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your goodness and love for humanity, because you cleanse defiled souls and enlighten the mind and you grasp what is earthly and material substance, and you kindle a great flame of divine love and you cast into me a love of divine longing like a fire and you prepare me to reach the third heaven and you cause me, O Savior, to be snatched up to paradise, in which I hear words both unspeakable and strange, (146) which it is not lawful for mortals to speak or to explain in word. To You is due honor, glory and majesty, eternal dominion, O Christ, the Lord of all, with the Father and the Spirit, the All-Holy by nature, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

XXI.

A letter to a monk who asked: How do you separate the Son from the Father, by thought or in reality? In which you will find a wealth of theology refuting his blasphemy. (147)

You shone, you revealed the light of glory, the unapproachable light of your essence, O Savior, and you illumined a darkened soul, or rather, one that was darkness from sin, having lost its natural beauty, you led it up as if from Hades where it lay and you have granted it to see the light of the divine day and to be illuminated by the rays of the sun and for it to become light, O great wonder! Those who have not despised the glory of men do not believe, as you commanded, for they have not tasted the divine glory, which you have given and give now, my God, to those who have sought you from the soul with their whole disposition, the eternal glory, you, the truly glorified God, to behold whom is the height of glory. He who has been deemed worthy to see you always has surely obtained angelic dignity, even if he is bound to the flesh by nature. And if you deigned to remain with him (148) and were pleased that he remain in you, you fulfilled your economy and made the corruptible one like you, a god, O God, who co-exists by nature, without beginning before time with the co-unoriginate God, the Son and Word, who was begotten of you, not separated from you by thought,

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τήν ἀγαθότητα τήν σήν καί τήν φιλανθρωπίαν, ὅτι καθαίρεις ῥυπαράς ψυχάς καί νοῦν φωτίζεις καί περιδράσσῃ γεώδους καί ὑλικῆς οὐσίας, ἀνάπτεις τε φλόγα πολλήν ἀγαπήσεως θείας καί πόθου θείου ἔρωτα οἷα πῦρ μοι ἐμβάλλεις καί μέχρι τρίτου οὐρανοῦ φθάνειν παρασκευάζεις καί εἰς παράδεισον ποιεῖς, Σῶτερ, ἁρπάζεσθαί με, ἐν ᾧ ἀκούω ῥήματα ἄρρητά τε καί ξένα, (146) ἅ οὐκ ἐξόν βροτοῖς λαλεῖν ἤ λόγῳ ἐξηγεῖσθαι. Σοί δέ τιμή πρέπει, δόξα καί μεγαλωσύνη, κράτος αἰώνιον, Χριστέ, τῷ τοῦ παντός ∆εσπότῃ σύν τῷ Πατρί καί Πνεύματι τῷ φύσει Παναγίῳ νῦν καί ἀεί καί εἰς τούς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων˙ ἀμήν.

ΚΑ'.

Ἐπιστολή πρός μοναχόν ἐρωτήσαντα˙ Πῶς χωρίζεις τόν Υἱόν ἀπό τοῦ Πατρός, ἐπινοίᾳ ἤ πράγματι; Ἐν ᾗ εὑρήσεις πλοῦτον θεολογίας ἀνατρεπούσης τήν αὐτοῦ βλασφημίαν. (147)

Ἔλαμψας, ἐξέφανας φῶς τό τῆς δόξης, φῶς ἀπρόσιτον τῆς σῆς οὐσίας, Σῶτερ, καί κατηύγασας ψυχήν ἐσκοτισμένην, μᾶλλον δέ σκότος οὖσαν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας ὡς τό φυσικόν ἀπολέσασαν κάλλος, ὡς ἐξ ᾅδου τε ἀνήγαγες κειμένην καί φῶς ἰδεῖν δέδωκας θείας ἡμέρας καί τοῦ ἡλίου ἀκτῖσιν ἐλλαμφθῆναι καί φῶς γενέσθαι ταύτην, ὦ μέγα θαῦμα! Οὐ πιστεύουσιν οἱ δόξης τῶν ἀνθρώπων μή καταφρονήσαντες, ὡς ἐνετείλω, οὐδέ γάρ ἐγεύσαντο δόξης τῆς θείας, ἥν δέδωκας σύ καί δίδως νῦν, Θεέ μου, τοῖς ἀπό ψυχῆς ὅλῃ τῇ διαθέσει σέ ζητήσασι, τήν αἰώνιον δόξαν, σέ, τόν ἀληθῶς Θεόν δεδοξασμένον, ὅν τό κατιδεῖν ἀκρότης ἐστί δόξης. Ὁ δέ ἀεί σε βλέπειν ἠξιωμένος πάντως ἔλαχεν ἀγγελικῆς ἀξίας, εἰ καί δέδεται τῇ σαρκί κατά φύσιν. Εἰ δέ καί μεῖναι παρ᾿ αὐτῷ κατεδέξω (148) καί καταμένειν ἐν σοί προσηβουλήθης, τήν σήν ἐξεπλήρωσας οἰκονομίαν καί ὅμοιόν σου τόν φθαρτόν ἀπειργάσω θεόν, ὁ Θεός, ὁ συνυπάρχων φύσει, ὁ προάναρχος Θεῷ τῷ συνανάρχῳ Υἱῷ καί Λόγῳ, τῷ ἐκ σοῦ γεννηθέντι, οὐκ ἐπινοίᾳ ἐκ σοῦ χωριζομένῳ,