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of pleasures, others out of ignorance (252) and unbelief in the divine Scriptures, others out of conceit and the thinking that they need nothing more for the salvation of the soul, and simply put, we are all poor and naked. Not only that, but we are also wounded, possessed by various diseases and, as if in different hospices and homes for the aged, within our very cells and monasteries, we are either pitiably reclining or walking about somewhat, we cry out and lament and weep and call upon the very physician of souls and bodies—that is, as many of us as have become aware of the pain of our wounds or passions, since there are also some who are like madmen, not even knowing that they are sick with anything or that they are possessed by some passion, so that He may come and heal our wounded hearts and give health to our souls, lying under the bed of sin and death, since we have all sinned, according to the divine Apostle, and we are in need of His mercy and grace.

Therefore, to the one who has mercy on us, who are in such a state as has been said, and has compassion on us and heals our souls and teaches us the things for salvation and little by little grants us health from our wounds and sicknesses, shall we dare to say that we serve at all? By no means, just as the man whose body was broken by robbers and who lay half-dead is not said to serve the one who lifted him onto his own beast and brought him to the inn and applied wine and oil to him, but rather to have been shown mercy, to have been healed, and to have returned to his former health through him. Therefore, since we too are paralyzed and maimed and wounded and neglectful of what is for our healing and striving in every way not to do it, as I said, how shall we dare to say or to think that we serve the Lord? In no way; but what? We beseech, (253) as I have already said, if we are at all aware of the state we are in, begging to be healed of our diseases. But when this happens and we gradually cast off the disease from above like an old, torn, and soiled garment, and we put on health like a shining cloak over the whole body, that is, from head to the tips of the feet, then we ourselves, by ministering to others with wine and oil and with the other poultices and medicines, healing them, will be counted as serving the Lord Himself who spoke thus: 'Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' But if we are not first in this state, but while still sick we attempt to do this, the Master will answer and say to us: 'Physician, heal yourself.'

But having heard us call the health of the soul a shining cloak, do not out of ignorance ridicule the saying nor suppose we are speaking of bodily health, but of something incorporeal and divine and intelligible, which is not accustomed to come from medicines and herbs, 'nor from any works, lest anyone should boast'. For just as one who puts dead bone to bone and joint to joint, which you may take as works and the acquisition of virtue, profits nothing, if there is not one who is able to weave flesh and sinews upon them, but even having done this and having bound the joints with sinews, and having clothed those dead bones with flesh and skin and formed them into a body, there will again be no benefit, since it is deprived of the life-giving and moving spirit, that is, it is devoid of a soul, so also consider in my case the deadened soul, and transfer your mind to its inner members, and see all the practices gathered together, I mean fasting and vigil, sleeping on the ground and a hard bed, (254) poverty and not bathing and the things that follow these, as dead bones, and being fitted together with one another and one following another and being put together and, as it were, forming the whole body of the soul. What then is the benefit, if it lies soulless and breathless, the Holy Spirit not being in it? For only that, having come into us and dwelt within, as soulless

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ἡδονῶν, οἱ δέ ἀξ ἀγνοίας (252) καί ἀπιστίας τῶν θείων Γραφῶν, ἄλλοι ἐξ οἰήσεως καί τοῦ δοκεῖν μηδέν πλέον χρῄζειν εἰς σωτηρίαν ψυχῆς, καί ἁπλῶς πάντες ὑπάρχομεν πένητες καί γυμνοί. Οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά καί τραυματίαι, ποικίλαις κατεχόμενοι νόσοις καί ὡς ἐν διαφόροις ξενῶσι καί γηρωκομείοις ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς κελλίοις καί μοναστηρίοις ἡμῶν ἐλεεινῶς ἀνακεκλιμένοι ὄντες ἤ περιπατοῦντες ποσῶς, βοῶμεν καί θρηνοῦμεν καί κλαίομεν καί αὐτόν προσκαλούμεθα τόν ἰατρόν ψυχῶν τε καί σωμάτων ὅσοι δηλαδή τῆς ἀλγηδόνος τῶν τραυμάτων ἤ τῶν παθῶν ἐλάβομεν αἴσθησιν, ἐπειδήπερ εἰσί καί ὡς φρενήρεις τινές, μηδέ ὅτι τίποτε ἀσθενοῦσιν εἰδότες ἤ ὅτι κατέχονται ὑπό τινος πάθους , ἵνα ἐλθών ἰάσηται ἡμῶν τάς τετραυμαστισμένας καρδίας καί δῷ τήν ὑγίειαν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν, κειμέναι ὑπό τήν κλίνην τῆς ἁμαρτίας καί τοῦ θανάτου, ἐπειδή ἅπαντες ἡμάρτομεν, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, καί δεόμεθα τοῦ ἐλέους αὐτοῦ καί τῆς χάριτος.

Τῷ οὖν ἡμᾶς ἐλεοῦντι, οὕτω διακειμένους ὡς λέλεκται, καί ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς σπλαγχνιζομένῳ καί τάς ψυχάς ἡμῶν ἰατρεύοντι καί τά πρός σωτηρίαν ἡμᾶς διδάσκοντι καί παρεχομένῳ κατά μικρόν ἡμῖν τήν ὑγίειαν τῶν τραυμάτων καί νοσημάτων ἡμῶν, δουλεύειν ὅλως εἰπεῖν τολμήσομεν; Οὔμενουν, ὡς οὐδέ ὁ ὑπό τῶν λῃστῶν συντριβείς τό σῶμα καί ἡμιθανής κείμενος τῷ ἐπί τοῦ ἰδίου κτήνους αὐτόν ἄραντι καί εἰς τό πανδοχεῖον ἀπαγαγόντι καί οἶνον ἐπιθέντι αὐτῷ καί ἔλαιον δουλεῦσαι λέγεται, ἀλλά μᾶλλον ἐλεηθῆναι ἰαθῆναι καί εἰς τήν προτέραν ὑγίειαν ἐπανελθεῖν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ. Τοιγαροῦν παρειμένοι καί λελωβησμένοι καί ἡμεῖς ὄντες καί τραυματίαι καί ἀμελοῦντες τῶν πρός ἰατρείαν ἡμῶν καί παντί τρόπῳ μή ποιεῖν, ὡς εἶπον, σπουδάζοντες, πῶς τολμήσομεν εἰπεῖν ἤ ἐννοῆσαι ὅτι τῷ Κυρίῳ δουλεύομεν; Οὐδαμῶς· ἀλλά τί; Παρακαλοῦμεν, (253) ὡς ἔφθην εἰπών, εἰ ὅλως ἐν οἵοις ἐσμέν αἰσθανόμεθα, δεόμενοι ἰαθῆναι ἀπό τῶν νόσων ἡμῶν. Ὅτε δέ τοῦτο γένηται καί τήν νόσον ὡς ἱμάτιον πεπαλαιωμένον καί διερρωγός καί ῥερυπωμένον κατ᾿ ὀλίγον ἀποδυσόμεθα ἄνωθεν, καί τήν ὑγίειαν ὡς διπλοΐδα φωτεινήν ὅλῳ τῷ σώματι ἐνδυσόμεθα, ἤγουν ἀπό κορυφῆς ἕως ἄκρων ποδῶν, τότε ἄλλοις καί αὐτοί διακονοῦντες ἐν οἴνῳ καί ἐλαίῳ καί τοῖς λοιποῖς ἐμπλάστροις τε καί φαρμάκοις τούτους ἰατρεύοντες, αὐτῷ δουλεύειν τῷ Κυρίῳ λογισθησόμεθα τῷ οὕτως εἰπόντι· "Ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνί τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοί ἐποιήσατε". Εἰ δέ οὐχ οὕτως πρῶτον ἕξομεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι νοσοῦντες τοῦτο ποιῆσαι ἐπιχειρήσομεν, ἀποκριθείς ὁ ∆εσπότης ἐρεῖ ἡμῖν· "Ἰατρέ, ἰάτρευσον σεαυτόν".

∆ιπλοΐδα δέ φωτεινήν εἰπόντας ἡμᾶς τήν ὑγίειαν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκούσας, μή ἐξ ἀγνοίας καταγελάσῃς τοῦ ῥήματος μηδέ σωματικήν ὑγίειαν ὑπολαμβάνειν λέγειν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ᾿ ἀσώματόν τινα καί θείαν νοεράν, ἥτις οὐκ ἀπό φαρμάκων καί βοτάνων εἴωθεν γίνεσθαι, "οὐδέ ἐξ ἔργων τινῶν, ἵνα μή τις καυχήσηται". Καθάπερ γάρ τις ὀστοῦν συντιθείς νεκρόν πρός ὀστοῦν καί ἁρμονίαν πρός ἁρμονίαν, ἅτινά μοι καί λάβοις εἰς ἔργα καί κτῆσιν τῆς ἀρετῆς, οὐδέν ὠφελεῖ, μή ὄντος τοῦ δυναμένου κρέας καί νεῦρα εἰς αὐτά ἐξυφᾶναι, ἀλλά καί τοῦτο ποιήσας καί τάς μέν ἁρμονίας συνδήσας τοῖς νεύροις, τά δέ νεκρά ἐκεῖνα ὀστᾶ κρέας ἐπενδύσας καί δέρμα καί εἰς σῶμα ἀποτελέσας αὐτά, οὐδέν ἔσται πάλιν ὄφελος, ἐστερημένον ὑπάρχον τοῦ ζωοποιοῦντος καί κινοῦντος αὐτό πνεύματος, τουτέστιν ἔρημον ψυχῆς ὄν, οὕτω καί ἐπί τῆς νεκρωμένης μοι νόει ψυχῆς καί ἐπί τά ἔνδοθεν τῶν ταύτης μελῶν μετάγαγέ σου τόν νοῦν καί ἰδέ πάσας συναγομένας τάς πράξεις, νηστείαν λέγω καί ἀγρυπνίαν, χαμευνίαν καί ξηροκοιτίαν, (254) ἀκτημοσύνην καί ἀλουσίαν καί τά τούτοις ἀκόλουθα, ὡς ὀστᾶ νεκρά, καί συναρμολογουμένας ἀλλήλαις καί ἑτέραν τῇ ἑτέρᾳ συνακολουθούσας καί συντιθεμένας καί οἱονεί πως ἀκέραιον ἀποτελούσας τό τῆς ψυχῆς σῶμα. Τί οὖν τό ὄφελος, ἐάν ἄψυχον κεῖται καί ἄπνουν, μή ὄντος τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἐν αὐτῷ; Μόνον γάρ ἐκεῖνο ἐλθόν ἐν ἡμῖν καί ἐγκατοικῆσαν, ὡς ἄψυχα