-- Saint Joseph the Hymnographer from his hymn “Let Us Now Our Voices Raise”

Let us now our voices raise,

Wake the day with gladness;

God Himself to joy and praise

Turns our human sadness;

Joy that martyrs won their crown,

Opened heav’ns bright portal,

When they laid the mortal down

For the life immortal.

Never flinched they from the flame,

From the torment never;

Vain the tyrant’s sharpest aim,

Vain each fierce endeavor:

For by faith they saw the land

Decked in all its glory,

Where triumphant now they stand

With the victor’s story.

Up and follow, Christian men!

Press through toil and sorrow;

Spurn the night of fear, and then,

O the glorious morrow!

Who will venture on the strife;

Who will first begin it?

Who will grasp the land of life?

Warriors, up and win it!

-- Saint Joseph the Hymnographer from his hymn “Let Us Now Our Voices Raise”