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to recount to all your wonders and what you do today with us your servants, 60 so that even those who are sleeping in the darkness of sloth and saying: It is impossible for sinners to be saved and, like Peter and the other apostles, saints, holy ones, and righteous ones, for them to receive mercy, may know and learn that this was and is and will be easy for your goodness! And those who think they have you, the light of the whole world, and say they do not see you, do not live in the light, are not illumined, do not behold you perpetually, O Savior, may they learn that you have not shone in their mind, 70 nor have you dwelt in their defiled heart, and they exult in vain on empty hopes, thinking to see your light after the end. For the pledge from here, the seal is certainly given here by you, O Savior, to the sheep on your right; 75 for if death is the conclusion for each, after the end all things are likewise inactive and no one can do either evil or good, my Savior, certainly each one will be as he is found. This frightens me, O Master, this makes me tremble, this melts all my senses, that one who dies blind and departs thither (40) will no longer behold this sun of the senses, even if, having been resurrected, he should receive again the light of his eyes; so too, the one whose mind is blind, if he should die, will not behold you, the intelligible sun, my God, but coming out of darkness he will go into darkness and will be separated from you for ages. Let no one, O Master, of those who believe in you, no one of those baptized into your name, bear this great and dreadful weight of separation from you, O merciful one; for this affliction is terrible, terrible, unbearable, the grief is eternal. For what will be worse than separation from you, O Savior? 95 What is more painful than to be parted from life and to live there as one dead, deprived of life, and to be deprived of all good things at once? For he who is separated from you is deprived of every good; for it will not be then as it is now on earth; for now those who do not know you live in bodily luxury

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τοῦ πᾶσι διηγήσασθαι τάς σάς τερατουργίας καί ἅπερ σήμερον ποιεῖς μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν τῶν σῶν δούλων, 60 ἵνα καί οἱ καθεύδοντες ἐν σκότει ῥαθυμίας καί λέγοντες˙ Ἀδύνατον ἁμαρτωλούς σωθῆναι καί, ὥσπερ Πέτρον καί λοιπούς ἀποστόλους, ἁγίους, ὁσίους καί δικαίους τε, αὐτούς ἐλεηθῆναι, γνώσωσι καί μαθήσωνται, ὅτι εὔκολον τοῦτο τῇ ἀγαθότητι τῇ σῇ ἦν καί ἐστί καί ἔσται! Καί οἱ δοκοῦντες ἔχειν σέ, τό φῶς παντός τοῦ κόσμου, καί μή βλέπειν σε λέγοντες, μή ἐν φωτί διάγειν, μή λάμπεσθαι, μή καθορᾶν ἀενάως σε, Σῶτερ, μάθωσιν, ὡς οὐκ ἔλαμψας αὐτῶν ἐν διανοίᾳ, 70 οὐδέ κατῴκησας αὐτῶν τήν ῥυπαράν καρδίαν καί μάτην ἐπαγάλλωνται ἐπί κεναῖς ἐλπίσιν οἰόμενοι θεάσασθαι τό φῶς σου μετά τέλος. Ὁ ἀραββών ἐντεῦθεν γάρ, ἡ σφραγίς πάντως ὧδε παρά σοῦ, Σῶτερ, δίδοται τοῖς δεξιοῖς προβάτοις˙ 75 εἰ γάρ ἑκάστου θάνατος ὁ συγκλεισμός τυγχάνει μετά τέλος ἄπρακτα πᾶσιν ἐπίσης ἔστι καί οὔτε φαῦλον ἤ καλόν δύναταί τις ποιῆσαι, Σωτήρ μου, πάντως ἕκαστος, ὡς εὑρεθῇ, καί ἔσται. Τοῦτο φοβεῖ με, ∆έσποτα, τοῦτο ποιεῖ με τρέμειν, τοῦτο ἐκτήκει ἅπαντα τά αἰσθητήριά μου, ὅτι τυφλός ἀποθανών καί μεταστάς ἐκεῖσε (40) οὐκέτι τοῦτον ἥλιον αἰσθητῶς θεωρήσει, εἰ καί τό φῶς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀναστάς πάλιν λάβοι˙ οὕτως οὐδ᾿ ὁ τόν νοῦν ἔχων τυφλόν, εἰ ἀποθάνοι, τόν νοητόν θεάσεται ἥλιόν σε, Θεέ μου, ἀλλά ἐκ σκότους ἐξελθών πρός σκότος ἐνδημήσει καί εἰς αἰῶνας ἔσεται ἐκ σοῦ κεχωρισμένος. Μηδείς ἀνθρώπων, ∆έσποτα, τῶν εἰς σέ πιστευόντων, μηδείς τῶν εἰς τό ὄνομα τό σόν βεβαπτισμένων τό μέγα τοῦτο καί φρικτόν ὑποστήσεται βάρος τοῦ χωρισμοῦ σου, εὔσπλαχνε˙ δεινή γάρ αὕτη θλῖψις, δεινή, ἀνυπομόνητος, αἰώνιος ἡ λύπη. Τί γάρ καί χεῖρον ἔσεται τοῦ χωρισμοῦ σου, Σῶτερ; 95 Τί δέ ὀδυνηρότερον ζωῆς διαζευχθῆναι καί ζῆν ἐκεῖθεν ὡς νεκρός ζωῆς ἐστερημένος, ἁπάντων τε τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὁμοῦ ἀποστερεῖσθαι; Σοῦ γάρ ὁ χωριζόμενος παντός καλοῦ στερεῖται˙ οὐ γάρ, ὡς ἔστιν ἐπί γῆς τά νῦν, ἔσται καί τότε˙ νῦν γάρ οἱ ἀγνοοῦντές σε σωματικῶς τρυφῶσιν