‘A Final Ray of Light’

 

Thick hordes of demons gather

In the aerial realms to hide

The Light of the Spiritual Sun –

The Ascended Logos of God

And Son of Theotokos Virgin,

United forever to human flesh –

To inaugurate the time of the final,

Fatal deception among Adam’s race.

Darkness descends upon the world,

And man, blind, without discernment,

Stumbles, to their great satisfaction,

Falling further, sinking deeper,

Into the abyss of destructive acts.

 

But Divine Light has not been extinguished

Utterly in the earth; it still shines

Brilliantly from the bodies and souls

Of holy men and women, the solace

Of all those suffering the demons’

Torments.  They shriek in a twisting

Agony of rage at the sight,

The Grace streaming from this tiny remnant

Still a burning flame that sears the sinful,

Unclean spirits, driving them in their envy

And anguish to a fevered madness,

Longing to murder the pure lamps of Light.

 

And so they seized you, Brother José,

The Chosen of the Mother of God,

A final ray of Light shining

Upon the dying world, and with all

The furious hatred of the devil’s kind,

They beat and mutilated you

Until Christ God called your soul to His side –

Desperate that repentance and humility

Be driven from the world forever,

And the wonder-working Iveron Icon,

Destroyed.

 

                        How spectacularly have they failed!

The body they maimed and killed has become

An even brighter light than before,

A source of more miracles, fresh consolations,

Increased sanctification.  The Iveron

Icon also has returned, gladdening

And strengthening the faithful Orthodox.

 

You were victorious, Great Martyr José,

But the corrupting poison of the serpent

Spreads throughout the world, the dry husk

Of civilization decaying in the dusk.

Gird us for the final hour,

When spiritual invalids

And demon-possessed, with glassy eye

But flinty step, will attack us

With their torture tools to break mind and body,

And kill us if our souls they can’t convert.

May the blood of Christians not be lacking then!

Nor few be the martyrs’ relics!

That the parched earth, withered by unrighteousness,

May be refreshed, and clothed in splendid verdure,

To welcome fittingly the Savior

When once again He comes, to close the age.

***

An abundance of details about the holy New Martyr Jose Munoz-Cortes (+30-31 Oct. 1997) is available here:

https://eadiocese.org/josemuozcortes

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!