More from "Prayers by the Lake" (by St. Nicholai of Ochrid)

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XCII


My Lord is the One who resurrects. He resurrects the dead from morning until dusk, and from dusk until dawn.

What the morning buries, the Lord brings to life in the evening; and what the evening buries, the Lord brings to life in the morning.

What work is more fitting for the living God than to resurrect the dead into life?

Let others believe in the God who brings men to trial and judges them.

I shall cling to the God who resurrects the dead.


Let others believe in the God, who does not even draw near to the living when they call upon Him.

I shall worship the God, who holds His cupped ear even at cemeteries and listens, to hear whether anyone is crying out for resurrection or for the One who resurrects.

The gravediggers dig graves and are silent. The Lord opens graves and shouts.

A mother places her daughter in a grave, the Lord takes her out of the grave; the Lord is a better mother than the mother.

A father covers his son with soil, the Lord uncovers him. The Lord is a better father than the father.

A brother buries his brother, the Lord resurrects him. The Lord is a better brother than the brother.

The Lord has neither tears nor smiles for the dead. His whole heart belongs to the living.

The world mourns for their kindred in the cemeteries, the Lord seeks His own with a song and awakens them.

Resurrect my soul, O Lord, so that my body might also be resurrected. Dwell in my soul, and my body will become Your temple.

My neighbors ask with anxiety whether this body of ours will be resurrected.
If you have denied yourself once and for all, and no longer live for yourself, then your body is already being resurrected.

If your body is a temple of the Most High God, then the One who resurrects is within you, and your resurrection is already being accomplished.

Our body changes with age, throughout our lifetime we have called many bodies our own. Which of them will be resurrected?

Perhaps none of them. But you can be certain that if you have had a body which expresses the Word of God clearly, it will be resurrected.

My Lord who resurrects, does not resurrect death, because death was never alive.

You are the One who resurrects and You are the resurrection, for You are life.

Only the seed which contains You is resurrected, and that seed which is of You.

You will only bring to life that soul which now lives by You and not by the world.

You will only preserve that body, which has begun to be filled with the Holy Spirit during this time.

That which is of the Living God in the graves, will be resurrected into life.
No one can resurrect the dead except the Lord, and no one can rise from the dead except the Lord.

For He is in His holy people. Truly, He is in His living people, both in the grave and out of the grave.

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