Letter 11: To the brothers of Mt. Izla on the death of their superior

Letter 11: To the brothers of Mount Izla on the death of their superior. To the servant of God, our holy father Mar Ḥabib, together with the blessed fathers and the holy brothers who are with him in the ministry of the Spirit, striving diligently: the son, within the love of your fatherhood, Ishoʿyahb, in our Lord, peace. Never did I expect, O holy ones of God, that I would be shaken by the impact of adversities. I was prepared to see the fulfillment of my desire, with the course of good intention, and in all this humility, so that not only was the benefit from your company lost through negligence, but also the entire consolation of joyful hopes was stripped away by the letter. Yet the pain that befell me is even greater, because on your side it is no less than what is on mine: the power of the event was exhausted in its entirety. I trust, however, in our Lord, that soon the restoration of all things will be found through the encounter of your love, filling every consolation. For those who have endured the tablets of affliction until now, both inwardly and especially among the strong, will be released. Through them, the joy of the faces will be sweetened, with God’s help. But because the demonstration from the daily adversaries conceals our weakness, without any success at all, I have been troubled. I ask of you, and I beseech your excellent care for my need, and how your joy is guided by the grace of God. After you have sent the chief of God to heaven, and that high and perfect head, you have arranged him in the order of the saints. For what more than you befits the glory of blessings, that you fill the kingdom of heaven with holy ones? They, when they taught the orders of the spiritual ministry in the angelic form to the seekers in the East, and from the material world were raised to the life of incorruptibility.

in you, as in pure gold, the weight of their conduct is fixed. And the excellent image of the fear of God is the profit of their diligence in you, in the contests of their labors. For from these and like these, when he was the head, that blessed and holy father of all, our father Mar Ḥabib, to whom from those who at one time were renewed in the spirit of their mind according to the commandment of the Apostle: that it is not fitting for the blessed to be considered a cessation of the perfect in the time of rest. And the remainder of the praise for the times to come. For even he mingles with joy the affliction of bodily pain. For he was always standing firm on the foundation of the true son. But he made the bitterness of pain sweet by the demonstration of the deeds that occurred. In that it comes by the hands of God, as it is written, even from the dead he is able to raise up in every generation the living who are suitable for the confirmation of his truths. I also trust that until the end the blessing of his grace is preserved in you fittingly for the demonstration of his love towards his saints. Remember therefore the days that are daily, in which you endured great contests in the pains for the sake of truth. And that you were spectators of the struggle against the destroyers of faith. And you endured the joy of the power of the mighty. And you did not leave the covering of their error. For even in a small word the light of truth is obscured. But in the revelation of truth for the proclamation of good confession before all your persecutions. And the victory of your martyrdom even the mouths of enemies are compelled to proclaim. For these daily memorials you have acquired in every place the martyrs of your standing in the holy Church. To preserve the truth of faith in a fitting confession. And to increase in the work of the conduct of the spirit which the ancient fathers delivered.

he is taken from among you, then, as I said, the completion of his work is accomplished with the help of God, as is my own hope. There is, therefore, nothing lacking in the good and perfect hope. Nor is there anything that is equal to prayer among those who seek the fullness of the power of the Spirit. But everything, in every remembrance, suffices for my joy. And that it might endure alone forever, I pray for such goodness as this. For the glory of truth and the measure of the righteous, I entreat your fatherly love: that through the prayer of your holiness, the remembrance of my weakness may be adorned, so that I may be strengthened, and the remainder of my days may be spent in a life that is pleasing to the will of God.