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28 To a brother returning from a ministry

Having turned back, child, from your care, immediately gather together your flesh and your wandering mind, bringing nothing vain inside from without, but if anything is holy; and that to the leaders. For you do not give an account of worldly vanity: "I saw, I ate; and this and that happens," and at least so-and-so and such-and-such tells you these things. For by mixing subversion for your neighbor with these things, you are worthily named for a prophet's curse.

29 On the guesthouse

Come forward, hither, to the welcoming roof, you wayfaring men, wearied by your labors, partake of my hospitality: of desired bread, that which nourishes the heart, of sweet drink, that which flows abundantly, and of coverings foreign to the cold, which my Master Christ, the source of riches, has provided for me, Theognostos, friends, from His all-blessed gifts for His sake; blessing Him as the nourisher of the world, and making only a prayer in return for me, so that from there, through my hospitable manner, I might happen to enter the bosom of Abraham.

30 On holy icons

The icon which you see, happens to be of Christ; but call it Christ itself, but homonymously; for the identity is in name, but not in nature; but the veneration of both is indivisibly one. He therefore who venerates this, reveres Christ, for he who does not venerate it is his enemy entirely, as one who, being mad, does not wish to revere the depicted incarnate sight of this one.

31 Another

If we receive the body of Christ to eat, drinking His life-giving blood, how would we not show Him depicted, whose body is also delineated by form? For as simple, He has no circumscription; for He is God, outside of all place. But as clothed in our substance, He is man, depicted by composition, having the other unconfusedly according to essence and composed in one hypostasis. He who thus glorifies the Word has shown himself a very faithful nursling of the church; for he who thinks otherwise runs far from God.

32 Another

Seeing her, men, who has been beautified by a form-creating hand, depicted here, reap a fruit of benefit worthily, having raised your mind to their causes; for the image cries out greatly, equal to a word, thus: "My honor is the glory of the prototype, for which I was produced for remembrance only, guarding, enlightening my friends, but alienating those not wishing to venerate me with respect from the inheritance above."

33 Another

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28 Εἰς ὑποστρέφοντα ἀδελφὸν ἀπὸ διακονίασ Παλινστροφήσας, τέκνον, ἐκ τῆς φροντίδος σύστρεψον εὐθὺς σαρκὶ καὶ νοῦν

σου πλάνον, εἰκαῖον οὐδὲν ἔνδον ἔξωθεν φέρων, ἀλλ' εἴ τι σεμνόν· καὶ τὸ τοῖς πρωτοστάταις. Λόγον γὰρ οὐ φῇς τῆς ματαιοκοσμίας· «Εἶδον, βέβρωκα· καὶ τὸ καὶ τὸ τυγχάνει», καὶ γοῦν ὁ τίς καὶ τίσδε φωνεῖ σοι τάδε. Ἀνατροπὴν γὰρ τοῖσδε κιρνῶν τῷ πέλας ἀρᾶς προφήτου χρηματίζεις ἀξίως.

29 Εἰς τὸ ξενοδοχεῖον

Προβᾶτε, δεῦτε, τῇ ξενιζούσῃ στέγῃ, ἄνδρες πορευταί, τοῖς πόνοις

κεκμηκότες, μετεκλάβοιτε τῶν ἐμῶν ξενισμάτων· ἄρτου ποθητοῦ, τοῦ τρέφοντος καρδίαν, ποτοῦ γλυκείου, τοῦ ῥέοντος ἀφθόνως, σκεπασμάτων τε τῶν ψύχους ἀλλοτρίων, ἅ μοι παρέσχε, τῷ Θεογνώστῳ, φίλοι, ἐκ τῶν πανόλβων δωρεῶν αὐτοῦ χάριν ὁ ∆εσπότης μου Χριστός, ὁ πλουτοβρύτης· ἐπευλογοῦντες αὐτὸν ὡς κοσμοτρόφον, κἀμοὶ προσευχὴν ἀντιποιοῦντες μόνον, ὅπως ἐκεῖθεν, τῷ φιλοξένῳ τρόπῳ, τοὺςἈβραὰμ τύχοιμι κόλπους εἰσδύναι.

30 Εἰς ἁγίας εἰκόνας

Ἥνπερ βλέπεις εἰκόνα, Χριστοῦ τυγχάνει· Χριστὸν δὲ καὐτὴν λέξον, ἀλλ'

ὁμωνύμως· κλήσει γάρ ἐστι ταυτότης, ἀλλ' οὐ φύσει· ἀμφοῖν δὲ προσκύνησις ἀσχίστως μία. Ὁ τοίνυν ταύτην προσκυνῶν Χριστὸν σέβει, μὴ προσκυνῶν γὰρ ἐχθρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ πάνυ, ὡς τὴν ἀναγραφεῖσαν ἔνσαρκον θέαν τούτου μεμηνὼς μὴ σεβασθῆναι θέλων.

31 Ἄλλο

Εἰ σῶμα Χριστοῦ λαμβάνομεν ἐσθίειν, τούτου πίνοντες αἷμα τὸ ζωηφόρον,

πῶς οὐκ ἂν αὐτὸν δείξωμεν γεγραμμένον, οὗ καὶ τὸ σῶμα σχηματόγραπτον πέλει; Ὡς μὲν γὰρ ἁπλοῦς, οὐ περιγραφὴν ἔχει· Θεὸς γάρ ἐστι, παντὸς ἔξωθεν τόπου. Ὡς ἐνδυθεὶς δὲ τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς οὐσίαν, ἄνθρωπός ἐστι, συνθέσει γεγραμμένος, ἔχων ἀφύρτως θάτερον κατ' οὐσίαν ὑποστάσει μιᾷ τε συντεθειμένος. Ὁ τὸν Λόγον τοιῶσδε δοξάζων μάλα πιστὸν πέφηνε θρέμμα τῆς ἐκκλησίας· ἄλλως φρονῶν γὰρ τοῦ Θεοῦ πόρρω θέει.

32 Ἄλλο

Ἐκ μορφοποιοῦ χειρὸς ὡραϊσμένην βλέποντες, ἄνδρες, ἐγγραφεῖσαν ἐνθάδε,

δρέψασθε καρπὸν ὠφελείας ἀξίως, τὸν νοῦν ἄραντες εἰς τὰς αὐτῶν αἰτίας· ἴσον λόγου γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ βοᾷ μέγα, ὡς·Ἡ τιμή μου δόξα τῆς αὐτοψίας, δι' ἣν παρήχθην εἰς ὑπόμνησιν μόνον, φρουροῦσα, φωτίζουσα τοὺς ἐμοὺς φίλους, τοὺς προσκυνεῖν δὲ μὴ θέλοντάς με σχέσει ἀλλοτριοῦσα τῆς ἄνω κληρουχίας.

33 Ἄλλο