Ep. CXV.

You anticipate the Festival, and the letters, and, which is better still, the time by your eagerness, and you bestow on us a preliminary festival.  Such is what Your Reverence gives us.  And we in return give you the greatest thing we have, our prayers.  But that you may have some small thing to remember us by, we send you the volume of the Philocalia of Origen, containing a selection of passages useful to students of literature.  Deign to accept this, and give us a proof of its usefulness, being aided by diligence and the Spirit.

[115] ΘΕΟΔΩΡΩΙ

Ἑορτὴ καὶ τὰ γράμματα, καὶ τὸ κρεῖσσον ὅτι προφθάνεις τὸν καιρόν, τῇ προθυμίᾳ τὸ προεορτάζειν ἡμῖν χαριζόμενος. Τὰ μὲν οὖν παρὰ τῆς σῆς εὐλαβείας, τοιαῦτα: ἡμεῖς δὲ ὧν ἔχομεν τὸ μεῖζον ἀντιδίδομεν, τὰς εὐχάς. Ἵνα δέ τι καὶ ὑπόμνημα παρ' ἡμῶν ἔχῃς, τὸ δ' αὐτὸ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Βασιλείου, πυκτίον ἀπεστάλκαμέν σοι τῆς Ὠριγένους Φιλοκαλίας ἐκλογὰς ἔχον τῶν χρησίμων τοῖς φιλολόγοις. Τοῦτο καὶ δέξασθαι καταξίωσον καὶ ἀπόδειξιν ἡμῖν δοῦναι τῆς ὠφελείας, καὶ σπουδῇ καὶ Πνεύματι βοηθούμενος.