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Meditations

For Services of the Holy Sophia
in the Month of August


THE COLLECT

O High and Lofty Ones who dwell in the eternal realm, whose names are holy, we your children call upon your majesty. O Father Christ and Mother Sophia, as the world goes to rest, hushed are the movements of creatures and of monsters in the deep. And you are the just ones who know no change, the equity that swerveth not, the everlasting that passeth not away. The doors of the rulers are locked, watched by their bodyguards; but your door is open to those who call on you. Grant that the end of our earthly lives be the best of our lives, that our closing acts be our best acts, and may the best of our days be the day when we shall return to your house and into the embrace of your blessed arms.

Amen.


THE LESSON

The Lesson is taken from the song of the Mother of all Grace, the Book of Ecclesiasticus:

I bud forth delights like the vine, my blossoms become fruit fair and rich. I am the Mother of the gift of love, of the fear and the knowledge of God, and the just man's hope. In me is every boon of truth and of the way; in me is all hope of virtue and of life. Come to me all that yearn for me, and be filled with my fruits; My spirit is sweeter than honey, a better heritage than the honeycomb; the remembrance of me is for age upon age. He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more; he who obeys me will not be put to shame, he who serves me will never fail. They who reflect my brightness will have eternal life.


THE GOSPEL

The Gospel is taken from the Apocryphon of John:

When I, John, heard these words, I fled the Temple; I withdrew to the desert, grieving greatly, and I cried aloud: "How then was the Saviour appointed, and why was he sent to us by his Father? And what did he mean when he said to us, 'The realm to which you shall go is imperishable?" While I sat contemplating these things, lo, the heavens opened and the world shook and trembled beneath my feet in the light I beheld a youth who stood beside me. Even as I looked he became like an old man, then like a servant. Yet there were not three before me, but one, with multiple forms appearing through each other as though transparent. He said to me: "John, John, why do you doubt? I am the one who is with you always. I am the Father. I am the Mother. I am the Son."


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