Through things Thou workest wonders, O Lord, when men lose the gift of wonderworking.
Water and fire Thou takest for Thy servants, when men renounce their service to Thee.
To wood and metal Thou givest Thy power, which — despised by men — has returned to Thee.
Through earth and grass Thou dispensest mercy to Thine elect, when men make themselves unclean as channels of mercy.
Through cloth and paper Thy power radiates, when the carnality of men prevails over the spirit.
The bones of the saints proclaim Thy name and Thy presence, when the tongue of men falls silent from unbelief.
When generals forget how to conquer, Thou makest the ranks victorious.
Thou hast filled dead things with fire, that they may shine when darkness closes the eyes of the stars.
When there is no sun, fern and hawthorn take up the duty of shining.
When the blind become leaders of the blind, Thou yieldest leadership to horses and dogs.
When the sick impose themselves upon the sick as physicians, Thou makest dead bones and mud physicians.
When Thine image vanishes from the soul of man, Thou givest strength and power to Thine image on wood.
They laugh, they who at the end of all ends will bitterly weep, and they say: how can dead things work wonders that we cannot work?
Are not things alive, when Thou givest them life? And are not men dead, when Thou forsakest them, O Dread Lord?
Thine angels know, but men know not, that all powers are Thine, in Thee and from Thee, and that Thou showest them to the world through pure channels. What then — if the stone is pure and the man unclean? Will not the power of the Lord reveal itself sooner through the stone than through the man?
Only the righteous man laughs with the laughter of joy. The laughter of the unrighteous is malice.
The unrighteous man laughs at the relics of the saints, and is consumed by his malicious laughter. Oh, that it were given him to know that the dead relics of the saints hide more life than his own blood and flesh!
Truly, malice is far from the All-Merciful Lord, as malice is ever far from virginity, from Word-bearing reason, and from holiness.
Behold, the Lord of the Word is ever ready to do good to men through men. But when men become unclean, bereft of the Word, and unholy, the All-Merciful hastens to the help of men through dead things.
O All-Merciful and Long-Suffering Lord, leave not the world without channels of Thy power and mercy.