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you put on for Christ's sake, to acquire the ways of the soul and your very spiritual mind; and not only this but also to put on the luminous tunic through repentance, which is the Holy Spirit Himself. And this does not happen otherwise, except through the persistent practice of the virtues and patience in tribulations. For the soul, being afflicted through temptations, is moved to tears, and the tears, cleansing the heart, make it a temple and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. For the mere donning of the habit and the outward adornment of the statue are not sufficient for our salvation and perfection, but just as the outer, so also is it necessary to adorn our inner man with the attire of the Spirit and to offer ourselves entirely to God, both soul and body, and with bodily training to train the body for the labors of virtue, so as to become vigorously accustomed to the sorrows according to God and to bear nobly the bitterness of fasting, the strain of self-control, the necessity of vigils, every hardship, and with the piety of the Spirit to discipline the soul to think what it ought to think and to meditate always on the things of eternal life, and to be humble-minded, gentle, contrite, full of compunction, mourning daily and calling forth to itself the light (181) of the Spirit through prayer, which things are usually added to it through most fervent repentance, being purified through many tears, without which it is never possible for its tunic to be cleansed, nor for it to ascend to the height of contemplation. For just as a garment, having been somehow soiled deep down with mud and filth, cannot otherwise be cleansed except through much water and much trampling of feet, so also the tunic of the soul, having been soiled by the mud and filth of sinful passions, cannot otherwise be washed clean except through many tears and patience in temptations and tribulations. For there being essentially two flows in us from the body—I mean the tears flowing in from above and those from the generative powers, and the one, being emptied contrary to nature and law, defiling the soul, while the other, flowing from repentance, cleanses it—it is necessary for those who have defiled their soul by the sinful practice of sin and who have engraved within themselves the forms of irrational desires by the passionate movement of the heart, to be cleansed by many tears and to acquire the tunic of the soul in its purest state. For otherwise it is impossible to see God, the very light that enlightens the heart of every person coming to Him through repentance, since it is the pure in heart who see God.

Let us be diligent, therefore, I beseech you, my fathers and brothers and children, to acquire a pure heart through careful attention to our ways and continual confession of the secret thoughts of the soul. For the confession of such things made by us continually and daily, moved by a repentant heart, works repentance in us for things done or even contemplated, (182) and repentance moves tears from the depths of the soul, and the tear cleanses the heart and makes great sins disappear, and when these are wiped away through tears in supplication, the soul becomes of the Divine Spirit and is watered by the streams of sweetest compunction, from which it is daily fattened spiritually and nourishes the fruits of the Spirit and in due season brings them forth appropriately, like abundant wheat, for the inexhaustible food of the soul and for its incorruptible and eternal life. And having by diligence arrived well at this, it becomes akin to God and becomes a house and a dwelling of the Divine Trinity, seeing clearly its own Maker and God and conversing with Him daily, it departs from the body and the world and this air and, ascending to the heavens of heavens and being lifted up by the virtues and the wings of the love of God, it rests from its labors with all the righteous and

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ἐνεδύσω διά Χριστόν, κτήσασθαι τούς τρόπους τῆς ψυχῆς καί αὐτό δή πνευματικόν σου φρόνημα· οὐ μόνον δέ ἀλλά καί τόν φωτεινόν ἐπενδύσασθαι χιτῶνα διά μετανοίας, ὅπερ ἐστίν αὐτό τό Πνεῦμα τό Ἅγιον. Τοῦτο δέ ἄλλως οὐ γίνεται, εἰ μή διά τῆς ἐπιμόνου τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐργασίας καί τῆς ὑπομονῆς τῶν θλίψεων. Θλιβομένη γάρ ἡ ψυχή διά τῶν πειρασμῶν κινεῖται εἰς δάκρυα, τά δάκρυα δέ καθαίροντα τήν καρδίαν ποιοῦσιν αὐτήν ναόν καί καταγωγίον τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος.Οὐδέ γάρ ἀρκεῖ ἡμῖν εἰς σωτηρίαν καί τελειότητα ἡ περιβολή μόνη τοῦ σχήματος καί ὁ ἔξω κόσμος τοῦ ἀδριάντος, ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ τόν ἔξω, οὕτω καί τόν ἐντός ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπον κοσμῆσαι χρεών τῇ καταστολῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος καί ἐξ ὁλοκλήρου θῦσαι ἑαυτούς τῷ Θεῷ ψυχῇ τε καί σώματι, καί τῇ μέν σωματικῇ γυμνασίᾳ γυμνάζειν τό σῶμα πρός τούς πόνους τῆς ἀρετῆς εἰς τό εὐτόνως ἐθίζεσθαι τοῖς κατά Θεόν λυπηροῖς καί φέρειν γενναίως τό πικρόν τῆς νηστείας, τό βεβιασμένον τῆς ἐγκρατείας, τήν ἀνάγκην τῆς ἀγρυπνίας, τήν ἅπασαν κακοπάθειαν, τῇ δέ εὐσεβείᾳ τοῦ Πνεύματος παιδαγωγεῖν τήν ψυχήν εἰς τό φρονεῖν ἅ δεῖ φρονεῖν καί μελετᾶν ἀεί τά τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, ταπεινόφρονά τε εἶναι, πραεῖαν, συντετριμμένην, κατανυκτικήν, πενθοῦσαν καθ᾿ ἑκάστην καί τό φῶς πρός ἑαυτήν διά τῆς προσευχῆς (181) ἐκκαλουμένην τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἅ καί προσγίνεσθαι ταύτῃ διά μετανοίας θερμοτάτης εἰώθασι, καθαιρομένῃ διά δακρύων πολλῶν ὧν ἄνευ οὐδέ τόν χιτῶνα ταύτης ἔξεστί ποτε καθαρθῆναι, οὐδέ εἰς ὕψος αὐτήν ἀναδραμεῖν θεωρίας. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἱμάτιον ἐκ βορβόρου ποθέν καί κοπρίας εἰς βάθος μολυνθέν, ἄλλως καθαρθῆναι τοῦτο ἀμήχανον, εἰ μή διά πολλοῦ ὕδατος καί πολλῆς θλίψεως τῶν ποδῶν, οὕτω καί ὁ χιτών τῆς ψυχῆς ἐκ βορβόρου καί κοπρίας ἐφαρμάτων παθῶν μολυνθείς, ἄλλως ἀπορρυφθῆναι οὐ δύναται, εἰ μή διά πολλῶν δακρύων καί ὑπομονῆς τῶν πειρασμῶν τε καί θλίψεων. ∆ύο γάρ οὐσῶν οὐσιωδῶς ἐν ἡμῖν ῥεύσεων ἐκ τοῦ σώματος - λέγω δή τῶν ἄνωθεν ἐπεισρεόντων δακρύων καί τῶν ἀπό τῶν γονίμων δυνάμεων , καί τῶν μέν μολυνόντων τήν ψυχήν παρά φύσιν καί νόμον κενουμένων, τῶν δέ καθαιρόντων αὐτήν ἐκ μετανοίας ῥεόντων, χρή τούς μεμολυσμένους τήν ψυχήν τῇ ἐφαρμάρτῳ πράξει τῆς ἁμαρτίας καί τῇ ἐμπαθεῖ κινήσει τῆς καρδίας ἀλόγων ἐπιθυμιῶν μορφάς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἐγχαράξαντας, διά πολλῶν καθαρθῆναι δακρύων καί τόν χιτῶνα τῆς ψυχῆς καθαρώτατον κτήσασθαι. Ἄλλως γάρ ἰδεῖν τόν Θεόν, αὐτό τό φῶς ὅ φωτίζει παντός ἀνθρώπου καρδίαν, ἐρχομένου διά μετανοίας πρός αὐτόν, ἀμήχανον, εἴπερ οἱ καθαροί τῇ καρδίᾳ ὁρῶσι Θεόν.

Σπουδάσωμεν οὖν, παρακαλῶ, πατέρες μου καί ἀδελφοί καί τέκνα, καθαράν κτήσασθαι τήν καρδίαν ἐξ ἐπιμελείας τῶν τρόπων καί διηνεκοῦς ἐξομολογήσεως τῶν κρυπτῶν λογισμῶν τῆς ψυχῆς. Ἡ γάρ συνεχῶς καί καθ᾿ ἑκάστην γινομένη παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἐξομολόγησις τῶν τοιούτων, ἐκ μεταμέλου κινουμένη καρδίας, μετάνοιαν ἡμῖν τῶν πραχθέντων ἤ καί μελετηθέντων ἐργάζεται, (182) ἡ δέ μετάνοια κινεῖ τό δάκρυον ἐκ βαθέων ψυχῆς, τό δέ δάκρυον καθαίρει τήν καρδίαν καί μεγάλας ἁμαρτίας ἐξαφανίζει, ἀπαλειφομένων δέ τούτων διά δακρύων ἐν παρακλήσει γίνεται ἡ ψυχή τοῦ Θείου Πνεύματος καί γλυκυτάτης κατανύξεως νάμασι καταρδεύεται, ἀφ᾿ ὧν καθ᾿ ἑκάστην πιαίνεται νοητῶς καί τρέφει τοῦ Πνεύματος τούς καρπούς καί ἐν καιρῷ προσφόρως, ὡς πολύχουν σῖτον, αὐτούς ἀναδίδωσιν εἰς τροφήν ἀδάπανον τῆς ψυχῆς καί εἰς ζωήν αὐτῆς ἄφθαρτον καί αἰώνιον. Ἐν τούτῳ δέ διά σπουδῆς καλῶς καταντήσασα, οἰκειοῦται Θεῷ καί γίνεται οἶκος Τριάδος Θείας καί ἐνδιαίτημα, ὁρῶσα καθαρῶς τόν ἑαυτῆς Ποιητήν καί Θεόν καί προσομιλοῦσα αὐτῷ καθ᾿ ἑκάστην, ἐξίσταται τοῦ σώματος καί τοῦ κόσμου καί τοῦ ἀέρος τούτου καί εἰς οὐρανούς οὐρανῶν ἀνερχομένη καί κουφιζομένη ταῖς ἀρεταῖς καί ταῖς πτέρυξι τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Θεοῦ, καταπαύει μετά πάντων δικαίων ἀπό τῶν πόνων αὐτῆς καί