A Prayer for Friday

You, O Lord, are truly the pure and eternal source of goodness.
You have justly turned your face from us, and in loving-kindness you have had mercy upon us.
You hated and reconciled;
You have cursed, and have blessed;
We have been banished from Paradise by You, and you have remembered us;
You strip off our shoddy fig-leaves, and clothe us with a costly garment;
You have opened the prison doors and have released the condemned;
You have sprinkled us with clean water, and washed away our filthiness.
No longer will Adam hide from You when called, convicted by conscience, cowering in the brush.
No longer will the flaming sword flash before Paradise, making entrance inaccessible when we draw near;
All has been turned to joy for we who were once the heirs of sin:
Man can walk into Paradise and Heaven:
Creation, world below and world above, once separated from itself, has been knit together in friendship:
Man is made to join with the angels’ song, offering praise in worship to their God.
For all these things, let us sing for joy to God
Let us sing with lips touched by the Spirit long ago.
Let my soul be joyful in the Lord: for He has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and hath put upon me a robe of gladness: as on a bridegroom He hath set a mitre upon me, and as a bride hath He adorned me with fair array-Isaiah 61:10
The One who adorns the bride with splendor is Christ, Who is, and was, and shall be, blessed now and for evermore. Amen.

-Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c.394)
On the Baptism of Christ