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he will despise your honor, but as then, so also now Christ will be magnified in your body, showing His mercy superabundantly as a demonstration of your virtue. Therefore, stretch out to me also a hand of intercession, O holy one, that I may be strengthened and saved from the present bitter winter. Stand and make propitiation that the storm may be turned into a breeze of the Holy Spirit. May it be so. I greet the brothers most warmly and I entreat them to pray fervently for my lowliness; those with me fall at your feet. 223 {1To Naucratius, my child}1 The news of your letters is evil, O child; which, having laid hold of my humble soul, truly pained me and called forth a tear from the heart, almost making the night sleepless for me, during which I received the letter into my hands. This is so concerning all who have fallen, but especially concerning the one of Phlouboute, and because some acted now just as they did before, while the other was known to be among those who seemed to stand securely. I was amazed, therefore, while they were still standing, that not having confessed their former defeat in adultery and adulterous union, they laid claim in the present matter, and perhaps I was suspecting that privately and by themselves they had repented, and I, the humble one, rejoiced at their walking uprightly. But, as it seems, having built their house on unsound foundations, they have fallen a most grievous fall in the whirlwind of the heresy that has befallen them, again calling the rejection of the truth an "economy." These same ones were a scandal to the church of God both before and now again through what they have done, inviting all to destruction. And indeed most are ready for participation in evil, seeking in times of necessity to find some pretext through which the contest for piety might be made for them untroubled and without hardship. They have communed in the denial of Christ, of the Theotokos, of all the saints; for this is the denial of the icon of whomever it may be. Alas for the disaster! Alas for the deceit! Woe is me, how, having begun well, have they turned back? Woe is me, for how many will they be a ruin—to those of the same order and to their superiors, to laymen and clerics and monks? But the ancient wound, the evil in our midst, Joseph, who was formerly rightly called an adulterer, but now a mocker of Christ, he is the guide for those of the old guard. What then shall we say to these things? Shall we be undone, shall we fall, shall we grow weary in our confession of Christ and our resistance? By no means, O brothers, by no means; for if, when the impious fall, the righteous shall be fearful, yet still in the fall of a neighbor there is the greatest security for the one who stands. Let us stand, therefore, in the Lord all the more firmly, I beseech you, not being terrified in anything by our opponents; for is our confession on account of those who have been tripped up, or were we strengthened by relying on their stance, so that by their tripping we should also be shaken? May it not be so; neither of these nor of others. Christ is our foundation, on whom we stand, in whom we boast, saying with Paul: Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Thus he who is not arrayed for battle will not contend for Christ, he cannot be a Christian. Not in vain are the contests of the martyrs, the prizes, the tortures; for were they not of the same flesh as we? did they not suffer when subjected to so many punishments? were they not despairing even of life, as the apostle says? But in fear of the eternal punishments and in desire for the heavenly rewards, they chose, as sensible men, the death of the flesh rather than the eternal one. They endured, they were not terrified, they were not dismayed; and picturing future things as present, they went with joy to the tortures, they considered their many sufferings as gifts. For it has been granted to us on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake; and again elsewhere: for in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their grace. Thus they rejoiced, thus they exulted, suffering for Christ, all those who

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ὑπερόψεται τῆς τιμιότητός σου, ἀλλ' ὡς τηνικαῦτα, οὕτως καὶ ἄρτι μεγαλυνθήσεται Χριστὸς ἐν τῷ σώματί σου, ποιῶν ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς σου. ∆ιὸ ὀρέγοις κἀμοὶ χεῖρα πρεσβευτικήν, ὅσιε, στηριχθῆναι καὶ σωθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος χειμῶνος πικροῦ. στῆθι καὶ ἱλέωσαι μεταστραφῆναι τὴν καταιγίδα εἰς αὔραν τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος. γένοιτο. τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ἀσπαζόμενος πλεῖστα καὶ παρακαλῶ ὑπερεύχεσθαί μου τῆς ταπεινώσεως· οἱ σὺν ἐμοὶ τοῖς ποσί σου προσπίπτουσιν. 223 {1Ναυκρατίῳ τέκνῳ}1 Πονηρὰ ἡ ἀγγελία τῶν γραμμάτων σου, ὦ τέκνον· ἥτις καθαψα μένη μου τῆς ταπεινῆς ψυχῆς τῷ ὄντι ὠδύνησεν καὶ δάκρυον προσεκαλέσατο καρδιακόν, μικροῦ δεῖν ἄυπνόν μοι τὴν νύκτα, καθ' ἣν ἐδεξάμην ἐπὶ χεῖρας τὴν ἐπιστολήν, ἐμποιήσασα. τοῦτο μὲν ἐπὶ πάντων τῶν συμπεπτωκότων, ἐξαιρέτως δὲ εἰς τὸν τῆς Φλουβουτῆς, καὶ ὅτι οἱ μὲν τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν ὅμοια καὶ τανῦν ἔπραξαν, ὁ δὲ τῶν δοκούντων ἑστάναι ἀσφαλῶς ἐγνωρίζετο. ἐθαύμαζον οὖν ἔτι ἑστηκότων αὐτῶν, ὅτι μὴ ὁμολογήσαντες τὴν προτέραν ἐπὶ μοιχείᾳ καὶ μοιχοζευξίᾳ ἧτταν αὐτῶν ἀντεποιοῦντο ἐπὶ τῇ προκειμένῃ ὑποθέσει, καὶ τάχα ὑπενόουν ἰδίᾳ καὶ καθ' ἑαυτοὺς τὴν μεταμέλειαν ἐσχηκέναι καὶ ἔχαιρον ὁ ταπεινὸς ἐπὶ τῇ ὀρθοποδήσει αὐτῶν. ἀλλ', ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐν σαθροῖς τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτῶν οἰκοδομήσαντες τῷ λαίλαπι τῆς προσπεσούσης αἱρέσεως πεπτώκασι πτῶσιν τὴν χαλεπωτάτην, πάλιν οἰκονομίαν λέγοντες τὴν ἀθέτησιν τῆς ἀληθείας. οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ πρότερον σκάνδαλον γεγόνασι τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ νῦν τὸ αὐτὸ δι' ὧν ἔπραξαν, πάντας προσκαλούμενοι εἰς ἀπώλειαν. καί γε ἕτοιμοι οἱ πλεῖστοι πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κακοῦ μετουσίαν, ἐν ταῖς ἀνάγκαις ζητοῦντες ἐξευρεῖν τινα πρόφασιν, δι' ἧς ἄθλιπτος καὶ ἀταλαίπωρος αὐτοῖς ὁ ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας ἀγὼν ὑπαχθείη. ἐκοινώνησαν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀρνήσει Χριστοῦ, τῆς Θεοτόκου, τῶν πάντων ἁγίων· τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ τῆς εἰκόνος οὑτινοσοῦν ἄρνησις. φεῦ τῆς συμφορᾶς· φεῦ τῆς ἀπάτης· οἴμοι, πῶς ἐναρξάμενοι καλῶς ἐστράφησαν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω; οἴμοι, πόσοις ἔσονται καταστροφὴ ὁμοταγέσι καὶ ὑπερέχουσι, λαϊκοῖς τε καὶ κληρικοῖς καὶ μονασταῖς; ἀλλὰ ἡ ἀρχαία πληγή, τὸ ἐγκόλπιον κακόν, Ἰωσὴφ ὁ πάλαι εἰκότως κληθεὶς μοιχοζεύκτης, νυνὶ δὲ χριστεμπαίκτης, αὐτὸς ὁδηγὸς τοῖς τῆς ἀρχαίας κουστωδίας. Τί πρὸς ταῦτα; ἐκλυθησόμεθα, καταπεσούμεθα, ἀποκαμούμεθα πρὸς τὴν Χριστοῦ ὁμολογίαν ἡμῶν καὶ ἔνστασιν; μηδαμῶς, ὦ ἀδελφοί, μηδαμῶς· εἰ γὰρ ἀσεβῶν καταπιπτόντων οἱ δίκαιοι ἔμφοβοι ἔσονται, ἀλλ' οὖν τῷ τοῦ πέλας πτώματι ἀσφάλεια τῷ ἑστηκότι μεγίστη. στῶμεν οὖν ἐν Κυρίῳ βεβαιότερον μᾶλλον, παρακαλῶ, μὴ πτυρόμενοι ἐν μηδενὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀντικειμένων· μὴ γὰρ ἕνεκεν τῶν ὑποσκελισθέντων ἡ ὁμολογία ἡμῶν ἢ τῇ τούτων στάσει ἐπερειδό μενοι ἐστερεούμεθα, ἵνα καὶ τῇ σκελίσει αὐτῶν κατασεισθῶμεν; μὴ γένοιτο· οὔτε τούτων οὔτε ἄλλων. Χριστὸς ἡμῶν ὁ θεμέλιος, ἐν ᾧ στήκομεν, ἐν ᾧ καυχώμεθα, σὺν τῷ Παύλῳ λέγοντες· τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ θεοῦ; θλῖψις ἢ στενοχωρία ἢ λιμὸς ἢ διωγμὸς ἢ γυμνότης ἢ κίνδυνος ἢ μάχαιρα; καὶ γὰρ ἐν τούτοις πᾶσιν ὑπερνικῶμεν διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς. οὕτως ὁ μὴ παρατεταγμένος οὐκ ἀγωνιεῖται ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, οὐ δύναται χριστιανὸς εἶναι. Οὐκ εἰκῇ οἱ ἀγῶνες τῶν μαρτύρων, τὰ ἆθλα, αἱ βάσανοι· μὴ γὰρ οὐχ ὁμόσαρκοι ἡμῶν; μὴ οὐκ ἐπόνουν τοσαύταις τιμωρίαις ὑποβαλλόμενοι; μὴ οὐκ ἐξηποροῦντο καὶ τοῦ ζῆν, ὡς φάσκει ὁ ἀπόστολος; ἀλλὰ τῷ φόβῳ τῶν αἰωνίων κολάσεων καὶ τῷ πόθῳ τῶν οὐρανίων ἀμοιβῶν εἵλαντο μᾶλλον ὡς ἔμφρονες τὸν τῆς σαρκὸς θάνατον ἤπερ τὸν αἰώνιον. ἤνεγκαν, οὐκ ἐπτοήθησαν, οὐ κατεπλάγησαν· καὶ ὡς παρόντα τὰ μέλλοντα φανταζόμενοι χαρᾷ ἐχώρουν πρὸς τὰς βασάνους, δωρεὰς ἡγοῦντο τὰς πολυπαθείας. ἡμῖν γὰρ ἐχαρίσθη ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ οὐ μόνον τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν· καὶ αὖθις ἑτέρωθι· ἐν γὰρ πολλῇ δοκιμῇ θλίψεως ἡ περισσεία τῆς χάριτος αὐτῶν. οὕτως ἔχαιρον, οὕτως ἠγάλλοντο ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ πάσχοντες πάντες οἱ