"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." (Isaiah 42:6,7)
"O crucified One, thou leader of the mystical dances! O this spiritual wedding feast! O divine Pasch that passes from heaven to earth and rises up again to heaven! O joy of the universe, honour, ecstasy, exquisite delight by which dark death is destroyed, life returns to all and the gates of heaven are opened! God appeared as a man and man rose up as God when He shattered the gates of hell and burst the iron bolts thereof. And the people that were in the depth arise from the dead and announce to all the hosts of heaven: The thronging choir from earth is coming home." Hyppolitus of Rome (d. c. 236)
