still entangled by contrary either charms or disturbances. But also from them the vision and communion of the most holy things is withheld, and very rightly so. For if it is true that the universally divine man, the worthy communicant of divine things, who has been led up to the height of his own godlikeness in all-perfect and perfecting deifications, will not even perform the works of the flesh beyond the most necessary things according to nature, and this, if it should happen, only incidentally, and will be at once a temple and a follower in his own highest deification of the divine Spirit, establishing like in the like, such a one would never be acted upon by contrary fantasies or fears, but he will laugh at them, and approaching them will wrestle them down and cast them out, and will act rather than be acted upon, and in addition to the passionless and unyielding state of his own disposition, he will be seen as a physician to others of such workings. And I think, moreover, or rather I know clearly, that the most unmixed discernment of the hierarchs recognizes before these, those who are activated by a most accursed activity, all those who, having fallen away from the godlike life, become of one mind and one manner with the destructive demons, turning away from the things that truly are, and are immortally possessed and eternally pleasant, through an extreme and self-destructive folly, and desiring and effecting the material and most passionate alteration and the perishing and corrupting pleasures and the uncertain well-being which is not real but only apparent in things alien to them. Let these, therefore, first and more properly than those others, be separated by the discerning voice of the minister. For it is not lawful for them to partake of any other sacred thing than the teaching of the oracles, which turns them toward what is better. For if the super-cosmic liturgy of divine things conceals itself even from those in penitence, although they have already turned toward it, not admitting that which is not entirely most holy, and proclaims this most purely, that “To those who in some respect fall short imperfectly of the summit of the godlike, I am unseen and uncommunicable” (for the voice, which is in every way most unmixed, drives away also those who are not able to be bound together worthily with the communicants of the most divine things), much more, then, will the multitude of those who are activated by passions be unholy and alien to all vision and communion of the sacred rites. Since, then, outside the divine temple and the liturgy which transcends them are placed: the uninitiated and unperfected in the rites, and in addition to them, the apostates from the holy life, and consequently with these, those who through cowardice are susceptible to the fears and phantoms of the adversaries, as not having arrived, through intense and unyielding inclination toward divine things, at the immovable and active state of the godlike disposition, then, in addition to them, those who have indeed apostatized from the contrary life, but have not yet been cleansed from its fantasies by a divine and unmixed state and love, and after them, those who are not at all of a single form and, to speak in legal terms, entirely blameless and unblemished, then the all-holy ministers and lovers of the vision of the all-holy things, beholding the most holy rite in a holy manner, praise with a universal hymnology the good-working and good-giving Principle, by which the saving rites were shown to us, celebrating the holy deification of those being perfected. This hymn some call a confession, others the symbol of the religion, and others, as I think more divinely, a hierarchical thanksgiving, as comprehensive of the holy gifts which have come to us from God. For the substance of all the divine works which are hymned seems to me to have been wrought for us: having in a good-like manner established our substance and life, and having formed our godlikeness with archetypal beauties, and having established us in a participation of a more divine state and uplifting, but seeing the destitution of divine gifts that occurred in us through inattention, to call us back to our original state with remedial goods, and by the all-perfect assumption of what is ours, to work the most perfect communion of its own goods, and thereby to bestow upon us communion with God and with divine things. <8> Thus, when the divine loving-kindness has been holily hymned, the divine bread is set forth veiled, and “the cup of blessing,” and the most divine kiss is celebrated, and the mystical and super-cosmic proclamation of the sacred tablets. For it is not possible to the one

ἔτι δὲ ταῖς ἐναντίαις ἢ θέλξεσιν ἢ ταραχαῖς ἐνησχημένον. Ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἡ τῶν πανιέρων θέα καὶ κοινωνία συστέλλεται, καὶ μάλα γε εἰκότως. Eἰ γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθές, ὡς ὁ καθόλου θεῖος ἀνὴρ ὁ τῶν θείων ἄξιος κοινωνὸς ὁ πρὸς τὸ τοῦ κατ' αὐτὸν θεοειδοῦς ἄκρον ἐν παντελέσι καὶ τελειωτικαῖς θεώσεσιν ἀνηγμένος οὐδὲ τὰ σαρκὸς ἐνεργήσει παρὰ τὰ κατὰ φύσιν ἀναγκαιότατα καὶ τοῦτο εἰ τύχοι παρέργως, ναὸς δὲ ἅμα καὶ ὀπαδὸς ἐν τῇ κατ' αὐτὸν ἀκροτάτῃ θεώσει τοῦ θεαρχικοῦ πνεύματος ἔσται τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὸ ὅμοιον ἐνιδρύων, οὐκ ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτός ποτε πρὸς τῶν ἐναντίων ἐνεργηθείη φαντασιῶν ἢ δειμάτων, γελάσεται δὲ αὐτὰ καὶ προσιόντα καταπαλαίσει καὶ ἐκδιώξεται καὶ δράσει μᾶλλον ἢ πείσεται καὶ πρὸς τῷ τῆς οἰκείας ἕξεως ἀπαθεῖ καὶ ἀνενδότῳ καὶ ἑτέροις ἰατρὸς ὀφθήσεται τῶν τοιούτων ἐνεργημάτων. Oἶμαι δὲ ἐγὼ πρὸς τούτῳ, μᾶλλον δὲ οἶδα σαφῶς, ὡς ἡ τῶν ἱεραρχικῶν ἀμιγεστάτη διάκρισις πρὸ τούτων οἶδεν ἐνεργουμένους ἐναγεστάτην ἐνέργειαν, ὅσοι τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἀποστάντες ζωῆς ὁμόφρονές τε καὶ ὁμότροποι τοῖς ὀλεθρίοις γίνονται δαίμοσι τὰ μὲν ὄντως ὄντα καὶ ἀθανάτως κτητὰ καὶ αἰωνίως ἡδέα δι' ἐσχάτην καὶ ἑαυτοῖς ὀλέθριον ἀνοησίαν ἀποστρεφόμενοι, τὴν πρόσυλον δὲ καὶ πολυπαθεστάτην ἀλλοίωσιν καὶ τὰς ὀλλυμένας καὶ φθοροποιοὺς ἡδονὰς καὶ τὴν ἀβέβαιον ἐν τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις οὐκ οὖσαν ἀλλὰ δοκοῦσαν εὐπάθειαν ἐπιθυμοῦντες καὶ ἐνεργοῦντες. Πρῶτοι δ' οὖν οὗτοι καὶ κυριώτερον ἐκείνων ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ λειτουργοῦ διακριτικῆς φωνῆς ἀφοριζέσθωσαν. Oὐ γὰρ θεμιτὸν αὐτοῖς ἑτέρου τινὸς ἱεροῦ μετασχεῖν ἢ τῆς τῶν λογίων ἐπιστρεπτικῆς ἐπὶ τὰ κρείττω διδασκαλίας. Eἰ γὰρ ἡ τῶν θείων ὑπερκόσμιος ἱερουργία καὶ τοὺς ἐν μετανοίᾳ καίτοι πρὸς αὐτὴν ἤδη γεγονότας ἀποκρύπτεται τὸ μὴ παντελῶς ἱερώτατον οὐ προσιεμένη, προσφωνεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῦτο πανάγνως ὅτι «Καὶ τοῖς κατά τι πρὸς τὸ τοῦ θεοειδοῦς ἄκρον ἀτελῶς ἐξασθενοῦσιν ἀθέατός εἰμι καὶ ἀκοινώνητος» (ἀποσοβεῖ γὰρ ἡ κατὰ πᾶν ἀμιγεστάτη φωνὴ καὶ τοὺς μὴ δυναμένους συνδεθῆναι τοῖς τῶν θειοτάτων ἀξίως κοινωνοῖς), πολλῷ γε μᾶλλον ἡ τῶν ἐμπαθῶς ἐνεργουμένων πληθὺς ἀνίερος ἔσται καὶ πάσης ἀλλοτρία τῆς τῶν ἱερῶν ἐποψίας καὶ κοινωνίας. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦ θείου γεγόνασιν ἔξω ναοῦ καὶ τῆς ὑπερκειμένης αὐτοὺς ἱερουργίας οἱ τῶν τελετῶν ἀμύητοι καὶ ἀτέλεστοι καὶ πρὸς αὐτοῖς οἱ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀποστάται ζωῆς ἑπομένως τε τούτοις οἱ πρὸς τὰ τῶν ἐναντίων δείματά τε καὶ φάσματα δι' ἀνανδρίαν εὐπαθεῖς ὡς οὐκ ἀφικόμενοι διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὰ θεῖα συντόνου καὶ ἀνενδότου συννεύσεως ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἕξεως ἀκίνητον καὶ δραστήριον, εἶτα πρὸς αὐτοῖς οἱ τῆς ἐναντίας μὲν ἀποστάντες ζωῆς, οὔπω δὲ καὶ τῶν φαντασιῶν αὐτῆς ἕξει καὶ ἔρωτι θείῳ καὶ ἀμιγεῖ καθαρθέντες καὶ μετ' αὐτοὺς οἱ μὴ καθάπαξ ἑνοειδεῖς καὶ νομικῶς εἰπεῖν ἄμωμοι καὶ ἀλώβητοι παντελῶς, τότε οἱ πανίεροι τῶν πανιέρων ἱερουργοὶ καὶ φιλοθεάμονες τὴν ἁγιωτάτην τελετὴν ἁγιοπρεπῶς ἐπο πτεύοντες ὑμνοῦσιν ὑμνολογίᾳ καθολικῇ τὴν ἀγαθουργὸν καὶ ἀγαθοδότιν ἀρχήν, ὑφ' ἧς αἱ σωτηριώδεις ἡμῖν ἀνεδείχθησαν τελεταὶ τὴν ἱερὰν τῶν τελουμένων θέωσιν ἱερουργοῦσαι. Τὸν ὕμνον δὲ τοῦτον οἱ μὲν ὁμολογίαν καλοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ τῆς θρησκείας τὸ σύμβολον, ἄλλοι δὲ ὡς οἶμαι θειότερον ἱεραρχικὴν εὐχαριστίαν ὡς περιεκτικὴν τῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς θεόθεν ἀφικομένων ἱερῶν δώρων. ∆οκεῖ γάρ μοι τῶν ὑμνουμένων ἁπασῶν θεουργιῶν ἡ πραγματεία περὶ ἡμᾶς γεγονέναι τὴν μὲν οὐσίαν ἡμῶν καὶ ζωὴν ἀγαθοειδῶς ὑποστήσασα καὶ ἀρχετύποις κάλλεσι τὸ θεοειδὲς ἡμῶν μορφώσασα καὶ θειοτέρας ἕξεως καὶ ἀναγωγῆς ἐν μετουσίᾳ καταστήσασα, κατιδοῦσα δὲ τὴν ἐξ ἀπροσεξίας ἐγγενομένην ἡμῖν ἐρημίαν τῶν θείων δωρεῶν ἐπισκευαστοῖς ἡμᾶς ἀγαθοῖς εἰς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἀνακαλέσασθαι καὶ τῇ παντελεῖ τῶν ἡμετέρων προσλήψει τὴν τελεωτάτην τῶν οἰκείων μετάδοσιν ἀγαθουργῆσαι καὶ ταύτῃ κοινωνίαν ἡμῖν θεοῦ καὶ τῶν θείων δωρήσασθαι. <8> Oὕτω δὲ τῆς θεαρχικῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἱερῶς ὑμνηθείσης ἐγκεκαλυμμένος μὲν ὁ θεῖος ἄρτος προτίθεται καὶ «τὸ τῆς εὐλογίας ποτήριον», ὁ δὲ θειότατος ἀσπασμὸς ἱερουργεῖται καὶ τῶν ἁγιογράφων πτυχῶν ἡ μυστικὴ καὶ ὑπερκόσμιος ἀνάρρησις. Oὐ γὰρ ἔνεστι πρὸς τὸ ἓν