I pray to you, O Seraphim: who first sensed the presence of the Virgin's Son in the world?
The unclean spirits sensed Him first, and were filled with fear. Where there is fear, there is cringing; where cringing, there is insolence. Truly the greatest culprits fear the judge the most, and when the judge draws near, they are the first to recognize him.
The righteous man does not know the judge, for he does not think of him, nor does he await him. Sin does not drive him to prick up his ears and watch, from which side the judge will appear.
I pray to you, O Cherubim: how did the unclean spirits sense the presence of the Virgin's Son in the world?
As darkness too senses light. What is more sensitive to light than darkness? Stone and plant and beast still sleep before the dawn and have no inkling of the day, while darkness already senses the coming of its devourer and, shaken, makes ready to flee.
So too the demons sensed the coming of the Virgin's Son before all the people of the earth, purer than they.
We pray to you, O Thrones: how did the Virgin's Son overcome the unclean spirits?
The unclean spirits are a power only in relation to the earth. Heaven looks upon them as overcome in advance by their own evil. When the master appears in his field, the thieves flee toward the fence and seek an opening to get out.
I pray to you, O Dominions and Powers: what are the four victories that the Virgin's Son won in the world?
The four victories are victories over four evils, which flow one out of another like a murky river from a murky spring.
The first is the victory over the unclean spirits, from whom comes sin.
The second is the victory over sin, from which comes sickness.
The third is the victory over sicknesses, which end in death.
The fourth is the victory over death.
I pray to you, O Authorities and Principalities: which is the greatest victory of the Virgin's Son?
Not one is greater or lesser. Only the first is first, and the last is last. The second could not have been without the first, nor the third without the second and the first, nor the fourth without the third, the second, and the first.
All four together are one fourfold victory, which illumined the east, the west, the north, and the south of the whole existing world.
I pray to you, O Authorities and Principalities: which is the greatest victory of the Virgin's Son?
He who can understand it, feel it, and make it his own.
He who understands it bows down to the Virgin's Son day and night.
He who feels it weeps for joy, that he has felt it, and for shame, that he felt it so late.
He who makes it his own loses the woman's son within himself and becomes himself a virgin's son.
To you I pray and bow down, O circles of saints and martyrs, who understood, felt, and made your own the victory of the Virgin's Son. With all the heavenly powers, pray to the Virgin's Son for us, who stand still upon the battlefield.