Epistula Magna

 are possible with the God who has promised for the passions of sin later came upon the soul and the body because of the transgression of the first-fo

 gives himself to all the well-pleasingness of the commandments, to that extent he also acquires the participation of the spirit for the spiritual incr

 [as] one who, as a bride of Christ, longs to be joined to the heavenly king who is pure and undefiled. For the soul that longs to be joined to him and

 the worse work of destruction, numbering hidden and manifest sins as one, he says: And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up

 to have fellowship and to be united, but only with the Spirit of God, 247 being united and clinging to it, he commanded the soul to bear the sacred of

 But in another epistle, teaching about the same things and showing the disciples the abundance of spiritual wealth and exhorting them to hasten to att

 he sets forth the goal. And because we are not sufficient for the struggle against the principalities and the powers and the spiritual forces of wicke

 let us have affliction and struggle and a ceaseless race, daily stretching forward always to the things that are before and forgetting the things that

 and having entered with exultation, since indeed he has become the agent of great salvation for himself, if with long-suffering and patience he remain

 he who humbles himself will be exalted and again: Whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be the last of all and the servant of all just as th

 the adversary always hinders the mind in good things, from loving the things above by the memory of good things, but rather, by enticing the will thro

 occupying ourselves with love always. and thus we shall be able to receive daily increase and progress towards divine love, being helped by the divine

 the soul's love is stretched out toward God and therefore if someone wishes to persevere unceasingly in prayers and to be at leisure for fasting acco

 surrendering the mind to such things and by reason of a lack of discernment being fully convinced by the bodily kneeling, while the mind is in a state

 a lack, his own work and toil, should he think the fruits of the spirit to be, he possesses much vain conceit and falls from great spiritual goods, no

 the future hope of the resurrection 279 immortal and it is possible to take up the sufferings of Christ readily and easily. Let those who have not ye

 being done That, he says, they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And the apostles, having legislated through the Spir

 the need of those who serve and give rest, and again the surplus of those who serve and work for the need of those who devote themselves to prayers. F

 we are deemed worthy of Christ, let us have communion with one another in all good things for the edification and benefit both of ourselves and of our

 of practices will it be to attain unless through what we have said before, setting forth through many things at the same time also the scriptural test

 believe in truths, that it is necessary for the one who has truly come to serve God to arrive at the measures of impassibility and freedom. Since ther

 workers or certain slaves are told by their master to reap three plethra each day, and one worker, having received such a command from his master, giv

 is promised to those who have consecrated themselves. For those who consider it impossible for this accomplishment to happen in men through the Spirit

 to those who obey the spirit, that it is necessary for the one who has approached God in truth, believing in his promises with a whole heart and striv

But in another epistle, teaching about the same things and showing the disciples the abundance of spiritual wealth and exhorting them to hasten to attain to the perfect measure, he said: But earnestly desire the spiritual gifts; and yet I show you a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy brass or a clanging cymbal; and if I have prophecy and 250 know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am profited nothing; and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and give my body that I may be burned, but do not have love, I am nothing. And he adds what the fruits of love are and how those who possess it have been completely delivered from the passions of wickedness, saying: Love does not envy; love does not boast; is not puffed up; does not behave unseemly; does not seek its own; does not take into account evil; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things; endures all things; believes all things; hopes all things. And again the same: Love never fails. But "3never fails"3 means this, that those who possess the aforementioned gifts of the Spirit and have not yet, through the most complete and active love of the Spirit, received deliverance from the passions, are still in danger and conflict and fear because of the struggle against the spiritual forces of wickedness, even if they possess spiritual gifts. For behold, what a great spiritual measure, since it is no longer subject to falling and passion, he showed to those wishing to walk accurately the path of Christianity; 251 so that even the tongues of angels and prophecy and faith and all knowledge and the gifts of healings are nothing in comparison with the highest virtue and the fullness of the love of perfection, although those things are also workings of the same Spirit. But so that, if anyone should be deemed worthy of those gifts, he might not think, on account of the newer working of grace, that he has arrived at perfection and, thinking he no longer needs anything, remain short of the perfect measures of dispassion, being fully convinced only in the lesser gifts, for this reason he showed the goal of perfection, so that each one, recognizing himself as poor of so great a wealth, might unceasingly and relentlessly fight the good fight, and so run the spiritual race, until he should lay hold of it, as he has said: So run, that you may obtain. Behold how through many things he makes clear to all the boundary and goal and rule of piety and perfection, praying for his own disciples that all might attain to it; for again the same, showing in another place the newness and change that comes to be in Christ for those who believe and love the Lord, says: For neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation; and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. And again: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away. through the single phrase of the new creation, he has 252 made clear the apostolic rule; and what else is the new creation than, as the same says elsewhere: That he might present to himself the church in splendor, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and blameless, the complete purity from shame, which is the complete deliverance from the passions, and the full, ineffable, and mystical communion in holiness of the divine power of the Spirit, working in the hearts of saints who have been deemed worthy of a newer, supernatural, and spiritual enjoyment in virtues, the apostle taught that this is the new creation in Christ. But also the [saying], Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump; and the [saying], Let us celebrate, not with old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, the same

Ἐν ἄλλῃ δὲ ἐπιστολῇ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν διδάσκων καὶ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τοῦ πνευματικοῦ πλούτου ἐπιδεικνύων τοῖς μαθηταῖς καὶ προτρεπόμενος σπεύδειν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ τέλειον μέτρον καταντῆσαι ἔλεγε· Ζηλοῦτε δὲ τὰ πνευματικὰ χαρίσματα· καὶ ἔτι καθ' ὑπερβολὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῖν δείκνυμι. ἐὰν ταῖς γλώσσαις τῶν ἀγγέλων λαλῶ, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, γέγονα χαλκὸς ἠχῶν ἢ κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον· κἂν ἔχω προφητείαν καὶ 250 εἰδῶ τὰ μυστήρια πάντα καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν, κἂν ἔχω πᾶσαν τὴν πίστιν ὥστε ὄρη μεθιστᾶν, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐδὲν ὠφελοῦμαι· κἂν ψωμίσω πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντά μου καὶ παραδῶ τὸ σῶμά μου ἵνα καυθήσομαι, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐθέν εἰμι. καὶ ἐπάγει τοὺς καρποὺς τῆς ἀγάπης οἷοί εἰσι καὶ πῶς οἱ ταύτην κεκτημένοι τῶν τῆς κακίας παθῶν παντελῶς ἐλυτρώθησαν, λέγων· Ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ ζηλοῖ· ἡ ἀγάπη οὐ περπερεύεται· οὐ φυσιοῦται· οὐκ ἀσχημονεῖ· οὐ ζητεῖ τὰ ἑαυτῆς· οὐ λογίζεται τὸ κακόν· οὐ χαίρει ἐπὶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, συγχαίρει δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· πάντα στέγει· πάντα ὑπομένει· πάντα πιστεύει· πάντα ἐλπίζει. καὶ πάλιν ὁ αὐτός· Ἡ ἀγάπη οὐδέποτε πίπτει. τὸ δὲ "3οὐδέποτε πίπτει"3 τοῦτο σημαίνει, ὡς οἱ ἐν τοῖς προειρημένοις χαρίσμασι τοῦ πνεύματος ὄντες καὶ μηδέπω διὰ τῆς πληρεστάτης καὶ ἐνεργοῦς ἀγάπης τοῦ πνεύματος τὴν λύτρωσιν τῶν παθῶν δεξάμενοι ἐν κινδύνῳ ἔτι καὶ ἀγῶνι καὶ φόβῳ τυγχάνουσι διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας πάλην, εἰ καὶ χαρίσματα πνευματικὰ κέκτηνται. ἰδοὺ γὰρ οἷον καὶ ὅσον πνευματικὸν μέτρον, ἅτε μηκέτι ὂν ὑπὸ πτῶσιν καὶ πάθος, ἔδειξε τοῖς βουλομένοις ἀκριβῶς βαίνειν τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ· 251 ὥστε καὶ γλώσσας ἀγγέλων καὶ προφητείαν καὶ πίστιν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν καὶ χαρίσματα ἰαμάτων μηδὲν εἶναι ὡς πρὸς σύγκρισιν τῆς ἀκροτάτης ἀρετῆς καὶ τοῦ πληρώματος τῆς ἀγάπης τῆς τελειότητος, καίπερ κἀκεῖνα τοῦ αὐτοῦ πνεύματος ὄντα ἐνεργήματα. ἀλλ' ἵνα, ἐάν τις ἐκείνων τῶν χαρισμάτων καταξιωθῇ, μὴ νομίσῃ διὰ τὴν καινοτέραν τῆς χάριτος ἐνέργειαν εἰς τὸ τέλειον ἐφθακέναι καὶ ὡς μηκέτι χρῄζων τινὸς οἰηθεὶς ἀπομείνῃ τῶν τελείων τῆς ἀπαθείας μέτρων, ἐν τοῖς ἐλάττοσι χαρίσμασι μόνον ἐμπληροφορούμενος, διὰ τοῦτο τὸν σκοπὸν τῆς τελειότητος ὑπέδειξεν, ἵνα ἕκαστος ἑαυτὸν πτωχὸν ἀπὸ τηλικούτου πλούτου ἐπιγινώσκων ἀπαύστως ἀνενδότως τὸν καλὸν ἀγωνίζηται ἀγῶνα, καὶ τὸν πνευματικὸν δρόμον οὕτως τρέχῃ, ἕως οὗ καταλάβῃ, καθὼς εἴρηκεν· Οὕτως τρέχετε, ἵνα καταλάβητε. Ἰδοὺ πῶς τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας καὶ τελειότητος ὅρον καὶ σκοπὸν καὶ κανόνα διὰ πολλῶν εἰς φανερὸν πᾶσι τίθησιν ἐπευχόμενος τοῖς ἰδίοις μαθηταῖς εἰς αὐτὸν πάντας φθάσαι· πάλιν γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς ἐν ἑτέρῳ δεικνύων τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ γινομένην καινότητα καὶ μεταβολὴν τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ ἀγαπῶσι τὸν κύριόν φησιν· Οὔτε γὰρ περιτομή τι ἰσχύει οὔτε ἀκροβυστία, ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις· καὶ ὅσοι τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ στοιχοῦσιν εἰρήνη ἐπ' αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ πάλιν· Εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις, τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθε. διὰ μιᾶς λέξεως τῆς καινῆς κτίσεως τὸν ἀποστολικὸν κανόνα 252 εἰς φανερὸν τέθεικεν· ἡ δὲ καινὴ κτίσις τί ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἤ, καθὼς ὁ αὐτὸς ἀλλαχοῦ λέγει· Ἵνα παραστήσῃ αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἔνδοξον, μὴ ἔχουσαν σπίλον ἢ ῥυτίδα ἤ τι τῶν τοιούτων, ἀλλ' ἵνα ᾖ ἁγία καὶ ἄμωμος, τὴν παντελῆ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἴσχους καθαρότητα, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ παντελὴς τῶν παθῶν ἀπαλλαγή, καὶ τὴν πλήρη τῆς θείας τοῦ πνεύματος δυνάμεως ἄρρητον καὶ μυστικὴν ἐν ἁγιασμῷ κοινωνίαν, ἐν καρδίαις ἁγίων ἐνεργουμένην, καινοτέρας ὑπὲρ τὴν φύσιν καὶ πνευματικῆς ἐν ἀρεταῖς ἀπολαύσεως κατηξιωμένων, ταύτην εἶναι τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ καινὴν κτίσιν ὁ ἀπόστολος ἐδίδαξεν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ Ἐκκαθάρατε τὴν παλαιὰν ζύμην, ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα· καὶ τὸ Ἑορτάζομεν μὴ ἐν ζύμῃ παλαιᾷ, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀζύμοις εἰλικρινείας καὶ ἀληθείας, τὸν αὐτὸν