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But indeed, from this evangelical saying, grace gives me to understand something else and urges me to speak it, which always happens mystically and in all the sons of light. For why did it not say: "He made a wedding feast for his son," but "wedding feasts"? Herein for me is the newness of the meaning. Why? Because for each one of the faithful and sons of the day the same wedding feast always happens similarly and unchangeably. How and in what way? Being united to us in a most blameless and most pure marriage, God produces in us something greater than our power. What then is this? Listen with understanding.

10. That all the saints also conceive the Word of God within themselves similarly 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 become man, was born, as we have said, perfect man and perfect God, being both unconfusedly the same. Pay attention then: what is the greater thing that has happened for us? Each one of us humans believes in this Son of God and Son of the ever-virgin and Theotokos Mary, and believing we receive the word concerning him faithfully in our hearts, which we also confess with our mouth and, repenting from our soul for our former iniquities, immediately, just as God the Word of the Father entered the womb of the Virgin, so also in us ourselves the word which we receive, being taught piety, (87) is found like a seed. Be amazed hearing the dread mystery and receive the faithful word with all assurance and faith.

We conceive him, therefore, not bodily, as the Virgin and Theotokos conceived him, but spiritually yet substantially; and we have that very 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, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of His Son," which is to say, instead of "He himself has become wholly and substantially in us." And that the meaning of what is said is so, he has shown 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 spirit: "For the Spirit," he says, "is the Lord." And he says these things so that, if you hear Son of God, you may also understand and hear the Spirit with him; and if again Spirit, you may also understand the Father with him, since he also says of him, "God is spirit," everywhere teaching you the indivisible and consubstantial nature of the Holy Trinity and that, where the Son is there is also the Father, and where the Father is there is also the Spirit, and where the Holy Spirit is there is the entirety of the three-hypostases divinity, the one God and Father with the Son and the Spirit who are consubstantial, "who is blessed forever, amen.

Therefore, believing with our whole soul and repenting fervently, we conceive, as has been said, the Word of God in our hearts, as the Virgin did, bringing, that is, our own souls virgin and pure; and just as the fire of the divinity did not consume her who was most blameless, so also it does not consume us when we bring (88) pure and clean hearts, but it becomes in us a dew from heaven and a spring of water and a stream of immortal life. And that we too likewise receive the uncontainable fire of the divinity, hear the Lord saying: "I came to cast fire on the earth." What other, if not his consubstantial Spirit of divinity, with whom he himself also 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 from her bodily ineffably and beyond speech, and again

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Ἀλλά γάρ ἐντεῦθεν ὅσον ἀπό τοῦ εὐαγγελικοῦ ῥήματος νοεῖν μοι καί ἕτερόν τι δίδωσιν ἡ χάρις καί εἰπεῖν κατεπείγει, ὅ μυστικῶς ἀεί γίνεται καί ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ φωτός. ∆ιατί γάρ οὐκ εἶπεν· "Ἐποίησε γάμον τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ", ἀλλά "γάμους"; Ἐνταῦθά μοι τό καινόν τοῦ νοήματος. ∆ιά τί; Ἐπειδή ἐφ᾿ ἑνί ἑκάστῳ τῶν πιστῶν καί υἱῶν τῆς ἡμέρας ὁ αὐτός ἀεί γάμος παραπλησίως καί ἀπαραλλάκτως γίνεται. Πῶς καί τίνα τρόπον; Ἐν ὑπεραμώμῳ καί ὑπεράγνω γάμῳ ἑνούμενος ἡμῖν, ὁ Θεός ἐμποιεῖ τι μεῖζον ἡμῶν τῆς δυνάμεως. Τί οὖν ἐστι τοῦτο; Ἄκουε συνετῶς.

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