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dwelling in contemplation on the principles of beings, and persevering in prayer alone, how would he not be praying most effectively in himself? But Dionysius exhorts Timothy to abandon even the noetic activities, and thus prayer also. But you declare that nothing is good, nor from God in prayers, all that is abandoned and of which one who has gone out in the better ecstasy must be unaware. Therefore, according to you, prayer is not good nor from God, "who gives prayer to the one who prays."

(p. 382) For again I will set forth your own words, applying them to noetic prayer. "Since it is agreed by all that it is fitting for one hastening toward divine union to be insensible to everything and to have forgotten himself, and God gives a hand to such a one to be delivered from all things and snatches him away from all things, if indeed the one praying has no sensation of the prayer, how is the prayer from God, of which he cannot be aware? For it would be in vain, but nothing from God is in vain. But if the one praying is aware of the prayer, how does God send this to him, from which all say that one turning to God must be delivered, since God grants forgetfulness of all things and of noetic activities to whomever He illumines?". Do you see how your discourses On Prayer completely abolish prayer? But that divinely-inspired man, exhorting the divine Timothy to set ascents in his heart, raises him from high things to higher things and through these brings and places him on the very highest summit. But you, I know not how, O all-wise one, think that those on earth immediately touch the height of heaven, and you bring forward the divine Maximus to testify, saying, "whenever the mind, with the desire of love for God, goes abroad, then it is not at all aware either of itself or of beings." "Therefore," says this new teacher, "he is not aware of the passions said to arise in the body from prayer; therefore they necessarily happen in vain." But we would say, therefore not even of prayer, since he is not aware of this then; therefore, according to such arguments, it is vain to pray. But it is truly vain and mind-damaging to construct such things from such things. What does Maximus not say, one might ask, who is, if anyone, a wise praiser and lover of divine love? "Whenever the mind goes abroad to God, then it is aware neither of itself (p. 384) nor of beings"; "then," he says; but when it is in itself, praying noetically, then it will be aware both of itself and of the blessed passions being accomplished in it and in the conjoined body by the sacred prayer.

A third testimony is added by him, that "the highest state of prayer is for the mind to be outside flesh and the world and to be entirely immaterial and formless in praying, so that he will be outside the bodily passions of which they speak, he says, in such a state." Therefore, no one clothed in a body ceaselessly attains such a state, as far as we know, unless perhaps this new teacher of excessive prayer, but even those who rarely attain it are most rare; therefore, being in the flesh for the greater part of the time, all pray, being at the same time aware of the passions in themselves, how much more of the sacred ones that arise from prayer, which both perfects and elevates and renders spiritual those in whom it may exist, but does not pull down and render useless and corrupt. For there is also such a kind of passions, not only sacred, but also natural, as even the senses themselves, which we have, will teach us, being perfected in suffering from external things and being for us like images of the divinely-effected perfection that comes from above by the Spirit, of which the beginning is the fear of God, from which the passionate part of the soul, not deadened in its disposition, as the philosopher both thought and taught, but having advanced into a God-loving activity, brings forth saving compunction and blessed mourning, the

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θεωρίᾳ τοῖς λόγοις τῶν ὄντων ἐμφιλοχωρῶν, μόνῃ δέ τῇ προσευχῇ προσκαρτερῶν, πῶς οὐκ ἐς τά μάλιστα καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἄν ἐνεργοίη προσευχόμενος; Ἀλλά καί τάς νοεράς ἐνεργείας ἀπολιπεῖν προτρέπεται τῷ Τιμοθέῳ ὁ ∆ιονύσιος, καί τήν προσευχήν ἄρα. Σύ δέ ἀποφαίνῃ μηδέν εἶναι ἀγαθόν, μήδ᾿ ἐκ Θεοῦ κατά τάς προσευχάς, ὅσα τε ἀπολιμπάνεται καί ὧν ἀναισθήτως ἔχειν ἀνάγκη τόν ἐξεστηκότα τήν κρείττω ἔκστασιν. Οὐκοῦν κατά σέ οὐκ ἀγαθόν οὐδ᾿ ἐκ Θεοῦ ἡ προσευχή «τοῦ διδόντος εὐχήν τῷ εὐχομένῳ».

(σελ. 382) Πάλιν γάρ αὐτά σου τά ρήματα παραθήσω τῇ νοερᾷ προσευχῇ προσαρμοζόμενος. «Παρά πάντων ὁμολογουμένου τυγχάνοντος, ὡς προσῆκον τῷ πρός τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν ἐπειγομένῳ πρός πάντα ἀναισθήτως ἔχειν καί ἑαυτοῦ ἐπιλελῆσθαι, καί Θεός τῷ τοιούτῳ πρός τό πάντων ἀπαλλαγῆναι χεῖρα δίδωσι καί πάντων ἀφαρπάζει, εἰ μέν μηδεμίαν αἴσθησιν ἔχει τῆς προσευχῆς ὁ προσευχόμενος, πῶς ἐκ Θεοῦ ἡ προσευχή, ἧς οὐκ ἔχει αἰσθάνεσθαι; Μάτην γάρ ἄν γένοιτο, μάταιον δέ τῶν ἐκ Θεοῦ οὐδέν. Εἰ δέ αἰσθάνεται τῆς προσευχῆς ὁ προσευχόμενος, πῶς ταύτην ἐνίησι Θεός αὐτῷ, ἧς ἀπαλλάττεσθαι πάντες φασί δεῖν τόν πρός Θεόν ἐπιστρεφόμενον, τοῦ Θεοῦ ὅν ἄν περιλάμπῃ, λήθην πάντων καί τῶν νοερῶν ἐνεργειῶν δωρουμένου;». Ὁρᾷς ὅπως οἱ Περί προσευχῆς σοι λόγοι τήν προσευχήν τελέως καταργοῦσιν; Ὁ δέ θεσπέσιος ἐκεῖνος ἀναβάσεις ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ διατιθέναι τόν θεῖον Τιμόθεον προτρεπόμενος, ἀφ᾿ ὑψηλῶν ἐφ᾿ ὑψηλοτέρας ἀναβιβάζει καί διά τούτων ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς φέρων ἵστησιν αὐτόν τῆς ἀκροτάτης περιωπῆς. Σύ δ᾿ οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως ὁ πάντα σοφός οὐρανίου ψαύειν ὕψους ἀμέσως οἴει τούς ἐπί γῆς καί τόν θεῖον Μάξιμον προσμαρτυρήσοντα παράγεις φάσκοντα, «ὅταν ἔρωτι τῆς ἀγάπης πρός Θεόν ὁ νοῦς ἐκδημῇ, τότε οὔτε ἑαυτοῦ οὔτε τῶν ὄντων παντάπασιν ἐπαισθάνεται». «Οὐκοῦν», φησίν ὁ καινός οὗτος καθηγητής, «οὐδέ τῶν ὑπό τῆς προσευχῆς ἐγγίνεσθαι λεγομένων ἐν τῷ σώματι παθημάτων αἰσθάνεται˙ μάτην αὐτά τοίνυν ἐξ ἀνάγκης συμβαίνει». Φαῖμεν δ᾿ ἄν ἡμεῖς, οὐκοῦν οὐδέ τῆς προσευχῆς, ἐπεί μηδέ ταύτης ἐπαισθάνεται τότε˙ μάταιον ἄρα κατά τούς τοιούτους λόγους τό προσεύχεσθαι. Μάταιον δ᾿ ὄντως καί φρενοβλαβές τό τοιαῦτα ἐκ τοιούτων κατασεκεύαζειν. Τί μή φησι Μάξιμος, εἴποι τις ἄν, ὁ τῆς θείας ἀγάπης εἴπερ τις σοφός ἐπαινέτης καί ἐραστής; «Ὅταν πρός Θεόν ὁ νοῦς ἐκδημῇ, τότε οὔθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ (σελ. 384) οὔτε τῶν ὄντων αἰσθάνεται»˙ "τοτε" , φησίν˙ ὅταν δέ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ᾖ νοερῶς προσευχόμενος, τότε καί ἑαυτοῦ καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ καί τῷ συνημμένῳ σώματι τελουμένων ὑπό τῆς ἱερᾶς προσευχῆς μακαρίων παθημάτων αἰσθήσεται.

Τρίτη προστίθεται αὐτῷ μαρτυρίᾳ, ὡς «ἡ τῆς προσευχῆς ἀκροτάτη κατάστασις, τό ἔξω σαρκός καί κόσμου γενέσθαι τόν νοῦν καί ἄϋλον εἶναι πάντῃ καί ἀνείδεον ἐν τῷ προσεύχεσθαι, ὥστε τῶν ἐν σώματι παθημάτων ὧν φασιν ἔξω ἔσται, φησίν, ἐν τῇ τοιαύτῃ καταστάσει». Τῆς οὖν τοιαύτης καταστάσεως ἀδιαλείπτως ἐπιτυγχάνει τῶν σῶμα περικειμένων οὐδείς, ὅσα γε ἡμᾶς εἰδέναι, εἰ μή ἄρα ὁ καινός οὗτος τῆς ὑπερλίαν προσευχῆς διδάσκαλος, ἀλλά καί οἱ σπανίως αὐτῆς ἐπιτυγχάνοντες σπανιώτατοί εἰσιν˙ οὐκοῦν τόν πλείω χρόνον ἐν σαρκί ὄντες ἅπαντες προσεύχονται, ἅμα καί τῶν ἐν αὑτοῖς παθημάτων αἰσθανόμενοι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον τῶν ἱερῶν καί ὑπό τῆς προσευχῆς ἐγγινομένων, ἅ καί τελειοῖ καί ἀνάγει καί πνευματικά οἷς ἄν ἐνυπάρξειεν ἀποτελεῖ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατασπᾷ καί ἀχρειοῖ καί φθείρει. Ἔστι γάρ καί τοιοῦτο γένος παθημάτων, οὐχ ἱερόν μόνον, ἀλλά καί φυσικόν, ὡς καί αὐταί αἱ αἰσθήσεις, ἅς ἔχομεν, ἡμᾶς διδάξουσιν, ἐν τῷ πάσχειν ὑπό τῶν ἔξω τελειούμεναι καί εἰκόνες ἡμῖν οἷον οὖσαι τῆς ἄνωθεν ὑπό τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐγγινομένης θεουργοῦ τελειώσεως, ἧς ἀρχή ἐστιν ὁ φόβος τοῦ Θεοῦ, παρ᾿ οὗ τό παθητικόν τῆς ψυχῆς οὐ καθ᾿ ἕξιν νεκρωθέν, ὡς ὁ φιλόσοφος καί ἐδόξασε καί ἐδίδαξεν, ἀλλ᾿ εἰς θεοφιλῆ προελθόν ἐνέργειαν τήν σωτήριον κατάνυξιν καί τό μακάριον ἀποτίκτει πένθος, τόν