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as I was in astonishment. However, pulling away again, she left me alone and as I was earnestly seeking her, suddenly she was found again, wholly and knowingly within me, in the middle of my heart she was seen as a luminary, truly as the disk of the sun. Thus appearing and being knowingly revealed, she turned back a host of demons, drove away cowardice, instilled courage, stripped my mind of the perception of the world and clothed me in a spiritual tunic of perception, she separated me from visible things and joined me to invisible things, and granted me to see the uncreated and to rejoice, because I was separated from all things created and seen and swiftly perishing, and I was united to the uncreated, the incorruptible, the unoriginate, (109) to that which is invisible to all; for this is love. Let us, the faithful, run with vigor, let us, the sluggish, hasten earnestly! Let us, the lazy, be roused, so that we may become masters of love, or rather partakers of it, and thus pass from here, that with it we may stand beside the Creator and Master, having become outside of visible things with it! But if not, as created beings let us be left behind with visible things and with creatures in fire and Tartarus and dreadful torments, being found without it, without love I mean. But if it is even possible to be saved without it, O my Christ,

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ἐν ἐκπλήξει γενομένῳ. Ὅμως πάλιν ἀποσπᾶσα ἐγκατέλιπέ με μόνον καί ζητοῦντί μοι ἐμπόνως ταύτην, αἴφνης ὅλη πάλιν ἐν ἐμοί γνωστῶς εὑρέθη, ἐν καρδίᾳ μοῦ τε μέσον ὡς φωστήρ, ὡς δίσκος ὄντως τοῦ ἡλίου καθωράθη. Οὕτω δέ ἀναφανεῖσα καί γνωστῶς ἀποδειχθεῖσα ἔτρεψε δαιμόνων στῖφος, ἀπεδίωξε δειλίαν, ἐνεποίησεν ἀνδρείαν, τῆς αἰσθήσεως τοῦ κόσμου ἀπεγύμνωσε τόν νοῦν μου καί αἰσθήσεως χιτῶνα νοερᾶς ἐνέδυσέ με, ὁρατῶν δ᾿ ἐχώρισέ με καί συνῆψεν ἀοράτοις καί τόν ἄκτιστον ὁρᾶν με ἐχαρίσατο καί χαίρειν, ὅτι πάντων ἐχωρίσθην τῶν κτιστῶν καί ὁρωμένων καί συντόμως φθειρομένων, καί ἡνώθην τῷ ἀκτίστῳ, τῷ ἀφθάρτῳ, τῷ ἀνάρχῳ, (109) τῷ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀοράτῳ˙ τοῦτο γάρ ἀγάπη πέλει. ∆ράμωμεν πιστοί εὐτόνως, σπεύσωμεν νωθροί ἐμπόνως! Ὀκνηροί διεγερθῶμεν, ὅπως ἐγκρατεῖς ἀγάπης, μέτοχοι δέ ταύτης μᾶλλον γενησόμεθα καί οὕτως μεταβῶμεν τῶν ἐνθένδε, ἵνα σύν αὐτῇ τῷ Κτίστῃ καί ∆εσπότῃ παραστῶμεν, ἔξωθεν τῶν ὁρωμένων γεγονότες σύν ἐκείνῃ! Εἰ δέ μή, τοῖς ὁρωμένοις καί τοῖς κτίσμασιν ὡς κτίσμα ὄντες ἐναπολειφθῶμεν ἐν πυρί τε καί ταρτάρῳ καί φρικτοῖς κολαστηρίοις, δίχα ταύτης εὑρεθέντες, δίχα τῆς ἀγάπης λέγω. Εἰ δέ καί σωθῆναι ἔνι δίχα ταύτης, ὦ Χριστέ μου,