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and an heir of God and your co-heir and brother and a partaker of eternal glory. From this, therefore, I am shown to be entirely insensitive, from this it surely appears that I am ignorant of what I chant, and what I speak and what I always study and sing. For if I knew at all, I would surely have known, that you unchangeably became man, O my God, so that you might deify me, who was wholly assumed, and not that you, a man, might remain in grossness and be held in corruption, you who are in every way uncontainable, the incorruptible and incomprehensible God by nature. Knowing this, believing your divine body and your holy blood to have become incomprehensible and truly an unapproachable fire to me, the unworthy, I would have partaken of them with shuddering and fear and trembling, first cleansing myself with tears and groans. But now I sit in darkness and ignorance, I wander, I, the wretched one, held fast by complete insensibility. But yet I beseech you, yet I implore you, falling down and entreating and seeking your mercy: Look upon me now as always, my all-King, show your compassion, show your sympathy, show your forgiveness of evils to me the tax-collector, or rather the all-prodigal, who has sinned against you beyond every nature, both irrational and rational. For even if I have done all lawless things in my life, yet I confess you as God, the maker of all, I worship you as Son of God, consubstantial with God, who was begotten from him before all ages (210) and in the last times was born as an infant from the holy Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, and became man, who for my sake also suffered and was crucified and was given over to burial, O Savior, and rose from the dead on the third day and ascended in the flesh to where you were not separated from. As I thus believe, thus worship you and again hope for you to come and judge all and render to each, O Christ, what is deserved, may faith be counted to me instead of works, my God, and do not seek at all from me works that justify, but may this faith of mine suffice instead of all. This will be my defense, this will justify me,

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καί κληρονόμος τοῦ Θεοῦ καί σός συγκληρονόμος καί ἀδελφός καί μέτοχος δόξης τῆς αἰωνίου. Ἐκ τούτου τοίνυν δείκνυμαι ἀναισθητῶν εἰς ἅπαν, ἐκ τούτου πάντως φαίνεται ἀγνοεῖν με, ἅ ψάλλω, καί ἅ λαλῶ καί ἅ ἀεί μελετῶ τε καί ᾅδω. Εἰ γάρ ὅλως ἐγίνωσκον, εἶχον πάντως εἰδέναι, ὅτι ἀτρέπτως ἄνθρωπος ἐγένου, ὁ Θεός μου, ἵνα τόν προσληφθέντα με ὅλον θεοποιήσῃς, οὐχί δέ ἵνα ἄνθρωπος σύ παχύτητι μείνῃς καί κρατηθῇς ἐν τῇ φθορᾷ, ὁ ἀκράτητος πάντῃ, ὁ ἄφθαρτος καί ἄληπτος φύσει Θεός ὑπάρχων. Τοῦτο εἰδώς ὡς ἄληπτον τό σῶμά σου τό θεῖον καί αἷμά σου τό ἅγιον πιστεύων γεγενῆσθαι καί πῦρ ὄντως ἀπρόσιτον ἐμοί τῷ ἀναξίῳ, φρίκῃ καί φόβῳ, τρόμῳ τε τούτων ἄν ἐκοινώνουν, ἐν δάκρυσι καί στεναγμοῖς ἐμαυτόν προκαθαίρων. Νῦν δέ ἐν σκότει κάθημαι καί ἀγνοίᾳ, πλανῶμαι, ἀναισθησίᾳ παντελεῖ κρατούμενος ὁ τάλας. Ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως ἱκευτεύω σε, ὅμως ἐκδυσωπῶ σε, προσπίπτων καί παρακαλῶν καί ζητῶν σου τό ἔλεος˙ Ἐπίβλεψον ὡς πάντοτε καί νῦν, παμβασιλεῦ μου, δεῖξον τήν εὐσπλαγχνίαν σου, δεῖξον τό συμπαθές σου, δεῖξον τό ἀμνησίκακον εἰς ἐμέ τόν τελώνην, μᾶλλον δέ τόν πανάσωτον, τόν ὑπέρ πᾶσαν φύσιν ἀλόγων τε καί λογικῶν εἰς σέ ἐξαμαρτόντα. Εἰ γάρ καί πάντα πέπραχα ἄνομα ἐν τῷ βίῳ, ἀλλά Θεόν σε, ποιητήν ὁμολογῶ τῶν πάντων, Θεοῦ Υἱόν σε, τοῦ Θεοῦ ὁμοούσιον σέβω, τόν γεννηθέντα ἐξ αὐτοῦ πρό πάντων τῶν αἰώνων (210) καί ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων τῶν καιρῶν ἐξ ἁγίας Παρθένου, τῆς Θεοτόκου Μαριάμ γεννηθέντα ὡς βρέφος καί γεγονότα ἄνθρωπον, δι᾿ ἐμέ τε παθόντα καί σταυρωθέντα καί ταφῇ, Σῶτερ, παραδοθέντα καί ἀναστάντα ἐκ νεκρῶν μετά τρίτην ἡμέραν καί ἀνελθόντα ἐν σαρκί, ὅθεν οὐκ ἐχωρίσθης. Οὕτως οὖν με πιστεύοντα, οὕτως σε προσκυνοῦντα καί πάλιν σε ἐλπίζοντα ἐλθεῖν καί κρῖναι πάντας καί ἀποδοῦναι ἑκάστῳ, Χριστέ, τά κατ᾿ ἀξίαν, ἡ πίστις ἀντί ἔργων μοι λογισθήτω, Θεέ μου, καί μή ζητήσῃς ἔργα με ὅλως τά δικαιοῦντα, ἀλλά ἡ πίστις μοι αὕτη ἀντί πάντων ἀρκέσει. Αὕτη ἀπολογήσεται, αὕτη με δικαιώσει,