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No angel has seen you, no man has ever known your existence, for you are indeed uncreated. But you brought forth all things. Is it possible to know you, how your Divine Spirit proceeds from you and you are never at all begetting, having once for all begotten, nor in sending forth did you undergo emptying or diminution? For you remain super-full, beyond all things complete, whole in the whole world, the visible, the intelligible, and again outside these, receiving no addition, nor any lack at all and you are wholly motionless, always remaining thus. Therefore in your energies you are always ever-moving, for you also have, O Father, an unceasing work. and your Son works the salvation of all and provides for and perfects and sustains and nourishes, gives life, brings to life in the Holy Spirit. For whatever the Son sees the Father doing, these things He Himself likewise performs, as He said. Thus being both motionless, and somehow ever-moving, you neither move, nor stand, nor sit again, (260) but always sitting you are always wholly standing. and standing again, you are always wholly moving, never changing place. For where would you go? Filling all, as has been said, and being beyond all, to what other place or even space would you move? But neither do you stand, for you are indeed bodiless, simple, filling the universe, in every way unformed, immaterial, uncircumscribed, wholly incomprehensible you were. and how can we say that you sit, how again that you stand, and how shall we say that you sit or on what throne, you who hold heaven in your hand, and the earth too, and all things under the earth, holding them by your strength? What throne could contain you, or what kind of house, or how or where is it established or on what foundations, or by what pillars is it raised, who will ever conceive it? Unattainable for men at least and for all created nature, for one who dares to investigate such things concerning God, before being illumined, before being enlightened, before perceiving the divine things and becoming a spectator of the mysteries of Christ, which neither Paul, having perceived them, was able to express at all, nor Elijah before, nor Moses the great, but only the commandments of God and His will was he himself deemed worthy to learn and to express to others. But concerning God Himself he was not deemed worthy to hear, learn or be taught anything more, except that He who is is God of all and creator, fashioner and sustainer of all things that have been brought forth. But we, the all-wretched, who are confined in darkness and who are altogether darkness by the enjoyment of pleasures

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Οὐδείς ἀγγέλων εἶδέ σου, οὐδείς ποτε ἀνθρώπων τήν ὕπαρξιν ἤ ἔγνωκε, καί γάρ ἄκτιστος πέλεις. Πάντα δέ σύ παρήγαγες˙ δύναται σε γινώσκειν, ὅπως ἐκ σοῦ προέρχεται τό Πνεῦμά σου τό Θεῖον καί οὐ γεννᾷς ὅλως ποτέ, ἅπαξ πάντως γεννήσας, οὐδέ πηγάζων κένωσιν ἤ μείωσιν ὑπέστης; Μένεις γάρ ὑπερπλήρης, ὑπέρ τό πᾶν ἀνελλιπής, ὅλος ἐν ὅλῳ κόσμῳ, τῷ ὁρατῷ, τῷ νοητῷ, καί ἔξω αὖθις τούτων, προσθήκην μή δεχόμενος, μηδ᾿ ἔλλειψιν εἰς ἅπαν καί εἶ ὅλος ἀκίνητος μένων πάντοτε οὕτως. Ταῖς ἐνεργείαις οὖν ἀεί ἀεικίνητος πέλεις, ἔχεις καί γάρ ἀέναον, ὁ Πατήρ, ἐργασίαν˙ ἐργάζεται καί ὁ σός Υἱός πάντων τήν σωτηρίαν καί προνοεῖ καί τελειοῖ καί συνέχει καί τρέφει, ζαωοποιεῖ, ζωογονεῖ ἐν Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ. Ὅσα γάρ βλέπει ὁ Υἱός τόν Πατέρα ποιοῦντα, ταῦτα ὁμοίως καί αὐτός ἐκτελεῖ, καθώς εἶπεν. Οὕτως ἀκίνητός τε ὤν, ἀεικίνητός τε πως, οὔτε κινῇ, οὐχ ἵστασαι, οὔτε καθήσαι πάλιν, (260) ἀλλά ἀεί καθήμενος ἀεί ἵστασαι ὅλος˙ ἱστάμενος δέ αὖθις, ἀεί κινεῖσαι ὅλος, μή μεθιστάμενός ποτε˙ ποῦ γάρ καί ἀπελεύσῃ; Τό πᾶν, ὡς εἴρηται, πληρῶν ὑπέρ τό πᾶν δέ πέλων πρός ποῖον ἄλλον μεταβῇς ἤ τόπον ἤ καί χῶρον; Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ ἵστασαι, καί γάρ ἀσώματος ὑπάρχεις, ἁπλοῦς πληρῶν τά σύμπαντα, ἀσχημάτιστος πάντῃ, ἄϋλος, ἀπερίγραπτος, ἄληπτος ὅλος ἦσθα˙ καί πῶς καθῆσθαι εἴπωμεν, πῶς πάλιν ἵστασθαί σε, πῶς δέ καθῆσθαι φήσωμεν ἤ ἐν ποίῳ σε θρόνῳ, τόν τῇ χειρί κατέχοντα οὐρανόν καί τήν γῆν δέ, τά ὑπό γῆν τε ἅπαντα ἰσχύϋ σῇ κρατοῦντα; Ποῖος θρόνος χωρήσειεν ἤ ποταπή οἰκία, ἤ πῶς ἤ ποῦ ἐνίδρυται ἤ ποίοις θεμελίοις, ποίοις δέ στύλοις αἴρεται, τίς ὅλως ἐννοήσει; Ἀβάλε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γε καί πάςῃ κτιστῇ φύσει, τῇ τά τοιαῦτα ἐρευνᾶν περί Θεοῦ τολμώσῃ, πρίν ἐλλαμφθῇ, πρίν φωτισθῇ, πρίν κατίδῃ τά θεῖα καί θεωρός γενήσεται τῶν Χριστοῦ μυστηρίων, ἅ οὔτε Παῦλος κατιδών ἴσχυσεν ὅλως φράσαι, οὔτε Ἠλίας πρότερον, οὔτε Μωσῆς ὁ μέγας, ἀλλά τάς ἐντολάς Θεοῦ καί θελήματα μόνα κατηξιώθη καί αὐτός μαθεῖν καί ἄλλοις φράσαι. Περί αὐτοῦ δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλέον οὐδέν ἀκοῦσαι κατηξιώθη, μαθεῖν ἤ ὅλως διδαχθῆναι, εἰ μή ὅτι ὁ ὤν ἐστι Θεός πάντων καί κτίστης, δημιουργός καί συνοχεύς πάντων τῶν παραχθέντων. Ἡμεῖς δέ οἱ πανάθλιοι, οἱ σκότει καθειργμένοι καί σκότος ὅλως πέλοντες ἡδονῶν ἀπολαύσει