NOTE: — 42 —

[...confirms] our hope in the ineffable, philanthropic expiation of the Son of God, our Savior, by saying: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with God, Jesus Christ the righteous [and] the spotless: and he is the expiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world” (1 Cathol. ii. 1–2). Unto which the holy Apostle Paul also beareth witness in many places (Rom. iii. 25; Heb. ii. 17). Behold, remembering all these testimonies, let us look once more unto our angelic holy Doctor, Grigor of Narek, who supremely exalteth the divine, wondrous, expiating, and justifying graces, saying: “Especially since doubly exalted and glorious are—and beyond the measure of speech's weighing supreme—the reconciliations of my perturbation, and [its] powerfully effective purgations” (*Narek*, ch. 31). And he prayeth: “Heavenly King, most high Sovereign, Lord of all, expectation of all . . . blessed place of expiation, dissolver of sins, banisher of pains” (*ibid.*, ch. 84). Indeed we have said, “Expiation and remission are granted from the sanctifying mystery of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be an expiation through faith by his blood” (Rom. iii. 23, 25). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 John iv. 10). Therefore, this mystery of the holy and immortal Sacrifice, which is ever performed within the holy Church for the salvation of the souls of the living and the departed, is truly worthy to be called an expiation of sins, and the holy Catholic Church, a mystical *kʿawaran* [place of expiation/purgatory]. For the proof of our words, look unto the celebrant priest, and see what he prayeth: “In this tabernacle of holiness and place of doxology, habitation of angels and expiatory place of men, before these God-receiving and glorified holy signs and holy place, bowed down in fear, we worship,” etc. And lifting up the holy Sacrament visibly before the people, he proclameth aloud unto all the power of the ineffable graces, saying: “Of the holy, holy, precious Bod[y...”]