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became man for us, being God and Lord of all, through sufferings and the cross and death, enters into his glory, there being no other way appointed for him, as it is written: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Let us not lose heart in afflictions, fainting; but let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation; and let us endure what happens bravely. For the end of every affliction is joy; and of every labor, rest, and of every dishonor, glory; and simply, the end of all painful things for virtue is to be with God forever, and to enjoy the eternal and unending relief.

But pray, Father, that we may attain it, having crossed the sea of life well, and having guarded the spiritual foundations of the soul from being drenched by its brine.

LETTER 36. ... TO THE SAME. 36. Of the same to the same. (15B_418> Blessed is our master by the Lord, and blessed

is the garden of his heart, which the true husbandman, Jesus, planted, and has filled with immortal plants of righteousness; of whose fruits we too have partaken, having been filled with his spiritual vegetables; with which the great Apostle also knows how to feed those who are weak for the direct vision of divine things; feeding them as with vegetables the natural contemplation of visible things; and through the magnificence of what is seen, leading them by the hand to its creator; whom our blessed Father and teacher, imitating, has treated us with loving affection, symbolically setting before us through the vegetables the understanding of this creation. But impart also solid food, and stir our soul, which has no appetite for divine things, being enfeebled by pleasures, stimulating its desire with the finer word of providence and judgment; so that you may not only nourish your disciples with vegetables, teaching only the principles of things that come to be and pass away; but also with wheat, and wine, and oil, strengthen them with the words of eternal things; giving the word that holds the virtues together as solid bread, and with the word according to 0632 unceasing knowledge, like wine warming the heart of your followers towards a deifying ecstasy; and nourishing, and preserving unquenched the torch in these things; just as oil, instilling the peaceful and untroubled disposition of meekness in your servants.

LETTER 37. ... TO THE SAME. 37. Of the same to the same. Again we have received your precious letter with gifts, holy Father; and again we have enjoyed

good things equal to the former ones; (15B_420> with the gifts, indeed, extinguishing the burning of the passions that blackens our soul; for before them we have consumed the spiritual words; believing that these things were not sent by you rashly and in vain, and as it chanced, you who are moved through all things with reason and spirit; and making even the food of the body an instruction for our soul; and in the letter, having found humility, the mother of all virtues, through which both the generation and the guarding of good things is wrought for those who possess it, we wept sufficiently, lamenting how far we have been removed from this path. For your mourning has become a reproof of the evils in which we are involved; and it has awakened our deeply sleeping mind, and has exercised our memory, which was veiled with the cloak of puffing-up conceit; and it has made

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ἡμᾶς γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος Θεός ὤν καί πάντων Κύριος, διά παθημάτων καί σταυροῦ καί θανάτου, εἰς τήν δόξαν αὐτοῦ εἰσέρχεται, οὐκ ὄντος ἄλλου τρόπου ὡρισμένου αὐτῷ, καθώς γέγραπται· Οὐχί ταῦτα ἔδει παθεῖν τόν Χριστόν, καί εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τήν δόξαν αὐτοῦ; Μή ἐκκακήσωμεν ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν, ἐκλυόμενοι· ἀλλ᾿ ἀπίδωμεν εἰς τόν ἀρχηγόν τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν, καί τελειωτήν Ἰησοῦν· καί ὑπομείνωμεν τά συμβαίνοντα γενναίως. Πάσης γάρ θλίψεως τέλος ἐστίν ἡ χαρά· καί παντός κόπου ἡ ἀνάπαυσις, καί πάσης ἀτιμίας δόξα· καί ἁπλῶς, πάντων τῶν ὑπέρ ἀρετῆς ἀλγεινῶν τέλος ἐστί, τό μετά Θεοῦ γενέσθαι διά παντός, καί τῆς αἰωνίου καί πέρας μή ἐχούσης ἀνέσεως ἀπολαῦσαι.

Ἀλλ᾿ εὖξαι, Πάτερ, ἵνα τύχωμεν αὐτῆς καλῶς τήν θάλασσαν τοῦ βίου περάσαντες, καί βρόχους τάς νοητάς βάσεις τῆς ψυχῆς τῆς αὐτοῦ ἅλμης φυλάξαντες.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΛS'. ... ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ. ΛS´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. (15Β_418> Εὐλογημένος ἐστίν ὁ δεσπότης ἡμῶν τῷ Κυρίῳ, καί εὐλογημένος

ὁ κῆπος τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ, ὅν ἐφύτευσεν ὁ ἀληθινός γεωργός Ἰησοῦς, καί πεπλήρωκεν ἀθανάτων φυτῶν δικαιοσύνης· οὗ καί ἡμεῖς τῶν καρπῶν μετελάβομεν, τῶν αὐτοῦ πνευματικῶν λαχάνων ἐμφορηθέντες· οἷς καί ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος οἶδε τρέφειν, τούς πρός τήν ἄμεσον τῶν θείων αὐτοψίαν ἐξασθενοῦντας· βρωματίζων αὐτούς ὥσπερ λάχανα τήν φυσικήν τῶν ὁρατῶν θεωρίαν· καί διά τῆς τῶν φαινομένων μεγαλοπρεπείας, πρός τόν αὐτῆς κτίστην χειραγωγῶν· ὅν μιμούμενος καί ὁ εὐλογημένος ἡμῶν Πατήρ καί διδάσκαλος, φιλοστόργως ἡμᾶς ἐφιλοφρόνησε, ταύτης ἡμῖν τῆς κτίσεως συμβολικῶς παραθείς διά τῶν λαχάνων τήν κατανόησιν. Ἀλλά μετάδος καί στερεᾶς τροφῆς, καί κίνησον ἡμῶν ἀνορεκτοῦσαν πρός τά θεῖα τήν ταῖς ἡδοναῖς παρειμένην ψυχήν, ἐπιστύφων τῷ λεπτοτέρῳ τῆς προνοίας καί τῆς κρίσεως λόγῳ τήν ἔφεσιν· ἵνα μή μόνον λαχάνοις διατρέφῃς τούς σούς μαθητάς, μόνους τούς τῶν γινομένων καί ἀπογινομένων λόγους διδάσκων· ἀλλα καί σίτῳ, καί οἴνῳ, καί ἐλαίῳ, τοῖς τῶν ἀϊδίων στήρισον λόγοις· τόν τε συνεκτικόν τῶν ἀρετῶν ὡς στεῤῥόν ἄρτον λόγον διδούς, καί τῷ κατά τήν 0632 ἄληστον γνῶσιν, ὥσπερ οἴνῳ τήν καρδίαν λόγῳ διαθερμαίνων πρός ἔκστασιν θεοποιόν τῶν σῶν ὀπαδῶν· καί τήν διατρέφουσαν, καί ἄσβεστον τόν ἐν τούτοις διατηροῦσαν πυρσόν· καθάπερ ἔλαιον, τήν εἰρηνικήν καί ἀτάραχον τῆς πραότητος ἕξιν ἐμποιῶν τοῖς σοῖς οἰκέταις.

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΛΖ'. ... ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ. ΛΖ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Πάλιν σου τίμιον γράμμα μετά ξενίων, ἅγιε Πάτερ, δεδέγμεθα· καί πάλιν τῶν

ἴσων τοῖς προτέροις καλῶν ἀπηλαύσαμεν· (15Β_420> τοῖς μέν ξενίοις, τήν μελαίνουσαν ἡμῶν τήν ψυχήν καῦσιν τῶν παθῶν κατασβέσαντες· πρό αὐτῶν γάρ τούς νοητούς λόγους βεβρώκαμεν· οὐκ εἰκῆ καί μάτην, καί ὡς ἔτυχε ταῦτα παρά σοῦ πεπέμφθαι πιστεύσαντες, τοῦ διά πάντων μετά λόγου κινουμένου καί πνεύματος· καί ψυχῆς ἡμῖν παίδευμα ποιουμένου, καί τήν βρῶσιν τοῦ σώματος· τῷ δέ γράμματι τήν πασῶν μητέρα τῶν ἀρετῶν εὑρηκότες ταπείνωσιν, δι' ἧς ἤ τε γένεσις τῶν καλῶν καί φυλακή δημιουργεῖται τοῖς ἔχουσιν, ἱκανῶς ἐδακρύσαμεν, πόσον ταύτης ἀπῳκίσμεθα τῆς ὁδοῦ διαθρήσαντες. Τό γάρ σόν πένθος, τῶν ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐνεχόμεθα κακῶν ἔλεγχος γέγονε· καί βαθύ κοιμωμένην ἡμῶν ἐξύπνισε τήν διάνοιαν, καί τήν μνήμην ἐγύμνασε κεκαλυμμένην τῷ πέπλῳ τῆς φυσιούσης οἰήσεως· καί πεποίηκεν