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10. That all the saints also conceive the Word of God within themselves in a way similar to the Theotokos and give birth to Him, and He is born in them and they are born of Him, and how they are called His sons and brothers and mothers. (86)

The Son of God and God having entered into the womb of the all-holy Virgin and

having taken flesh from her and having become man was born, as we have said, perfect man and perfect God, the same being both without confusion. Pay attention therefore: what greater thing has happened for us? Each one of us men believes in this Son of God and Son of the ever-virgin and Theotokos Mary and believing, we receive the word about Him faithfully in our hearts, which we also confess with our mouth and repenting from the soul for our former iniquities, immediately, just as the God-Word of the Father entered into the womb of the Virgin, so also in us the word which we receive, being taught piety, (87) is found like a seed. Be astounded hearing the awesome mystery and the word which is faithful receive with all assurance and faith.

Therefore we conceive Him not bodily, as the Virgin and Theotokos conceived Him, but spiritually, yet essentially; and we have that same One whom the pure Virgin also conceived, in our hearts, as the divine Paul says: "The God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of His Son," which is to say, instead of "He Himself has wholly and essentially come to be in us." That the meaning of what is said is so, he showed through what follows, saying thus: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels," calling the Holy Spirit a treasure. And elsewhere he calls the Lord a spirit: "For the Lord," he says, "is the Spirit." He says these things so that, if you hear Son of God, you may also understand and hear along with Him the Spirit; and if again [you hear] Spirit, you may also think of the Father with Him, since also concerning Him [the Father] he says "God is spirit", everywhere teaching you the inseparability and consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity and that, where the Son is, there also is the Father, and where the Father is, there also is the Spirit, and where the Holy Spirit is, there is the whole of the tri-hypostatic Godhead, the one God and Father with the Son and the Spirit, who are consubstantial, "who is blessed for ever, amen.

Therefore, believing with our whole soul and repenting fervently, we conceive, as has been said, the Word of God in our hearts, as did the Virgin, that is, offering our own souls as virginal and pure; and just as the fire of the Godhead did not consume her, who was all-blameless, so neither does it consume us when we offer (88) our hearts pure and clean, but it becomes in us a dew from heaven and a spring of water and a stream of immortal life. But that we also likewise receive the unbearable fire of the Godhead, hear the Lord saying: "I came to cast fire upon the earth." What else, if not the Spirit of His consubstantial Godhead, with Whom He also Himself enters and is contemplated together with the Father and comes to be within us? But since the Word of God was once incarnate of the Virgin and was born bodily from her ineffably and beyond speech, and it is not possible for Him to be incarnate again or to be born bodily from each one of us, what does He do? That spotless flesh of His, which He took from the pure loins of the all-pure Mary and Theotokos, with which He was also born bodily, He gives from it to us for food; and eating it, the whole incarnate God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son Himself of God and Son of the virgin and all-blameless Mary, the one seated at the right hand of God the Father, each of us faithful who worthily eats this flesh of His, we have within us, according to what was said by Him: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood in

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ι΄. Ὅτι καί πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι τόν Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς συλλαμβάνουσι τῇ Θεοτόκῳ παραπλησίως καί γεννῶσιν αὐτόν καί γεννᾶται ἐν αὐτοῖς καί γεννῶνται ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, καί πῶς υἱοί καί ἀδελφοί καί μητέρες αὐτοῦ χρηματίζουσιν. (86)

Ὁ Υἱός τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Θεός εἰσελθών ἐν τῇ γαστρί τῆς παναγίας Παρθένου καί

σάρκα ἀναλαβόμενος ἐξ αὐτῆς καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἐτέχθη, ὡς εἴπομεν, ἄνθρωπος τέλειος καί Θεός τέλειος, ὁ αὐτός ἀσυγχύτως τά ἀμφότερα ὤν. Πρόσεχε οὖν· τί τό γεγονός μεῖζον εἰς ἡμᾶς; Ἕκαστος ἡμῶν τῶν ἀνθρώπων πιστεύομεν εἰς αὐτόν τόν Υἱόν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Υἱόν τῆς ἀειπαρθένου καί θεοτόκου Μαρίας καί πιστεύοντες δεχόμεθα τόν περί αὐτοῦ λόγον πιστῶς ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν, ὅν καί ὁμολογοῦντες τῷ στόματι καί ὑπέρ τῶν προτέρων ἡμῶν ἀνομημάτων μετανοοῦντες ἀπό ψυχῆς, εὐθύς, ὥσπερ ἐν τῇ γαστρί τῆς Παρθένου εἰσῆλθεν ὁ Θεός Λόγος τοῦ Πατρός, οὕτως καί ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ὁ λόγος ὅν δεχόμεθα, διδασκόμενοι τήν εὐσέβειαν, (87) ὥσπερ σπόρος εὑρίσκεται. Ἔκστηθι τό φρικτόν ἀκούων τοῦ μυστηρίου καί τόν λόγον πιστόν ὄντα μετά πάσης ὑπόδεξαι πληροφορίας καί πίστεως.

Συλλαμβάνομεν οὖν αὐτόν οὐχί σωματικῶς, ὡς ἡ Παρθένος καί Θεοτόκος τοῦτον συνέλαβεν, ἀλλά πνευματικῶς μέν, οὐσιωδῶς δέ· καί ἔχομεν αὐτόν ἐκεῖνον ὅν καί ἡ ἁγνή Παρθένος συνέλαβεν, ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν, καθώς ὁ θεῖος Παῦλός φησιν· "Ὁ Θεός ὁ εἰπών ἐκ σκότους φῶς λάμψαι, ὅς ἔλαμψεν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν πρός φωτισμόν τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ", οἷον εἰπεῖν ἀντί τοῦ "αὐτός ὅλος οὐσιωδῶς γέγονε ἐν ἡμῖν". Ὅτι δέ οὕτως ἔχει τό λεγόμενον διανοίας, διά τῶν ἑξῆς ἐδήλωσεν οὕτως εἰπών· "Ἔχομεν δέ τόν θησαυρόν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσι", θησαυρόν τό Ἅγιον Πνεῦμα καλῶν. Ἑτέρωθι δέ καί τόν Κύριον εἶναι πνεῦμα καλεῖ· "Τό γάρ πνεῦμα, φησίν, ὁ Κύριός ἐστιν". Ταῦτα δέ λέγει ἵνα, κἄν Υἱόν ἀκούῃς Θεοῦ, καί τό Πνεῦμα νοῇς καί συνακούῃς αὐτῷ· κἄν Πνεῦμα πάλιν, καί τόν Πατέρα τούτῳ συνεννοῇς, ἐπειδή καί περί αὐτοῦ "πνεῦμα" φησίν "ὁ Θεός", πανταχοῦ διδάσκων σε τό ἀχώριστον καί ὁμοούσιον τῆς Ἁγίας Τριάδος καί ὅτι, ὅπου ὁ Υἱός ἐκεῖ καί ὁ Πατήρ, καί ὅπου ὁ Πατήρ ἐκεῖ καί τό Πνεῦμα, καί ὅπου τό Πνεῦμα τό Ἅγιον ἐκεῖ τό πᾶν τῆς τρισυποστάτου θεότητος, ὁ εἷς Θεός καί Πατήρ σύν Υἱῷ καί Πνεύματι τοῖς ὁμοουσίοις, "ὁ ὤν εὐλογητός εἰς τούς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.

Τοιγαροῦν καί ὁλοψύχως πιστεύοντες καί μετανοοῦντες θερμῶς, συλλαμβάνομεν, ὡς εἴρηται, τόν Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν, ὡς ἡ Παρθένος, παρθένους δηλαδή καί ἁγνάς ἐπιφερόμενοι τάς ἰδίας ψυχάς· καί καθάπερ ἐκείνην ὑπεράμωμον οὖσαν τό πῦρ οὐ κατάφλεξε τῆς θεότητος, οὕτως οὐδέ ἡμᾶς ἁγνάς καί καθαράς (88) ἐπιφερομένους τάς καρδίας καταφλέγει, ἀλλά δρόσος ἡ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καί πηγή ὕδατος καί ἀθανάτου ζωῆς ῥεῖθρον ἐν ἡμῖν γίνεται. Ὅτι δέ καί ἡμεῖς τό ἄστεκτον πῦρ τῆς θεότητος ὡσαύτως δεχόμεθα, ἄκουσον τοῦ Κυρίου λέγοντος· "Πῦρ ἦλθον βαλεῖν ἐπί τῆς γῆς". Ποῖον ἄλλο, εἰ μή τό ὁμοούσιον αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος Πνεῦμα, μεθ᾿ οὖ συνεισέρχεται καί συνθεωρεῖται σύν τῷ Πατρί καί αὐτός καί ἔνδον ἡμῶν γίνεται; Ἐπεί δέ ἅπαξ ἐσαρκώθη ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου καί σωματικῶς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐγεννήθη ἀφράστως καί ὑπέρ λόγον, πάλιν δέ σαρκοῦσθαι ἤ σωματικῶς τίκτεσθαι αὐτόν οὐκ ἐνδέχεται ἐξ ἑνός ἑκάστου ἡμῶν, τί ποιεῖ; Ἐκείνην αὐτοῦ τήν ἄχραντον σάρκα, ἥν προσελάβετο ἐξ ἁγνῶν λαγόνων τῆς παναχράντου Μαρίας καί θεοτόκου, μεθ᾿ ἧς καί ἐτέχθη σωματικῶς, ἐξ αὐτῆς μεταδίδωσιν ἡμῖν εἰς βρῶσιν· καί τρώγοντες αὐτήν, ὅλον τόν σαρκωθέντα Θεόν καί Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν τόν Χριστόν, τόν Υἱόν αὐτόν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Υἱόν τῆς παρθένου καί παναμώμου Μαρίας, τόν ἐν δεξιᾷ καθήμενον τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός, ἕκαστος ἡμῶν τῶν πιστῶν τῶν ἀξίως ταύτην ἐσθιόντων τήν σάρκα αὐτοῦ, ἐν ἡμῖν ἔχομεν, κατά τό ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ εἰρημένον· "Ὁ τρώγων μου τήν σάρκα καί πίνων μου τό αἷμα ἐν