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For this reason we also bless you, O Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit are blessed before the ages and for ages 59.708 of ages; before the ages and until now without a body, but now, and for ages, with your divine and immutable and indivisible incarnation. Let us see also what follows. What does the most divine evangelist say? For when the Lord entered the temple, he says, the blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the Pharisees saw the wonders that he did, and the children crying out and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they could not bear the honor given to him. Wherefore, coming to him, they said: Do you not hear what these are saying? Are you not burdened being glorified as God? Are you not vexed hearing from the innocent things that are fitting for God alone? Has not God long ago declared through the prophet, My glory I will not give to another? and, How can you, being a man, make yourself God? But what in response to these things says the long-suffering one, who is great in mercy, and slow to anger? He endures the raging ones, he restrains their inflammation with a defense, he reminds them of the Scriptures, he brings forth testimonies of the things being fulfilled, and he does not refuse their question.

Therefore he says: Have you never heard me saying through the prophet, Then you will know that I myself who am speaking am present? or again, Out of the mouths of infants and nursing children you have prepared praise because of your enemies, to silence the enemy and the avenger? which is you, who attend to the law, and read the prophets, and reject me who is proclaimed in the law. For you seem under the pretext of piety to claim the glory of God for yourselves, not understanding that he who rejects me, also rejects the Father. For I came forth from God, and have come into the world; and my glory is also the glory of my Father. But being thus refuted, the foolish ones, by our Savior God, they ceased from their contradiction, being silenced by the truth; but having drawn upon another foolish thought, they took counsel against him. But let us sing, Great is our Lord, and great is his power, and of his understanding there is no number.

For all these things have happened, so that the Lamb and Son of God who takes away the sin of the world, might willingly come for our sake to his saving passion, and be made known at the praetorium, and those who despise him who redeems the world with his life-giving blood might agree on thirty pieces of silver, and that Christ our Passover might be sacrificed for us, so that those who are sprinkled with his precious blood and whose lips are sealed like doorposts, might escape the arrows of the destroyer; and thus Christ, having suffered in the flesh, and having risen on the third day, might be worshipped by all creation with equal honor and equal glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit; because to him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, sending up glory to him for ages of ages. Amen.

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∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς εὐλογοῦμέν σε, Κύριε, τὸν σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι πρὸ αἰώνων καὶ εἰς αἰῶνας 59.708 αἰώνων εὐλογημένον· πρὸ μὲν τῶν αἰώνων καὶ μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο ἀσωμάτως, τανῦν δὲ, καὶ εἰς αἰῶνας, μετὰ τῆς θείας καὶ ἀμεταβόλου καὶ ἀμερίστου σου σαρκώ σεως. Ἴδωμεν καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Τί λέγει ὁ θειότατος εὐαγ γελιστής; Εἰσελθόντος γὰρ, φησὶ, τοῦ Κυρίου εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν, προσῆλθον αὐτῷ τυφλοὶ καὶ χωλοὶ, καὶ ἐθε ράπευσεν αὐτούς. Ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς καὶ οἱ Φαρισαῖοι τὰ θαύματα ἃ ἐποίησε, καὶ τοὺς παῖδας κράζοντας καὶ λέγοντας, Ὡσάννα τῷ υἱῷ ∆αυῒδ, εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου, οὐκ ἤνεγκαν τὴν τούτου τιμήν. Ὅθεν προσελθόντες αὐτῷ εἶπον· Οὐκ ἀκούεις τί οὗτοι λέγουσιν; Οὐ βαρύνῃ δοξαζόμενος, ὡς Θεός; οὐκ ἄχθῃ ἀκούων παρὰ τῶν ἀκάκων τὰ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ μόνῳ πρέποντα; οὐ πάλαι δε δήλωκεν ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, Τὴν δόξαν μου ἑτέρῳ οὐ δώσω; καὶ, Πῶς σὺ ἄνθρωπος ὢν, ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν Θεόν; Ἀλλὰ τί πρὸς ταῦτα ὁ μακρόθυμος, ὁ πολὺς ἐν ἐλέει, καὶ βραδὺς εἰς ὀργήν; Ἀνέχεται τῶν μεμηνότων, ἀναστέλλει ἀπολογίᾳ τὴν, φλεγμονὴν, ἀνθ υπομνήσκει Γραφὰς, προφέρει μαρτυρίας τῶν τελουμέ νων, καὶ οὐκ ἀπαναίνεται πρὸς τὴν πεῦσιν.

∆ιὸ καί φησιν· Οὐδέποτε καὶ ὑμεῖς ἠκούσατέ μου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος, Τότε γνώσεσθε, ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐγὼ ὁ λαλῶν πάρ ειμι; οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν, Ἐκ στόματος νηπίων καὶ θη λαζόντων κατηρτίσω αἶνον ἕνεκα τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου, τοῦ καταλῦσαι ἐχθρὸν καὶ ἐκδικητήν; οἵτινές εἰσιν ὑμεῖς, οἱ νόμῳ προσέχοντες, καὶ προφήτας ἀναγινώσκον τες, κἀμὲ τὸν ἐν νόμῳ κηρυττόμενον ἀθετοῦντες. ∆ο κεῖτε μὲν γὰρ ἐν προσχήματι εὐσεβείας διεκδικεῖν τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξαν, μὴ συνιέντες, ὅτιπερ ὁ ἐμὲ ἀθετῶν, καὶ τὸν Πατέρα ἀθετεῖ. Ἐγὼ γὰρ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐξῆλ θον, καὶ ἐλήλυθα εἰς τὸν κόσμον· καὶ ἡ ἐμὴ δόξα, καὶ τοῦ Πατρός μού ἐστι δόξα. Ἐλεγχθέντες δὲ οὕτως οἱ ἀνόητοι ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Θεοῦ, ἐπαύσαντο μὲν τῆς ἀντιλογίας, φιμωθέντες τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· ἕτερον δὲ ἐπι σπασάμενοι ἀνοίας λογισμὸν, συμβούλιον κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐποιοῦντο. Ἡμεῖς δὲ ψάλλωμεν, Μέγας ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν, καὶ μεγάλη ἡ ἰσχὺς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τῆς συνέσεως αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἀριθμός.

Ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα γέγονεν, ἵνα ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου ἀμνὸς καὶ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἑκουσίως ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τὸ σωτήριον πάθος ἔλθῃ, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ πραιτώριον γνωρισθῇ, καὶ οἱ ἐξουθενοῦντες τὸν ἐξωνούμενον τῷ ζωοποιῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι τὸν κόσμον συμφωνήσωσι τριάκοντα ἀργυρίοις, καὶ τὸ πάσχα τυθῇ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν Χριστὸς, ὅπως οἱ τῷ τιμίῳ αὐτοῦ αἵματι ῥαντιζόμενοι καὶ τὰ χείλη ὡς φλιὰς σφραγιζόμενοι, ἐκφύγωσι τοῦ ὀλοθρεύοντος τὰ βέλη· καὶ οὕτως ὁ παθὼν σαρκὶ Χριστὸς, καὶ ἀναστὰς τριήμερος, τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι ὁμοτίμως καὶ ὁμοδόξως παρὰ πάσης κτίσεως προσκυνηθῇ· ὅτι αὐτῷ κάμψει πᾶν γόνυ ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπιγείων καὶ καταχθονίων, δόξαν αὐτῷ ἀναπέμποντες εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.