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celebrating the law, they will mourn having completed the feasts, and instead of songs they will make a lamentation for Jerusalem. For Jerusalem will no longer exist possessing the worship services, nor will a feast be celebrated in her, all things having come to an end after the advent of Christ and his passion and the economy. Therefore he says: I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations; being deprived of the things of the Law and being given over into slavery to every nation, because they did not believe in the divine and wondrous proclamation of the cross. And the confessing nations will also mourn over their sins, a mourning which is the cause of blessing. For blessed, he says, are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Therefore they will mourn over their vain feasts, and lawless songs, which they performed for the unclean demons.

For see today, how a repentant gentile, who previously celebrated to idols, turns the feast into mourning, repenting for the evil things he did, and says while lamenting that prophetic saying: We have gone astray in our shame, and our sins have covered us, for we have been filled with our impiety. We have known the iniquities of our fathers.

So therefore we also, lamenting and mourning well over our aforementioned evils, let us bind ourselves to the cross, committing our hopes to the cross, so that, having been tutored by the cross, and having stretched our mind toward heaven, having drawn near to Christ our Savior, we may be counted worthy to be near God in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ himself our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

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νόμον ἑορτάζοντες πενθήσουσι τὰς ἑορτὰς ἀποτελέσαντες, καὶ ἀντὶ ᾠδῶν κοπετὸν περὶ τῆς Ἱερουσαλὴμ ποιήσονται. Οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ ἔσται Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἔχουσα τὰς λατρείας, οὔτε ἐπιτελεσθήσεται ἑορτὴ ἐν αὐτῇ, τέλος εἰληφότων ἁπάντων μετὰ τὴν Χριστοῦ ἐπιδημίαν καὶ τὸ πάθος αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν οἰκονομίαν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο οὖν φησι· Μεταστρέψω τὰς ἑορτὰς ὑμῶν εἰς πένθος, καὶ πάσας τὰς ᾠδὰς ὑμῶν εἰς θρήνους· τῶν νομικῶν ἀποστερούμενοι καὶ εἰς δουλείαν παντὶ ἔθνει παραδιδόμενοι, ἀνθ' ὧν οὐκ ἐπίστευσαν τῷ θείῳ καὶ παραδόξῳ τοῦ σταυροῦ κηρύγματι. Πενθήσει δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἐξομολογούμενα ἔθνη πένθος μακαρισμοῦ πρόξενον. Μακάριοι γὰρ, φησὶν, οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. Πενθήσουσιν οὖν ἐπὶ ταῖς ματαίαις αὐτῶν ἑορταῖς, καὶ ᾄσμασιν ἀθεμίστοις, οἷς ἐπετέλουν τοῖς ἀκαθάρτοις δαίμοσιν.

Ὅρα γάρ μοι σήμερον, πῶς μετανοήσας ἐθνικὸς, ὁ πρότερον τοῖς εἰδώλοις ἑορτάζων, μεταστρέφει τὴν ἑορτὴν εἰς πένθος, μετανοῶν ἐφ' οἷς κακῶς ἔπραττε, καὶ λέγει θρηνῶν τὸ προφητικὸν ἐκεῖνο λόγιον· Ἐπλανήθημεν ἐν τῇ αἰσχύνῃ ἡμῶν, καὶ ἐπεκάλυψεν ἡμᾶς τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ἡμῶν, ὅτι ἐπλήσθημεν ἀσεβείας ἡμῶν. Ἔγνωμεν ἀδικίας πατέρων ἡμῶν.

Οὕτως οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς καλῶς θρηνοῦντες καὶ πενθοῦντες ἐν τοῖς προγεγραμμένοις ἡμῖν κακοῖς, τῷ σταυρῷ ἑαυτοὺς προσπλέξωμεν, σταυρῷ τὰς ἐλπίδας ἀνατιθέντες, ἵνα διὰ σταυροῦ παιδαγωγηθέντες, καὶ εἰς οὐρανὸν τὴν διάνοιαν τείναντες, Χριστῷ τῷ Σωτῆρι ἡμῶν πλησιάσαντες, ἐγγὺς Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν γενέσθαι καταξιωθῶμεν, ἐν αὐτῷ Χριστῷ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.