Together with these blessed powers, loving Master we sinners also cry out and say: Truly You are holy and most holy, and there are no bounds to the majesty of Your holiness. You are holy in all Your works, for with righteousness and true judgment You have ordered all things for us.
(Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, p. 25)
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My soul yearns for Thee in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks Thee. For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:9
The English translation of the prayer we are about to reflect on over the next several days consists of less than 700 words and these words, written so beautifully by St. Basil in the 4th Century, summarize the entire history of our salvation, from the Creation, to the Fall, to the coming of Christ, to the second Coming of Christ.
The phrase “together with these blessed powers” refers to the order of the angels that were mentioned at the end of the last…