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abides in me and I in him", never coming forth from us or being born bodily and separated from us. For He is no longer known according to the flesh, being in us like an infant, but He is incorporeally in a body, mingled with our substances and natures ineffably and deifying us as being of the same body with Him and flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. This is the greater thing in us of His ineffable economy and condescension beyond reason, this is the mystery full of all awe, which I was reluctant to write and trembled at the attempt.

(89) But since God always wills His love for us to be revealed and made manifest to us, so that we too, having at some time understood and been in awe of His great goodness, might be eager to love Him, moved by the Spirit who moves and enlightens our hearts from above, I have made these mysteries clear to you through writing, not in order to show that any human being is equal to her who bore the Lord in the manner of her ineffable birth—may it not be!—for this is not possible. For one thing is the ineffable incarnate birth of the Word of God from her, and another is that which takes place spiritually from us; for the former, having given birth to the incarnate Son and Word of God, brought forth on earth the mystery of the re-creation of our race and the salvation of the whole world, who is our Lord Jesus Christ and God, who united to Himself the things that were divided and took away the sin of the world; but the latter, giving birth in the divine Spirit to the Word of the knowledge of God, always works in our hearts the mystery of the renewal of human souls and communion and union with the Word of God, which the divine oracle also hints at, saying thus: "Through whom we have conceived in the womb and been in travail and have brought forth a spirit of salvation, which we have produced upon the earth" but so that His exceedingly great and genuine love for us may be made manifest, and that, if we wish, all of us too, according to the divine word of our Lord Jesus Christ, might be called mother in the manner described and brothers of Him and become in every way equal to His disciples and apostles, not according to their worthiness nor according to the journeys and the labors which they underwent, but according to the grace of God and the free gift, which He poured out richly upon all those willing to believe and (90) to follow Him without turning back, as He Himself, wishing this, clearly cries out: "My mother, he says, and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it."

Have you seen how He has raised all those who hear His word and do it to the dignity of His mother and says they are His brothers and calls all these His kinsmen? However, she indeed has been established as His mother in the proper sense, as having bodily, as I have already said, ineffably and without a man, given birth to Him, while all the saints, on the other hand, possess Him by conceiving Him through grace and the free gift; and from His all-blameless mother He borrowed His all-blameless flesh, and in return He bestowed on her the divinity—O strange and new exchange! but from the saints He does not take flesh, but He imparts to them His deified flesh. And behold for me the depth of the mystery. The grace of the Spirit, therefore, that is, the fire of divinity, is of our Savior and God from His nature and His substance, but His body is not from there, but from the all-pure and holy flesh of the Theotokos and from her all-immaculate blood, from which He, having taken it, made it His own, according to the holy saying: "And the Word was made flesh." For this reason also, the son of God and of the immaculate Virgin imparts to the saints from the nature and the substance of His co-eternal Father the grace, as has been said, of the Spirit, that is, the divinity, as He says through the prophet: "And it shall be in the

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ἐμοί μένει κἀγώ ἐν αὐτῷ", μηδέποτε ἐξ ἡμῶν προερχόμενον ἤ σωματικῶς γεννώμενον καί χωριζόμενον ἀφ᾿ ἡμῶν. Οὐκέτι γάρ κατά σάρκα γινώσκεται ὤν ἐν ἡμῖν ὥσπερ βρέφος, ἀλλά ἀσωμάτως ἐστίν ἐν σώματι, συνανακιρνάμενος ἡμῶν ταῖς οὐσίαις καί φύσεσιν ἀρρήτως καί θεοποιῶν ἡμᾶς ὡς συσσώμους αὐτοῦ καί σάρκα ὄντας ἐκ τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ καί ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων αὐτοῦ. Τοῦτο τό μεῖζον ἐν ἡμῖν τῆς ἀφράστου οἰκονομίας αὐτοῦ καί ὑπέρ λόγον συγκαταβάσεως, τοῦτο τό φρίκης ἁπάσης γέμον μυστήριον, ὅ καί ἀνένευον γράψαι καί πρός τήν ἐγχείρησιν ἔτρεμον.

(89) Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεί βούλεται ἀεί ὁ Θεός τήν πρός ἡμᾶς ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ ἐκκαλύπτεσθαι καί φανεροῦσθαι ἡμῖν, ἵνα καί ἡμεῖς ποτε τήν πολλήν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητα ἐννοήσαντες καί αἰδεσθέντες ἀγαπῆσαι προθυμηθῶμεν αὐτόν, ὑπό τοῦ ἄνωθεν κινοῦντος καί φωτίζοντος τάς καρδίας ἡμῶν κινηθείς Πνεύματος διά γραφῆς ὑμῖν δῆλα ταῦτα πεποίηκα τά μυστήρια, οὐχ ἵνα τῆς τόν Κύριον τεκούσης κατά τόν τρόπον τῆς ἀπορρήτου γεννήσεως αὐτῆς ἴσον τινά τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀποδείξω - μή γένοιτο! - οὐδέ γάρ ἐνδέχεται τοῦτο. Ἄλλη γάρ ἡ ἔνσαρκος τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου ἄφραστος γέννησις ἐξ αὐτῆς, καί ἄλλη ἡ πνευματικῶς παρ᾿ ἡμῶν γινομένη· ἐκείνη μέν γάρ, σαρκωθέντα τόν Υἰόν καί Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ τέξασα, τό μυστήριον τῆς ἀναπλάσεως τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν καί τήν σωτηρίαν τοῦ κόσμου παντός ἐπί τῆς γῆς τέτοκεν, ἥτις ἐστίν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός καί Θεός, ὁ τά διεστῶτα ἑνώσας πρός ἑαυτόν καί τήν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου ἀράμενος· αὕτη δέ, ἐν θείῳ Πνεύματι τόν Λόγον τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ τίκτουσα, ἀεί ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν τό μυστήριον τῆς ἀνακαινίσεως τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ψυχῶν καί τήν κοινωνίαν μετά τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου καί ἕνωσιν ἀπεργάζεται, ἥν καί τό θεῖον οὕτω λέγον ὑπαινίττεται λόγιον· "∆ι᾿ οὗ ἐν γαστρί ἐλάβομεν καί ὠδινήσαμεν καί ἐτέκομεν πνεῦμα σωτηρίας, ὅ ἐκυήσαμεν ἐπί τῆς γῆς" ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα φανερωθῇ ἡ ὑπεράπειρος αὐτοῦ πρός ἡμᾶς καί γνησία ἀγάπη καί ὅτι, εἰ βουλοίμεθα, καί πάντες ἡμεῖς κατά τό θεῖον τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ λόγιον μήτηρ κατά τόν εἰρημένον τρόπον καί ἀδελφοί αὐτοῦ χρηματίσωμεν καί ἴσοι πάντως τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν καί ἀποστόλων γενώμεθα, οὐχί κατά τήν ἀξίαν ἐκείνων οὐδέ κατά τάς περιόδους καί τούς κόπους οὕσπερ ὑπέστησαν, ἀλλά κατά τήν χάριν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τήν δωρεάν, ἥν πλουσίως ἐξέχεεν ἐπί πάντας τούς πιστεύειν καί (90) ἀκολουθεῖν αὐτῷ ἀνεπιστρόφως ἐθέλοντας, καθώς αὐτός τοῦτο βουλόμενος ἀριδήλως βοᾷ· "Μήτηρ μου, φησί, καί ἀδελφοί μού εἰσιν οἱ ἀκούοντες τόν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ καί ποιοῦντες αὐτόν".

Εἶδες πῶς πάντας τούς ἀκούοντας τόν λόγον αὐτοῦ καί ποιοῦντας αὐτόν εἰς τήν τῆς μητρός αὐτοῦ ἀξίαν ἀνήγαγε καί ἀδελφούς αὐτοῦ λέγει καί συγγενεῖς τούτους πάντας ἀποκαλεῖ; Πλήν ὲκείνη μέν κυρίως μήτηρ αὐτοῦ καθέστηκεν ὡς σωματικῶς, καθάπερ ἔφθην εἰπών, ἀφράστως τοῦτον καί ἀπειράνδρως ἀποτεκοῦσα, οἱ δέ γε ἅγιοι πάντες κατά τήν χάριν καί τήν δωρεάν συλλαμβάνοντες αὐτόν ἔχουσιν· καί ἐκ μέν τῆς παναμώμου μητρός αὐτοῦ τήν σάρκα αὐτοῦ τήν παναμώμητον ἐδανείσατο, ἀντ᾿αὐτῆς δέ τήν θεότητα αὐτῇ ἐδωρήσατο ὤ ξένου καί καινοῦ συναλλάγματος! ἀπό δέ τῶν ἁγίων σάρκα μέν οὐ λαμβάνει, μεταδίδωσι δέ αὐτοῖς τήν τεθεωμένην σάρκα αὐτοῦ. Καί ὅρα μοι τό βάθος τοῦ μυστηρίου. Ἡ μέν οὖν χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἤγουν τό πῦρ τῆς θεότητος, τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐστι καί Θεοῦ ἐκ τῆς φύσεως καί τῆς οὐσίας αὐτοῦ, τό δέ σῶμα αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκεῖθεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῆς πανάγνου καί ἁγίας σαρκός τῆς Θεοτόκου καί ἐκ τῶν παναχράντων αἱμάτων αὐτῆς, ἐξ ἧς ταύτην ἀναλαβών ἰδιοποιήσατο, κατά τό ὅσιον λόγιον· "Καί ὁ Λόγος σάρξ ἐγένετο". Ταύτῃ τοι καί μεταδίδωσι τοῖς ἁγίοις ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῆς ἀχράντου Παρθένου υἱός ἐκ μέν τῆς φύσεως καί τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ συναϊδίου Πατρός αὐτοῦ τήν χάριν, ὡς εἴρηται, τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἤτοι τήν θεότητα, καθώς διά τοῦ προφήτου φησί· "Καί ἔσται ἐν ταῖς