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with the heavenly powers. Glory to you, who have ineffable mercy toward us and who deign to dwell and walk in us through repentance.

O magnitude of unspeakable glory, O excess of love! He who holds all things together dwells within a corruptible and mortal man, all of whose parts are held together by the power of the one who dwells within, and man becomes like a pregnant woman. O ecstatic wonder and incomprehensible God's incomprehensible works and mysteries! A man consciously carries God within himself as light, the one who brought forth and created all things, including the one carrying Him; he carries Him within like a treasure ineffable, unutterable, without quality, without quantity, without form, immaterial, unshaped, formed in unapproachable beauty, wholly simple like a light beyond all light, and clasping his hands on the outside he walks among us, unknown by all those with him. Who then can worthily describe the joy of such a man? For what else would such a man desire? Than what king will he not be more blessed and more glorious? Than what ruler is he not distinctly more powerful? Than what, or how many visible worlds, will he not be richer? What, then, will such a man ever lack? Truly, none of God's good things whatsoever.

But see, you who have been deemed worthy to become such a man—that I may direct my speech to you—who have acquired the whole of God as an inhabitant within yourself, lest you ever do anything unworthy of His will, or utter it 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 introduce nothing into His house that is not pleasing to Him, nor naturally belongs to Him, and having left you, He will depart, angered at you. (329) Do not speak much to Him, nor fall down shamelessly, reasoning within yourself and saying, "I will show excessive warmth and great zeal of love for 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 try to grasp Him with intellectual hands; for He is ungraspable and as soon as you dare to touch Him or think to hold Him, you will have nothing within, but He will immediately disappear completely from you and you will repent greatly and weep, crushing and scourging yourself, and you will truly profit nothing. For being joy, He does not condescend to enter a house of the afflicted and grieving, just as the industrious bee does not enter a house of smoke; but when you are prepared in freedom from care and exultation, He will again be found within you, and then let the Master rest untroubled upon your soul as upon a bed.

And do not begin to say again within yourself that, if I do not weep before Him, He will turn away from me as one who is contemptuous. For if He wanted you, having come to perfection, to weep as one still repenting, being seen by you from afar rather than being hidden or even shining on you, He would have provided this to you for the purification and beautification of your house; but after repentance and your purification through tears He came to grant you rest from labors and groans and joy and gladness instead of grief. Stand, therefore, I say to you not only upright in body, but in the movements of the soul and its impulses. Grant silence, as the king of kings has come to your house. Say to all the gatekeepers of your house with indignation, that is, I say, to the senses: (330) "The king," he says, "stand well at the doors; stand in silence and with great fear." Let no one be at the door

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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 ὠφελήσεις ὄντως οὐδέν. Χαράν γάρ ὤν, εἰς οἶκον θλιβομένων καί λυπουμένων εἰσελθεῖν οὐ καταδέχεται, ὡς οὐδ᾿ ἡ φιλαργός μέλιττα εἰς οἶκον καπνοῦ· ἐν ἀμεριμνίᾳ δέ καί ἀγαλλιάσει εὐτρεπισθέντος σου, πάλιν ἔνδον ἐν σοί εὑρεθήσεται, καί τότε ἔασον τόν ∆εσπότην ἀταράχως ἐπί τῆς ψυχῆς σου ὡς ἐπί κλίνης ἐπαναπαύσασθαι.

Καί μή ἄρξῃ πάλιν λέγειν ἐν σεαυτῷ ὅτι, εἰ μή κλαύσω ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, ὡς καταφρονητήν με ἀποστραφήσεται. Εἰ γάρ ἐβούλετο εἰς τελειότητά σε ἐλάσαντα ὡς ἔτι μετανοοῦντα κλαίειν, ἀπό μακρόθεν μᾶλλον ὁρώμενός σοι ἤ κρυπτόμενος ἤ καί ἐλλάμπων σε, τοῦτο ἄν πρός κάθαρσιν καί φιλοκαλίαν τῆς σῆς οἰκίας παρέσχε σοι· ἀλλά μετά τήν μετάνιαν καί τήν διά δακρύων σου κάθαρσιν παρεγένετο ἀνάπαυσίν σοι τῶν κόπων καί στεναγμῶν καί χαράν καί εὐφροσύνην ἀντί τῆς λύπης χαρίσασθαι. Στῆθι οὖν, οὐ λέγω σοι μόνον τῷ σώματι ὄρθιος, ἀλλά τοῖς κινήμασι τῆς ψυχῆς καί ταῖς ταύτης ὁρμαῖς. ∆ός ἡσυχίαν, ὡς τοῦ βασιλέως τῶν βασιλευόντων ἐπί τῆς οἰκίας παραγενομένου τῆς σῆς. Εἰπέ πᾶσι μετ᾿ ἐμβριμήσεως τοῖς ἐπί τῆς οἰκίας σου θυρωροῖς, αὐταῖς δή, φημί, ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι· (330) «Ὁ βασιλεύς, φησί, στῆτε καλῶς ἐπί τῶν θυρῶν· στῆτε ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ καί φόβῳ πολλῷ». Μηδείς πρός τῇ θύρᾳ