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Night, therefore, is not among them; how to tell you I do not know, for I shudder writing these things to you and I tremble thinking of them, but I am teaching you how they live and in what manner, those who serve God and have loved Him alone instead of all things, and have been united to Him alone and become monks, as alone with the Alone, even if they are encompassed by a vast crowd. For these are truly monks and solitary ones, naked of both all kinds of thoughts and reasonings, seeing only God in a mind without concepts, fixed in light, like an arrow in a wall, or like a star in heaven, or how to say it I do not know. Nevertheless, they inhabit their cells as another luminous bridal chamber and consider themselves to be living in heaven, or rather they truly do live there, see that you do not disbelieve! (214) For they are not upon the earth, even if they are held by the earth, but they live in the light of the age to come, in which angels dwell, upon which they walk, by which principalities and authorities are snatched away, all thrones and dominions are empowered. For even if God rests in the saints, yet in God the saints both live and move, walking in the light as if on solid ground. O wonder, how as angels and as sons of the most high they will be after death, gods with God, they who by grace have been made like Him who is God by nature. From these things they are now lacking only in this, that they are held by the body and are sheltered and covered, alas, like prisoners in a jail seeing the sun and its rays entering through a hole and not being able to comprehend it entirely or to see it, having gone outside the prison, or to lean out and gaze clearly into the air. And this is what distresses them, that they do not see Christ wholly, even if they see Him wholly, nor are they strong enough to escape the bonds of the body, even if they have been released from the passions and every attachment, but having been released from many, they are held by one; for one who is bound in many chains does not even hope to have found release from the many, but he who has been able to break most of the chains, being held by one, suffers more than the others,

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Νύξ οὖν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς˙ πῶς εἰπεῖν σοι οὐκ ἔχω, φρίττω γάρ ταῦτα γράφων σοι καί ἐννοῶν δέ τρέμω, ἀλλά διδάσκω σε τό πῶς ζῶσι καί ποίῳ τρόπῳ οἱ τῷ Θεῷ δουλεύοντες κἀκεῖνον ἀντί πάντων μόνον καί ἀγαπήσαντες, μόνῳ καί ἑνωθέντες καί γεγονότες μοναχοί ὡς μετά μόνου μόνοι, εἰ καί ἐν δήμῳ παμπληθεῖ εἰσίν ἀπειλημένοι. Οὗτοι γάρ ὄντως μοναχοί καί μονάζοντες μόνοι, γυμνοί καί ἐνθυμήσεων καί λογισμῶν παντοίων, μόνον ὁρῶντες τόν Θεόν ἐν νοΐ ἀνεννοίῳ, ἐμπεπηγμένῳ ἐν φωτί, ὥσπερ ἐν τοίχῳ βέλος, ἤ ὡς ἀστήρ ἐν οὐρανῷ, ἤ πῶς εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἔχω. Ὅμως ὡς ἄλλον φωτεινόν νυμφῶνα κατοικοῦσι τάς κέλλας καί ἐν οὐρανῷ νομίζουσι διάγειν ἤ ἀληθῶς διάγουσι, βλέπε, μή ἀπιστήσῃς! (214) Οὐ γάρ εἰσίν ἐπί τῆς γῆς, εἰ καί τῇ γῇ κρατοῦνται, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν φωτί διάγουσι τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, ᾧ κατοικοῦσιν ἄγγελοι, ἐφ᾿ ᾧ περιπατοῦσιν, ὑφ᾿ οὗπερ διαρπάζονται ἀρχαί καί ἐξουσίαι, θρόνοι καί κυριότητες πᾶσαι ἐνδυναμοῦνται. Εἰ γάρ καί ἐπαναπαύεται Θεός ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν Θεῷ οἱ ἅγιοι ζῶσί τε καί κινοῦνται, βαδίζοντες ἐν τῷ φωτί ὥσπερ ἐπί ἐδάφους. Ὤ θαύματος, ὡς ἄγγελοι καί ὡς υἱοί ὑψίστου ἔσονται μετά θάνατον, θεοί Θεῷ συνόντες, τῷ φύσει ὄντι οἱ αὐτῷ θέσει ὁμοιωθέντες. Τούτων νυνί δέ λείπονται μόνῳ, ὅτι κρατοῦνται τῷ σώματι καί σκέπονται καί καλύπτονται, οἴμοι, ὡς δέσμιοι ἐν φυλακῇ τόν ἥλιον ὁρῶντες καί τάς ἀκτῖνας τάς αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ὀπῆς εἰσιούσας καί μή δυνάμενοι αὐτόν ὅλον κατανοῆσαι ἤ κατιδεῖν τῆς φυλακῆς ἔξωθεν γεγονότες, ἤ παρακύψαντες τρανῶς ἀπιδεῖν εἰς ἀέρα. Καί τοῦτο ἔστιν, ὅ αὐτούς ἀνιᾷ, ὅτι ὅλον οὐ καθορῶσι τόν Χριστόν, εἰ καί ὅλον ὁρῶσιν, οὐδέ δεσμῶν ἰσχύουσι τοῦ σώματος ἐκδῦναι, εἰ καί παθῶν ἀνείθησαν καί πάσης προσπαθείας, ἀλλά κρατοῦνται ὑφ᾿ ἑνός τῶν πολλῶν ἀνεθέντες˙ ὁ γάρ ὑπάρχων ἐν δεσμοῖς πολλοῖς συνδεδεμένος οὐδέ ἐλπίζει τῶν πολλῶν τήν λύσιν εὑρηκέναι, ὁ δέ τά πλεῖστα τῶν δεσμῶν δυνηθείς διακόψαι, κρατούμενος δέ ὑφ᾿ ἑνός πλέον ἀλγεῖ τῶν ἄλλων,