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Forgive and be not angry with us, Master, but having pitied and had mercy on us wretched ones, open to us, Lord, and do not remember our evils; nor bear a grudge against our ignorance - for we stand for a long time knocking - nor disregard us, your servants, lest growing weary we turn back. We have grown weary knocking at the doors of the courts of your kingdom; open to us, O you who are by nature a lover of mankind, having compassion on us. For if opening little by little you open to us the door of your mercy, who seeing you will not shudder? Who in fear and trembling will not fall down and beg for mercy? Who, seeing you, who have myriads of angels and thousands of thousands of archangels and thrones and authorities, having left the things above and having come down to us and having come to meet us and having opened, and having received us graciously and having fallen upon our necks and kissing us, will not be immediately astounded and become faint as if dead? And his bones will be poured out like water upon the earth and he will weep night and day, contemplating the sea of your compassion and goodness and beholding as in a mirror the glory and splendor of your face. Glory to you, who has so ordained. Glory to you, who was pleased to be seen and to be united with us. Glory to you, who through much compassion is revealed and seen by us, who is invisible by nature even to the (328) heavenly powers. Glory to you, who has unspeakable mercy towards us and deigns through repentance to dwell and walk in us.

O greatness of ineffable glory, O excess of love. He who holds all things together, dwells within a corruptible and mortal man, by whose indwelling power all things are sustained, and the man becomes like a pregnant woman. O ecstatic wonder and incomprehensible works and mysteries of the incomprehensible God. A man consciously bears within himself God as light, the one who brought forth and created all things, and even the one who bears him; he bears him within like an ineffable, unspeakable treasure, without quality, without quantity, without form, immaterial, unshaped, formed in an inconceivable beauty, wholly simple like light, the one who is above all light, and clasping his hands on the outside walks among us, unknown by all those who are with him. Who then will worthily describe the joy of such a man? For what else would such a one desire? Than what king will he not be more blessed and more glorious? Than what ruler will he not be pre-eminently more powerful? Than what, or how many visible worlds, will he not be richer? Of what, then, will such a one ever be in want? Truly of nothing anywhere of the good things of God.

But see, you who have been deemed worthy to become such, so that I may direct my word to you, you who have acquired God as a whole inhabitant in yourself, lest you ever do something unworthy of his will, or bring it forth from your lips, and immediately you will lose the treasure hidden in you, as he departs from you. Honor him as much as you are able and may you introduce nothing of those things not pleasing to him, nor inherent in him by nature, into his house, and having left you he will depart, angry with you. (329) Do not speak much to him, nor fall down before him, shamelessly reasoning within yourself and saying "I will show excessive fervor and much zeal of love towards him, so that he may accept my intention and know that I love and honor him." Know then that, before you think these things, he knows all your thoughts and nothing is hidden from him. But do not even attempt to grasp him with intellectual hands; for he is ungraspable and as much as you dare to touch him or think to hold him, you will have nothing within, but immediately he will completely vanish from you and you will repent much and you will weep, crushing and scourging yourself, and

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Συγχώρησον καί μή ὀργισθῆς ἡμῖν, ∆έσποτα, ἀλλά οἰκτειρήσας καί ἐλεήσας τούς ταλαιπώρους ἡμᾶς ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν, Κύριε, καί μή μνησθῇς τῶν ἡμετέρων κακῶν· μηδέ μνησικακήσῃς τῇ ἀγνωμοσύνῃ ἡμῶν - πολλήν γάρ ὥραν ἱστάμεθα κρούοντες - μηδέ παρακούσῃς ἡμῶν, τῶν δούλων σου, μήποτε ὀλιγωρήσαντες ὑποστρέψωμεν. Ἐκοπιάσαμεν κόπτοντες εἰς τάς θύρας τῶν προαυλίων τῆς βασιλείας σου· ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν, ὁ φύσει φιλάνθρωπος, σπλαγχνισθείς ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς. Εἰ γάρ κατά μικρόν ἀνοίγων ἀνοίξεις ἡμῖν τήν θύραν τοῦ ἐλέους σου, τίς ἰδών σε οὐ φρίξει; Τίς ἐν φόβῳ καί τρόμῳ οὐ προσπέσῃ καί τόν ἔλεον ἐξαιτήσεται; Τίς σέ, τόν μυριάδας ἀγγέλων καί χιλίας χιλιάδας ἀρχαγγέλων καί θρόνων καί ἐξουσιῶν ἔχοντα, ἰδών τά ἄνω ἀφέμενον καί πρός ἡμᾶς κατελθόντα καί προσυπαντήσαντα καί ἀνοίξαντα, εὐμενῶς τε ὑποδεξάμενον καί ἐπί τούς τραχήλους ἡμῶν ἐπιπεσόντα καί καταφιλοῦντα ἡμᾶς, οὐκ εὐθύς ἐκπλαγήσεται καί ὡσεί νεκρός ἐκλυθήσεται; Καί τά ὀστᾶ αὐτοῦ ὡς ὕδωρ εἰς γῆν ἐκχυθήσονται καί κλαύσῃ νυκτός καί ἡμέρας, ἀναλογιζόμενος τό πέλαγος τῆς σῆς εὐσπλαγχνίας καί ἀγαθότητος καί ἐνοπτριζόμενος τοῦ προσώπου σου τήν δόξαν τε καί λαμπρότητα. ∆όξα σοί, τῷ οὕτως οἰκονομήσαντι. ∆όξα σοί, τῷ θεαθῆναι καί ἑνωθῆναι ἡμῖν εὐδοκήσαντι. ∆όξα σοί, τῷ διά πολλήν εὐσπλαγχνίαν ἀποκαλυπτομένῳ καί βλεπομένῳ ἡμῖν, τῷ ἀοράτῳ φύσει καί αὐταῖς (328) ταῖς οὐρανίαις δυνάμεσι. ∆όξα σοί, τῷ ἄφατον ἔχοντι τό πρός ἡμᾶς ἔλεος καί ἐν ἡμῖν διά τῆς μετανοίας καταξιοῦντι ἐνοικεῖν τε καί ἐμπεριπατεῖν.

Ὤ μέγεθος δόξης ἀρρήτου, ὤ ἀγάπης ὑπερβολή. Ὁ τά πάντα συνέχων, ἐντός ἀνθρώπου ἐγκατοικεῖ φθαρτοῦ καί θνητοῦ, οὗ τά πάντα ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος ἰσχύϊ διακρατούμενά εἰσι, καί γίνεται ἄνθρωπος οἷα δή ἐγκυμονοῦσα γυνή. Ὤ θαύματος ἐκστατικοῦ καί ἀκατανοήτου Θεοῦ ἀκατανόητα ἔργα τε καί μυστήρια. Ἄνθρωπος βαστάζει γνωστῶς ἐντός αὐτοῦ τόν Θεόν ὡς φῶς, τόν τά πάντα, καί αὐτόν τόν βαστάζοντα, παραγαγόντα καί κτίσαντα· βαστάζει τοῦτον ἐντός ὥσπερ θησαυρόν ἄφραστον, ἀνεκλάλητον, ἄποιον, ἄποσον, ἀνίδεον, ἄϋλον, ἀσχημάτιστον, ἐν ἀμηχάνῳ κάλλει μεμορφωμένον, ὅλον ἁπλοῦν ὥσπερ φῶς τόν ὑπέρ πᾶν φῶς, καί περισφίγγων ἔξω τάς χεῖρας περιπατεῖ μέσον ἡμῶν, ἀγνοούμενος παρά πάντων τῶν συνόντων αὐτῷ. Τίς οὖν τήν χαράν τοῦ τοιούτου ἀνθρώπου ἀξίως ἐκδιηγήσεται; Τίνος γάρ ἄλλου ἐπιθυμήσειεν ὁ τοιοῦτος; Ποίου βασιλέως οὐκ ἔσται μακαριώτερός τε καί ἐνδοξότερος; Ποίου δυνάστου οὐ διαφερόντως δυνατώτερος; Ποίου, ἤ πόσων ὁρωμένων κόσμων, οὐκ ἔσεται πλουσιώτερος; Τίνος δέ ἄρα ὑστερηθήσεται ὁ τοιοῦτος ποτε; Ὄντως οὐδενός οὐδαμοῦ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ.

Ἀλλά βλέπε, ὁ τοιοῦτος γενέσθαι ἀξιωθείς, ἵνα πρός σέ τόν λόγον ἰθύνω, ὁ ἔνοικον κτησάμενος ὅλον ἐν σεαυτῷ τόν Θεόν, μήποτε ἀνάξιόν τι τοῦ θελήματος, αὐτοῦ ἤ πράξῃς ἤ ἐκ χειλέων προφέρῃς, καί εὐθύς ἀπολέσεις τόν ἐν σοί κεκρυμμένον θησαυρόν, ἀπαναστάντος αὐτοῦ ἀπό σοῦ. Τίμησον αὐτόν ὅσον εἰς δύναμιν καί μηδέν τῶν αὐτῷ μή ἀρεσκόντων, μηδέ προσόντων αὐτῷ φυσικῶς, παρεισάξῃς εἰς τήν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ, καί ἐάσας σε ἀναχωρήσει ὀργισθείς κατά σοῦ. (329) Μή πολυλόγει πρός αὐτόν, μηδέ πρόσπιπτε, ἀναισχύντως ἐν σεαυτῷ λογιζόμενος καί λέγων «Ἐπιδείξομαι ὑπερβάλλουσαν θερμότητα καί ζῆλον ἀγάπης πολύν τῆς πρός αὐτόν, ἵνα μου τήν πρόθεσιν ἀποδέξηται καί γνῷ ὅτι ἀγαπῶ καί τιμῶ αὐτόν». Ἴσθι οὖν ὅτι, πρό τοῦ ταῦτα ἐννοῆσαί σε, ἐκεῖνος πάντας τούς διαλογισμούς σου ἐπίσταται καί οὐδέν αὐτόν λέληθεν. Ἀλλά γάρ μηδέ νοεραῖς χερσί κρατῆσαι αὐτόν ἐπιχειρήσῃς· ἄληπτος γάρ ἐστι καί ὅσον ἅψασθαι αὐτοῦ τολμήσεις ἤ κατασχεῖν αὐτόν οἰηθῇς, ἕξεις ἔνδον οὐδέν, ἀλλ᾿ εὐθύς ὅλος ἀφαντωθήσεται ἀπό σοῦ καί πολλά μεταμεληθήσῃ καί κλαύσεις, συντρίβων σεαυτόν καί μαστίζων, καί