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to be brought to the adoption of a Son of the same nature, through which after prayers she has the mystic God the Father by grace and alone she will be gathered to the one of His hiddenness in an ecstasy from all things, and will experience rather than know divine things, to such a degree as not to wish to be her own, nor to be able to be known from herself, by herself, or by any other, but only of the whole God who has wholly taken her up in a manner befitting His goodness, and who wholly, in a manner befitting God, and impassibly instills Himself into her whole being and deifies her whole being; so as to be, as the all-holy Dionysius the Areopagite says, an image and manifestation of the invisible light, a pure, most transparent, unharmed, undefiled, unspotted mirror, receiving wholly, if it is right to say, the beauty of the good archetype, divinely and undiminishedly shining in itself, as far as is possible, the goodness of the silence in the inmost sanctuaries.

24. OF WHAT MYSTERIES IS IT THE EFFECTIVE AND COMPLETIVE POWER, THROUGH... 14__136 24. Of what mysteries is it the effective and completive power, through the

rites celebrated during the holy synaxis among the faithful and those faithfully gathered, the abiding grace of the Holy Spirit

Therefore the blessed elder thought it necessary and did not cease to exhort every Christian to devote himself to the holy Church of God and never to be absent from the holy synaxis celebrated in it, both on account of the holy angels who abide in it, and who on each occasion enroll those who enter and present them to God and who make supplications on their behalf, and on account of the grace of the Holy Spirit which is always invisibly present, but in a special way especially at the time of the holy synaxis, and which both alters and transforms each one of those present, and truly refashions him toward the more divine in a manner analogous to itself, and leads him to that which is signified through the mysteries being celebrated; even if he himself does not perceive it, if indeed he is one of those who are still infants in Christ and is unable to see into the depth of the things taking place, and the grace of salvation signified through each of the divine symbols being celebrated working in him, proceeding in sequence and order from the first parts until the end of all.

14__138 At the first entrance, the rejection of unbelief, the increase of faith, the decrease of evil, the progress of virtue, the disappearance of ignorance, the addition of knowledge. Through the hearing of the divine oracles, the firm and unchangeable states and dispositions of these things that have been mentioned, I mean of faith and virtue and knowledge. Through the divine hymns that follow these, the soul's voluntary consent to the virtues and the intelligible pleasure and delight that comes to it from them. Through the sacred reading of the holy Gospel, the consummation of the earthly mindset, as of the sensible world. Through the closing of the doors after this, the soul's transition and transferal in its disposition from this corruptible world to the intelligible world, through which, having closed the senses like doors, it makes them pure of the idols of sin. Through the entrance of the holy mysteries, the more perfect and more mystical and new teaching and knowledge concerning God's economy towards us. Through the divine kiss, the identity of concord and unanimity and love of all towards all, and first of each person toward himself and toward God. Through the confession of the Symbol of the Faith, the fitting thanksgiving for the paradoxical ways of our salvation. Through the Trisagion, the union with and equal honor to the holy angels and the unceasing, harmonious intensity of the sanctifying doxology of God. Through the prayer, by which a Father

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ἐμφεροῦς υἱοθεσίαν ἀχθῆναι, δι᾽ ἧς μετ᾽ εὐχὰς τὸν Θεὸν Πατέρα μυστικόν τε χάριτι καὶ μόνον ἔχουσα πρὸς τὸ ἓν τῆς αὐτοῦ κρυφιότητος κατ᾽ ἔκστασιν πάντων συναχθήσεται, καὶ τοσοῦτον πείσεται μᾶλλον ἢ γνώσεται τὰ θεῖα, ὅσον μὴ ἑαυτῆς εἶναι βούλεσθαι, μηδὲ ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτῆς ἢ ἄλλου τινὸς γνωσθῆναι δύνασθαι, ἢ μόνου τοῦ ὅλην ἀγαθοπρεπῶς αὐτὴν ἀνειληφότος ὅλου Θεοῦ, καὶ ὅλον αὐτῇ θεοπρεπῶς ὅλῃ, καὶ ἀπαθῶς ἑαυτὸν ἐνιέντος καὶ ὅλην θεοποιήσαντος· ὡς εἶναι, καθώς φησιν ὁ πανάγιος Ἀρεοπαγίτης ∆ιονύσιος, εἰκόνα καὶ φανέρωσιν τοῦ ἀφανοῦς φωτός, ἔσοπτρον ἀκραιφνές, διειδέστατον, ἀλώβητον, ἄχραντον, ἀκηλίδωτον, εἰσδεχόμενον ὅλην, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν, τὴν ὡραιότητα τοῦ ἀγαθοτύπου, θεοειδῶς καὶ ἀμειώτως ἐπιλάμπον ἐν ἑαυτῷ, καθάπερ οἷόν τέ ἐστι, τὴν ἀγαθότητα τῆς ἐν ἀδύτοις σιγῆς.

Κ∆. ΤΙΝΩΝ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΕΝΕΡΓΗΤΙΚΗ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟΤΕΛΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΜΥΣΤΗΡΙΩΝ, ∆ΙΑ... 14__136 Κ∆. Τίνων ἐστὶν ἐνεργητική τε καὶ ἀποτελιστικὴ μυστηρίων, διὰ τῶν

τελουμένων κατὰ τὴν ἁγίαν σύναξιν θεσμῶν ἐν τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ πιστῶς συναγομένοις, ἡ παραμένουσα τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος χάρις

Τοιγαροῦν ᾤετο δεῖν ὁ μακάριος γέρων καὶ παρακαλεῖν οὐκ ἐπαύετο πάντα Χριστιανὸν τῇ ἁγίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ σχολάζειν καὶ μὴ ἀπολιμπάνεσθαί ποτε τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ τελουμένης ἁγίας συνάξεως, διά τε τοὺς παραμένοντας αὐτῇ ἁγίους ἀγγέλους, καὶ ἀπογραφομένους ἑκάστοτε τοὺς εἰσιόντας καὶ ἐμφανίζοντας τῷ Θεῷ καὶ τὰς ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν δεήσεις ποιουμένους, καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀοράτως ἀεὶ μὲν παροῦσαν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος χάριν, ἰδιοτρόπως δὲ μάλιστα κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως, καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν εὑρισκομένων μεταποιοῦσάν τε καὶ μετασκευάζουσαν, καὶ ἀληθὲς μεταπλάττουσαν ἐπὶ τὸ θειότερον ἀναλόγως ἑαυτῷ, καὶ πρὸς τὸ δηλούμενον διὰ τῶν τελουμένων μυστηρίων ἄγουσαν· κἂν αὐτὸς μὴ αἰσθάνηται, εἴπερ τῶν ἔτι κατὰ Χριστὸν νηπίων ἐστὶ καὶ εἰς τὸ βάθος τῶν γινομένων ὁρᾷν ἀδυνατεῖ, καὶ τὴν δηλουμένην δι᾽ ἑκάστου τῶν τελουμένων θείων συμβόλων τῆς σωτηρίας ἐν αὐτῷ χάριν ἐνεργοῦσαν, καθ᾽ εἱρμὸν καὶ τάξιν ἀπὸ τῶν προσεχῶν μέχρι τοῦ πάντων τέλους ὁδεύουσαν.

14__138 Κατὰ μὲν πρώτην εἴσοδον ἀπιστίας ἀποβολήν, πίστεως αὔξησιν, κακίας μείωσιν, ἀρετῆς ἐπίδοσιν, ἀγνοίας ἀφανισμόν, γνώσεως προσθήκην. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς ἀκροάσεως τῶν θείων λογίων τὰς τῶν εἰρημένων τούτων, πίστεώς φημι καὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνώσεως, παγίας καὶ ἀμεταθέτους ἕξεις τε καὶ διαθέσεις. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῶν ἐπὶ τούτοις θείων ᾀσμάτων τὴν πρὸς τὰς ἀρετὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἑκούσιον συγκατάθεσιν καὶ τὴν ἐπ᾽ αὐταῖς ἐγγινομένην αὐτῇ νοερὰν ἡδονὴν καὶ τερπνότητα. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀναγνώσεως τοῦ ἁγίου Εὐαγγελίου τὴν τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φρονήματος, ὥσπερ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου, συντέλειαν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς μετὰ ταῦτα τῶν θυρῶν κλείσεως τὴν κατὰ διάθεσιν ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ φθαρτοῦ κόσμου πρὸς τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον μετάβασιν τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ μετάθεσιν, δι᾽ ἧς τὰς αἰσθήσεις θυρῶν δίκην μύσασα, τῶν καθ᾽ ἁμαρτίαν εἰδώλων καθαρὰς ἀπεργάζεται. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς εἰσόδου τῶν ἁγίων μυστηρίων τὴν τελειωτέραν καὶ μυστικωτέραν καὶ καινὴν περὶ τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ διδασκαλίαν καὶ γνῶσιν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τοῦ θείου ἀσπασμοῦ τὴν πάντων πρὸς πάντας καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἑκάστου πρότερον καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ὁμονοίας καὶ ὁμογνωμοσύνης καὶ ἀγάπης ταὐτότητα. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς τοῦ Συμβόλου τῆς πίστεως ὁμολογίας τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς παραδόξοις τρόποις τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν πρόσφορον εὐχαριστίαν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τοῦ Τρισαγίου τὴν πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους ἀγγέλους ἕνωσίν τε καὶ ἰσοτιμίαν καὶ τὴν ἄπαυστον τῆς ἁγιαστικῆς δοξολογίας τοῦ Θεοῦ σύμφωνον εὐτονίαν. ∆ιὰ δὲ τῆς προσευχῆς, δι᾽ ἧς Πατέρα