“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts (Lord of hosts),
fill heaven and earth with Your glory’
The Seraphim’s song is called victorious because the Lord God is the Lord of powers and armies (which means the very name of Hosts), the conqueror of death and hell. The repetition of the similar words “Singing, crying, crying and speaking” depicts those many-eyed bright spirits (seraphim) seen by St. John the Theologian and the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, hovering around the throne of the Almighty in the form of four animals — an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man, who offered praise to God with their own voices (Rev. 4:68; Ezek. 10:14), and the eagle appears to be singing, the bull or ox is crying, the lion is crying and the man is speaking.
To this seraphic doxology, the Church added a human greeting, which Jewish children, with palm branches in their hands, joyfully proclaimed to the Savior of the world, who solemnly entered Jerusalem: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” – With this greeting, believers greet their Redeemer, as if coming from heaven to the temple to offer Himself on a holy table (throne) as a sacrifice for the salvation of the whole world, crying out: “Holy and holy is the Lord of hosts. Both heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Blessed is he who comes in the name and glory of God the Father!” Through this combination of the seraphim’s song with human glorification, it is expressed that at the Divine Liturgy of the Lord the most heavenly forces are invisibly praised with the believers, which is expressed by the priest in the prayer read at this time: “With these blessed powers, Master, Lover of Mankind, we cry: “Holy and holy art thou, and thy only begotten Son and thy Holy Spirit, art thou holy and most holy, magnificent is Your glory.”
Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko.
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