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casts us into despair; so, if we level 55.163 our sins, if we cleanse away our wickedness, we will be able to look toward spiritual desire, and with much eagerness to call upon God, and to kindle our love more ardently, and not only with words, but also through deeds themselves to chant this response. For because of this that blessed one sang the psalms to us, or rather the grace of the Spirit, not that we should only say the words, but that we should also practice them through our deeds. Do not think, then, that you enter here for this reason, only to say the words, but that when you chant the response, you might consider the response to be a covenant. For when you say "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God;" you made a covenant with God, you wrote a contract without paper and ink, through your voice you confessed to love him more than all things, and to prefer nothing to him, and to be on fire with love for him. If, then, going out you see a certain beautiful and licentious woman enticing you and calling you to her love, say to her: "I cannot follow you, I made a covenant with God, in the presence of the brothers, the priests, the teachers, I confessed and promised through the response to love him thus, 'As the deer longs for the fountains of waters.'" I fear to transgress the covenant, henceforth I meditate on his love. If you see silver lying in the marketplace, or golden garments, others swaggering about, having servants and horses with golden bridles, be not affected by that spectacle, but again sing to yourself, and say to your soul: "A little while ago we chanted, 'As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God;' and we made the text our own, and made it be ours." Let us therefore love none of these worldly things, so that that love may remain unmixed for us, and being divided may not become weaker. This wealth will be able to grant us all wealth, every treasure, all good repute, all glory, all distinction. Let us hold fast to this, and we will need nothing else. For if those who love this shameful love, and are often inflamed for some beautiful girl, and when fathers threaten, and friends reproach, and many others slander them, they are not turned back, but are turned toward her, and despise their home, and their paternal inheritance, and glory, and good repute, and the counsel of friends, thinking they have great consolation for all these things, if only they find favor with their beloved, even if she is lowly, even if she is without honor, whoever she may be; those who love God, as one ought, when will they be sensible of human affairs, either the splendid or the painful? They will not even see, then, the spectacles of the present life, being intent upon that love, but they will laugh at all prosperity, and they will look down upon all adversity, bound to the desire for God, and seeing nothing else, but only him, and imagining him everywhere, and considering themselves to be more blessed than all. Even if they are in poverty, even if in dishonor, even if in bonds, even if in tribulations, even if in the worst of evils, they will consider themselves to be in a better state than those who rule, having in all that they suffer a certain wonderful consolation, that of suffering these things for the sake of the one they long for. 2. For this reason also Paul, being in daily deaths, in prisons, in shipwrecks, in wildernesses, in scourgings, in countless other torments, rejoiced and was exceedingly glad, and leaped for joy and gloried; and at one time he would say, that "Not only in hope of the glory of God, but we also glory in tribulations"; and at another time again, that "I rejoice in my sufferings,"

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ἀπόγνωσιν ἡμᾶς ἐμβάλλει· οὕτως, ἂν ἐδαφίσωμεν 55.163 ἡμῶν τὰς ἁμαρτίας, ἂν ἐκκαθάρωμεν τὴν πονηρίαν δυνησόμεθα διαβλέψαι εἰς τὸν πνευματικὸν πόθον, καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς προθυμίας καλεῖν τὸν Θεὸν, καὶ τὸ φίλτρον σφοδρότερον ἀνάπτειν, καὶ μὴ διὰ ῥημάτων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων ταύτην ὑποψάλλειν τὴν ὑπακοήν. Καὶ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο τοὺς ψαλμοὺς ἡμῖν ᾖσεν ὁ μακάριος ἐκεῖνος, μᾶλλον δὲ ἡ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάρις, οὐχ ἵνα τὰ ῥήματα λέγωμεν μόνον, ἀλλ' ἵνα καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων αὐτοὺς μελετῶμεν. Μὴ τοίνυν οἰηθῇς διὰ τοῦτο ἐνταῦθα εἰσιέναι, ἵνα τὰ ῥήματα εἴπῃς μόνον, ἀλλ' ἵνα ὅταν ὑποψάλλῃς, συνθήκας εἶναι νομίσῃς τὴν ὑπακοήν. Ὅταν γὰρ εἴπῃς Ὃν τρόπον ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ἔλαφος ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων, οὕτως ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς σὲ, ὁ Θεός· συνέθου τῷ Θεῷ, γραμματεῖον ἔγραψας ἄνευ χάρτου καὶ μέλανος, διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ὡμολόγησας πάντων αὐτὸν μᾶλλον φιλεῖν, καὶ οὐδὲν αὐτοῦ προκρίνεσθαι, καὶ καίεσθαι τῷ περὶ αὐτὸν ἔρωτι. Ἂν τοίνυν ἐξελθὼν ἴδῃς γυναῖκα εὔμορφόν τινα καὶ ἀκόλαστον δελεάζουσάν σε καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἔρωτα τὸν ἑαυτῆς καλοῦσαν, εἰπὲ πρὸς αὐτήν· Οὐ δύναμαί σοι ἀκολουθῆσαι, συνθήκας ἐθέμην πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, παρόντων τῶν ἀδελφῶν, τῶν ἱερέων, τῶν διδασκάλων, ὡμολόγησα καὶ ὑπεσχόμην διὰ τῆς ὑπακοῆς οὕτως αὐτὸν φιλεῖν, Ὃν τρόπον ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ἔλαφος ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων. ∆έδοικα παραβῆναι τὰς συνθήκας, ἐκείνου λοιπὸν μελετῶ τὸν ἔρωτα. Ἐὰν ἴδῃς ἀργύριον ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς κείμενον, ἢ ἱμάτια χρυσᾶ, ἑτέρους σοβοῦντας, οἰκέτας ἔχοντας καὶ ἵππους χρυσοχαλίνους, μηδὲν πάθῃς ὑπὸ τῆς φαντασίας ἐκείνης, ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἔπᾳδε σεαυτῷ, καὶ εἰπὲ πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν σήν· Πρὸ μικροῦ ὑπεψάλαμεν, Ὃν τρόπον ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ἔλαφος ἐπὶ τὰς πηγὰς τῶν ὑδάτων, οὕτως ἐπιποθεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς σὲ, ὁ Θεός· καὶ ᾠκειωσάμεθα τὸ γράμμα, καὶ ἡμῶν αὐτὸ ἐποιήσαμεν εἶναι. Μηδὲν οὖν φιλῶμεν τῶν βιωτικῶν τούτων, ἵνα ἄκρατος ἡμῖν ὁ ἔρως ἐκεῖνος μείνῃ, καὶ μὴ σχιζόμενος ἀσθενέστερος γένηται. Οὗτος ὁ πλοῦτος ἅπαντα πλοῦτον, ἅπαντα θησαυρὸν, πᾶσαν εὐδοκίμησιν, πᾶσαν δόξαν, πᾶσαν περιφάνειαν ἡμῖν χαρίσασθαι δυνήσεται. Τοῦτον κατέχωμεν, καὶ οὐδενὸς ἑτέρου δεησόμεθα. Εἰ γὰρ οἱ τὸν αἰσχρὸν τοῦτον ἔρωτα φιλοῦντες, καὶ κόρης περικαιόμενοι πολλάκις εὐμόρφου τινὸς, καὶ πατέρων ἀπειλούντων, καὶ φίλων ὀνειδιζόντων, καὶ ἑτέρων πολλῶν διαβαλλόντων, οὐδὲ ἐπιστρέφονται, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἐκείνην εἰσὶ τετραμμένοι, καὶ οἰκίας καταφρονοῦσι, καὶ κλήρου πατρῴου, καὶ δόξης, καὶ εὐδοκιμήσεως, καὶ φίλων παραινέσεως, μεγάλην νομίζοντες ἔχειν παραμυθίαν τούτων ἁπάντων, ἂν εὐδοκιμῶσι παρὰ τῇ ἐρωμένῃ μόνῃ, κἂν εὐτελὴς ᾖ, κἂν ἄτιμος, κἂν ἡτισοῦν ἐκείνη· οἱ τὸν Θεὸν φιλοῦντες, ὡς χρὴ, πότε αἰσθήσονται τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων, ἢ τῶν λαμπρῶν, ἢ τῶν λυπηρῶν; Οὐδὲ ὄψονται μὲν οὖν τὰς φαντασίας τοῦ παρόντος βίου, πρὸς ἐκεῖνον τεταμένοι τὸν ἔρωτα, ἀλλὰ πάσης μὲν καταγελάσουσι τῆς εὐημερίας, πάσης δὲ ὑπερόψονται δυσπραγίας, προσδεδεμένοι τῷ πόθῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ὁρῶντες, ἀλλ' ἢ ἐκεῖνον μόνον, καὶ πανταχοῦ αὐτὸν φανταζόμενοι, καὶ πάντων μακαριωτέρους ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι νομίζοντες. Κἂν ἐν πενίᾳ, κἂν ἐν ἀτιμίᾳ, κἂν ἐν δεσμοῖς, κἂν ἐν θλίψεσι, κἂν ἐν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις ὦσι κακοῖς, τῶν βασιλευόντων αὐτῶν ἄμεινον ἡγήσονται διακεῖσθαι, ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἂν πάσχωσι θαυμαστήν τινα παραμυθίαν ἔχοντες, τὸ διὰ τὸν ποθούμενον ταῦτα πάσχειν. ʹ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ Παῦλος ἐν καθημερινοῖς θανάτοις ὢν, ἐν δεσμωτηρίοις, ἐν ναυαγίοις, ἐν ἐρημίαις, ἐν μάστιξιν, ἐν μυρίαις ἑτέραις κολάσεσιν, ἔχαιρε καὶ ἠγαλλιᾶτο, καὶ ἐσκίρτα καὶ ἐκαυχᾶτο· καὶ νῦν μὲν ἔλεγεν, ὅτι Οὐ μόνον δὲ ἐπ' ἐλπίδι τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι καυχώμεθα· νῦν δὲ πάλιν, ὅτι Χαίρω ἐν τοῖς παθήμασι,