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and surpassing even them in deeds of the most shameful acts. Woe is me, the shameful and defiled one, how shall I say it? you were united to me, O lover of mankind, with immeasurable compassion, you who are great in purity, greater in holiness, and incomparable in powers and unimaginable in glory, and you descended from above, from an immeasurable height, down to the very gates of Hades of my sins and the darkness of my poverty, and to a house that had collapsed from many iniquities, utterly neglected by the greatest negligence and indeed defiled, you who before raised me up when I was lying below and set me upon the rock of your divine commandments, and washing me, you cleansed me from the mire of my evils and clothed me in a robe whiter than snow, and you swept clean the stained house and entering it you took up your dwelling, O Trinity, my God, then you made me a throne of your divine Godhead and a house of your unapproachable glory and kingdom, and a jar bearing the manna of immortality, and a lamp having within an inextinguishable and divine light, and truly a box of the goodly pearl, and a field in which is hidden the treasure of the world, a spring from which those who drink never thirst, which indeed gushes forth water tenfold and makes immortal those who drink in faith, (145) a paradise having the tree of life again in its midst and an earth enclosing the one whom all cannot contain, you, whom I once sought with all my heart, and I always desired to hear a word about you, and I wished to have the remembrance of you in my soul and more frequently to both speak and hear about you. For even if formerly my mind was not able to imagine you clearly, being utterly defiled, nor my eyes to see or my hearing to hear, nor my heart to receive divine ascents, but by hearing alone my whole soul was struck with awe and shrank with fear and trembling, but now seeing you within itself it is amazed, and seeing you in a mirror, as much as you grant to it, whole in the whole of everything, and whole outside of this, and again within itself, understanding the whole as wholly incomprehensible in its divine Godhead, the one who is invisible and hidden to all, you who are unapproachable yet approachable only to those whom you have wished, just as you yourself desired to appear in your love for mankind, the one who is unapproachable and awesome to the Seraphim and Cherubim and all the angels in the splendor of his divine nature, approachable among men, the one who is by nature incomprehensible, my whole soul is altogether ecstatic, and is even more amazed

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καί ὑπερβάντι πράξεσιν ἔργων ἀτοπωτάτων κἀκείνους. Οἴμοι τῷ αἰσχρῷ καί ῥυπαρῷ πῶς εἴπω; ἡνώθης μοι, φιλάνθρωπε, ἀμέτρῳ εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ, ὁ καθαρότητι πολύς, ἁγιωσύνῃ μείζων, δυνάμεις τε ἀσύγκριτος καί ἀνείκαστος δόξῃ, καί συγκατῆλθεν ἄνωθεν ἀφ᾿ ὕψους ἀμετρήτου ἕως ἐσχάτου τῶν πυλῶν ᾅδου ἁμαρτιῶν μου καί σκότους τῆς πτωχείας μου καί οἴκου συμπτωθέντος ἀπό πολλῶν ἀνομιῶν, μεγίστης ἀμελείας ἠμελημένου παντελῶς καί γε ῥερυπωμένου, ὅς πρότερον ἀνέστησας ἐμέ κείμενον κάτω καί ἐπί πέτραν ἔστησας τῶν θείων ἐντολῶν σου καί λούσας ἐκαθάρισας βορβόρου τῶν κακῶν μου καί χιτῶνα ἐνέδυσας λευκόν ὑπέρ χιόνα, τόν οἶκόν τε ἐσάρωσας τόν κατεσπιλωμένον καί εἰσελθών ἐνῴκισας, ὦ Τριάς, ὁ Θεός μου, εἶτα θρόνον με ἀπετέλεσας θεότητός σου θείας καί οἶκόν ἀπροσίτου σου δόξης καί βασιλείας καί στάμνον μάννα φέρουσαν τό τῆς ἀθανασίας, καί λύχνον ἔνδον ἔχοντα φῶς ἄσβεστον καί θεῖον, πυξίον τε ὡς ἀληθῶς τοῦ καλοῦ μαργαρίτου καί γάρ ἀγρόν, ἐν ᾧ κέκρυπται ὁ θησαυρός τοῦ κόσμου, πηγήν, ἐξ ἧς οἱ πίνοντες οὐδέποτε διψῶσιν, ἥτις καί βλύζει μάλιστα ὕδωρ δεκαπλασίως καί τούς ἐν πίστει πίνοντας ἐκτελεῖ ἀθανάτους, (145) παράδεισον ξύλον ζωῆς μέσον ἔχοντα πάλιν καί γῆν περικαλύπτουσαν τόν ἀχώρητον πᾶσι, σέ, ὅν ἐζήτησά ποτε ἐξ ὅλης μου καρδίας, καί ἐπεθύμουν περί σοῦ λόγον ἀεί ἀκούειν καί ἤθελον τήν μνείαν σου ἔχειν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ μου καί συχνοτέρως περί σοῦ καί λαλεῖν καί ἀκούειν. Εἰ γάρ καί πρῴην μου ὁ νοῦς περί σοῦ φαντασθῆναι καθαρῶς οὐκ ἠδύνατο, πάντῃ ῥερυπωμένος, οὐδ᾿ ὀφθαλμοί θεάσασθαι ἤ ἀκοή ἀκοῦσαι, οὐδ᾿ ἀναβάσεις δέξασθαι ἡ καρδία μου θείας, ἀλλά μόνῃ τῇ ἀκοῇ κατεπλήττετο ὅλη καί φόβῳ συνεστέλλετο ἡ ψυχή μου καί τρόμῳ, ἀλλ᾿ ἔνδοθεν ὁρῶσά σε νῦν ἑαυτῆς ἐκπλήττεται καί ἐνοπτριζομένη σε, ὅσον αὐτῇ γε δίδως, ὅλον ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ παντί, ὅλον ἐκτός δέ τούτου, ἐντός τε πάλιν ἑαυτῆς, ὅλον κατανοοῦσα ὅλον ἀκατανόητον θεότητι τῇ θείᾳ, τόν τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀόρατον καί ἀποκεκρυμμένον, σέ τόν ἀπρόσιτον καί προσιτόν μόνοις οἷς ἠβουλήθης, καθώς αὐτός ἠθέλησας φιλανθρώπως φανῆναι, τόν Σεραφείμ καί Χερουβίμ καί πᾶσι τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἀπρόσιτον καί φοβερόν αὐγῇ φύσεως θείας, μετά ἀνθρώπων προσιτόν τόν φύσει ἄληπτόν τε, ὅλη ὅλως ἐξίσταται, ἐκπλήττεται δέ πλέον