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The fearful and most painful and lamentable attendance with a contrite heart, accomplished noetically in silence for the greater part of the time through sorrow according to God, and the prayer through the pain of touch during fasting and vigil in tears and compunction, and the attempt to lead up the fragmented state of mind of those being initiated into a more unified and suitable prayer at that time—he who despises all such things will accordingly consider both the end of prayer and simply all of it as evil, and will strive to remove it completely from among existing things. For tell me this first, O philosopher: were not the noetic energies also given by God, and are they not shown to be more refined during prayer than at any other time, wherefore must he who is hastening toward divine union through prayer also abandon these? But indeed prayer is, according to him who said it, "the mother of the wisest thoughts." Then this too must be considered, that the prayer of the perfect is a noetic energy more than anything else; for the mind of such men is turned neither toward the body nor toward the things around it, nor does it operate through sense-perception and its companion, imagination, nor does it dwell on the principles of beings through discursive thought and contemplation, but persevering in prayer alone, how would it not, when praying, be acting most of all in accordance with itself? But Dionysius exhorts Timothy to abandon even the noetic energies, and therefore prayer as well. But you declare that nothing is good, not even from God during prayers, all those things that are 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 is it from God "who gives prayer to the one who prays."

(p. 382) For I shall again set down your very words, adapting them to noetic prayer. "Since it is agreed by all that it is fitting for one who is hastening to divine union to be insensible to all things 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 into him, from which all say that one who is turning to God must be delivered, since God, whom He illumines, grants a forgetting of all things, even of noetic energies?". Do you see how your treatises *On Prayer* completely abolish prayer? But that divine man, exhorting the divine Timothy to set ascents in his heart, leads him up from high things to higher, and through these brings and places him upon the very highest watch-tower. But you, I know not how, wise in all things, think that those on earth touch the heavenly height immediately, and you bring forward the divine Maximus to bear witness, saying, "whenever the mind goes forth to God with a longing of love, then it is aware neither of itself nor of any of the things that exist." "Therefore," says this new teacher, "he is not aware of the experiences said to arise in the body from prayer; so they happen of necessity in vain." But we would say, therefore he is not aware of the prayer either, since he is not aware of this then; therefore, according to such arguments, it is futile to pray. But it is truly futile and mad to construct such arguments from such premises. What then does Maximus say, one might ask, who is, if anyone, a wise praiser and lover of divine love? "Whenever the mind goes forth to God, then it is aware neither of itself (p. 384) nor of the things that exist"; "then," he says; but when it is in itself, praying noetically, then it will be aware both of itself and of the blessed experiences accomplished in it and in the conjoined body by the sacred prayer.

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συντριβῇ καρδίας ἔμφοβός τε καί πολυαλγής καί πολυστένακτος παράστασις νοερῶς ἐν σιωπῇ τόν πλείω χρόνον διά τήν κατά Θεόν ἀθυμίαν τελουμένη καί ἡ διά τοῦ κατά τήν νηστείαν τε καί ἀγρυπνίαν κατά τήν ἁφήν ἄλγους ἐν δάκρυσι καί κατανύξει προσευχή καί τό ἐγχειρεῖν ἀνάγειν τούς εἰσαγομένους τό τοῦ νοῦ μεριστόν εἰς ἑνοειδεστέραν καί κατάλληλον τηνικαῦτα προσευχήν, ὁ τά τοιαῦτα πάντ᾿ ἐξουθενῶν, ἀκολούθως καί τό τῆς προσευχῆς τέλος καί πᾶσαν ἁπλῶς αὐτήν πρός κακοῦ νομιεῖ καί ἀγωνιεῖται τελέως ἐκ μέσου ποιήσασθαι τῶν ὄντων. Εἰπέ γάρ μοι τοῦτο πρῶτον, ὦ φιλόσοφε˙ οὐδέ αἱ νοεραί ἐνέργειαι ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐδόθησαν, οὐδέ κατά τήν προσευχήν ἀπειλικρινημέναι μᾶλλον εἴπερ ποτέ διαδείκνυνται, διότι καί ταύτας ἀπολιπεῖν δεῖ τόν πρός τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν διά προσευχῆς ἐπειγόμενον; Ἀλλά μήν ἡ προσευχή ἐστι κατά τόν εἰπόντα, «μήτηρ ἐννοιῶν σοφωτάτων». Ἔπειτα κἀκεῖνο διανοητέον, ὡς παντός μᾶλλον νοερά ἐνέργεια ἡ τῶν τελείων προσευχή˙ μήτε γάρ πρός τό σῶμα μήτε πρός τά περί αὐτό ὁ τῶν τοιούτων νοῦς ἐπεστραμμένος, μήτε δι᾿ αἰσθήσεως καί τῆς συζύγου ταύτῃ φαντασίας ἐνεργῶν, μήτε διανοίᾳ καί 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.