Friday, September 26, 2008

Pt. 5 HYMNS OF DIVINE LOVE by St. Symeon the New Theologian

"When you reveal Yourself, Master of the Universe,
and show the glory of Your face with more clearness,
I begin to tremble all over, to see You,
as far as is possible, to the lowliness of my nature,
I am filled with fear and, full of fright, I say:
'All that belongs to You, my God, is above my comprehension,
for I am impure, absolutely unworthy
to see You, You, the pure and holy Master
whom the angels venerate and serve trembling
and whose face disturbs the whole creation.'

....

....I magnify Your incomprehensibility
and, proclaiming Your kindness, I cry to You:
'Glory to the One who has so glorified our essence,
glory, O my Savior, to You incommensurable condescension,
glory to Your mercy, glory to Your power,
glory to You! because, remaining immutable and without change,
You are completely immovable and also completely in movement,
completely outside creation and completely in every creature,
You fill everything completely, You who are completely
outside everything, above everything, O Master, above all
beginning, above all essence, above the nature of nature,
above all ages, above all light, O Savior,
above intellectual Essences--for they too are Your work,
or rather the work of Your mind.
...You are simplicity itself and yet You are all diversity--
and our mind is totally incapable of fathoming
the diversity of Your glory and the splendor of Your beauty.
You then, who are nothing of all that is, for You are above
everything, You who are outside everything, for You are
the God of everything, invisible, inaccessible, unseizable,
intangible, yes, You became a man, You came into the world
and showed Yourself to all, accessible, in the body that You assumed.

...By the flesh You belong to our race, by divinity we belong
to Yours, since, by assuming our flesh, You gave us Your
Divine Spirit, and, all together, we have become the unique
House of David through what belongs to You only, by our
community of race with You.
...And when we assemble, we become one single family,
that is to say, that we are all of the same race,
we are all Your brothers.
How not tremble in the presence of this marvel, or who
could without shivering no matter how little, conceive
this idea, welcome this revelation:
You are with us, now and forever,
You make Your home in each one and You live in everyone
and for all of us You become our home and we live in You,
each one of us entirely, O Savior, with You entirely,
with each one of us, You are alone with him alone
and above us all, You are also, alone and all entire.
So You are, then, in us, about to do all these awesome marvels;
what marvels?--Among many, listen to these few:
for even if all we have said already surpasses all amazement,
nevertheless, listen to more formidable marvels!
We become members of Christ--and Christ becomes our members,
Christ becomes my hand, Christ, my miserable foot;
and I, unhappy one, am Christ's hand, Christ's foot!
I move my hand, and my hand is the whole Christ
since, do not forget it, God is indivisible in His divinity--;
I move my foot, and behold it shines like That--one!"

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