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of sins. Let us fast, therefore, beloved, a pure fast about which the apostle James says that "pure religion is this: to visit" brothers "in their affliction, to keep oneself unstained from the world." Joshua the son of Nun fasted and commanded the sun and the moon.

6 The apostles, having nothing on earth, received authority to bind and to loose, and in them is fulfilled what was said: "as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." For Peter, it says, and John went up to the temple at the ninth hour to pray. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was sitting, who had never walked. This man expected to receive something from the apostles. But Peter answered, saying to him: "What you expect to receive I do not have, but what you do not expect to receive I have. You expect to receive silver, I give you health; for health of body is better than unmeasured wealth. I will-confess the truth to you: "3Silver and gold I do not have"3. For Christ instructed us, saying: "3Acquire no gold, nor silver, nor copper"3. But he has given us authority, saying: "3Cast out demons, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers. You received without payment, give without payment."3 "3In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.» And taking him «by the right hand, he raised him up.» The servant raises by taking hold, the master heals by a word; «for a servant is not greater than his master.»

7 But while dispensaries are being opened throughout the world, today I see also one physician presiding over all, Christ. Oh, what a new kind of miracle! Different afflictions, in different places of healing, are cured by one physician. Another, constrained elsewhere by the wound of sin, approaches and, having received a plaster of healing from the fast, departs. Another elsewhere, reeking of the corruption of fornication, receives through it a remedy for the stench from the physician of souls and bodies, Christ. Another, burning with the fever of avarice, receives from the fast herbs that cool the disease.

8 This knows how to make barren women pregnant quickly, and to render the unfruitful womb a fertile field, and to give prophets as sons, the reward of abstinence. For what are we taught from the divine scripture? "And Hannah was disheartened," it says, "and she wept and did not eat." But fasting provided Samuel the prophet to the barren woman. You have seen the gifts of the fast. You have seen what kind of fruits it brings forth for those who need it, how it dries up the springs of fornication, but opens wombs dried up by barrenness, and cuts out the thorns of sin growing from our thoughts, and no longer yields the fruits of impiety. Not only is the fast according to God able to do these things, but it also makes the harsh gentle and changes the unsympathetic to sympathy, softening by its craft the hardness of the unyielding.

9 This is not only useful for sinners, but also timely for the righteous, as we have shown before. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, Moses entered into that darkness, and he saw God as has happened to no other man, according to God's own testimony about him, saying: "If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision, and I will speak to him in a dream. Not so my servant Moses, mouth to mouth," face to face, "as a man speaks to his friend." Fasting brought this exceptional vision to the prophet as a gift and transformed the face of the one who fasted into a more divine flash of unapproachable light and gave to the prophet tablets written by the finger of God

10 Let us therefore approach it with a cheerful countenance, let us welcome it with joyful souls, and let us not abstain from foods, but from sins

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ἁμαρτημάτων. Νηστεύσωμεν οὖν, ἀγαπητοί, νηστείαν καθαρὰν περὶ ἧς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος Ἰάκωβος ὅτι «θρησκεία καθαρὰ αὕτη ἐστίν· ἐπισκέπτεσθαι» ἀδελφοὺς «ἐν τῇ θλίψει αὐτῶν, ἀσπίλους ἑαυτοὺς τηρεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου.» Ἐνήστευσεν Ἰησοῦς ὁ τοῦ Ναυὴ καὶ τῷ ἡλίῳ καὶ τῇ σελήνῃ ἐπέταξεν.

6 Οἱ ἀπόστολοι, μηδὲν ἔχοντες ἐπὶ γῆς, δέννειν καὶ λύειν ἐξουσίαν ἔλαβον καὶ πληροῦται εἰς αὐτοὺς τὸ εἰρημένον· «ὡς μηδὲν ἔχοντες καὶ πάντα κατέχοντες.» Πέτρος γάρ, φησίν, καὶ Ἰωάννης περὶ ὥραν ἐνάτην ἀνῆλθον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν προσεύξασθαι. Καί τις χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων ἐκάθητο, ὃς οὐδέποτε περιεπάτησεν. Οὗτος προσεδόκα λαβεῖν τι παρὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων. Ἀπεκρίθη δὲ ὁ Πέτρος λέγων αὐτῷ· «Ἃ προσδοκᾷς λαβεῖν οὐκ ἔχω, ἃ δὲ μὴ προσδοκᾷς λαβεῖν ἔχω. Ἀργύριον προσδοκᾷς λαβεῖν, ὑγίειάν σοι παρέχω· κρεῖττον γὰρ ὑγίεια σώματος ἢ ὄλβος ἀμέτρητος. Ὁμο-λογήσω σοι τὴν ἀλήθειαν· "3Ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον οὐχ ὑπάρχει μοι"3. Ὁ Χριστὸς γὰρ παρέδωκεν ἡμῖν λέγων· "3Μὴ κτήσασθε χρυσὸν μηδὲ ἄργυρον μηδὲ χαλκόν"3. ∆έδωκεν δὲ ἡμῖν ἐξουσίαν λέγων· "3∆αιμόνια ἐκβάλλετε, ἀσθενοῦντας θεραπεύετε, λεπροὺς καθαρίζετε. ∆ωρεὰν ἐλάβετε, δωρεὰν δότε."3 "3Ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἔγειρε καὶ περιπάτει.» Καὶ κρατήσας «τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρὸς ἤγειρεν αὐτόν.» Ὁ δοῦλος κρατῶν ἐγείρει, ὁ δεσπότης λόγῳ θεραπεύει· «Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν δοῦλος ὑπὲρ τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ.»

7 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἰατρείων κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀνοιγομένων, σήμερον βλέπω καὶ ἕνα τοῖς πᾶσιν ἰατρὸν ἐφεστῶτα Χριστόν. Ὢ καινοτέρου τοῦ θαύματος. ∆ιάφορα πάθη, ἐν διαφόροις ἰατρείων χωρίοις, ὑπὸ ἑνὸς ἰατροῦ θεραπεύεται. Ἄλλος ἀλλαχοῦ ἁμαρτίας τραύματι συνεχόμενος πρόσεισιν καὶ παρὰ τῆς νηστείας λαβὼν ἰάσεως ἔμπλαστρον ἄπεισιν. Ἄλλος ἑτέρωθι σηπεδόνα πορνείας ἀπόζων ἰατικὸν τῆς δυσωδίας, παρὰ τοῦ ἰατροῦ τῶν ψυχῶν καὶ σωμάτων Χριστοῦ, δι' αὐτῆς ἐκδέχεται φάρμακον. Ἄλλος πυρετῷ φιλαργυρίας συγκαιόμενος, παρὰ τῆς νηστείας ἀναψυχούσας τὴν νόσον βοτάνας κομίζεται.

8 Οἶδεν αὕτη καὶ στείρας ἐγκύμονας ἀποφαίνειν συντόμως, καὶ τὴν ἄγονον μήτραν εὔκαρπον ἄρουραν ἀπεργάζεσθαι, καὶ προφήτας υἱοὺς τῆς ἀσιτίας διδόναι μισθόν. Τί γὰρ παρὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς διδασκόμεθα; «Καὶ ἠθύμει Ἅννα», φησίν, «καὶ ἔκλαιεν καὶ οὐκ ἤσθιεν.» Ἀλλὰ νηστεία τῇ στείρᾳ Σαμουὴλ τὸν προφήτην παρέσχεν. Εἶδες τῆς νηστείας τὰ δῶρα. Εἶδες οἵους τοῖς αὐτῆς δεομένοις βλαστάνει καρπούς, πῶς τὰς μὲν πηγὰς τῆς πορνείας ξηραίνει, τὰς δὲ ξηρανθείσας τῇ στειρώσει μήτρας ἀνοίγει καὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν λογισμῶν δὲ φυομένας ἀκάνθας τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐκκόπτει καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἀσεβείας οὐκέτι δίδωσιν καρπούς. Οὐ μόνον δὲ δύναται ταῦτα ἡ κατὰ θεὸν νηστεία, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμέρους τοὺς ἀπηνεῖς ἀπεργάζεται καὶ εἰς συμπάθειαν τοὺς ἀσυμπαθεῖς μεταβάλλει, τὸ σκληρὸν τῶν ἀνενδότων μαλάσσει χαλκεύουσα.

9 Αὕτη οὐ μόνον ἁμαρτωλοῖς χρήσιμος, ἀλλ' ἤδη καὶ δικαίοις εἰς καιρὸν ἐπιτήδειος, ὡς προεδείξαμεν. Νηστεύσας Μωυσῆς τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας καὶ τεσσαράκοντα νύκτας εἰς ἐκεῖνον εἰσῆλθεν τὸν γνόφον, καὶ εἶδεν θεὸν ὡς οὐδενὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐγγέγονεν, κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ αὐτοῦ μαρτυρίαν λέγοντος· «Ἐὰν γένηται προφήτης ἐν ὑμῖν τῷ κυρίῳ, ἐν ὁράματι αὐτῷ γνωσθήσομαι καὶ ἐν ὕπνῳ λαλήσω αὐτῷ. Οὐχ ὣς ὁ θεράπων μου Μωυσῆς, στόμα κατὰ στόμα», πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον, «ὡς ἐάν τις λαλήσῃ πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ φίλον.» Ταύτην ἐξαίρετον θέαν ἡ νηστεία τῷ προφήτῃ κεκόμικεν δῶρον καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ νηστεύσαντος εἰς θειοτέραν τινὰ φωτὸς ἀπροσίτου ἀστραπὴν μετέθηκεν καὶ δέδωκεν τῷ προφήτῃ δέλτους δακτύλῳ θεοῦ γεγραμμένας

10 Προσερχώμεθα τοίνυν αὐτῇ μετὰ φαιδροῦ τοῦ προσώπου, ἱλαροὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς αὐτὴν ἀσπασώμεθα καὶ μὴ βρωμάτων μὲν ἀπεχώμεθα, ἁμαρτημάτων δὲ