Salutation #178

Of the third of the Stars
seduced by the Pride of Lucifer
who as Satan rebelled against the LORD,
all of the First who fell with the Dragon of War
hid themselves from the LORD Who is their Light
to become for All that Darkness which is apart from God;
a Darkness which is utterly hostile to all things in the LORD,
a Darkness which at the fall of the Dragon overtook the Night
and at the Division of the Firmament became a restless Desolation -
the Void of the Desolation of the Angels, that Night without a Twilight.

(The Void of the Desolation of the Angels)

All that became - the Darkness -
that became for All Creation - that Darkness -
which is of that spirit that is apart from the LORD,
being of Satan and all his fallen and reprobate angels
who at the hour of their final defeat at the Mount of Zion
at the hand of Holy Michael and the loyal Hosts of the LORD,

through the unyielding Light and infinite Power of the one Almighty,

became struck down by the power and weight of each their own sin
were all who hid in sheer terror of God, to fall forever away from Truth -
the Cherubs from their shining Wisdom, the Thrones from their golden Justice,
the Dominions from their limitless Nobility, the Virtues from each their Celestial Arcs,
the Powers from each the Fire of their Zeal, the Archangels from each their Spirit Mastery,
the Principalities from each their Great and Powerful Motions, and the Angels from each Other -
to become something else: Theirs was this Darkness, swift and terrible, corrupted, and infinitely less
than the Glory of who they were and the Greatness of what they were in the LORD and for Our God.

For the Sin of the Satan who was once Lucifer,
the first and the brightest of all the Stars of the Morning,
and the Scandal of the Dragon who - as it fell from the Light,
stole from the LORD, our God, a third of the First of His Sons
struck down from the Glory of Firmament, the Original Unity
of the Everlasting Waters, dividing forever Night and Day!

And theirs is the Night that was from Heaven expelled forever by the prevailing of the Day,
theirs the War that ruptured the Heavens, Divided the Firmament, and sundered our native Skies!
Theirs is this Night and the terrors that lay within the Darkness that stand against our Morning,
theirs is the cold of this Winter and the long nights that must come to pass before the newness of Spring,
theirs is the Void of the Desolation of the Angels and the Oblivion at the vanishing of all that never was
for theirs, at the sinking of every moment, is the dust of every sin and the ashes of every transgression
theirs, the hell fire and the worm, the prison and pit, the despair and Darkness - deaths without a Death,
theirs, the unknowing of all that is, the recall of all human and angelic memory, and the absence of God,
for all Evil is theirs, Satan's who was once Lucifer and his rebellious angelic host fallen from Heaven.
Yea, all of this is theirs, who by the guilt of their own allegiance and the testimony of their own faith
freely undertook to forever belong - neither to the LORD - nor to each other in God -
being in Eternity found to be neither in Service to the Truth that God is - that the LORD is! -
either during the Blessed Hours of the Day or the Holy Watches of the Night, one God forever!

Theirs is that Darkness 
which is not of the Darkness (of Creation)
that at the Council of the First imparted upon the Holy Angels,
a persevering grace of God and an overcoming love of All His Truth
and upon the evil and fallen angels, a blindness that confounded their pride...

And theirs is that Night 
which was not of the Night (of the Day)
that at the Council of the First hid from the penetrating wisdom of Lucifer,
even before the pride of Satan had spread to stain the realms of heaven and earth,
the Plan of the Father with the Son and the Mission of the Incarnation of the Savior of All...

For the Night that hid the babe Jesus Christ from the evil and tyranny of mortal Kings,
gave His Protector and Human Father, Joseph, the dream that took them to the safety of Egypt
embraced Him throughout all His blessed years on earth, shielded Him from the plans of evil men,
gave Him necessary aid and comfort in Gethsemane, and on the Cross so zealously waited on Him
is the very same Night that even before those times, now enshrined in the Memory of the Faithful,
gave to Him, that Hour of Our Final Victory; the Darkness that these days in behalf of the living earth
conceals for our safety, behind mere accidents of bread and wine, the Real Presence of Our Emmanuel
Who is our Light, our Life, and our Salvation - the Glory of All Creation - Who Being of the Truth, One -
is God - in Love of the Truth in Love with the Truth - the Son, and Splendor of the Father Forever!

And indeed, unto this Night forever belong this Darkness
that hid for every present time the Decree of the LORD from Eternity
that sealed for Satan through the Darkness of their own making, their Final Defeat,
and throughout God's purposes in time, hid from the Sin of the angels and the sins of Man,

through the quiet of its Solitude in God and with God, at the calm of those memorable Twilight walks -
the Peace of the LORD both in the Redemption of Man and in the Remembrance of the Nations
(of the children of Mankind) and preserved for All in all - the hope in the good will of All for all.

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