Andrew of Crete: Rejoice Exceedingly, Daughter of Jerusalem, Sing and Leap for Joy Tuesday, Nov 20 2012

Let us say to Christ: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.

[...] Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of his being, he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us.

Let us say to Zion in the words of the prophet: Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid.

Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation.

He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin.

Do not be afraid, then: God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken.

Receive him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you.

[...] Receive him, for he took upon himself all that belongs to us except sin, to consume what is ours in what is his.

Be glad, city of Zion, our mother, and fear not. Celebrate your feasts.

Glorify him for his mercy, who has come to us in you.

Rejoice exceedingly, daughter of Jerusalem, sing and leap for joy. Be enlightened…, as holy Isaiah trumpeted, for the light has come to you and the glory of the Lord has risen over you.

What kind of light is this? It is that which enlightens every man coming into the world.

It is the everlasting light, the timeless light revealed in time, the light manifested in the flesh although hidden by nature, the light that shone round the shepherds and guided the Magi.

It is the light that was in the world from the beginning, through which the world was made, yet the world did not know it.

It is that light which came to its own, and its own people did not receive it.

And what is this glory of the Lord?

Clearly it is the cross on which Christ was glorified, he, the radiance of the Father’s glory, even as he said when he faced his passion:

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him, and will glorify him at once.

The glory of which he speaks here is his lifting up on the cross, for Christ’s glory is his cross and his exaltation upon it, as he plainly says:

When I have been lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oratio 9 for Palm Sunday (PG 97, 1002) from the Office of Readings for Tuesday of Week 33 of Ordinary Time @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Andrew of Crete: Darkness Yields Before the Coming of the Light, and Grace Exchanges Legalism for Freedom Saturday, Sep 8 2012

The fulfilment of the law is Christ himself, who does not so much lead us away from the letter as lift us up to its spirit.

For the law’s consummation was this, that the very lawgiver accomplished his work and changed letter into spirit, summing everything up in himself and, though subject to the law, living by grace.

He subordinated the law, yet harmoniously united grace with it, not confusing the distinctive characteristics of the one with the other, but effecting the transition in a way most fitting for God.

He changed whatever was burdensome, servile and oppressive into what is light and liberating, so that we should be enslaved no longer under the elemental spirits of the world, as the Apostle says, nor held fast as bondservants under the letter of the law.

This is the highest, all-embracing benefit that Christ has bestowed on us. This is the revelation of the mystery, this is the emptying out of the divine nature, the union of God and man, and the deification of the manhood that was assumed.

This radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us.

The present festival, the birth of the Mother of God, is the prelude, while the final act is the fore-ordained union of the Word with flesh.

Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages.

Justly, then, do we celebrate this mystery since it signifies for us a double grace. We are led toward the truth, and we are led away from our condition of slavery to the letter of the law.

How can this be? Darkness yields before the coming of the light, and grace exchanges legalism for freedom.

But midway between the two stands today’s mystery, at the frontier where types and symbols give way to reality, and the old is replaced by the new.

Therefore, let all creation sing and dance and unite to make worthy contribution to the celebration of this day.

Let there be one common festival for saints in heaven and men on earth. Let everything, mundane things and those above, join in festive celebration.

Today this created world is raised to the dignity of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator.

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oration 1 (PG 97, 806-810) from Office of Readings for the Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary on September 8 @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Andrew of Crete: I Have Darkened the Beauty of My Soul Wednesday, Feb 22 2012

Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life?  What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, for my present lamentation? But in Thy compassion grant me release from my falls.

Come, wretched soul, with your flesh, confess to the Creator of all. In future refrain from your former brutishness, and offer to God tears in repentance.

Having rivaled the first-created Adam by my transgression, I realize that I am stripped naked of God and of the everlasting kingdom and bliss through my sins.(Genesis 3)

Alas, wretched soul!  Why are you like the first Eve?  For you have wickedly looked and been bitterly wounded, and you have touched the tree and rashly tasted the forbidden food.

The place of bodily Eve has been taken for me by the Eve of my mind in the shape of a passionate thought in the flesh, showing me sweet things, yet ever making me taste and swallow bitter things.

Adam was rightly exiled from Eden for not keeping Thy one commandment, O Savior.  But what shall I suffer who am always rejecting Thy living words? (Hebrews 12:25; Genesis 3:23)

[...] Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; O earth, give ear to a voice repenting to God and singing praises to Him.

Attend to me, O God my Saviour, with Thy merciful eye, and accept my fervent confession. (Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 33:15)

I have sinned above all men, I alone have sinned against Thee.  But as God have compassion, O Saviour, on Thy creature. (1 Tim. 1:15)

Having formed by my pleasure-loving desires the deformity of my passions, I have marred the beauty of my mind. A storm of passions besets me, O compassionate Lord.  But stretch out Thy hand to me too, as to Peter. (Matthew 14:31)

I have stained the coat of my flesh, and soiled what is in Thy image and likeness, O Saviour. I have darkened the beauty of my soul with passionate pleasures, and my whole mind I have reduced wholly to mud.

I have torn my first garment which the Creator wove for me in the beginning, and therefore I am lying naked. (Genesis 3:21)

I have put on a torn coat, which the serpent wove for me by argument, and I am ashamed. (Genesis 3:4-5)

The tears of the harlot, O merciful Lord, I too offer to Thee.  Be merciful to me, O Saviour, in Thy compassion. (Luke 7:38; 18:13)

I looked at the beauty of the tree, and my mind was seduced; and now I lie naked, and I am ashamed. (Genesis 3:7)

All the demon-chiefs of the passions have plowed on my back, and long has their tyranny over me lasted. (Psalm 128:3)

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Great Canon of Repentance @ Monachos.net.

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Andrew of Crete: The Cross is Called Christ’s Glory; It is Saluted as His Triumph. Wednesday, Sep 14 2011

We are celebrating the feast of the Cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light.

As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above.

[...] Had there been no Cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no Cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree.

And if life had not been nailed to it. There would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing.

The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open.

Had there been no Cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the Cross is something wonderfully great and honorable.

It is great because through the Cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory.

The Cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory.

It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death.

But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered.

The barred gates of hell were smashed, and the Cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The Cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his triumph.

We recognize it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake.

As to the Cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once.

And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: “Father, glorify your name”.

Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again”.

Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the Cross.

And if you would understand that the Cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said:

When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the Cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oratio 10 in Exaltatione sanctae crucis (PG 97, 1018-1019, 1022-23), from the Office of Readings for September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Andrew of Crete: We Shall Receive the Word at His Coming, and God, Whom No Limits Can Contain, Will Be Within Us Monday, Apr 18 2011

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives.

Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation.

He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of his own free will to make his journey to Jerusalem.

He comes without pomp or ostentation. As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise his voice to make it heard in the streets.

He will be meek and humble, and he will make his entry in simplicity.

Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion, and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish.

Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

In his humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and he is glad that he became so humble for our sake, glad that he came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself.

And even though we are told that he has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof, surely, of his power and godhead – his love for man will never rest until he has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with his own in heaven.

So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him.

We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him.

Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory.

Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel. 

Andrew of Crete (c.650-740[?]): Oratio 9 for Palm Sunday (PG 97, 990-994) from the Office of Readings for Palm Sunday @ Crossroads Initiative.

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