“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the ancients; and the number of them was thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: ‘The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction.’ And every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them: I heard all saying: ‘To him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction, and honour, and glory, and power, for ever and ever.’ And the four living creatures said: ‘Amen.’ And the four and twenty ancients fell down on their faces, and adored him that liveth for ever and ever.”
St. John then hears the voice of many angels beyond the living creatures and the ancients: “Thousand of thousands ministered to him, and then thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him: the judgment sat, and books were opened” (Daniel 7:10). Of important note here is that the liturgy on earth is a mystical participation in the heavenly liturgy, with man truly finding himself in liturgical celebration: “I will therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands, without anger and contention” (1 Timothy 2:8). The angels cry out in a loud voice, just as one in love does not quietly keep their love to themselves, but speaks on the beloved often and boldly: “For Sion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest till her just one come forth as brightness, and her saviour be lighted as a lamp” (Isaias 62:1). Because love sees its zenith in the Passion: “It is consummated” (John 19:30), for Jesus went into the fires of the greatest torment one has ever known that He may grasp your soul to be His: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), and therefore He is worthy to receive the love of your soul, heart, mind, and actions, represented by power, riches, wisdom, and strength: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30), which comes by honoring, glorifying, and blessing the Lord in all that you do: “Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In all things give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). In this translation, however, there is mentioned divinity rather than riches, denoting that the power, divinity, wisdom, and strength are all aspects of God, aspects of love that are seen in the life of Jesus Christ: “Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” (John 14:10). When one is in love, everything that reminds the lover of the beloved fills their hearts with singing, and since all things were created by God, in every created thing can the lover of God find a reminder of their Beloved: “Bless the Lord, all his works: in every place of his dominion, O my soul, bless thou the Lord” (Psalm 102:22), and thus does every creature sing a song of praise to God and the Lamb, who is coequal to the Father: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2), to which all Sacred Scripture points, thus do the elders fall down and declare “amen,” showing that the Word is the Divine Bridegroom who became man and died on the cross, purely from an abundance of love.