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but is entirely driven out from their division into parts.

Since, then, the things from which Christ is are preserved without diminution in Christ according to nature even after the union, how is it not just to confess that the things from which Christ is are also after the union, according to some who do not see that it is precarious and dangerous, and involves loss for every soul, to fight against things that are evident and plainly to deny the truth that is, and that this is the peculiar property of those alone who do not expect resurrection and judgment at all? For to whom is the word of truth not manifest and evident, as being simple and unadorned and having nothing riddling at all? For if Christ is God and man in reality and truth after the union, and is not called God and man only by name and appellation, it is clear that the one who says and thinks that Christ is both God and man after the union has truly, by the names, confessed the natures of which they are the names—if indeed he does not think that the appellations are placed on Christ as mere words and wholly devoid of realities. What, then, has the holy catholic Church of God done that is out of place, if it says that the things from which Christ is are preserved in Christ according to nature, without confusion and without division, even after the union? And what has it thought alien to the teaching of the holy Fathers, if it neither holds that the divine nature of the Word has been turned into the nature of the flesh, nor that the nature of the flesh itself has passed over into the nature of the Word because of the union, and teaches the faithful to think and say this after the union?

But what more firmly establishes the teaching of the paternal tradition to think thus, teaching us and confessing one Lord and one Christ, and the same one Son, and one nature of his, the incarnate God the Word, having become flesh—flesh having a soul that is rational and intellectual—taking the phrase according to the interpretation of our holy and blessed Father Cyril? By saying "having become flesh," it understands the meaning of our own essence to be introduced, and does it not deny the nature of the flesh of the Word because of the union? For the things that are preserved by nature without confusion and without change and without division according to an inseparable union in Christ even after the union, without any diminution whatsoever, it is altogether most fitting and most just to confess also after the union. For it is the property of true faith to confess what we have been taught to think. If, then, the things from which Christ is are preserved by nature after the union, it is altogether just to think that they are in Christ after the union. And if it is just to think that the things from which Christ is are preserved after the union, then to confess them would be far more both most just and most fitting, and most earnestly to be pursued by all who care for salvation—since the unimpaired confession according to it is a demonstration of true faith. And these things concerning these matters. For there is no need to say more, since the discourse is being made to you, and to those who, through the grace of those who see into the right faith of Christ, are ignorant of nothing.

Concerning the matters about which you have written to me, most honored ones, I have brought your honored words before the blessed servant of God, the most renowned prefect, and he has promised eagerly to fulfill your every request. And I do not cease reminding him until he brings your request fully to completion. May the Lord and God of all and Savior Jesus Christ, who willingly accepted death for our sake and by his own blood redeemed us from the power of darkness, and gave us the new commandment to love one another as much as we ourselves have been loved—may he take hold of your right hand and guide you into every good work, and direct your steps according to him, bearing you in the fullness of the fruits of righteousness into the wonderful place of his tabernacle, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice.

LETTER 18.... TO WOMEN ASCETICS WHO HAVE DEPARTED FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH...

18. By the same author, in the person of George the most renowned prefect of Africa, to women ascetics who have departed from the catholic Church in Alexandria. I for my part thought that you had truly been well established and had the foundations of your soul unmoved, from the right and pious confession and hope according to the blameless and faultless faith of Christ, revering the grace of God that called you and united you to the living and fresh and blameless body of the holy catholic and apostolic Church; and that it had already healed you who were wasting away with the decaying disease of error and ignorance, and had made you a useful member of the common body of the Church.

according to which the devout, correct, true, and saving word of the apostolic faith is proclaimed as flourishing, making all that is under heaven its own, and always bringing and adding what is lacking to what has already been grasped, and showing that all from the ends of the earth to its ends are one, both soul and tongue, in the Spirit, according to the concord and harmony of the faith; which word the Creator of men, the Word of God, taught us men to confess and embrace, ineffably from men, on behalf of men, truly among men, by the assumption of flesh having a rational and intellectual soul, and not becoming man by a change of divinity, evidently without sin, denying absolutely no nature of his after the union, that is, after the incarnation; neither the divine nature, according to which he is always God both through himself and consubstantial with the Father, and remains so; nor the human nature, according to which the same truly became man for our sake, as a lover of mankind, and is consubstantial with us. For neither was he changed from what he was and is and will always be by nature, God; nor did he change the nature of what he became, man, according to the indissoluble union of an ensouled flesh, being one and the same God and man; being God and man not only by name and appellation, but in reality and

in truth God and man, both existing properly and truly being named. He has the one and single [existence] from the union according to hypostasis, but not according to nature, as the Fathers teach, saying, "For even if the combined whole is one, it is not one in nature by the conjunction"; according to which, economically for our sake as one who is good, he deigned to become composite, [while] the simple according to nature, according to which he is of the same nature and consubstantial with the Father, remains, preserving it unharmed even after the incarnation. For divinity and humanity are not the same. For even if the Word of God has become man, he has become man by the assumption of flesh, rationally united to him according to hypostasis without separation. Therefore the same one is properly both God and man, being that and becoming this; and being both this and that without deficiency; neither confused by the supremely single character of the hypostasis, according to which the principle of difference is entirely absent; nor divided by the purity of the otherness of the natures of which he is composed; according to which the principle of difference is in no way abolished because of the union. Since, therefore, the difference of the natures of which Christ consists is preserved without confusion even after the union, there is not, as I think, any principle able to show completely that it is right for the quantity of those who differ naturally and are preserved in Christ according to union not to be confessed without separation; because every difference necessarily introduces with itself a quantity of certain things differing from one another in some respect. For no one, however resourceful and inventive, will ever be able to say that difference exists without quantity, if he thinks rightly and makes even a small account of truth.

knowing clearly that there is every difference either of some things' otherness according to essence, or of some things' dissimilarity according to quality and peculiarity; which the quantity of the underlying things, whether they are in union or also without this, altogether brings about. For in the case of those things where the one and the same principle is not contemplated in every way, there is an indication of quantity, whose peculiar property is difference. If, therefore, in the case of Christ, on the one hand, by reason of the union according to hypostasis, the altogether singular is attributed, as the Fathers teach, one must say; and on the other hand, by reason of the difference of the natures from which Christ is, and which even after the union are preserved in Christ without confusion and without division, to speak of quantity is both consequent and fitting; it is clear that, just as he who does not say that Christ, because of the union according to hypostasis, is one nature of God the Word made flesh, rightly understood according to the interpretation of our most holy Father and teacher Cyril, does not believe that the union has taken place; so too he who does not confess the two natures after the union, from which Christ is, cannot say that the difference is preserved. For the difference after the union is of the natural otherness of those things from which Christ is, and not of dissimilarity according to quality alone, apart from the natures underlying the qualities; without which it is impossible for quality to exist by itself; lest we introduce a bare, or rather, to speak more properly, a false and non-existent difference.

Being persuaded that we hold this confession of faith precisely in accordance with the Fathers, I did not hesitate to write everywhere to all patriarchs and bishops and rulers, and to our most pious and all-holy emperors themselves, in thanksgiving to God, making clear to all your genuine transfer and faith in Christ. And I never thought, as I said, that you would be so quickly turned away from your saving calling. But since, because of my sins, the evil one who from the beginning drags the human race by deceit into destruction and perdition has been able to deceive you also, to prefer falsehood to the truth, and, more than God and the good things laid up for the saints, because of evil habit, to gratify deceitful men who have been taught only to lure to death, and has been able to turn you back to your own vomit, as the prophet says of dogs, I exhort you, if indeed you are thus incurably disposed, and have resolved to the end to turn away from the grace of Christ—for now, give the gifts that have been made to you by me to the man Theopemptos, who has been sent by me for this alone with a written mandate, so that you may have no doubt about this. And again, if it seems good to our most pious and Christ-loving and all-holy emperors, and to the most holy patriarchs, that everything concerning you be done through me, with God's help, when they learn from their serenity about your apostasy and such great wickedness and ingratitude, I will judge it right to be done. For I will not keep silent about so great an evil.

If, bearing in mind the dread tribunal of Christ, at which, in the presence of angels and archangels and the whole host of the heavenly powers and of all human nature, the case between me and you concerning this matter will be brought to judgment, you repent and return again to God, who has called you again in grace; and I desire that you already possess that very creation of mine which has been granted to you; and I will not cease, as long as I am permitted to live this present and temporary life, devising ways for your greater establishment; and I would not refuse to give myself as a ransom for your souls, if the time should call for this to be done of necessity. And I will give it eagerly, when God by his grace calls me to this; if only you restore yourselves again to Christ God, and heal well the wound and separation that has come upon you from his body through your return.

Letter 19. To Pyrrhus the most holy presbyter. 19. Of the same, to Pyrrhus the most holy presbyter and abbot. Having read your holy letter, O God-honored Father, I perceived that your whole mind had been wholly formed by the Spirit; and I recognized that it had departed from natural understanding as far as I grasped that it had laid hold of divine wisdom, which surpasses nature. For I seemed to see your God-wise mind itself present through the letters, flashing with the pure rays of the Spirit alone; by which that mind is naturally transformed toward the more divine, the one deemed worthy to be adopted as a son by the Father of all.

And it set me free from ignorance of the divine doctrines to the same extent that I formerly seemed to cling to the knowledge of them. Therefore, marveling at your keenness of mind in all things, I cried out that one utterance alone, which a woman of old cried out to the Lord, struck with awe at the power of his words: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you nursed. And I do not only call blessed the one who gave birth to you, honored Father, as having been deemed worthy to become the mother of such a man; but also the one who conceives and is always pregnant with the pious word and gives birth to your mind; as having been shown by grace to be a womb capable of containing the Word who is beyond nature, because of the affinity of your disposition toward the Word himself. And indeed, according to your firm habits, those things which issue from your heart, by which, like breasts, in both action and contemplation, you nourish the Word, growing together with the supply of pious thoughts and ways; (and, paradoxically speaking, producing the Word's own growth as the deification of the mind that nourishes it. For what else could I have uttered to you, honored Father, seeing you become the begetter of such words; through which, as from some mountain of the height of knowledge, you declared the verdict concerning the divine doctrines, brought and published like divinely engraved tablets through the new Mediator and great Moses among us, and priest of priests, and the leader of the divine priesthood throughout the whole inhabited world; which the holy and only adored Trinity, as through the instrument of the said high priest, inspired, and

This brought the Churches more fully to concord, since they regarded as nothing the innovation in the faith that seemed to many to have arisen in the city of Alexander. For the verdict that was given preserved this understanding wholly intact, according to which our God-bearing Fathers handed down to the holy Churches the belief: that one and the same is God the Word both before the flesh and after the flesh; which flesh he himself, for our sake, united to himself in a rational soul, in hypostasis, having taken it from the holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary—deeming himself, that is, to become the seed of his own incarnation, so that he might become truly man, and might show, through the seedless conception and the undefiled birth, that nature was being renewed and suffered no diminution in the renewal. For the mystery was a voluntary emptying of God toward men, out of goodness, but not a falling away of divinity—the willing condescension through the flesh. For he remained what he was, and became what he was not; for he is immutable. And what he became he preserved, remaining what he was; for he is loving toward mankind. Through the things he did in a manner befitting God, he showed that what he had become was unchangeable; and through the things he suffered in a manner befitting man, he confirmed that what he was had not been altered. For he did the divine things in a fleshly way, since the flesh was not without its natural activity; and the human things in a divine way, since he accepted the experience of human sufferings by will, with authority, and not by circumstance. For neither did he do the divine things in a divine way, because he was not God naked; nor the human things in a fleshly way, because he was not a mere man. For this reason his miracles were not without suffering.

And the sufferings were not without miracle; but some, if I may dare to say it, were not without passion; others were manifestly wondrous; and both are paradoxical, because both divine and human, as proceeding from one and the same incarnate God the Word, who through both is truly attested, the truth of those from which and of what he was. For that which is composed from certain things by a union without confusion according to a natural conjunction both preserves the natures from which it has been constituted unaltered and keeps their constituent powers undiminished, unto the fulfillment of one work; whether what was done was a passion or a miracle, according to the image of your wondrous sword, Father, and as an example fitting the mystery of the divine incarnation—the sword that has been set on fire, whose cut we know to be burning and whose burning we know to be cutting. For there has been a conjunction of fire and iron according to subsistence, neither of them having departed from its natural power because of the union with the other; nor indeed having acquired this power released after the union, and separated from that of the composite and co-subsisting whole. This, then, I found wisely woven into your letters—the accuracy of the divine doctrines—and having applied my mind to it according to the moderate power of understanding that is in me, I prayed to be made sufficient to guard it and to hold it in my thought, not admitting circumscription by any forgetfulness. But you, O God-honored Father, be compassionate to me your servant, and as a lover of humanity grant the forgiveness that is due, since I am unable for the undertaking of what has been commanded. And do not condemn me for disobedience;

But rather accept that I am eager to become one who acknowledges his own ignorance. For rashness is hateful, and it is the first offspring of the utmost ignorance, according to which the disease of pride naturally shows itself, creating in those seized by it a disposition opposed to God. And accept my renunciation of this, pure of every passion; and do not reject me as I set before you the same words that Moses of old and Jeremiah afterward set before God in such matters. The one says, "I beseech you, Lord, I am not capable, neither before yesterday nor before the third day, nor from the time you began to speak to me; I am weak of voice and slow of tongue." The other says, "O Lord, the One who is, I do not know how to speak, for I am too young." For truly I am weak of voice and slow of tongue, and deprived of the understanding that is for speaking good things, having neither a mind that applies itself to divine matters, nor a word in utterance able to serve the greatness of the things sought. For I am still young in the passions, and I possess the rebellion of the flesh, which takes precedence over the law of the spirit. And even if we grant by hypothesis that nothing is lacking to me of the power in these matters, who is so bold and daring as to prescribe in addition to what has been divinely ordained hierarchically by divine decree? But I beseech you rather, by your honored letters, to make clear to me by definition: what is energy, and in how many ways is energy, and what is there besides this in the effect; and which of these we call the difference in relation to the work and the action, so that I may know the power of what has been written.

For I have not yet been able to determine precisely what the "one energy" is, and how it should be understood, whether as spoken or as conceived. For we do not simply utter meaningless sounds, but we signify concepts by sounds. For this reason I have often found the God-speaking Fathers conceding words, but by no means concepts; because the mystery of our salvation consists not in syllables, but in meanings and in realities. The one they did, taking thought for peace; the other, establishing souls in the truth. And these things concerning these matters.

But I beseech your holiness, honored Father, graciously to receive those divine Fathers who bear this modest writing, for the sake of a need that is advantageous to the common order of monks, who have given themselves over to this voyage; and to accept that they become all things, as many as the precise account of the divine commandment wills for one who desires divine things, and who has the incarnate Word alone as the pattern of his own life. For they are worthy of your zeal in this matter, because they blamelessly draw the divine yoke of virtue and knowledge. But in writing these things I fear lest I bring upon myself reproach for untimely frankness and lack of taste among those who do not know you, Father, and have not experienced your condescension; and lest there be said justly about me also what one of the wise men outside our own doctrine said, when he observed one of the tasteless men puffed up over something:

He drove a fool to insolence; the wise man smiled.

In all things, therefore, holy Father, forgive me your servant, and through your all-sacred prayers propitiate for me Christ God, whom you serve continually both by the purity of your mind and by the exactness of your life. LETTER 20.... TO MARINUS THE MONK.

20. By the same, to Marinus the monk.

I, knowing the multitude of my own transgressions, and perceiving the condemnation that will, as is likely, succeed them for me after this departure from life; and considering in my soul that great and dreadful tribunal already assembled, at which each of us will receive the recompense of what we have done according to worth; I intended to keep silence as my companion, in every way, as it seems to me, sparing the divine words that are beyond me, lest I be condemned more and more justly, as bringing forth words of God that have been put to death by my own inactivity in good works, and for this reason are unable to grant those who hear the life that is in grace; and as unable in my conduct to show the ways of the virtues to those who speak; and lest I become liable to the coming threat, as not only in myself through my evil ways the life-giving things of God

having murdered the words, but also providing to those who hear a living and manifest to all image of contempt for them, and displaying my whole evil manner of life. I, therefore, as I said, knowing and fearing these things, shook off my eagerness for speaking and writing the divine words, since I do not have the practice of them, judging it to be the greatest injustice and a destructive loss to receive the praises of those who hear in vain. But since the most wise in understanding and in all things honored by me, the most holy abbot, has conquered the vote of my silence by the many incantations of divine thoughts, whom I was unable to thrust away because of the beauty of virtues that befits him according to divine understanding; and he forced me to trace out this moderate composition to your God-fearing self, recounting certain parts of your successes according to God, and having benefited the greatest things; I thought it necessary to speak those things in summary, as many as are beneficial and saving for you and me and all who wish to hear.

David the great prophet and king, showing to those who have set before themselves the love of God and have chosen above all things on earth the divine salvation the truly gnostic path of the divine virtues, and opening up the practical door of knowledge, says: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; and understanding is good to all who do it." But if the fear is the beginning of wisdom, then the end of wisdom is by nature the good understanding, for those who do it. And if these things are so, let us strive with all our strength to acquire the fear of God, and the good understanding. The fear, so that we may flee the defilements of sin, shaking them out of the soul by the expectation of eternal punishments; and the understanding, so that we may be shown to be doers of all the divine wills and knowledgeable of them. For he who fears the punishments upon transgressions of the divine commandments is not caught by the passions that defile his soul; and he who has the good understanding inwardly, distinguishing by the proper reason the things of eternity from those of the present, becomes adorned with all the divine goods, causing the knowledge within him in no way to be shown idle. For just as fear in those who truly fear God becomes the destroyer of the impure passions, so also understanding in those who are truly understanding becomes the creator of all the virtues. Therefore let us fear God, and let us do nothing that he does not will; and let us love his understanding, and let us neglect nothing that he wills to be done. For he who fears God hates all lawlessness, and he who has taken up the good understanding within himself loves all righteousness.

For just as hatred toward lawlessness signifies the one who fears, so also the love of righteousness makes the discerning person clearly evident. Let us not, then, fashion fear by habits of gloom alone, nor let us show reverence as existing only up to the outward manners; but by the disposition of the soul and the humility of the heart, fortified with frequent groans from the depth, and by the lash of the memory of former sins struck invisibly in the conscience, and for this reason, through the contraction toward itself, not enduring at all to see the faults of others. For the one who feigns the fear of God by habits alone differs in no way at all from the ape, which imitates the habits and postures of humans. For this animal, among quadrupeds, being by nature far removed from human nature, seems by the imitation of habits to be a human to those who look on, possessing nothing human by nature; just as also the one who imitates the habits of those who truly fear the Lord for the deception of those who see, but does not have the disposition of his mind equally formed by the divine fear as those others do, is and is called another Sadducee or Scribe; preserving the outward form of reverence with external propriety, but completely...

...abandoning the matter because of the impure love of the passions lying hidden in the depth of the soul.

And let us not again display divine knowledge by the mere utterance of words polished to beauty; nor let us define good understanding as extending only to the bare ability to speak without acting; but rather, with the disposition of the soul shaped by action toward the virtues, and for this reason with knowledge illumining the brightness of action, and with action making radiant the intensity of knowledge—so that fear, having come together with the longing for God according to good understanding through the realities themselves, may work in us perfect divine wisdom: beginning in the abstention from evils according to divine fear, and being perfected in the practice of the commandments according to good understanding. For the one who defines understanding as consisting in the bare utterance of divine words alone resembles a parrot, imitating human speech. For this is the only creature among birds that, when taught, mimics human words, having nothing at all human by nature; just as also the one who stops at bare utterance alone, imitating the words of the truly understanding for the astonishment of those who hear, but not having the habit of knowledge shaped by the practice of the virtues, is truly another Pharisee, or a blameworthy priest both in being and in name—feigning understanding by the mere utterance of words, but utterly abandoning that wisdom which truly has its being in works.

And for this reason he is greatly puffed up, and by the boastfulness of the conceit that nourishes his pride of mind, he sets himself against the word of truth; not knowing, as it seems, that the knowledge of those who are greatly puffed up over it because of love of glory, without practice, is manifestly a theology of demons; it has Jesus, the one supposedly being theologized about, plainly rebuking it, even if such a man, overcome by passion, does not perceive it.

Therefore let us fear God with fear, and let us free ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, not allowing the law of the flesh, through the praised mortification of the members, to rise up against the law of the spirit; nor let us circumscribe the magnificence of divine fear by merely outward ways of character; but let us make the outward composure of character a herald of the good inward disposition of the soul, so that we may escape the coming threat of fire; and let us adorn the good understanding with the practice of the commandments, so that we may not, as vainglorious men, carry around dead words, deprived of the life that comes from the practice of the commandments; but let us make the divine words effective in practice, pursuing peace with all and love; cultivating goodness and gentleness, and patience and forbearance toward all in all things; bearing what happens with endurance and thanksgiving; and receiving afflictions unshaken, as divine doctrines [gifts];

not resisting in any way the words of the providence that through these things profitably directs our life, so that we may obtain eternal life with all the saints, delighting in the good things to come, in the abiding of the blessedness of eternal things, hearing God saying to us: Come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; and let us rejoice, enjoying those secret good things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him.

LETTER 21.... TO THE MOST HOLY BISHOP OF CYDOΝΙΑ. 21. Of the same, to the most holy bishop of Cydonia.

(My God-guarded master, having recognized God himself as equal to himself in height and depth through pious investigation of the mystery of his dispensation concerning us, and having marveled how the boundary, joined with the boundless, and the opposites and unmixed things that are around him, received their manifestation through one another—the infinity being ineffably bounded together with the boundary, and the boundary being wondrously conjoined to the infinity—and that he himself, around whom these things are in both respects the same as himself, having let go nothing at all of himself according to the infinite, so that by nature after the boundless he is both incomprehensible and known by dispensation, having the height of the divine glory unthinkable and the depth of the dispensational condescension incomprehensible, he wisely submitted himself like wax to God, readily, as to a seal; and receiving him wholly impressed into the depth, he made himself a manifest imitation of the divine blessedness.

For wisely did he exchange himself for divine ways of life: by the lowliness of his nature, through virtue, he tempered the height of his worth; and conversely, by the height of his worth, through knowledge, he lifted up the lowliness of his nature; and he caused each to be contemplated in the other paradoxically. For in both respects he kept himself the same as himself, conceding nothing of dignity in either; showing very clearly, through the things by which he acquired a genuine imitation of God, that God, ordaining the priesthood on earth in his own place, set him forth. So that even when seen bodily, he does not cease to make his mysteries appear to those able to see. For this reason my master, borne in a God-like manner in word together with his ways, wrought great salvation for me. For as the Lord exhorted men to be reconciled to God and the Father as those who had been wronged rather than as those who had wronged, as the divine Paul testifies, saying, We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us. We beseech you for Christ's sake, be reconciled to God; so that by the greatness of the beneficence he might turn them to a sense of their own hardness of heart; so also my master, by a voluntary yielding, cunningly subduing me, wished to seem to have learned from me by letters the things which by reason of his worth he has been set forth to teach, and at last brought me to recognize my own ignorance. I therefore acknowledge the grace to my master; and I take pride in the manner by which he gently thrust away the cloud of my conceit; and I ask him not to cease regulating his servant by such words and such ways. LETTER 22.... TO AUXENTIUS.

22. From the same, to Auxentius.

If, trusting in the Spirit, you have love for yourselves as an unbreakable possession, needing nothing for renewal, you have decided to neglect letters to friends, I praise the law and I accept you—you who trust that treasure of love to him from whom and toward whom it is natural both to begin and to rest. But if, disregarding the proper friendly manner, you decline to write out of hesitation, I will not cease to do the opposite—I who do not know how to defer to friends because of the greatness of worldly presumption. But if neither of the two is the cause of not writing, then receive from those who are absent, and give willingly to those who are absent, as nature taught, an encounter through letters—or rather, as God, having made nature wise, provided consolation. For a word shaped by letters goads the memory when it is at rest, and rouses it when it is drowsing, to see and to reimprint the faces of those who are loved; through these, desire, like a fire that has been quenched, is fanned again into flame from a small spark.

LETTER 23. To Stephen the Presbyter. 23. From the same, to Stephen the Presbyter.

It is a property of spiritual love not only to benefit those in need who are present, but also to console those who are absent; and not to allow souls to be cut off together with bodies, nor indeed the power of reason, through which the soul bears the image of the Creator, to be circumscribed by place; but either to converse with the beloved in person, speaking what is fitting face to face by voice, or, when absent, to commune with them by letters. For nature, by the grace of God, wisely devised this means for the unbroken union of those who are separated from one another by a great bodily distance in local space. For in this way reason, being sounded more frequently by voice and letters, implants in the soul a memory hard to wash away, so that it may always see those who are ever present in spirit through love, and embrace them, and be recalled from all sorrows. Do not, then, overlook me, your child and disciple, honored Fathers, but, since you are both disciples and teachers of love, feed with the word of the virtues my soul that is hungering; and enlighten my mind, pressed down by the darkness of ignorance, looking toward the reward laid up for you in heaven on this account—even if what is done should perhaps for a little while draw you away to a better and more honored occupation. For I know that it is not equal in glory to converse directly with God and to provide with compassion for those who are lesser. Nevertheless, not even this is foreign to what is reckoned as belonging to God.

LETTER 24. To Constantine the Sacellarius. 24. From the same, to Constantine the Sacellarius. The precious letter of my God-guarded master has arrived with peace, and it carries him whole, appearing in his manners. For by the dignity of its words, the disposition of his soul is naturally shown forth together with the gentleness of his manners. And I rejoiced as if I had received my master himself present, and I greeted him in spirit, and embracing him wholly in the capacity of my heart I laid him up; and I glorified Christ our God, who wisely implanted among men the law of love, according to which those who know how rightly to care for the seeds of love can never be absent from one another, even if they are separated from each other by a great bodily distance of place. But since the letter brought tidings of worldly peace, it changed my grief into joy of soul; it is fitting that we should by all means be grateful to God who granted it, so that we may not appear ungrateful for his beneficence, having badly repaid our benefactor. And we shall be grateful by all means if we use peace as we ought, and renounce the friendship with the world and the ruler of this world that has dwelt in us badly, and through the passions put an end—even if late—to the war that stands against God; and having made unbreakable treaties of peace with him, in the destruction of the body let us cease from the enmity against him.

For it is impossible for us to be loved by God while we are in revolt against him through the passions, and while we endure paying tribute through vice to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been wholly at war with the evil one. For until then we stand as enemies and foes of God, even if we plaster the name of the faithful upon ourselves, for as long as we choose to be slaves to dishonorable passions; and no benefit from peace according to the world will any longer accrue to us, since the soul is in a bad state and is in revolt against its own Maker and does not endure to come under his kingdom; it is still sold to ten thousand savage masters who drive it on to vice and cunningly arrange for it to choose the road that leads to destruction rather than the one that saves. But when we have sobered up from the drunkenness of the passions, and have risen up against the devil's evil and tyrannical kingdom, and have shaken off his most bitter yoke from ourselves, and have seen how greatly friendship with him has corrupted us—then we shall receive the peaceful presence of the peaceful and gentle King Christ, coming to us invisibly, and we shall endure to come under his yoke, as he orders and regulates us by the laws of truth; and we shall accept to cultivate friendship with him willingly, bringing to him willingly as tribute and taxes the fruits of righteousness that are brought to fulfillment in us through the virtues according to his commandment. Delighting in these for the sake of our salvation, the only one who needs nothing will grant us all things, as he who does not lie, whatever he has promised us.

These are the things that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not arisen in the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him. For to this end he also made us, that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers of his eternity, and might appear like him in the deification that comes by grace—through which is both the constitution and the continuance of all things that exist, and the production and generation of things that exist.

Let us therefore become worthy of the peace, my blessed master, manfully casting off from ourselves the passions within us that are in revolt against God. Let us melt down the body as far as we are able, for when it is in full vigor there comes the entrance of the devil against the soul. Let us set aright the mind that wanders among divine readings, and lead it back again to God. By the tensions of self-control and vigil, let us wisely restrain the desire that is borne disorderly toward many things according to appetite. By prayers and supplications and almsgivings, let us wisely calm the anger that boils and is troubled. By the fear of God and the threat of things to come, let us stop the senses that are moved and active without restraint. Above all, and before all things, let us remember death, and the fearful departure of the soul from the body; and how the principalities and powers and forces of darkness meet it in this air, each one dragging it to itself and cutting it apart, in proportion to the evil affinity that was formed toward it through the passion that mediated between them. Let us remember the bitter pain that comes to the soul in Hades according to conscience, at the memory of the evils done by it through the body.

Let us remember the final consummation of the whole world, in which this entire universe is consumed by the great and boundless fire, while the elements are terribly shaken by the melting of the burning; when heaven, by its rolling and in fear, flees in haste from the face of the fire that first purifies creation because of the presence of the Pure One; when the sea vanishes, the earth is churned up even from its bottom, and yields up the countless myriads of human bodies without diminution; let us remember the dreadful hour of the defense that will take place before the fearful and dreadful judgment seat of Christ; when all the host of the heavens and all the creation of men from the foundation of the age looks upon what belongs to each one, down to a mere thought; when some, because of the splendor of their works, are received by the ineffable light, and the illumination of the holy and blessed Trinity shines more clearly upon those who are able to see and receive it through purity of soul; while others, because of the disorder of their works, are received by the outer darkness, and the undying worm, and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna; and, heaviest of all, the shame in the conscience that has no end. Let us remember all these things, so that we may become worthy of the one, and not

...we may be condemned; and may we become our own and God's—or rather God's alone and wholly, and wholly so—bearing nothing earthly within ourselves, so that we may draw near to God and become gods, receiving from God the very being of gods. For in this way the divine gifts are honored, and the presence of divine peace is welcomed with affection. And this much concerning these matters. But may the God of peace, who reconciled us to himself through the cross and redeemed us by his own blood from the authority of darkness, himself grant his peace that surpasses all understanding to my blessed master, and deem him worthy of his heavenly kingdom, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice and the choir of those who keep festival.

Letter 25. To Conon, Presbyter and Hegumen. 25. By the same, to Conon, presbyter and hegumen. I believe, just as I received and was taught, that God is love; and that just as he is one, never ceasing to be one, so he makes those who live according to his love into one, and grants them one heart and one soul, even if they happen to be many; so that, having as it were one soul, they may know each other's hearts, and may not grow weary in ignorance searching after things unseen, each one guessing at the disposition of his neighbor toward himself.

Therefore, trusting in the grace of Christ that is at work in you, holy Father, that you are ignorant of nothing that is in my heart—just as, perhaps, though it is bold to say it, neither am I ignorant of what is in you—I have confidence for the present to decline, for now, my arrival to you, knowing that you believe the declining is not of disobedience, but of bodily suffering forcibly hindering me from the journey, and not permitting the eagerness of my soul to come forth into action. But even though absent in body, through the present letter—I who am always present in spirit, and never separated from you in soul—I greet you, my father and protector according to God, and caretaker of my salvation, and your holy flock, worthy of the kingdom of Christ; and I entreat you to make supplications on my behalf to the Lord, that I may bring to him a living and practical faith, not one put to death by the passions, but one having the power of his cross and death and burial and resurrection: of the cross, in the inactivity of sin; of the death, in the most complete casting away of evil; of the burial, in the setting aside of the soul's imagination concerning sensible things; of the resurrection, in the wealth of virtues, and the abundance of his true knowledge, and the awakening of the mind to height from corruptible things, that I may become of one body and one soul with him. And to speak simply, according to his promise, like him in all things, apart from the identity with him according to nature.

so that I might not, by putting to death through works of dishonor the life given to me by him through what has been said, justly incur the condemnation of those who killed their own life—our Lord Jesus Christ. For truly fearful, and beyond all condemnation, is the willing putting to death, through love for things that perish, of the life given to us by God as a gift of the Holy Spirit. And all those who have set their hearts on preferring the truth of self-love certainly know this fear. LETTER 20... TO THALASSIOS THE ELDER, WHO ASKED... 26. By the same author, to Thalassios the elder, who asked how certain of the kings among the nations, when a divinely sent wrath lay upon the subject multitude, used to sacrifice children and firstborn, and the wrath ceased, as is recorded by many of the ancients.

( And God permitted even the Greeks to receive oracles, by the means through which they devised for themselves foreknowledge of things to come and release from things that grieved them; and he often granted that their affairs turned out according to their hopes, preparing the way for all, by his providence, for the reception of the great mystery to come, insofar as each was able to receive it. For if the affection of rulers toward their subjects, when it advances into action, has wholly snatched the subject people away from the necessity that lay upon them, it is neither strange nor incredible if the one who is by nature a lover of humanity, and the only Creator and King of men, set forth his own Son in his economy through the flesh unto death for the sake of all men, in order that he might redeem them from the evils that held them.

Indeed, when the kings of Israel and Judah made war against the Moabites in the time of the holy prophet Elisha, and after a great victory were about to sack that whole city of the kingdom as well, the king of the country, taking his own son, according to the custom, as it seems, of the nations, sacrificed him on the wall in the sight of the kings; and in this way he propitiated the kings and persuaded them to turn away from the anger that had been arrayed against him, and he saved his subjects. God, then, allowing the Greeks to carry out what was within their own autonomy, wisely appropriated them for the reception of the great mystery; and by giving a law to the people of Israel, he prefigured the whole mystery that was to come. Hence, after the mystery of our salvation had appeared and come to pass in actual operation, he abolished both these things and those, from among the Gentiles and the Jews, as many as he had given or allowed to be done before this for the prefiguration of what was to come. For from him and through him and to him are all things, as many as have come to be or will come to be, at every time or in every manner: some by good pleasure, some by economy, and some by permission. What is remembered among the ancients, then, is not a myth; but it truly happened, and the remedy for the sake of which it happened followed upon it. But let us, with God's help, exercise ourselves at the same time in the details concerning what has been written, while I am with you. However, the one who knows how the flesh of a serpent can, by skill, heal those who are sick will faithfully receive the method of divine providence. Letter 27.... To John the Cubiculiarius. 27. By the same, to John the Cubiculiarius.

Those who order their love for one another according to the world need each other's bodily presence in order to preserve it, because of the forgetfulness that naturally withers away every desire that is constituted around bodies alone; and the memory of those who are so disposed toward one another is naturally extinguished along with it. And it is also the case that this very thing which seems to preserve the worldly relation toward one another—satiety—arises and separates them, and destroys the whole preceding disposition. And often the failure of some of the causes that procure it, or even some small pretext that intervenes, brings about a swift turning of the love thus constituted into hatred. But those who are bound to one another according to God by the bond of love, indissolubly, both when they are together with one another and when they are absent from one another, tighten this bond all the more, having it in themselves because of God, who is also love, and who grants to those who are worthy the power of being able to love; and indeed, as I think, justly. For it is natural for the disposition of those who are disposed toward one another according to things that are by nature in flux to flow away along with them; but for those who are stable and always in the same state, the affection of those disposed toward one another according to them is accustomed to remain together with them, wholly unshaken and unmoved, intensifying their longing for one another to such an extent (toward the

…insofar as God, the cause of this relationship, naturally draws to himself those who are bound to one another in spirit.

In this way, then, loving you, greatly beloved, I have you always inseparable, present with me in soul, imprinted deeply in my spirit, even though there is a great length of time and a great distance of places between us, never ceasing to see you spiritually and to embrace you. Believing that I am loved by you equally, if not even more, I do not shrink from writing without hesitation about what is needful, knowing that through the Spirit we two have become one soul. And I know that you do not think you are being insulted when you hear this, considering the fearful condescension of God toward men, which surpasses mind and reason. Receive, then, kindly this present modest composition, and become to it all that he who legislated for men that they share one another's misfortunes commanded; and make the neighbor so much your own that he is not thought to be another, according to the disposition given in return by those who have been transformed toward one another. For the divine word declares not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to weep with those who weep; and not simply to love, but to love the neighbor as oneself—not to mention the new commandment, which commands us, when the time comes, to struggle even to lay down our souls for one another's sake in love. The Lord who gave it has fulfilled it in deed, not refusing to lay down his own soul for us, giving us a pattern of perfect well-pleasing, by which the law of self-love is gently extinguished—the law which in the beginning, through pleasure, deceitfully led us away from God and from one another.

…and instead of one God, teaching that there are many or none at all, he utterly shattered the power of the reason within us in relation to the flesh, and cutting the one nature into many parts, he made savage the power of the anger within us against one another for the sake of pleasure.

Therefore become, as I said, all things to the one who needs your help, so that you may find God becoming such for you, he who in his love for mankind deigns to become all things to all.

LETTER 28. TO CYRISICIUS THE BISHOP. 28. Of the same, to Cyrisicius the bishop.

Having obtained the lot of being an imitator of the divine goodness upon earth according to the grace of the high priesthood given to you, honored Father, you have allowed no one of the ways that characterize it to go unfulfilled; but holding them all joined to one another in succession, you have earnestly adorned the mystery of the high priesthood with the tunic of the virtues woven from above through the Spirit; which tunic the demons can never tear, even by a multitude of temptations, as they crucify you. Strive, then, to gather into one the scattered children of God. For this too is a mark of the divine goodness; and having become the head of the precious body of the holy Church of God, fit the members together with one another through the architecture of the Spirit; and call with a great voice, having become a herald of the divine ordinances, both those far off and those near; and bind them fast in yourself with the unbreakable bond of the love of the Spirit; if indeed the expectation of the enemies has fled and utterly vanished; for the sake of which they have been so estranged from the one who bore them; so that you too may be able to say in a manner befitting Christ:

Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. But deem worthy your humble and unworthy servant and suppliant, holy Father, of your precious embraces concerning this, and do not disdain to set me before God, offering a sacrifice of praise through your prayers.

Letter 29.... To the same.

29. Of the same, to the same.

( God, seeking, came down from heaven, and desiring the sheep, put it on; and thus, having saved the wandering one, placing it on the lawful shoulders, he brought it back with compassion. But you, all-holy Father and shepherd, having filled the reed of teaching with the Holy Spirit alone, brought back to yourself the flock of rational sheep, full—the flock that had departed from its homeland unwillingly, but willingly runs to your voice, the voice of the good and skilled shepherd, as having complete discernment of what is beneficial. For it did not wander and cross the far seas, having neglected the divine pasture; but for the sake of saving safety of the divine offerings pertaining to the soul.

But receive the flock, which not only remained untrodden by wolves, but also became a destroyer of wolves, and is rich in many good things pertaining to the soul; and stretch forth, and prosper, and reign, for the sake of truth and gentleness and righteousness; as a teacher of the divine doctrines according to piety, and a guide of pure life and venerable conduct, and a lawgiver of right discernment in all things; taking to yourself especially, together with the said sacred flock, the sanctified lord abba George the elder, a holy man, who has possessed his life equal to his word; and through both being a destroyer of the evil power.

But since I was consumed by great grief, unable to bear the separation from them, either receive me also and give me rest beneath your wings, or strengthen me through your prayers to bear bravely the pain at the parting from those most dear. LETTER 30.... TO JOHN THE BISHOP.

30. By the same, to John the bishop.

Those who have rationally examined the nature of beings say that the power of fire is attractive of everything placed before it; and comparing God to it symbolically, the interpreters of the divine mysteries say that He too is attractive of all who wish to obey His laws and who welcome living holily; and they declare that the priesthood, which they say is, as it were, an image and a likeness naturally possessing the imitation, is by the same law of compassion according to grace attractive of all who are under the same nature. Do you therefore also, holy Father, having obtained on earth to have the image of God, call to yourself by ways and words of compassion those who long to return to you and desire to be shepherded by you according to their prayers; and assure them by true promises through your precious letters of your providence toward them in all things with God; if indeed the foul expectation of the enemies has entirely vanished; on account of which they endured so great a flight, who deemed it safe to follow the law of God, who cries out plainly: If they persecute you from this city, flee to the other; and who preferred the praiseworthy cowardice to rashness; so that, trusting after God in your words, they may make their return without fear.

and that through the labors which they endured for the sake of virtue and of obedience to God when he commands us to flee our persecutors during this fearful exile, they may find rest, and your compassionate support in all things for them. Do not, then, holy Father, disdain to receive your suppliant and servant when he entreats you; but honor with your own words, as one who is honored, him who is worthy of no honor; and through your prayers commend to Christ, who alone is honored, the man whom he honored with great honor through himself; imitating him as Master and Lord in all things, you have made yourself, by the grace of the Spirit, another such to those who see you.

LETTER 31.... TO THE SAME.

31 Of the same to the same.

Just as a ray gently draws to itself the healthy eye, which by nature rejoices in the light, and imparts its own brightness, so also the true priesthood, being in all respects the image of the blessed Godhead, draws to itself every soul on earth that is God-loving and divine in its disposition, and imparts its own knowledge, peace, and love; so that, leading each power of the soul to the end of its own activity, it may present to God those who are initiated by it, made divine in all things. For the end of the rational activity of the soul is true knowledge; of the desiring activity, love; of the spirited activity, peace; just as it is also the end of the true priesthood to be made divine and to make divine through these. For that by which we are able naturally to seek God is reason, and we received desire to long for him alone, and we obtained spiritedness to struggle for him alone.

The end of inquiry is true knowledge; the end of longing is unceasing and fervent love; the end of divine struggles is the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Knowing you to be truly the makers and teachers of these highest goods, the all-holy and all-blessed ones, she who is truly the servant of God, and daughter and mother, Eudocia the enclosed, together with her sacred flock, has returned to you, showing you who are honored by God to be victors over all who sought to have her for themselves. For she is truly a servant, as one who fulfills the divine commandments; a daughter, as one who through all things has an unvarying likeness to God in her disposition; and a mother, as one who gives birth in others to the disposition of virtue.

But rejoice from now on and exult, having recovered the more precious part of your holy flock; and especially having received my sanctified lord George the elder, truly a divine George and a most approved husbandman of the divine and great George, sufficient in deed and word before God and all the people, according to the husbandry of souls, and for this reason most beloved to all who love the Lord. But since for the time being I have become half-dead and half-cut, severed from their beneficial fellowship, either receive me also as a sick member and heal me, or comfort me through prayers and persuade me to bear the separation without distress. For this too is proper to the divine and true priesthood.

Letter 31. To Abba Polychronius.

32. By the same author, to Abba Polychronius.

Since we are about to celebrate the burial of Christ, who for our sake was put to death and buried in the flesh, and his resurrection, let us consider whether we too have been put to death and buried according to the old man, who is corrupted by the desires of deceit, and have risen according to the new man, who is renewed in the image of the one who created him. The sign of the first death is complete freedom from the passions; the sign of the second resurrection is a conscience undefiled and true boldness of speech, and the illumination of knowledge in the mind. And if these things have come to pass in us, let us celebrate the feast together with Christ God; but if not, let us strive at least not to betray the Word to the passions, as Judas did, or to deny him, as Peter did; lest perhaps we be unable to repent, and be led away regretting to no profit, or bitterly weep and wash away the marks of denial. For denial of the Word is the refusal to do good out of fear; betrayal is the deliberate impulse to sin in action. May we never experience these.

Letter 33. To the same.

33. By the same author, to the same.

If, according to the great victor over temptations, Job, the life of men is a place of trial, and the world, as the Lord said, lies in the evil one, and, as the great David declares, many are the afflictions of the righteous, and we must by all means have temptations and the struggle, whether against men or against demons, according to the just judgment of God, then, according to the holy Apostle, let us entreat God to grant us endurance, so that we may be able to be dragged up out of the mire of the passions and to stand upon the unshakable rock—I mean the dispassion that is in Christ through grace—since there have been put to death in us the life that tempts, and the world that works evil, and men, and demons; that is, the passionate life, and the pleasure-loving deception that comes through the senses, and the sufferings of the flesh, and the passionate movements of the soul, and the involuntary visitations that follow upon these, which have been called afflictions. Let us therefore endure, that we may be saved; for he who endures to the end shall be saved. The peace of Christ be with us. Amen. Letter 34. To the same.

34. By the same author, to the same.

When the Lord was departing to his passion, he left us peace; and again, having risen from the dead, he gave us peace. What is he hinting at through these things? That we must pass through opposing times without passion, neither sinking down under painful circumstances, being without a better hope, nor being carried along with bright prospects and thrusting away the reasoning that disciplines us; but that we should be the same both when suffering and when faring well. And this does not happen unless we first tread upon the asp and the basilisk—that is, unless we become superior to disobedience to the divine words and to the acceptance of evil thoughts—and trample upon the lion and the dragon, that is, upon anger and desire. When these are gone, all will be peace for us, since nothing that remains here is able to move us toward anything. Let us master anger and desire, and together we shall cast down the whole house of the foreigners along with those in it, putting to death the passionate life and conduct together with the passions.

Letter 35. To the same.

35. By the same author, to the same.

If, after that great and fearful wilderness, the people of Israel receive the land of rest, and—the most astounding thing of all to hear—the one who became man for our sake, being God and Lord of all, enters into his glory through sufferings and cross and death, there being no other way appointed for him, as it is written: "Was it not necessary that the Christ suffer these things and enter into his glory?"—let us not grow weary in afflictions, losing heart; but let us look to the author of our salvation and finisher, Jesus, and let us endure what befalls us nobly. For the end of every affliction is joy; and of every toil, rest; and of every dishonor, glory; and simply, the end of all the painful things endured for virtue is to be with God forever, and to enjoy the eternal refreshment that has no end.

But pray, Father, that we may attain it, having crossed well the sea of this life, and having kept the noetic steps of the soul free from the snares of his brine. Letter 35. To the same.

Of the same author, to the same.

Blessed is our master in the Lord, and blessed is the garden of his heart, which the true husbandman Jesus planted and filled with immortal plants of righteousness; of whose fruits we too have partaken, being filled with his spiritual vegetables; with which the great Apostle also knows how to feed those who grow weak toward the immediate vision of divine things, feeding them, as it were, with vegetables—the natural contemplation of things visible—and by the magnificence of things that appear leading them by the hand to their own Creator. Imitating him, our blessed Father and teacher also kindly welcomed us, setting before us symbolically, through these vegetables, the understanding of this creation. But share also solid food, and stir up our soul, which is without appetite for divine things and has been slackened by pleasures, pricking its desire with the finer word of providence and judgment; so that you may not feed your disciples with vegetables only, teaching them only the principles of things that come to be and pass away, but with wheat and wine and oil establish them in the principles of eternal things; giving the principle that holds the virtues together as solid bread, and warming the heart with the word of unfailing knowledge as with wine toward the deifying ecstasy of your followers; and preserving in them the nourishing and unquenchable torch, as it were oil, by implanting in your servants the peaceful and undisturbed habit of meekness.

Letter 37. To the same.

Of the same author, to the same.

Again, holy Father, we have received your honored letter together with gifts, and again we have enjoyed blessings equal to the former ones: by the gifts, quenching the blackening burning of the passions in our soul—for before them we had eaten the spiritual words, believing that these were not sent by you idly and in vain, nor as it happened, by him who is moved through all things with reason and spirit, and who makes for us a discipline of soul and the food of the body; and by the letter we have found humility, the mother of all the virtues, through which both the birth of good things and their guard is wrought for those who possess it, and we wept sufficiently, beholding how far we have been exiled from this way. For your mourning has become a conviction of the evils in which we are entangled; and it has awakened our mind, which was sleeping deeply, and exercised our memory, which was veiled by the cloak of swelling conceit; and it has made us cognizant of ourselves, perceiving in due measure the annoyance of our own sins. And it has made us in some way partakers of wisdom, having received the discernment of our own transgressions—if indeed he is true who says: Those who are cognizant of themselves are wise.

Do not cease, then, honored Father, both renewing our understanding by your word and by your prayer asking for us the release from evils, so that you may receive a reward from God who gives, namely the perfect purification of the soul according to conscience. Letter 38. To the same.

38. Of the same, to the same.

We give thanks to you, honored Father, because you have given yourself to us as an example of the best repentance, persuading by your confession that we should lay bare the dark treasures of the passions within ourselves, through which the hatred of sin is naturally confirmed. For we are truly those who cherish the passions, whose memory after the deed brings disgust; as onions, loving the consent of evil thoughts, by which the soul's faculty of sight becomes duller toward virtue and knowledge, receiving, as it were, layers—the passionate fantasies of visible things. For the contraction of the pupil is, according to those who etymologize, the onion. And as garlic, eating the fulfillment through the activity of the passions, by which the mind, filled with uncleanness, breathes outward through shameful words and manners, the stench of the evils which it has devoured through action.

But teach us, holy Father, how after the casting away of these things we shall love the manna—I mean the rational bread of divine knowledge, rained upon us from heaven—and shall keep it incorrupt; neither storing it up for the morrow by delay, lest it breed worms of fleshly passions, rotting through idleness; nor triumphing in display, lest it come to nothing, melted away by vainglory.

Feed us, your disciples, again with such words, honored Father, and present us through your prayer to God, we who are unable to worship without your mediation. LETTER 39.... TO THE SAME.

39. Of the same to the same.

You feed us abundantly, sanctified Father, both the visible and the intelligible man. To the body you supply what is for its sustenance; to the soul you give what is for its growth in the Spirit. For God has made you rich in both respects, blessing your entrance. By entrance I mean the acquisition of the gifts bestowed on you by God, multiplied through action; and by exit, the dissemination of the word that comes from you to others; and in those who receive it, it bears as fruit the working of what is fitting. CERTAIN LETTERS FROM ANOTHER CODEX. LETTER 40.... TO THE SAME THALASSIUS THE PRESBYTER... 40. Of the same to the same Thalassius the presbyter and abbot.

Having carefully read the wise and precious letter of your fatherly holiness, master, and having examined everything and searched through the whole book of my conscience, I found nothing in me of the things contained in it... I quickly drew in the tension of my soul, having tightened up its slackness, thinking it vain to be attached to the praises of others' good qualities, and judging that the inclination belongs to the soul alone when it is drawn toward every seductive deception. For truly it is vain, as though full of virtue, to attempt rashly to make one's own the praises, when one does not have in reality the glory of the things said. But my master, judging the affairs of others from his own advantages in virtue, votes accordingly, covering the shame through an abundance of God-like perfection, [covering] the one wounded by many passions, as is the custom of those who love the Lord. Nevertheless, I, my blessed master... at the command of all-radiant perfection in virtue I... most miserable, about to enter into every reproach and blame, as if because of my own rashness in this matter on the part of... your love placed higher... to the lord Abba Thomas, eagerly serving... in the matter. That is, reaching out, the sufficient material, as I think, through the winter, being able with the Lord's cooperation to fulfill such a command of yours.

May you be saved for my sake exceedingly, beloved and honored Father, and may you save your own household servant and slave by your prayers to God—and I will add, also your lover, rescued by your mediation from every diabolical device. LETTER 41. To the same.

41. Of the same, to the same.

Having been taught by the Spirit to take every thought captive into Christ, he knows how to reap benefit from all things; just as you also do from me, who am utterly alienated from the divine grace and nobly bound fast by the laws of the flesh. And since I have nothing, and that earnestly, it was necessary for me to decline altogether from ever visiting, lest I do harm rather than good by carrying out your command. And I will come when the Lord wills, knowing that you have remained undefiled and unstained even in associating with me, the profane. For what is holy by habit, just as what is holy by nature, will not be defiled by anything unclean. Concerning the matter of Vestitor, you do well to sympathize, if the affair involves no harm—and especially if you know that she is able to endure it. LETTER 42. To the same.

42. By the same author, to the same.

The blessed David, that great king of the Lord, after the fearful wars against the Philistines, after the great trials from his own kinsmen, after his toilsome flights and the frequent plots against him on account of his many benefactions, after the rebellions of his relatives, after the ... and his reign, when he perceived that God was everywhere ... him, then he conceived the thought of building a house for the Lord God ... and God accepts him as having conceived well ... yet also a fitting distinction, saying ... that his seed must bring the good ... undertaking to completion, adding the reason, because he had shed much blood upon the earth. And he is persuaded by God's counsel; and he welcomes the advice with pleasure and judges it more honorable than his own form. And he himself does not build the temple of God. But he passes it on to his son abundantly ... he gives both the material and the example, being taught ... as I think,

...the well-ordered bonds of salvation. And so that I may not prolong the discourse by going through in detail the contemplation of each of the things said, the peaceful... the temple of God, able to... above... these are, and if anyone..., but not able to persuade one to be guarded by fear, and cooperating in the building of the most divine temple, receiving harm; and Chiram king of Tyre, and the one hundred and fifty thousand of the foreigners, the stonecutters and water-carriers. But stretch forth, and prosper, and reign, even if you reigned without your Maximus, for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness, which are these things. And I will add: keep watch with all your might, lest you be led away together with the daughters of the heathen kings, lest they divide the kingdom together to a foolish son and a rebellious servant. For greatly willingly... Farewell, honored Father, and pray for your servant... shepherd, and terribly entangled by many sins. Letter 43... To John the Cubicularius. 43. By the same author, to John the Cubicularius.

The precious letter of my God-guarded master has arrived, bearing peace and showing him wholly in his manner of life. For by the dignity of its words it naturally reveals, together with the gentleness of his ways, the disposition of his soul. And I rejoiced as if I had received my master himself, and I greeted him in spirit, and embracing him wholly in the capacity of my heart, I laid him up; and I glorified Christ our God, who has implanted in men as a light the law of love, by which those who know how rightly to cultivate the seeds of love can never be absent from one another, even if they are separated from each other by much bodily distance in local space.

But since the letter, bringing good tidings of worldly peace, changed grief into joy of the soul, it is fitting that we too should be wholly grateful to the God who granted it, so that we may not appear ungrateful for his beneficence, having badly repaid our benefactor. And we shall be wholly grateful if we use the peace as is fitting, and renounce the friendship with the world and the ruler of this world that exists evilly within us, and at last put an end to the war that was maintained against God through the passions, and make a treaty with him of peace toward him in the mortification of the body, and cease from the enmity against him. For it is impossible for us to be loved by him while we are in revolt against him through the passions, and while we are held liable to pay tribute through wickedness to the evil tyrant and murderer of souls, the devil, unless we have first been wholly at war with the evil one.

For until then we have stood as enemies and adversaries of God, even if we plaster over ourselves the name of the faithful, until such time as we wish to be slaves to shameful passions, and willingly consent to pay dreadful tribute to the devil through the works of shame. And no benefit from the peace according to the world will remain for us thereafter, when the soul is in a bad state and is in revolt against its own Maker, and does not endure to come under his kingdom, being still sold to countless masters who always press it on toward evil; and they prepare it to choose, deceptively, the road that leads to destruction rather than the one that saves. But whenever we sober up from the drunkenness of the passions, and rise up against the wickedness of the devil and his tyrannical kingdom, and shake off his most bitter yoke from ourselves, and receive back as much as we perceive that he has destroyed in us by our friendship with him, then we shall receive the peaceful presence of the peaceful and gentle King Christ, coming to be in us invisibly, and we shall be received under his

of his yoke, as he orders and regulates us by the laws of truth, and we accept willingly to draw up friendship with him, willingly bringing to him tribute and taxes—the fruits of righteousness fulfilled in us through the virtues according to his commandment. For these things, rejoicing for our salvation, the only one who needs nothing will grant us all things, as one who does not lie, whatever he promised us. And these are what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, which God has prepared for those who love him. For it is for this that he also made us, that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers of the same eternity, and that we might appear like him in accordance with deification by grace, through which is both the constitution and the permanence of all things that exist, and the production and generation of things that do not exist.

Let us therefore become worthy of the peace, my blessed master, manfully stripping away from ourselves the passions within us that are in revolt against God. Let us melt down the body as much as we can, for when it is vigorous, the entrance of the devil into the soul naturally occurs. Let us set aright the mind that wanders among divine readings, and lead it back again to God. By the tensions of self-control and vigils, let us prudently restrain the desire that is disorderly corrupted into many things according to appetite. By prayers and supplications and almsgiving, let us wisely calm the spirit that boils and is troubled; by the fear of God and the threat of things to come, let us stop the senses that are moved and activated without restraint. Above all and before all, let us remember death and the fearful departure of the soul from the body.

And how do the principalities and powers and forces of darkness meet it in this air—each one drawing it to itself and cutting it apart in proportion to the evil affinity that came to be toward it through the mediating passion? Let us remember the bitter pain that arises in the soul in Hades according to conscience, at the memory of the evil deeds done by it through the body. Let us remember the final consummation of the whole world, in which this whole universe is consumed by the great and boundless fire, when the elements are terribly shaken by the melting of the burning, and the heaven flees in fear with haste by reason of its rolling up from the face of the fire that purifies creation beforehand because of the presence of the pure one; when the sea vanishes, the earth seethes and is shaken from its bottom, and yields up the countless myriads of human bodies without diminution. Let us remember the dreadful hour of the defense at the fearful and awful judgment seat of Christ, when all the host of the heavens and all the creation of men from the foundation of the age looks upon what belongs to each one, down to a mere thought; when those who are to receive the ineffable light because of the splendor of their works—and the illumination of the holy and blessed Trinity shining more clearly upon those able to see and receive it through purity of soul—while others, because of the disorder of their works, the outer darkness will receive, and the unsleeping worm and the unquenchable fire of Gehenna; and, heaviest of all, the shame in the conscience that has no end.

Let us remember all these things, so that we may become worthy of the one and not be condemned to experience the other; and let us become our own and God's—or rather, whole and entire, belonging wholly to God alone—carrying nothing earthly within ourselves, so that we may draw near to God, and having become gods, receiving from God the very being of gods. For not yet are the divine gifts honored, nor is the presence of the divine peace welcomed with affection. And this much concerning this matter. But may the God of peace, who reconciled us to himself through the cross and, when we were enemies, redeemed us by his own blood from the power of darkness—may he himself grant his peace that surpasses all understanding to my blessed master, and deem him worthy of his heavenly kingdom, where is the dwelling of all who rejoice and the choir of those who keep festival.

LETTER 44. To John. On the Positive Law. 44. By the same author, to John the cubicularius, on the positive law. (In times past, God, being good, legislated love for one another among human beings in many ways through the law and the prophets; at the end of the ages, being a lover of humanity, he fulfilled this through himself, becoming man. He loved us not only as himself, but even beyond himself—just as the power of the mystery clearly teaches those who have piously received the confession of faith in him.

For if, willingly, as one liable, he set himself before us by his will—we who ought to suffer as those liable—in suffering and death, it is surely clear to everyone who has perceived the grace even to some degree, that he loved us beyond himself, we for whose sake he willingly handed himself over to death, and, as one supremely good, he chose in preference to his own glory according to nature—even if the statement is bold—the reproach according to the economy, timely on our behalf, as more honorable. For an exceeding honor and an abundant glory of God, and a progress and manifestation into the open more than the natural glory, has truly been established: the return of those who had gone astray to him. And nothing is more proper to him for the account of glory than the salvation of human beings; for the sake of which—every account and every mystery—and indeed the most mysterious of all mysteries: God himself, truly for love, having become man by the assumption of flesh ensouled with intellect and reason, and having received into himself the passions of nature without change, in order to save man, and to give to us human beings himself as a pattern for virtue, and as a living image of goodwill and love toward him and toward one another, able to persuade all to the due recompense. Since, therefore, it is a law of God, both old and new, that we love one another as much as we also have been loved, and that we make one another's misfortunes our own to such an extent that, in return toward one another, because of the bond of love, we exchange dispositions with one another, according to the commandment that bids us rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

I beseech my God-guarded and blessed master, who has one and only one aim—to follow, through equal love for humanity, Jesus who has passed through the heavens, bound wholly by no bond of family to this deceitful world and ruler of this world. For the present world is truly deceitful, always luring by deception toward desire for corruptible things, and tightening the slavery of material things around those who are free by nature and heirs of heavenly goods, and making a sport of them through pleasure and secretly stealing away those who endure being held by these things. Knowing, then, as I said, that my blessed master has the one aim of being saved, I beseech him, receiving with him my master the most magnificent Illustrious lord Theocharistos, the bearer of this present modest composition of mine, to become all things to him in whatever he needs of his assistance after God—or rather, with God—in all the ways in which we wish God and our neighbor to become all things to us ourselves, concerning which we pray. For he is truly a good man, and a temple of every work of righteousness, and after God a genuine protector of my sojourn here, and a ready comforter in my many, frequent, and grievous illnesses; and simply, according to the power that is in him, he has succored both me and many others. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from him on that day, because he has become a rest and consolation to many. Therefore, if I have found favor in the eyes of my blessed master, and he counts me among those beloved to him according to God, let him by all means take up his cause with all zeal, nothing unjust, as it has come

...granting him to become, according to his power, in him. For this the law of love dictates, and the mystery of God's most divine visitation to humanity through the flesh wills it: that he might return, with God, recounting the benefactions of my blessed master and the unadulterated zeal of his support for him; and I too shall receive an increase of boasting, having obtained from God on earth such a master, eager for every good work, and a ready and most sincere protector of all who are in need.

God, the only good and lover of humanity, who for our salvation orders all things for all in a saving way, may he himself take hold of your right hand, my master, and guide you into the way of his righteousness, and deem you worthy of the heavenly kingdom, having here rightly partaken of the divine gifts. The God of all and our Lord Jesus Christ keep our most pious and all-holy kings, and strengthen the might of their pious kingdom, and speak in their hearts good and peaceful things concerning us, their humble servants. And—to say something boldly, for my suffering makes me bold—may he also grant them this, a prayer dear to God: that they deigned even to summon, for a moment, the all-lauded governor of this land, who shines as a lamp in a dry place and in some way frees all from the pain of not seeing.

a man who loves God, faithful, pious, good, reverent, temperate, self-controlled, forbearing, gentle, compassionate, merciful, a feeder of the poor, a caretaker of the aged, a protector of widows, a guardian of monks, without possessions [blameless], a lover of the church; and, to sum it up in a word, a friend of all both living and dead: caring for the living in all manner of affectionate devotion, and honoring the dead with the beauty of buildings for burial, as Joseph of Arimathea honored the Lord who deigned to be put to death in the flesh for our sake; and furthermore, a most fervent zealot for right doctrine according to the apostolic faith, a herald of a life of righteousness. And to speak briefly, others have earnestly pursued different things on earth according to each one's desire; but George's work and zeal was to shelter and feed the hospitals, the homes for the aged, the hospices, the poorhouses, the monasteries, and the cemeteries for strangers, and all the multitudes of poor and needy scattered in droves by kindred throughout the cities; and to cross the boundaries of east and west, north and south with the rays of his love for humanity. Since these things are so, who among those who in any way partake of piety does not know how great a favor of God the pleasingness of such works called forth upon the whole, flourishing always through his own zealous efforts? But the opposite, which comes about through their idleness, I will keep silent about because it is ill-omened.

Who will be able to measure the tears that poured like a fountain from every eye of those who inhabit this land at his departure, when all were holding on to him and forcibly pulling him back to themselves, and in a way not allowing him to board the ship, and were wailing with lamentations, as it were seeking him according to family and age: some, the provider of their poverty; others, the steward of their prosperity; the widows, their protector; the orphans, their father; the poor, the lover of the poor; and the strangers, the lover of strangers; and the brothers, the lover of brothers; the sick, the physician; those in misfortune, their consolation; old age, its staff; and simply all, him who became all things to all, that he might gain all, and be gained for God on behalf of all? Therefore, according to the grace given to you by God, my blessed lord, by whatever ways and persons you know, if you could make him return again, know that you will offer a great sacrifice to God, and to our God-established emperors

having given genuine goodwill and unbroken security as his offering. For no one has been established a more genuine servant of their pious majesty than he. Farewell to me, greatly beloved, and to me most honored of all, genuine servant of God.

LETTER 45.... To the same.

45. Of the same to the same.

In every generation, at various times, God, providing for the nature of human beings and caring for the salvation of us all, has brought forth the one who lives holily, flashing with virtues like a light, as one capable by disposition of receiving the divine laws, giving as much strength as the people being led had need of for their conversion; so that, as it were by a lamp of the light of works of righteousness, the rest of mankind might attend and themselves order their life according to God, with no passion from ignorance tripping them up. And for us in due time a certain lamp and canon of virtue has been shown forth, George the Christ-loving prefect, great and so great in virtue, and having received from God such power abounding in grace, and surpassing those previously appointed and set forth for this so much as we—that is, our generation, weighed down by the great burden of wickedness—needed for relief and from the multitude of those afflicting us. A man, if ever any other of those most God-loving both formerly and now, good and humane, merciful, gentle, forbearing, long-suffering, humble-minded, temperate, free from anger, not loving money, loving, forgetful of wrongs, beneficent, hospitable, a lover of the poor, sympathetic, communal, most zealous, wakeful, a lover of the church;

and, what is more honored than all, a most fervent zealot of the pious word concerning the right faith. And the remaining matters are contained accordingly in the former letter; through which I also partially indicated by another syllable to my blessed master. For to comprehend all the man's achievements by the power of speech is among things impossible and unattainable; and these things, because my God-guarded master alone knows the man's love of God, as being divine through the very deeds by grace, I have declared that he should receive and honor him; and to set him before our pious and all-holy kings who image the divine power on earth; and to persuade the unjust tongues of lawless men not to receive him, tongues that make deceit like a sharpened razor and love evil more than good; so that no room be given to falsehood against the truth, and injustice not take boldness against righteousness, and, simply put, evil against every virtue, through the interchange and confusion of these with one another. For it is written, To wrong a righteous man is not good; nor is it holy to plot against righteous rulers. For this is fitting for my blessed master to do, since he is a lover of wisdom and understanding; which I pray may be preserved through all things for my God-guarded master, being a guardian of his soul and body.

I entreat that the one who carries this, a syllable of my own worthlessness, having a prudence of soul older than the age of his body, be received fittingly because of the understanding that is fitting in him, as one who takes part in the divine zeal for the words, and who does not disdain to have a genuine affection toward me, the lowly one.

TO ANASTASIUS THE MONK. Yesterday, on the eighteenth of the month, which was holy Pentecost, the patriarch made known to me, saying: "Of what Church are you? Of Byzantium? Of Rome? Of Antioch? Of Alexandria? Of Jerusalem? Behold, all have been united with the provinces under them. If, then, you are of the catholic Church, be united, lest by innovating a strange path in your life you suffer what you do not expect."

To these I said: "The catholic Church is the right and saving confession of faith in him, which God, who is God of all things, declared, blessing Peter for the things he rightly confessed. Nevertheless, let me learn the confession on which the union of all the Churches has come about; and of what has been rightly done, I am not estranged." And they say: "Even if we do not have a command concerning this, we speak so that you may become entirely without excuse. We say two energies because of the difference, and one because of the union.

Do you say that the two have become one because of the union, or that there is another besides these? No, they say, but the two are one because of the union. We have been freed from affairs, I said, having fashioned for ourselves a faith without substance and a God without existence. For if we confuse the two into one because of the union, and again divide into two because of the difference, there will be neither a monad nor a dyad of energies, always destroying one another and rendering that to which they have attached themselves inactive and altogether nonexistent. For that which has no motion that is by nature irremovable and unalterable and unchanging by any principle, is deprived of all essence according to the Fathers, not having an energy that characterizes it substantially. This, then, I cannot say, nor was I taught by the holy Fathers to confess it. Do what seems best to you, who are in authority.

Therefore listen, they said: it has seemed good to the master and to the patriarch, through a precept of the pope of Rome, that you be anathematized if you do not obey, and that you receive the death they have decreed for you.

May what was determined by God before every age receive its fulfillment in me, bringing him glory known before every age, I answered them, having heard this. And so that you may know, and make an addition of prayer and supplication to God, I have made the things revealed clear to you, entreating the Lord God, and our holy fathers there with him, to make these things known, for the sake of the same cause.