Patristic Quote of the Day

This is the Body that was slain upon the cross and underwent the preliminaries of the slaying by suffering fear and agony and flowing with sweat, by being betrayed, arrested, and enduring lawless judges.  In its "testimony under Pontius Pilate it made the good confession," as Paul says; it paid the penalty of death for this confession, and that upon the cross.  It received lashes upon the back, nails in the hands and feet, the lance in the side; it suffered pain by being scourged, and torment by being nailed.  The Blood springing out of the wounds darkened the sun and shook the earth; it hallowed the air and washed the whole world clean from the filth of sin. - St. Nicholas Cabasilas, *The Life in Christ* p. 120