Like Garments and Branches

“Let us say to Christ:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,
the king of Israel.
Let us wave before him like palm branches
the words inscribed above him on the cross.
Let us show him honor,
not with olive branches,
but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another.
Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts
under his feet like garments,
so that he may draw the whole of our being into himself
and place the whole of his in us.”

~ Andrew of Crete, eighth-century martyr