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But I was doing this out of cowardice, but You, my God, embraced me more, kissed me more, held me more in Your arms, bringing me wholly within the border of Your garments and covering me with Your light, and making me forget the things I saw (197) and the terrible things that formerly held me. O depth of mysteries, O height of glory, O ascent, O deification, O riches, O ineffable splendor of the things being said! Who will be strong enough to comprehend from words or to understand the greatness of the glory? For one who has not seen what eye has not known, and has not heard what ear had not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, how will he believe the one writing about them? And even if he should believe, how will he be able to see through words what eye has not seen? And how will he worthily receive through hearing what the ear of men has never heard, so that he might also think rightly about them, and be able to enter a state of contemplation, of things whose beauty and form are impossible for those who see, which is formless and is incomprehensible to all by whom it is seen, that I may say to you again? Who, by fashioning these things with his reasoning, would not fall far from the truth and be led astray by fiction and fantasies, relating and seeing false images of his own reasonings, of his own mind? For just as each person imagines Hades and the punishments there as he might wish, yet indeed no one at all knows them as they are, so understand for me those good things in the heavens, incomprehensible and unseen by all; but these are known and visible only to those to whom God will reveal them (198) according to the measure of each one's worth, a measure of faith, hope, and love, a measure of keeping the Lord's commandments. And another measure of spiritual poverty, a perfect measure, neither small nor large. For God hates these, not unjustly, but justly, as they are not at all just; for the small falls short of the just through negligence or even contempt, remaining useless reasonably and justly; but that which is not small, but happens to be large

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Ἀλλά τοῦτο μέν ἔπραττον ἐκ δειλίας ἐγώ, σύ δέ, Θεέ μου, μᾶλλον περιεπλέκου, μᾶλλον κατησπάζου με, μᾶλλον ἐνηγκαλίζου ἔνδον τοῦ κρασπέδου σου τῶν ἱματίων εἰσάγων ὅλον καί σκέπων με φωτί σου, καί ἀμνημονεῖν ποιῶν τῶν ὁρωμένων (197) καί τῶν κατεχόντων με δεινῶν τό πρῴην. Ὤ μυστηρίων βάθος, ὤ ὕψος δόξης, ὤ ἀναβασις, ὤ θέωσις, ὤ πλοῦτος, ὤ λαμπρότης ἄφραστος τῶν λεγομένων! Τίς καταλαβεῖν ἐκ τῶν λόγων ἰσχύσει ἤ τό μέγεθος κατανοῆσαι τῆς δόξης; Ὅς γάρ οὐκ εἶδεν, ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ οἶδε, καί οὐκ ἤκουσεν, ἅ οὖς οὐκ ἠκηκόει καί εἰς καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη, πῶς τῷ γράφοντι περί αὐτῶν πιστεύσει; Εἰ δέ καί πιστεύσειε, πῶς διά λόγου ἰδεῖν ἰσχύσει, ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε; Πῶς δέ ἀξίως δι᾿ ἀκοῆς χωρήσει, ἅ οὐκ ἤκουσεν οὖς ποτε τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἵνα καί καλῶς περί αὐτῶν νοήσῃ, ἐν περινοίᾳ δυνηθῇ τε γενέσθαι, ὧν ἀμήχανον τοῖς ὁρῶσι τό κάλλος καί τό εἶδος, τό ἀνείδεον ὑπάρχει καί ἀκατανόητόν ἐστι τοῖς πᾶσιν, οἷσπερ ὁρᾶται, ἵνα σοι πάλιν εἴπω; Τῷ λογισμῷ ταῦτα τίς ἀναπλάττων οὐκ ἄν ἐκπέσῃ τῆς ἀληθείας πόρρω καί πλανηθῇ πλάσματι καί φαντασίαις, εἰκόνας ψευδεῖς συλλογισμῶν οἰκείων, οἰκείου νοός ἀνιστορῶν καί βλέπων; Ὥσπερ γάρ ᾅδην καί τάς ἐκεῖ κολάσεις ἕκαστος φαντάζεται, ὡς ἄν ἐθέλοι, πλήν οὖν, ὡς εἰσίν, οὐδείς τῶν πάντων οἶδεν, οὕτως μοι νόει τά ἀγαθά ἐκεῖνα τά ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀκατάληπτα πᾶσι καί ἀθέατα˙ μόνοις γνωστά δέ ταῦτα καί θεωρητά, οἷς Θεός ἐκκαλύψει (198) κατά τό μέτρον τῆς ἀξίας ἑκάστου, μέτρον πίστεως, ἐλπίδος καί ἀγάπης, μέτρον φυλακῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν Κυρίου. Μέτρον ἄλλο δέ πνευματικῆς πτωχείας, μέτρον τέλειον οὐ μικρόν οὐδέ μέγα. Ταῦτα γάρ μισεῖ ὁ Θεός οὐκ ἀδίκως, ἀλλά δικαίως, ὡς οὐ δίκαια πάντως˙ τό μέν γάρ μικρόν λείπεται τοῦ δικαίου ἐν ἀμελείᾳ ἤ καί καταφρονήσει, μένον ἄχρηστον εὐλόγως καί δικαίως˙ τό δέ οὐ μικρόν, ἀλλά μέγα τυγχάνον