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| Basilica of San Clemente |
Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified.
Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree.
And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing.
The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled,
we should not have attained our freedom,
we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life
and the gates of paradise would not stand open.
Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.
St. Andrew of Crete from the Office of Reading for the day
AMDG
Wonderful, Janet. Thank you. That apse mosaic, from San Clemente, is my favourite in all the world.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Craig. I wish I could go see it.
ReplyDeleteAMDG
I wish you could too. Have you never been there?
ReplyDeleteNo, Mexico is the only country I've ever visited. I would love to go to Ravenna, too. But then, there are so many places I would love to go.
ReplyDeleteAMDG
I hope you are able to go to Rome one day. It is a wonderful place for a Catholic, needless to say, and San Clemente is one of its lesser-known gems. One can look at that apse mosaic for hours. (And for a break, you can wander downstairs and see the remains of a fourth-century church built on the same site (and then wander further downstairs and find an old Roman temple, and hear the water still flowing through the ancient aquaducts)).
ReplyDeleteJust testing to see if I can do this.
ReplyDelete