TO THE FELLOW-PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER

 I will try to speak, so far as it is possible, calling upon Jesus, the beginning and perfection of all hierarchies. <3> According to the venerable asp

 for their own sanctity), that you will not impart any sacred word of the supereminent hierarchy to another besides your like-ranked, God-like initiato

 of salvation, and in thanksgiving for the divine goodness, having gathered them into the sacred place, at the beginning he sacredly recites a certain

 indicating symbolically a complete cleansing for the body being cleansed naturally through water. <2> But let this be for the imperfect an introductor

 a tradition, sacredly signifying, having stripped the one approaching of his former life, so to speak, and having released him even from the final tie

 <III.> But it is well that we have remembered this, which it is not lawful for me, passing it by, to praise any other of the hierarchical rites before

 being led up hierarchically in purity of the godlike state. Contemplation. <1> Come now, then, O good child, after the images, in order and sacredly t

 way of life and sacred teachings, or the hidden and mystical vision of the beloved and divine of the disciples, or the supramundane theology of Jesus

 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 r

 to be gathered and to partake of the peaceful union of the one, those who are divided against themselves. For if, illuminated by the contemplation and

 most suffering alteration. And wandering and turned aside from the straight path which leads to the truly existing God, and being subject to the destr

 being formed from us and proceeding unchangeably from the one according to nature towards our divisible nature, and through this beneficent love for h

 for vain glory the beautiful and fragrant assimilations according to virtue of the hidden God. For the hidden and supra-intellectual fragrant comeline

 not only having but also bestowing the power to act against contrary fear, and to those who have passed over from worse things to a sacred mind, they

 of the understanding of the divine goods but the sixfold position of the wings, as the oracles say, I do not think signifies a sacred number, accordi

 Jesus, the altar, the thearchic consecration of the divine minds, in whom, according to the oracle, being consecrated and mystically offered as whole

 Theology calls the more perfect initiation our hierarchy, describing it as the fulfillment and sacred consummation of that other. It is both celestial

 For even if some of the venerable symbols are performed by the priests, yet the priest will never effect the sacred divine birth without the most divi

 The mystery of the priestly consecrations. The hierarch, being brought forward to the hierarchical consecration, having bent both knees before the div

 the Spirit hierarchically confers the source-of-perfection consecrating rite, commanding the disciples, as the oracles say: “Not to depart from Jerusa

 <VI.> <1> These then are the priestly orders and allotments, their powers and energies and perfections. We must next relate the triad of orders being

 mysteries. Contemplation. <1> That he does not bend either of his feet, nor has the divinely transmitted oracles upon his head, but stands by the prie

 multiplying, it was borne to a fall. But it is possible to say sacredly concerning the heavenly hierarchy, that purification for the inferior beings i

 but having surveyed with other eyes the perishing pleasures of their own passions and having blessed the sacred life from which they have senselessly

 Only the catechumens are cast out from the sacred places. For this class is indeed wholly uninitiated in every sacred rite, and it is not lawful for i

 and having a sacred disposition for participation in them, as one conscious of his own littleness, should go to one of the holy men and ask him to bec

 must be attended to as moved by God. For, He who rejects you, he says, rejects me. <8> But let us return to what follows the aforesaid prayer. For

 to a divine father and sponsor of holy salvation. The hierarch, therefore, requires him who confesses that he will lead the child up to the sacred lif

most suffering alteration. And wandering and turned aside from the straight path which leads to the truly existing God, and being subject to the destructive and malevolent multitudes, it was unaware that it was serving not gods nor friends but foes. And since these mercilessly used it according to their own pitiless nature, it had fallen wretchedly into non-existence and the danger of destruction. But the boundless love for humanity of the divine goodness did not refuse its fittingly good providence which works these things itself for us, but, becoming in true participation of all things that are ours, sinlessly, and being united to our lowliness with the completely unconfused and unharmed possession of His own properties, He bestowed upon us, as to those of like-nature, communion with Himself, and showed us to be partakers of His own good things, destroying the power of the apostate multitude against us, as the secret tradition holds, not by might as being overpowering, but, according to the oracle mystically delivered to us, in judgment and justice, and beneficently transforming all our affairs to the contrary. For He filled the darkness of our mind with blessed and most divine light and adorned its formlessness with godlike beauties, and freed the dwelling-place of the soul, in complete salvation of our essence which had all but fallen, from the most accursed passions and corrupting pollutions, showing us a supermundane uplifting and a godly life in our sacred assimilations to Him, as far as is possible. <12> But how could the imitation of God be engendered in us otherwise, if the memory of the most sacred divine works is not always renewed by the hierarchical sacred words and sacred rites? This we do, as the oracles say, in remembrance of Him. Whence the divine hierarch, standing at the divine altar, hymns the said sacred divine works of Jesus, of our most divine providence, which He perfected for the salvation of our race by the good pleasure of the all-holy Father in the Holy Spirit, according to the oracle. And having hymned them and contemplated their venerable and intelligible theory with intellectual eyes, he comes to their symbolic sacred rite, and this as divinely delivered: whence reverently and hierarchically, after the sacred hymns of the divine works, he first sacredly excuses himself for the sacred rite which is above him, crying out to Him: You have said, "This do in remembrance of me." Then having asked to become worthy of this God-imitating sacred rite and, in assimilation to Christ Himself, to celebrate and distribute the divine things all-holily, and that those who are to partake of the sacred things may partake sacredly, he performs the most divine rites and brings to view the things hymned, through the sacredly proposed symbols. For uncovering the covered and undivided bread, and dividing it into many pieces, and distributing to all the unity of the cup, he symbolically multiplies and distributes the unity, performing in these things a most holy sacred rite. For the one and simple and hidden of Jesus, the most divine Word, by His incarnation among us, has proceeded unchangeably by goodness and love for humanity to the composite and the visible, and has beneficently worked out our unifying communion with Him, uniting in the highest degree our lowly things with His most divine things, if indeed we, as members to a body, are joined together with Him according to the sameness of the unharmed and divine life, and do not, having been made dead by corrupting passions, become unharmonious and unattached and un-conjoined to the divine and most healthy members. For it is necessary for us, if we long for communion with Him, to look to His most divine life in the flesh and by assimilation to it of the sacred sinlessness to run back to the godlike and unharmed state. For so will He harmoniously grant us communion with that which is like. <13> By these sacredly performed acts the hierarch signifies these things, bringing the covered gifts to manifestation, and dividing their unity into many, and by the complete union of the things distributed with those in whom it takes place, making the partakers communicants of them. For in these things he depicts, bringing sensibly to view Jesus Christ our intelligible life, as in images, from His divine hiddenness, by His complete and unconfused incarnation among us, philanthropically

πολυπαθεστάτην ἀλλοίωσιν. Πλανωμένη δὲ καὶ τῆς εὐθείας ὁδοῦ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν ἐκτετραμμένη καὶ ταῖς ὀλεθρίαις καὶ κακεργέτισιν ὑποταττομένη πληθύσιν ἐλάνθανεν οὐ θεοὺς οὐδὲ φίλους ἀλλὰ δυσμενεῖς θεραπεύουσα. Τῶν δὲ ἀφειδῶς αὐτῇ κατὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἀνηλεὲς ἀποκεχρημένων εἰς ἀνυπαρξίας οἰκτρῶς ἐμπεπτώκει καὶ ἀπωλείας κίνδυνον. Ἡ δὲ τῆς θεαρχικῆς ἀγαθότητος ἀπειροτάτη φιλανθρωπία καὶ τὴν αὐτουργὸν ἡμῶν ἀγαθοπρεπῶς οὐκ ἀπηνήνατο πρόνοιαν, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀληθεῖ μεθέξει τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς γενομένη πάντων ἀναμαρτήτως καὶ πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν ἡμῶν ἑνοποιηθεῖσα μετὰ τῆς τῶν οἰκείων ἀσυγχύτου καὶ ἀλωβήτου παντελῶς ἕξεως τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν ἡμῖν κοινωνίαν ὡς ὁμογενέσι λοιπὸν ἐδωρήσατο καὶ τῶν οἰκείων ἀνέδειξε μετόχους καλῶν, τῆς μὲν ἀποστατικῆς πληθύος, ὡς ἡ κρυφία παράδοσις ἔχει, τὸ καθ' ἡμῶν καταλύσασα κράτος οὐ κατὰ δύναμιν ὡς ὑπερισχύουσα, κατὰ δὲ τὸ μυστικῶς ἡμῖν παραδοθὲν λόγιον ἐν κρίσει καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ, τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς δὲ πρὸς τοὐναντίον ἅπαν ἀγαθουργῶς μετασκευάσασα· τὸ μὲν γὰρ κατὰ νοῦν ἡμῶν ἀλαμπὲς ἐνέπλησεν ὀλβίου καὶ θειοτάτου φωτὸς καὶ τοῖς θεοειδέσιν ἐκόσμησε τὸ ἀνείδεον κάλλεσι, τὸ δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς οἰκητήριον ἐν παντελεῖ σωτηρίᾳ τῆς ὅσον οὔπω καταπεσούσης ἡμῶν οὐσίας ἐναγεστάτων παθῶν καὶ φθοροποιῶν μολυσμῶν ἠλευθέρωσεν ἀναγωγὴν ἡμῖν ὑπερκόσμιον ὑποδείξασα καὶ πολιτείαν ἔνθεον ἐν ταῖς πρὸς αὐτὴν ἡμῶν ἱεραῖς κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἀφομοιώσεσιν. <12> Τὸ θεομίμητον δὲ πῶς ἂν ἡμῖν ἑτέρως ἐγγένοιτο μὴ τῆς τῶν ἱερωτάτων θεουργιῶν μνήμης ἀνανεουμένης ἀεὶ ταῖς ἱεραρχικαῖς ἱερολογίαις τε καὶ ἱερουργίαις; Τοῦτο ποιοῦμεν ὡς τὰ λόγιά φησιν εἰς τὴν αὐτῆς ἀνάμνησιν. Ἔνθεν ὁ θεῖος ἱεράρχης ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου θυσιαστηρίου καταστὰς ὑμνεῖ τὰς εἰρημένας ἱερὰς θεουργίας Ἰησοῦ τῆς θειοτάτης ἡμῶν προνοίας, ἃς ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ παναγεστάτου πατρὸς ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ κατὰ τὸ λόγιον ἐτελείωσεν. Ὑμνήσας δὲ καὶ τὴν σεβασμίαν αὐτῶν καὶ νοητὴν θεωρίαν ἐν νοεροῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐποπτεύσας ἐπὶ τὴν συμβολικὴν αὐτῶν ἱερουργίαν ἔρχεται καὶ τοῦτο θεοπαραδότως· ὅθεν εὐλαβῶς τε ἅμα καὶ ἱεραρχικῶς μετὰ τοὺς ἱεροὺς τῶν θεουργιῶν ὕμνους ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑπὲρ αὐτὸν ἱερουργίας ἀπολογεῖται πρότερον ἱερῶς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀναβοῶν· Σὺ εἶπας «Τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν». Eἶτα τῆς θεομιμήτου ταύτης ἱερουργίας ἄξιος αἰτήσας γενέσθαι καὶ τῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν Χριστὸν ἀφομοιώσει τὰ θεῖα τελέσαι καὶ διαδοῦναι πανάγνως καὶ τοὺς τῶν ἱερῶν μεθέξοντας ἱεροπρεπῶς μετα σχεῖν ἱερουργεῖ τὰ θειότατα καὶ ὑπ' ὄψιν ἄγει τὰ ὑμνημένα διὰ τῶν ἱερῶς προκειμένων συμβόλων. Τὸν γὰρ ἐγκεκαλυμμένον καὶ ἀδιαίρετον ἄρτον ἀνακαλύψας καὶ εἰς πολλὰ διελὼν καὶ τὸ ἑνιαῖον τοῦ ποτηρίου πᾶσι καταμερίσας συμβολικῶς τὴν ἑνότητα πληθύνει καὶ διανέμει παναγεστάτην ἐν τούτοις ἱερουργίαν τελῶν. Τὸ γὰρ ἓν καὶ ἁπλοῦν καὶ κρύφιον Ἰησοῦ τοῦ θεαρχικωτάτου λόγου τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσει πρὸς τὸ σύνθετόν τε καὶ ὁρατὸν ἀναλλοιώτως ἀγαθότητι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ προελήλυθε καὶ τὴν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡμῶν ἑνοποιὸν κοινωνίαν ἀγαθουργῶς διεπραγματεύσατο τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ταπεινὰ τοῖς θειοτάτοις αὐτοῦ κατ' ἄκρον ἑνώσας, εἴπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς ὡς μέλη σώματι συναρμολογηθῶμεν αὐτῷ κατὰ τὸ ταὐτὸν τῆς ἀλωβήτου καὶ θείας ζωῆς καὶ μὴ τοῖς φθοροποιοῖς πάθεσι κατανεκρωθέντες ἀνάρμοστοι καὶ ἀκόλλητοι καὶ ἀσύζωοι γενώ μεθα πρὸς τὰ θεῖα μέλη καὶ ὑγιέστατα. Χρὴ γὰρ ἡμᾶς, εἰ τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐφιέμεθα κοινωνίας, εἰς τὴν θειοτάτην αὐτοῦ κατὰ σάρκα ζωὴν ἀποσκοπεῦσαι καὶ τῇ πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀφομοιώσει τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀναμαρτησίας εἰς τὴν θεοειδῆ καὶ ἀλώβητον ἕξιν ἀναδραμεῖν. Oὕτω γὰρ ἐναρμονίως ἡμῖν τὴν πρὸς τὸ ὅμοιον κοινωνίαν δωρήσεται. <13> Ταῦτα τοῖς ἱερῶς δρωμένοις ὁ ἱεράρχης ἐμφαίνει τὰ μὲν ἐγκεκαλυμμένα δῶρα πρὸς τὸ ἐμφανὲς ἄγων τὸ δὲ ἑνιαῖον αὐτῶν εἰς πολλὰ διαιρῶν καὶ τῇ τῶν διανεμομένων πρὸς τὰ ἐν οἷς γίνεται κατ' ἄκρον ἑνώσει κοινωνοὺς αὐτῶν ἀποτελῶν τοὺς μετέχοντας. ∆ιαγράφει γὰρ ἐν τούτοις αἰσθητῶς ὑπ' ὄψιν ἄγων Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν τὴν νοητὴν ἡμῶν ὡς ἐν εἰκόσι ζωὴν ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ τὸ θεῖον κρυφίου τῇ παντελεῖ καὶ ἀσυγχύτῳ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐνανθρωπήσει φιλανθρώπως