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in a certain circle the divine Principle of Goodness bestowing upon her the unerring and turning her back from the many things outside, and gathering her first into herself, then, when she has become of a single form, uniting her with the powers of the angels that are united in unity; for through them as good guides (for after the sacred and holy minds come the souls and all the good things of souls) she is led up to the very Principle of Goodness of all good things and comes to be in participation of the illuminations gushing forth from there, according to the purification analogous in her, and she richly partakes, as much as is possible, of the gift of the good-like, I do not think it is just to risk that these high contemplations and erotic theologies be disbelieved, falling on ears stopped up by envy and unbelief, or rather to say, into souls deeply covered by the darkness of ignorance and trampled by mules and asses or serpents and snakes, I mean the unclean and destructive passions; for the holy things are unshareable for all those living a dog-like and swine-like life, to whom these things are not given, as the saying goes, nor indeed are the pearls of the word cast, but for those led up to the equal from the extreme purification of holiness, they are both shareable with ineffable and (22) divine pleasure and yield the wisdom and elevation to them, as shining lights and offspring of the divine fire.

17. Well then, since the truly divine and most pure soul of our guide was led up to such a height and was deemed worthy of such manifestations and of such grace of the fishermen and apostles and reached the very Principle of Goodness of all things by the splendor of its fiery mind, where all the souls of the just are led up, and it came to be in rich participation of its illuminations, just as also his poems and the loves of the divine hymns cry out, how is it not holy, having been mingled with the Holy by nature and with the saints of old, as light with light and fire with fire and a ray with the sun, the second things with the first and the things in images and types with the archetypes and truths? How is she not to be hymned and worthy of all hymns and encomia, she who is beyond these things and beyond all glory both earthly and human? Let envy, that is always resentful, fall, and let Symeon, who is worthy of all sorts of hymns and encomia, be hymned and praised, just as we have set forth more broadly with sacred citations in the discourse 'Against the Accusers of the Saints'. For if these revelations and these voices are not the voices of God nor of a soul that has been deified and has become outside of all worldly sensation and wholly holy in every way, scarcely could any other of human things and accomplished by us with all zeal be shown to be acceptable to God and praiseworthy to men, which does not, by the highest wisdom and knowledge of God, bring upon itself the glorious and the splendid.

18. These things, therefore, of the erotic and divine hymns of the teacher have been set forth by us for those held fast by envy towards good things and by unbelief and ignorance, so that either, coming upon these things, immediately upon first encounter they might at some time become better (23) and superior to envy and malice, and glorify, as is possible, the one who glorified God in deed and word and contemplation and hallowed the name that is above every name in his own songs, or, as those who have not tasted of good things and are in every way incapable of the high visions because of their inherent grossness, they might abstain from the undertaking and from the meddlesome inquiry of the things written here.

THE TABLE OF THE DIVINE LOVES OF THE DIVINE HYMNS THE LOVES OF OUR HOLY AND GREAT FATHER SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN, WHO BECAME ABBOT AND PRESBYTER

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τινί κύκλῳ τό ἀπλανές αὐτῇ ἡ θεία δωρουμένη ἀγαθαρχία καί ἀπό τῶν πολλῶν, τῶν ἔξωθεν, αὐτήν ἐπιστρέφουσα καί συνάγουσα πρῶτον εἰς ἑαυτήν, εἶτα ὡς ἑνοειδῆ γενομένην ἑνοῦσα ταῖς ἑνιαίως ἡνωμέναις δυνάμεσι τῶν ἀγγέλων˙ δι᾿ αὐτῶν γάρ ὡς ἀγαθῶν καθηγεμόνων (μετά τούς ἱερούς καί ἁγίους νόας αἱ ψυχαί καί ὅσα ψυχῶν ἀγαθά) ἐπ᾿ αὐτήν τήν πάντων ἀγαθῶν ἀγαθαρχίαν ἀνάγεται καί τῶν ἐκεῖθεν ἐκβλυζομένων ἀλλάμψεων ἐν μετουσίᾳ γίνεται κατά τήν ἀναλογοῦσαν ἐν αὐτῇ κάθαρσιν καί τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοειδοῦς δωρεᾶς, ὁπόση δύναμις, μετέχει πλουσίως, οὐκ οἴομαι δίκαιον εἶναι κινδυνεύειν ταύτης τάς ὑψηλάς θεωρίας καί ἐρωτικάς θεολογίας ἀπιστεῖσθαι εἰς ἀκοάς πιπτούσας ὑπό φθόνου βεβυσμένας καίἀπιστίας, ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν εἰς ψυχάς σκότει ἀγνωσίας σφόδρα κεκαλυμμένας καί ὑπό ἡμιόνων καί ὄνων ἤ δρακόντων καταπατουμένας καί ὄφεων, τῶν ἀκαθάρτων λέγων καί ὀλεθρίων παθῶν˙ τά γάρ ἅγια ἀμέθεκτά εἰσι πᾶσι τοῖς τόν κυνώδη βίον καί χοιρώδη βιοῦσιν, οἷς οὐ δίδονται ταῦτα, ὡς τό λόγιον, οὔτε μήν οἱ μαργαρῖται ῥιπτοῦνται τοῦ λόγου, τοῖς δέ πρός τό ἴσον ἐξ ἄκρας ἀναγομένοις καθάρσεως τῆς ἁγιότητος μεθεκτά τε εἰσί μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ἀφάτου καί (22) θείας καί ἀναδοτικά τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτά σοφίας τε καί ὑψώσεως ὡς φῶτα φανά καί πυρός τοῦ θείου γεννήματα.

17. Εἶεν, ἐπεί δέ πρός τοσοῦτον ὕψος ἀνήχθη ἡ θεία τῷ ὄντι καί καθαρωτάτη ψυχή τοῦ καθηγεμόνος ἡμῶν καί τοιούτων ἐμφάσεων ἠξιώθη καί τοιαύτης χάριτος τῆς τῶν ἁλιέων καί ἀποστόλων καί ἐπ᾿αὐτήν τήν πάντων ἀγαθαργίαν ἔφθασε τῇ λαμπρότητι τῆς ἐμπύρου διανοίας αὐτῆς, ἔνθα πᾶσαι ψυχαί τῶν δικαίων ἀνάγονται, καί ἐν μετουσίᾳ τῶν ἐλλάμψεων ταύτης πλουσίως ἐγένετο, καθά δή καί τά ποιήματα καί οἱ ἔρωτες τῶν θείων ὕμνων ἐκβοῶσιν αὐτοῦ, πῶς οὐχ ἁγία τῷ φύσει ἁγίῳ καί τοῖς πάλαι ἁγίοις ἀνακραθεῖσα ὡς φωτί φῶς καί πυρί πῦρ καί ἡλίῳ ἀκτίς, τά δεύτερα τοῖς πρώτοις καί τά ἐν εἰκόσι καί τύποις τοῖς ἀρχετύποις καί ἀληθείαις; Πῶς οὐχ ὑμνητέα καί ὕμνων καί ἐγκωμίων πάντων ἀξία, ἡ ὑπέρ ταῦτα καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν δόξαν ὁμοῦ γεηράν τε καί ἀνθρωπίνην; Πιπτέτω φθόνος ὁ τοῖς ἀεί νεμεσῶν, καί ὑμνείσθω καί εὐφημείσθω ὁ ὕμνων καί ἐγκωμίων παντοίων ἐπάξιος Συμεών, καθό καί ἐν τῷ ῾Κατά ἁγιοκατηγόρων᾿ λόγῳ μετά χρήσεων ἱερῶν πλατύτερον ἐξεθέμεθα. Εἰ γάρ αἱ ἀποκαλύψεις αὗται καί αἱ φωναί οὐ φωναί Θεοῦ οὐδέ ψυχῆς ἀποθεωθείσης καί γενομένης ἔξω πάσης τοῦ κόσμου αἰσθήσεως καί ὅλης καθόλου ἁγίας, σχολῇ γ᾿ ἄν ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων καί πρός ἡμῶν τελουμένων διά πάσης σπουδῆς εὐαπόδεκτον ἀποδειχθείη Θεῷ καί ἀνθρώποις ἐπαινετόν, ὅ μή σοφίᾳ καί γνώσει τῇ ἀνωτάτῳ Θεοῦ τό ἐπίδοξον καί λαμπρόν ἐπιφέρεται.

18. Ταῦτα τοίνυν διά τούς φθόνῳ πρός τά καλά καί ἀπιστίᾳ καί ἀγνωσίᾳ κεκρατμένους ἡμῖν προετέθη τῶν ἐρωτικῶν καί θείων ὕμνων τοῦ διδασκάλου, ἵν᾿ ἤ κατά πρώτην εὐθύς ἐπιβολήν ἐντυγχάνοντες τούτοις κρείττονες (23) γένοιντό ποτε καί φθόνου καί βασκανίας ἀνώτεροι, καί δοξάσωσιν, ὡς ἐφικτόν, τόν ἐν πράξει καί λόγῳ καί θεωρίᾳ δοξάσαντα τόν Θεόν καί τό ὄνομα τό ὑπέρ πᾶν ὄνομα ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μέλεσιν ἁγιάσαντα, ἤ ὡς τῶν καλῶν ἄγευστοι καί πάντῃ ἀχώρητοι τῶν ὑψηλῶν θεαμάτων διά τήν αὐτοῖς προσοῦσαν παχύτητα τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως καί τῆς τῶν γεγραμμένων ἐνταῦθα περιέργου ἐρεύνης ἀπόσχοιντο.

Ο ΠΙΝΑΞ ΤΩΝ ΘΕΙΩΝ ΕΡΩΤΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΘΕΙΩΝ ΥΜΝΩΝ ΟΙ ΕΡΩΤΕΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟς ΗΜΩΝ ΣΥΜΕΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΝΕΟΥ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΟΥ, ΗΓΟΥΜΕΝΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΟΥ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΤΟΣ