There Is No Deceit

ST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN

In times of temptation
console yourselves with God’s promises,
for there is no deceit
in the word of Him who repays all,
and His treasure house is not so paltry
that we should doubt His promise;
He has surrendered His own Son for us
So that we might believe in Him;
His Body is with us,
His assurance is with us,
He came and gave us His keys,
since it is for us that His treasures lie waiting.

RESPONSE: Blessed is He who, with His keys, has opened up the Garden of Life.

In the evening the world sleeps,
closing its eyes,
while in the morning it arises.
He who repays is distant
as it were but a night’s length away;
now light dawns and He is coming.
Weary not, my brethren,
nor suppose
that your struggle will last long,
or that your resurrection is far off,
for our death is already behind us,
and our resurrection before us.

Bear us, O life of mourning,
so that you may attain to Paradise;
its dew will wash off your squalor,
while what it exudes will render you fragrant;
its support will afford rest after your toil,
its crown will give you comfort,
it will proffer you fruits
in your hunger,
fruits that purify those who partake of them;
in your thirst
it will provide for you a celestial draught,
one that makes wise those who drink of it.

Hymns on Paradise (pp. 119,120)

All His Craftsmanship

ST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN

The keys of doctrine
which unlock all of Scripture’s books,
have opened up before my eyes
the book of creation,
the treasure house of the Ark,
the crown of the Law.
This is a book which above its companions,
has in its narrative
made the Creator perceptible
and transmitted His actions;
it has envisioned all His craftsmanship,
made manifest His works of art.

RESPONSE: Blessed is He who through His Cross has flung open Paradise.

Scripture brought me
to the gate of Paradise,
and the mind, which is spiritual,
stood in amazement and wonder as it entered,
the intellect grew dizzy and weak
as the senses were no longer able
to contain its treasure —
so magnificent they were —
or to discern its savors
and find any comparison for its colors,
or take in its beauties
so as the describe them in words.

Paradise surrounds the limbs
with its many delights;
the eyes, with its handiwork,
the hearing, with its sounds,
the mouth and the nostrils,
with its tastes and scents.
Blessed is that person who has gathered for himself
the company of all
who have kept vigil and fasted;
they, in return for their fasts,
shall delight to graze
upon its luxurious pastures.

Hymns on Paradise (pp. 106-108)

That Blessed Tree

ST. EPHREM THE SYRIAN

As for that part of the Garden, my beloved,
which is situated so gloriously
at the summit of that height
where dwells the Glory,
not even its symbol
can be depicted in man’s thought;
for what mind
has the sensitivity
to gaze upon it,
or the faculties to explore it,
or the capacity to attain to that Garden
whose riches are beyond comprehension.

RESPONSE: Praise to Your Justice that crowns the victorious.

Perhaps that blessed tree,
the Tree of Life,
is, by its rays,
the sun of Paradise;
its leaves glisten,
and on them are impressed
the spiritual graces
of that Garden.
In the breezes the other trees
bow down as if in worship
before that sovereign
and leader of the trees.

In the very midst He planted
the Tree of Knowledge,
endowing it with awe,
hedging it in with dread,
so that it might straightway serve
as a boundary to the inner region of Paradise.
Two things did Adam hear
in that single decree:
that they should not eat of it
and that, by shrinking from it,
they should perceive that it was not lawful
to penetrate further, beyond that Tree.

Hymns on Paradise (pp. 90,91)