101

Woe is me, how much of the good things I lack in ignorance! And you will strive to know these things, that you may be called knowledgeable. For if you do not know yourself, of what sort you are, what kind of person you are, how will you know the creator, how will you be named faithful, and how will you be called a human being, being an ox or a wild beast? Or you will be as some irrational animal or even worse than these, being ignorant of the one who created you. Who, not knowing him, being rational, will dare to say that he is? For he is not! For how can he be, who is deprived of reason? But he who is deprived of reason is in the rank of the irrational, but if he is shepherded by men, he will surely be saved; but if he does not wish it, but approaches mountains and ravines, he will become food for wild beasts like a lost lamb. Do and practice these things, that you may not be carried away, my child!

24.

Through the things which he confesses in the present discourse which he writes, he shows the depth of his own humility, and proceeding, he teaches it to the one who has advanced to the measure of perfection and been deemed worthy of such revelations in contemplation, imitating the divine Paul in this also, who called himself a sinner and unworthy to be called an apostle. (188)

Grant me, O Christ, to kiss your feet. Grant me to embrace your hands, hands that brought me forth by a word, hands that created all things tirelessly. Grant me to see your face, O Word, and to enjoy your ineffable beauty and to contemplate and delight in the sight of you, an ineffable sight, a sight of the unseen, a dreadful sight, yet grant me to speak of its energies, not its essence. For my God and Creator is beyond nature, beyond all essence, of which He Himself is the whole.

101

οἴμοι, πόσον ἀπολείπω τῶν καλῶν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ! καί σπουδάσεις ταῦτα γνῶναι, ἵνα γνωστικός καλῇ γε. Εἰ γάρ σεαυτόν οὐκ οἶδας, ποταπός εἶ, ποῖος πέλεις, πῶς τόν κτίστην ἐπιγνώσῃ, πῶς πιστός ὀνομασθήσῃ, πῶς δέ ἄνθρωπος κληθήσῃ βοῦς ὑπάρχων ἤ θηρίον; Ἤ ὡς ἄλογόν τι ζῷον ἤ καί χείρων τούτων ἔσῃ ἀγνοῶν τόν κτίσαντά σε. Τίς ἐκεῖνον μή γινώσκων λογικός εἰπεῖν τολμήσει, ὅτι ἔστιν; Οὐ γάρ ἔστι! Πῶς γάρ, ὅς ἐστέρηται τοῦ λόγου; Ὁ δ᾿ ἐστερημένος λόγου εἰς ἀλόγου ἔστι τάξιν, ποιμανθείς δέ ὑπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων πάντως ἔσται σεσωσμένος˙ εἰ δ᾿ οὐ βούλεται, ἀλλ᾿ ὄρει καί φαράγγοις προσπελάζει, βρῶμα ἔσεται θηρίων ὡς ἀπολωλός ἀρνίον. Ταῦτα πρᾶττε καί μελέτα, μή παραρρυῇ, τεκνίον!

Κ∆'.

∆ι᾿ ὧν ἐξομολογούμενος ἐν τῷ παρόντι γράφει λόγῳ, δείκνυσι τό βάθος τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ταπεινώσεως, καί προϊών διδάσκει αὐτήν τόν εἰς μέτρον ἐλάσαντα τελειότητος καί ἀξιωθέντα τοιούτων ἐν θεωρίᾳ ἀποκαλύψεων, Παῦλον τόν θεῖον κἀν τούτῳ μιμούμενος, ἁμαρτωλόν ἑαυτόν ἀποκαλοῦντα καί ἀνάξιον τοῦ καλεῖσθαι ἀπόστολον. (188)

∆ίδου μοι, Χριστέ, καταφιλεῖν σούς πόδας. ∆ίδου μοι τάς σάς κατασπάζεσθαι χεῖρας, χεῖρας τάς ἐμέ λόγῳ παραγαγούσας, χεῖρας τάς πάντα κτισάσας ἀκαμάτως. ∆ίδου μοι βλέπειν τό πρόσωπόν σου, Λόγε, καί ἀπολαύειν τοῦ ἀπορρήτου κάλλους καί κατανοεῖν καί τρυφᾶν σου τῆς θέας, θέας ἀρρήτου, θέας τῆς ἀθεάτου, θέας τῆς φρικτῆς, ὅμως δίδου μοοι λέγειν τάς ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς, οὐ τήν οὐσίαν. Ὑπέρ φύσιν γάρ, ὑπέρ ουσίαν πᾶσαν ἧς ὅλος αὐτός, ὁ Θεός μου καί κτίστης.