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so that we too may delight with your saints in eternal goods for ever and ever; amen.

9.

That he who has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, being seized by His light and power, is carried above all the passions, not being harmed by their approach. (65)

Alas, alas, O God, Lord, Almighty! Who can be sated with your invisible beauty, who can be filled with your incomprehensibility? Who can worthily walk in your commandments and will see the light of your face—great, wondrous, not contained at all in this heavy and dark world, which snatches away the one who sees it from the world, together with his body, O strange mystery! Who is he that has passed through the wall of his flesh, who has crossed the darkness of corruption and, leaving the whole world, has been hidden? Alas for knowledge and the cheapness of words! For where was he hidden who has passed through the world and gone outside of all things that he sees? Tell me, O wisdom of the wise, rejected—not to say, made foolish by God, as Paul and every servant of God says. This is the man of the desires of the Spirit, this one, drawing near to bodies with his body (66) is able to be holy in spirit; for outside the world and these bodies there is no appetite for carnal passion, but a certain dispassion. He who has loved this and from the love has gained life, even if you see him behaving shamefully, as it were, and as if deserting to the act, know that it is a dead body doing this! I do not say without a soul, by which it is moved, but outside of evil desire; for the pleasure of good dispassion and the light from it that loves me inexpressibly seizes my whole mind, taking it out of itself, and holding it naked with an immaterial hand does not allow me to fall from its love or to conceive a passionate thought, but it continually attracts me, and desire sets my soul aflame

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ὡς ἄν τρυφήσωμεν καὐτοί μετά τῶν σῶν ἁγίων τῶν αἰωνίων ἀγαθῶν εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων˙ ἀμήν.

Θ'.

Ὅτι ὁ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος μέτοχος γεγονώς ὑπό τοῦ φωτός καί τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ ἁρπαζόμενος ἐπάνω πάντων φέρεται τῶν παθῶν, μή βλαπτόμενος τῷ πλησιασμῷ ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν. (65)

Αἴ, αἴ, Θεέ, Κύριε, παντοκράτορ! Τίς χορτασθῇ σου τοῦ ἀοράτου κάλλους, τίς ἐμπλησθῇ σου τῆς ἀκαταληψίας; Τίς ἀξίως προρευθῇ τῶν ἐντολῶν σου καί τό φῶς θεάσεται τοῦ σοῦ προσώπου μέγα, θαυμαστόν, μή χωρούμενον ὅλως ἐν τούτῳ τῷ βαρεῖ καί σκοτεινώδει κόσμῳ, τό τόν ὁρῶντα ἀφαιρούμενον κόσμου μετά σώματος, ὤ μυστηρίου ξένου! Τίς ὁ τό τεῖχος παρελθών τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ, τίς ὁ διαβάς τῆς φθορᾶς τό γνοφῶδες καί κόσμον πάντα καταλείψας ἐκρύβη; Βαβαί γνώσεως καί λόγων εὐτελείας! Ποῦ γάρ ἐκρύβη ὁ τόν κόσμον περάσας καί πάντων ἔξω γενόμενος, ὧν βλέπει; Λέγε, σοφία σοφῶν ἠθετημένη, ἵνα μή λέγω, Θεῷ μεμωραμένη, ὡς φησί Παῦλος καί πᾶς τις Θεοῦ δοῦλος. Οὗτος ἐπιθυμιῶν ἀνήρ τῶν τοῦ Πνεύματος, οὗτος σώματι σώμασι πλησιάζων (66) δύναται τῷ πνεύματι ἅγιος εἶναι˙ ἔξω γάρ κόσμου καί τῶν σωμάτων τούτων οὐδέ ὄρεξίς ἐστι σαρκικοῦ πάθους, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπαθείά τις. Ὁ ταύτην φιλήσας καί ἐκ τοῦ φιλήματος ζωήν κερδήσας, εἰ γάρ καί βλέπεις δῆθεν ἀσχημονοῦντα καί πρός τήν πρᾶξιν ὥσπερ αὐτομολοῦντα, νεκρόν τό σῶμα γίνωσκε τοῦτο πράττειν! Οὐ λέγω δίχα ψυχῆς, δι᾿ ἧς κινεῖται, ἀλλά τῆς κακῆς ἐκτός ἐπιθυμίας˙ ἡ γάρ ἡδονή τῆς καλῆς ἀπαθείας καί τό ἐξ αὐτῆς φιλοῦν με φῶς ἀρρήτως ὅλον μου τόν νοῦν ἐξιστῶν ἀφαρπάζει καί γυμνόν αὐτόν κρατοῦν χειρί ἀΰλῳ πεσεῖν οὐκ ἐᾷ τῆς αὐτοῦ με ἀγάπης ἤ ἐννοῆσαι λογισμόν ἐμπαθείας, ἀλλά κατασπάζεται ἀδιαλείπτως καί τήν ψυχήν μου ὁ πόθος καταφλέγει