help of Him through whose benefits are granted to the weak, through whom joy is given to the afflicted: to whom be glory, dominion, power, with the unbegotten Father and the Holy Spirit, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.