St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)John of Damascus, Saint
Religion
St John Damascene on Holy Images (πρὸς τοὺς διαβάλλοντας τᾶς ἁγίας εἰκόνας). Followed by Three Sermons on the Assumption (κοίμησις)
John of Damascus, Saint
Icons -- Cult; Idols and images -- Worship; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Assumption -- Sermons -- Early works to 1800
Why⁴⁵ do you seek in the tomb one who has been assumed to the heavenly
courts? Why do you make me responsible for not keeping her? I was
powerless to go against the divine commands. That sacred and holy body,
leaving the winding-sheet behind, filled me full of sweet fragrance,
sanctified me by its contact, and fulfilled the divine scheme, and was
then assumed, angels and archangels and all the heavenly powers
escorting it. Now angels surround me, and divine grace abounds in me. I
am the physician of the sick. I am a perpetual source of health, and the
terror of demons. I am a city of refuge for fugitives. Approach with
faith and you will receive a sea of graces. Come, you of weak faith. All
you that thirst, come to the waters in obedience to Isaias’ commands,
and you who have no money, come and buy for nothing. I call upon all
with the Gospel invitation. Let him who longs for bodily or spiritual
cure, forgiveness of sins, deliverance from misfortune, the possession
of heaven, approach me with faith, and draw hence a strong and rich
stream of grace. Just as the action of one and the same water acts
differently on the earth, air, and sun, according to the nature of each,
producing wine in the vine and oil in the olive-tree, so does one and
the same grace profit each person according to his needs. I do not
possess grace on my own account. A tomb given up to corruption, an
object of sorrow and dejection, I receive a precious ointment, and am
impregnated with it, and this sweet fragrance alters my condition whilst
it lasts. Truly, divine graces flow where they will. I have sheltered
the source of joy, and I have become rich in its perennial fountain.⁴⁶
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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