On Bishop Acacius

On Bishop Acacius — Balai of Balsh Memre of Mar Balai of Balsh. On Mar Acacius the blessed bishop. On the tone of "O Mar Bgayik." Father, in your feast, do good to me by grace. And offer a prayer to your Lord that he give to me. That I may say your victory. Your fatherhood did not cease, my Lord did not stop. And he opened and gave to me, not that which was worthy of my fatherhood, but that which you yourself deemed worthy. All the beautiful praises of the saints were in your monastery, the priests. And you hastened to your people. And you sowed purity. The high commands were your companion in youth. And your eye in children hid caution. Of chastity and righteousness. Whoever heard your word and believed? Or whoever saw your conduct and was persuaded? Your witness was your labor. For the love of God you dwelt in deed. And after his truth you divided his words. So that companions might increase for you. For those who were strong, your heart was a secret. And for those who were weak, your voice was weak. So that with the strong you might contend. There was no one who could stand against your kingdom without perishing. And there was no one who was lacking who heard from you and did not. And you labored that it might be for him. For the rich man heard from you that his treasure was there at his death. That he might not rise nor sleep, and armies came. With blood and confusion. Whose hand did I stretch out that they might rise or fall? With your word I supported those who were standing. That they might not fall and die. You sent forth the victory to the love of the saints. And in the generation of your standing, you were not alone. And you cried out, "It is in vain." You were persecuted in it without fear in the desert of armies. That your standing alone in the world passed and wandered. Instead of wealth, love. Your merchandise which you stored, you placed it before every man. For you were peace and for the weary, consolation. That like you there is none. You were tested in inheritance, and in you my friends were tested. For you are clothed in flesh, and no shame was in you. For your rest was fasting. That your body did not sustain evil, nor did it diminish you.

The darkness of night did not cover you, nor did it stand before you. You reigned over the toil of your soul and were wearied. And the body that helped it, its soul was chosen. Its advantage was inward. Its habits the body left, and it settled with the soul. And when it saw that its bread was its food, fasting and prayer. And when your body was accustomed to the feasts of your spirit, it pleased its food, turned and became of spirit, so that its bread would not perish. And good conduct gave it wings. To the body that with the soul flew and arrived at that light of the church. Whose son of his voice was twofold. One standing was for you, O venerable father. And in him the beauties of each one individually increased. He surpassed his companions. And whoever saw him was astonished and marveled that in one man there are such likenesses of many ascetics. In your body the purity of your virginity was adorned. Its beauty remained in you, its fruit flourished in you. In its goodness it enriched you. It gave in you the light of its dwelling that it found in you. And when its shoots were hidden, they were pressed with you, so that again it would be adorned. Again your will drove desire from your body, so that the cheek of the pride of the ruling soul would not find a base. There was no cheap lodging in your body. And against that, hunger did not anger in your virginity, for all its hours were with you. And against its purity, its companions shone. Fasting, alms, and helpers were for it. In your fasting for purity, the blessedness that you gave to Elijah stands. You did not wrong the dwelling in which its spirit was. Its advantage was in height. Your strength, O valiant one, overcame difficulties in you, for your will cut the thoughts of your body. With your sword of holiness, the hidden and subtle things placed in your body, all these beautiful things that are said, while there are those that are left. The beauty of your youth your manhood preserved, from a pure womb to a glorious tomb.

In a chosen body you were born, and your conduct was pure. As if a birth took you, death took your reward to a grave without bonds, and the grave could not endure your purity. It gave birth and gave you to the contest of the kingdom, while in you your beauty was recompensed. Your toil was rewarded and your victory enriched. And as much as it was passing, it was doing; and it conquered and prevailed over the difficult old age that is easy for the young. And the labor of your old age and the young were amazed at it. And they ran and did not surpass you. Your foot was strong in the walking of the path, for the brilliance of your way was heavy with stones, so that you might pursue without stumbling. Your body was weak, but your labor was strong. The body was small, but your running was great, for your strength was diminished. Its members were worn out, the body was emaciated, its joints were loosened. Your body remained, for the vigilant soul was in it. The toils of your body did not constrain your soul, for you pursued purity against the habits of the flesh, so that your spirit might live. Your heel was placed upon the head of the serpent, so that your mind might not be overturned and your standing be disturbed, and you with it would die. And the power of your thought diminished the love of it, so that in it you might take and kill the thoughts, the disturbances of the body. All the agitations of the passions were stilled and silenced in you, and they became dead things whose months were fulfilled, and their wickedness did not come forth. You gave birth to truth, you killed falsehood, for your will was a sword that slaughtered evil things and gave life to good things. You denied your body, you subdued rebellion, for there is no one who has conquered it from its body. You conquered all that you conquered. The craftsman of the victory of your purity, who conquered one body, killed two impurities, for wickedness was first before him. And also for you, your craftsman king counseled you, that you should resist your body and obey your soul, so that both might live, the third being the son of his voice.

In the likeness of a chosen body you were, and to the flesh of man you were clothed. Like you, the victor, without confusion, you went forth first. And when the contest was in the body, you labored, to clothe the free ones. To her, then, you taught the hand that you were doing. And that very thing you were doing, the hand of the commandment, that it might be with your Lord. Your mouth spoke, and your labor was witness. That the fruits of your interpretation filled your palms. The deeds and works that were in your mouth were alive in your body. To the word that was not sent, your deed confirmed. With words and actions of death, as written in your soul, you showed. That you did not first do what you said. What you did, that mouth of yours set as law for every man. And the ears that heard you testified to the eye of your interpretation. In you, your teaching was sweet to the hearers, O father. That which was spread over your yoke, a saying for your tongue. And witnesses in houses, even in thought, did not begin your hearers. That the word of your tongue, in the beauty of your salvation, fixed within your body, ears and houses. Truth hear and see. That when the ear hears, behold, the eye is pleased. In hearing and in sight, you taught well. Because you did, and your words were received because of your works. That your Lord helped in you, so that he could cause the fruits of your interpretation to flourish. Your standing endured the weight that was cut, and placed your tongue. One was your tree and its fruits many. That in one man, beauties that are not few, which were spread over you. Like houses, a sight was prepared, and you ate the hearing, the voice of purity. That your mouth sang. Every day the fruits of your branches are plucked, and quickly the free ones are born in their place. That every day your trusts are born, your Lord who desired your standing.

On living waters and every day I was paying, the fruits of steadfastness. The apostle wrote the book of the Spirit, and I received it. It was pure in you beneath him, and it was not that I called him, but that I guarded him. The paths in the changes of his head were for you in his commands. And I was a traveler who sufficed for the roads, to show the tumult. In the furnace of his afflictions your freedom passed. In his own I saw, in your own I was a mystery. That he might be like you in his labor. On the sea and on the days I proclaimed and was troubled. And behold, on the sea also you, and in the four regions. In the church I labored. That pure one whom the apostle wrote, I was clothed in her. And concerning the churches in every place I labored, that your Lord might be pleased. To the wall of the ruined one, with your hour I knocked. And the heights of wrath I lowered with love, that the church might be established. Heavy honor I considered light, that I might add labor, that I might remember the reward. That it was cut short for your weariness. I asked with prayer and brought near your lineage. I labored in you for the hour of your love, my shepherding. I pleased your Lord in you. That the son of the voice of four might turn to your lineage, the one who was helped by your staff. That I might love your love, which does not cease from the mystery, for the being of Hades in it. Every day I was seeking that I might see you beside me. And that my mind might rejoice in you, my prayer might be glad in you, and your sanctity my love. My thought rested in you, and it pressed the hour, that the revelation that suffices for you might not be hidden. For the being was considered. That he who sought to be pure in you came and saw, your dwelling of the poor and your hand of the givers. That until the child in the womb. Every day I sowed and your treasure was abundant. And your hand of the spacious did not conquer your wealth in your hand. Your Lord was giving. Your dwelling was poor and your hand rich. That every day it was full for the hungry of the Syrians, the fruits of righteousness. For the feast of your hand, your Lord was moved.

Your custom is to remain, the custom of Acacius. The loves of the giver, the benefits of your dwelling are abundant and empty, and the hollows of your fingers are full and flowing. To the rocks of satiety, you purified your hand which raised your treasure, to give the myrrh and the wine and to fill your wealth. That your Lord is great with you, and that you performed his commandments, your will performed. That I called them and with you and the treasures were hidden. That your hand be praised, you took from your Lord the reward for your own. And he added and increased for you because you taught the freeborn. That visions and likenesses, as one worthy of the fast, I approached in love, and I began in the tent for the belly with pleasures. Your fragrance in time, you did not eat greedily, nor did you fast arrogantly. You divided the balances against errors, and you shone for your whole. And when I did eat, I was serving the fast, that your pure table was entirely a fast. That I was supporting the body, so that the body might not be bound and remain with the course. I conquered them so that the soul might not flee from within it. Until the hair of its way, a severe fast did not pass you by, an old man... and your companions who are weak, and I strengthened your fast. Against the walkers, your fast was not proud over the one who is weak, and your mouth was not restrained over the one who eats. That with everyone you might be, a wonder is seen, a sin in you is forgiven for your distinction, that when you ate, it was a fast, and when you fasted, it was a meal. And the two were one. For you ate so that you would not lack, and you fasted again so that you would not stumble. Your food was help, and your fast was profit. That your death might remain in you, you completed the scriptures and did not eat alone, and in the evening I was fasting so that with everyone you might be. That you might help the blind, you set your table in the likeness of your interpretation. That your holy mouth praised gloriously, and ate purely, that it spoke of hidden things and ate of pure things, and interpreted concerning the fast and completed its lips.

of his word in him you will complete, and you helped | your fast and increased your table. That you might be a lamp in you and a belly you made small in you, you desired the good news for every man whom you taught that you were standing as an example, that the apostle who wrote the one of my completion. In your person I saw your splendor in the church, your humility in the marketplace. The church went astray, your heart in every place where it was loosed. Your holy body the bone of your love in every place a Levite to you. That your voice might be heard and the door opened by your vision, examples from your body. Of five the son of his voice. Now then boast that my eulogy is completed. And your prayer, my salvation, which you established openly. That you did not disobey your command at the time of separation, boasting is fitting. That there is no hope until the end. That full of life all the days of my life I walked in a fragment, because I was pursuing the margins of the shore. Now then the fragment remains, the seal is the end that guards the merchandise. That receives the current and delivers the deposit. To each according to his labor, bodies are entrusted and labors are enriched. And bodies are nourished and actions come. And rewards are given. Be silent, full of old age, the body upon the dust. And as its movements cease, its labors are not forgotten. For the wise one writes them. Deeds and errors, and you kept yours. At the time of judgment they are called in the hearing, the works you performed and whose benefits are lost, he seeks before his eyes. And his blessedness when he sees that his benefits have not passed away, his evils have come. In the world I was a fragment that came to you with my labors. That evil one in pretexts hid snares. I brought out from his webs, at your door I stood by night and by day. That I thought that I would not begin to be weary of the righteous. If the spirit runs, to a hundred years of life in reward I reached with you. And like the first day I labored at the last.

of your abundance you increased and beautified. You kindled a fire like a treasure for the poor. The runners of the day of the feast were made to stand still. You diminished vainglory. Your hearing was salvation, and you kept your commandment. And now, a father seeks the interpretation of your words. The poor who clung to you, every day a contrary wind would change their battles. By the reward of my faith, I would cause his limbs to tremble, and I broke his victory. I did not fulfill my desire in my lawful marriages, and there was no place for fornication in my youth. Your course rolled me along, it settled and prayed for me, evil and not righteous. And I saw and called out to him who did not place in your work. One oath of the old man passed through his assemblies, and his bonds did not hinder me. And I stood in his battles and kept my members. From the beginning of his limb, his whole did not thirst, nor did his sword thirst. I entered into his snares and passed through his limbs, and I came out victorious. For you, joy in my feast, because I kept my pure standing. And for my enemy, mourning that he did not convict my whole, and his limb did not diminish me. With me you strengthened my joy, for you my feast is joy. And the good governor of my thought was subtle in secret. I brought forth and did not weep, I left you with evil to make a disturbance, and I did not diminish your praise, lest your work be not accomplished. From the truth of your help, my savior, I was anointed for battle. And every day I would approach and every day I would be ashamed. By your movement I was victorious, I did not conquer in his battles, for your grace was with me. He turned and placed a snare for me, and I came to his secret. I proclaimed his desires, I was despising his wine, for I remembered your portion. I drank the dregs, for I remembered the bitters. His servants approached you. I set up for you the life that I saw on your cross, and I stretched out for you the hands that I saw on the wood. Your bloodied ones, by laughter I would hear and by honor I would announce good news.

your mind was mindful, and to my person you were constrained, that the poor and the stranger might be clothed. In your garments, which they cast off, you clothed the naked. The honor of your neck you covered with the garment of humility. You concealed the praise of yourself.