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And not only this, but it also brings the beginning of holy compunction, by which it also wipes away the former (p. 360) unholy defilements and makes the divine most of all merciful and compliant to supplication. For "a contrite heart God will not despise," according to David and according to Gregory the Theologian, "God is served by nothing of all things so much as by suffering." Therefore also the Lord taught in the Gospels that prayer combined with fasting has great power.

Insensibility, therefore, is what annuls prayer, which the fathers also call hardness of heart, but not the pain of the sense of touch, as this one first philosophized in idle words against those who know by experience. For these reasons also there are those of the fathers who declared fasting to be, as it were, the essence of prayer; for, they say, "the matter of prayer is hunger." But others said this is its quality; for they know that prayer without compunction is without quality. And what of the one who says, "thirst and vigil afflicted the heart; and the heart being afflicted, tears sprang forth," and again, "prayer is the mother of tears and again their daughter"? Have you seen how this pain in the sense of touch not only is not an obstacle to prayer, but also cooperates in an excellent way? And what of these tears, of which prayer is both daughter and mother? Are they not by nature painful and bitter and biting to those who have just tasted blessed mourning, but for those who have fully enjoyed it, are they not transformed into things pleasant and painless? How then do they not corrupt prayer, or rather how do the things activated in the body both beget it and are begotten by it, the things both pleasing and paining according to sense? And how does God grant these things, according to the one who says, "if you have acquired a tear in your prayer, God has touched the eyes of your heart and you have intellectually recovered your sight"?

(p. 362) "But Paul," he says, "caught up to the third heaven, did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body, as having forgotten all things pertaining to the body; if, therefore, it is fitting for one hastening to God through prayer to be insensible to the things of the body, how can these be gifts of God, from which it is fitting for one hastening to Him to be free?". But it is not only from bodily activities that one hastening to divine union must be free, but also to leave behind intellectual activities and all divine lights and every ascent of all holy heights, according to the great Dionysius. Is none of these, therefore, a gift of God, not even the ascent of all holy heights, since it is fitting for one hastening to divine union to be free of these things? "And how could these be," he says, "from grace, which one will not perceive during the intellectual prayer that unites man to God? For it would be in vain, and nothing from God is in vain." O man, delighting in idle talk, you who drag us down into such words, and so you consider divine union a small thing, as not transcending the great and necessary things, but only the vain, and whatever is not present when this is accomplished, you consider vain. Truly you are shown not to have set yourself above vain things; for if you had risen above, you would know by how much the union with God has risen above even useful things.

But you delight so much in dwelling on vain things, that though knowing nothing at all about prayer you lengthen out so much idle talk, you who, alas, call its spiritual grace in the heart a "fantasy," "bearing the image of the heart in itself." But those who have been deemed worthy of it know it not as a phantasmal impression, nor as being in our power, nor as now existing, now not existing, but as a certain tireless activity (p. 364) engendered by grace, co-existing and rooted in the soul, generating a spring of sacred joy that draws the intellect to itself and making it stand apart from manifold and materialistic fantasies; and I call "body-like" that which passes from the pleasures of the body to the thoughts and accompanies them with the appearance of pleasure and drags them down; but that which is from the soul spiritually

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οὐ μόνον δέ ἀλλά καί τήν ἱεράν κατάνυξιν αὐτό φέρει τήν ἀρχήν, δ᾿ ἧς καί τούς προγεγονότας (σελ. 360) ἀνιέρους ἀπαλείφει μολυσμούς καί τό θεῖον ἵλεω πάντων μάλιστα ποιεῖται καί πρός τήν δέησιν καταπειθές. «Καρδίαν» γάρ «συντετριμμένην ὁ Θεός οὐκ ἐξουδενώσει» κατά τόν ∆αύδ καί κατά τόν Θεολόγον Γρηγόριον «οὐδενί τῶν πάντων οὕτως ὡς κακοπαθείᾳ Θεός θεραπεύεται». ∆ιό καί ὁ Κύριος μέγα δύνασθαι τήν προσευχήν μετά τῆς νηστείας συνεζευγμένην ἐν εὐαγγελίοις ἐδίδαξεν.

Ἀναλγησία τοιγαροῦν ἐστι τό καταργοῦν τήν προσευχήν, ἥν καί πώρωσιν οἱ πατέρες ὀνομάζουσιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τό ἄλγος τῆς ἁφῆς, ὡς κατά τῶν ἔργῳ γινωσκόντων πρῶτος οὗτος ἀπράκτοις ἐφιλοσόφησε λόγοις. Ταῦτα ἄρα καί τῶν πατέρων εἰσίν οἵ τήν νηστείαν οἱονεί οὐσίαν εἶναι προσευχῆς ἀπεφήνατο˙ «ὕλη» γάρ, φασί, «προσευχῆς, πεῖνα». Ἕτεροι δέ ποιότητα τοῦτ᾿ ἔφησαν αὐτῆς˙ ἄποιον γάρ ἴσασι τήν ἄνευ κατανύξεως προσευχήν. Τί δέ ὁ λέγων, «δίψα καί ἀγρυπνία ἐξέθλιψαν καρδίαν˙ καρδίας δέ θλιβείσης ἐξεπήδησαν δάκρυα», «προσευχή» δ᾿ αὖθις «δακρύων μήτηρ καί πάλιν θυγάτηρ»; Εἶδες πῶς τό κατά τήν ἁφήν ἄλγος τοῦτο μή μόνον οὐκ ἐμπόδιον γίνεται τῇ προσευχῇ, ἀλλά καί διαφερόντως συνεργεῖ; Τί δέ τά δάκρυα ταῦτα, ὧν ἐστιν ἡ προσευχή θυγάτηρ τε καί μήτηρ; Οὐκ ὀδυνηρά μέν ἐστι καί πικρά καί δακνηρά φύσει τοῖς ἄρτι τοῦ μακαρίου πένθους γευσαμένοις, τοῖς δέ καταπολαύσασιν αὐτοῦ πρός ἡδέα καί ἀνώδυνα μεταποιεῖται; Πῶς οὖν οὐ λυμαίνονται τῇ προσευχῇ, μᾶλλον δέ πῶς καί γεννῶσιν αὐτήν καί γεννῶνται ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς τά σωματικῶς ἐνεργούμενα, τά καί κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἡδύνοντά τε καί ἀλγύνοντα; Πῶς δέ αὐτά χαρίζεται Θεός, κατά τόν λέγοντα, «εἰ δάκρυον ἐκτήσω ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ σου, ὁ Θεός ἥψατό σου τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τῆς καρδίας καί νοερῶς ἀνέβλεψας»;

(σελ. 362) «Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Παῦλος», φησίν, «ἁρπαγείς ἕως τρίτου οὐρανοῦ οὐκ οἶδεν, εἴτε ἐν σώματι ἦν εἴτε τοῦ σώματος ἐκτός, ὡς ἐπιλελησμένος τῶν κατά τό σῶμα πάντων˙ εἰ τοίνυν προσῆκον τόν πρός Θεόν διά προσευχῆς ἐπειγόμενον τῶν κατά τό σῶμα ἀναισθήτως ἔχειν, πῶς δῶρα θεοῦ, ὧν ἀπαλλάττεσθαι προσήκει τόν πρός αὐτόν ἐπειγόμενον;». Ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τῶν σωματικῶν μόνων ἐνεργειῶν ἀπαλλάττεσθαι προσήκει τόν πρός τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν ἐπειγόμενον, ἀλλά καί τάς νοεράς ἐνεργείας καί πάντα τά θεῖα φῶτα καί πᾶσαν πασῶν ἁγίων ἀκροτήτων ἀνάβασιν ἀπολιπεῖν κατά τόν μέγαν ∆ιονύσιον. Οὐδέν οὖν τούτων δῶρον Θεοῦ, οὐδ᾿ ἡ πασῶν ἁγίων ἀκροτήτων ἀνάβασις, ἐπεί τούτων ἀπαλλάττεσθαι προσήκει τόν πρός τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν ἐπειγόμενον; «Καί πῶς ἄν εἴη», φησίν, «ἐκ τῆς χάριτος ταῦτα, ὧν οὐ μέλλει αἰσθάνεσθαι κατά τήν τῷ Θεῷ τόν ἄνθρωπον ἑνοῦσαν νοεράν προσευχήν; Μάτην γάρ ἀν γένοιτο, μάταιον δέ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ οὐδέν». Ματαιολογίᾳ χαίρων, ἄνθρωπε, ὁ καί ἡμᾶς εἰς τοιούτους λόγους κατασπῶν, καί οὕτως ἡγῇ τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν μικρόν ὡς οὐχί τῶν μεγάλων καί ἀναγκαίων ὑπεραίρειν, ἀλλά τῶν ματαίων μόνον, καί ὅ ἄν μή παρῇ, ταύτης τελουμένης, μάταιον ἡγῇ. Ὄντως δῆλος εἶ μή τῶν ματαίων αὐτός ἀνώτερον καταστήσας σεαυτόν˙ εἰ γάρ ὑπερανέστηκας, ἔγνως ἄν ὅσῳ καί τῶν χρηοίμων ἡ πρός Θεόν ὑπερανέστηκεν ἕνωσις.

Σύ δέ τοσοῦτο χαίρεις ἐμφιλοχωρῶν τοῖς ματαίοις, ὡς καί περί προσευχῆς μηδέν εἰδώς ὅλως τοσαῦτα μηκύνεις ματαιολογῶν, ὅς καί τήν ἐν καρδίᾳ πνευματικήν ταύτης χάριν «φαντασίαν» φεῦ καλεῖς «τό εἴδωλον ἐν ἑαυτῇ τῆς καρδίας φέρουσαν». Οἱ δέ κατηξιωμένοι ταύτης ἴσασιν αὐτήν οὐ φαντασιώδη ἀνατύπωσιν, οὐδέ τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν οὖσαν, οὐδέ νῦν μέν οὖσαν, νῦν δ᾿ οὐκ οὖσαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀκάματόν τινα ἐνέργειαν (σελ. 364) ὑπό τῆς χάριτος ἐγγινομένην, συνοῦσαν καί ἐνερριζωμένην τῇ ψυχῇ, πηγήν γεννῶσαν εὐφροσύνης ἱερᾶς εἰς ἑαυτήν συνελκούσης τόν νοῦν καί ἐξιστώσης τῶν πολυειδῶν καί προσύλων φαντασμάτων ἔχειν˙ σωματοειδές δέ λέγω τό διικνούμενον ἀπό τῶν τοῦ σώματος ἡδονῶν ἐπί τούς λογισμούς καί ἡδυφανῶς συγγινόμενον καί κατασπῶν αὐτούς˙ τό δ᾿ ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς πνευματικῶς