Poem: Give Me That Stranger, Byzantine Liturgy

Joseph went to Pilate, pleading with him and cried out:
Give me that Stranger
Who since his youth
Has wandered as a stranger.

Give me that Stranger
Upon whom I look with wonder,
Seeing him a guest of death.

Give me that Stranger
Whom envious men
Estrange from the world.

Give me that Stranger
That I may bury him in a tomb,
Who being a stranger has no place
Whereon to lay his head.

Give me that stranger
To whom his mother cried out
As she saw him dead:

“My Son, my senses are wounded
And my heart is burned
As I see you dead!
Yet, trusting in your resurrection,
I magnify you!”