3

to pull out every thorn of grief from the heart, and to allot to the child a countless course of days and cycles of a long life, so that the sweet father John, seeing his fair son Nikephoros, may see you who gave him birth, as if in an image.

3

καρδίας λύπης ἄκανθαν πᾶσαν ἐξανασπάσαι, τῷ παιδὶ δ' ἀμύθητον ἡμερῶν δρόμον ζωῆς τε κύκλα προσνεμεῖν πολυχρόνου, ὡς ἂν ὁ πατὴρ ὁ γλυκὺς Ἰωάννης ὁρῶν τὸν υἱὸν τὸν καλὸν Νικηφόρον σε τὴν τεκοῦσαν ὥσπερ ἐν τύποις βλέπῃ.