Who caused the waters to be filled with fish, and the air with birds, and the earth with flocks and herds and beasts, all after their kind,

and Who at last created man, and gave him dominion over the earth, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea... and over the birds of the air... and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Indeed, Theodoulos, only He can restore man to the dignity of lord over nature, Who gave it to him from the beginning, and man has destroyed this dignity by his sin, like that prodigal son, who, having separated from his father, destroyed his property and became the servant of an evil master;

only He Who from time to time returned this Divine gift to individual righteous and His chosen ones;

Who, through His servant Moses, performed ten terrible miracles in Egypt;

Who divided the Red Sea, and led His people on the dry bottom of the sea;

Who cut the rock in the wilderness, and brought forth water for the thirsty people;

Who rained manna from heaven to feed the hungry in the wilderness;

Who, through his servant Joshua, stopped the sun and moon as long as he had his will;

Who destroyed the pagan armies and granted victory to the weak, but more righteous;

Who made childless old women mothers;

Who, through the prophet Elijah, shut up the heavens so that it would not rain for forty-two months;

Who commanded the earth sometimes to give a bountiful harvest of wheat, fruit, and grapes for the sustenance of men, sometimes to grow such a crop for the sustenance not of men, but of worms and caterpillars, and sometimes not to produce any at all, all by the faith and chastity of men;

Who, through innumerable miracles, showed men that He had not lost the power which man had lost in his folly, but possessed it at all times and in abundance - power over nature and over the natural order;