In the vale of weeping Thou hast brought dead bones to life, O Divine Son.
Let the prophet rejoice, for Thou hast made his words come true.
All the strength, and beauty, and wisdom, for which all mankind has yearned from the beginning, is in Thee, O All-Man.
All the food of life, and all the drink of life, by which the living live from end to end of time, is in Thee, O All-Man.
Through Thee the Three-Sunned ray dared to cast itself into the darkness of death and the shadow of non-being. Mercy was in that ray, and, like every alms, it was abused. Therefore the Ray withdrew, and the darkness of death and the shadow of non-being prevailed.
Now Thou hast come with a new Ray, and a new mercy. And those who received Thee shone forth like newly kindled suns.
But those who did not receive Thee remained, as before, dead bones in the valley.
Thou hast opened a bread-house for the hungry and a cellar for the thirsty, and Thou callest all the hungry and thirsty to eat and drink and be alive.
Whoever desires life must feed on life. Whoever surrenders to death feeds on death, and is no more among the living.
Thou hast brought us God in the vale of torment; Thou hast brought us God, not as an image to be shown — the play of images devoured our soul — but as bread, that we may eat it and come alive. On images we fed, and we died. Truly, all the things that mortals eat and drink are images, which neither nourish nor give drink nor give life, unless God enters into them.
Let my soul eat God, and it will be wedded to eternal life.
Let my mind eat God, and it will be wedded to eternal wisdom.
Let my heart eat God, and it will be wedded to eternal joy.
Let my body eat God, and it will rise from the dead.
Let all men eat God, and they will return home, they will return into the All-Man.
Thy grave is not among us. Earth holds only earth. Graves are buried in graves, and remain in them.
O Prince of the Holy Triad and King of all beings, which at Thy word began to breathe and to see, feed me with Thy bread, and give me to drink of Thy drink.
That my body may not rot, and that my soul may not be tossed about through Hades like a bodiless shade, filled with mad memories, filled with bodily desires, filled with fear and terrifying images.
That I may not lose, O Lord, both bodies: the earthly, which is nearer to perishing than the autumn grass, and the heavenly, which the spirit has been late to weave and make ready for eternity.
That I may not lose, O Lord, both spirits: the earthly, which is doomed to death by its wedding with the earth, and the heavenly, which I have not received into myself, that it might bring its eternity into me.
That I may not lose, O Lord, both lives: the earthly, which seems to be life, and the heavenly, which is life.
Draw nearer to me, and nearer still, O Heavenly Bread, and guard not Thyself from my mouth.
Draw nearer to me, and nearer still, O Heavenly Drink, and draw not away from my lips.
O Most Holy Trinity, lower Thy lamp into my night and frighten away the stranger who shuts me off from Thee.