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8. By the same to the same. Carnal desire is by nature destined to wither with time, departing along with those who are separated by location, who have their connection to one another according to it. For it has its existence in the senses, which are in no way able to perceive things that are not present. But spiritual desire always has those united by it intellectually present to one another, even if they are physically separated from each other; not accepting limitation by time or place. For it has its existence in the mind, which is in no way divided or confined along with the bodies that are separated from each other by location. Having been deemed worthy to have this desire for you, most holy ones, (441) from the beginning, I seem to see you always present, and to perceive you conversing; and there is no time or place that can remove me from your memory; which always shows you to be spiritually present, and drives away all the foul thoughts within me, which cannot bear the great fragrance of the divine grace in you; and I am persuaded, that my memory does not merely imagine you, most holy ones, but that I truly perceive you as present; making what is happening a precise confirmation of your presence. For the active power within you by the grace of God, driving away the vexing demons at the same time as the memory of you arises, provides a most clear indication of your presence. And it is no wonder if the God of signs and wonders makes those who are absent in body to be present in mind; as He himself knows, and those who through Him divinely work such things; and more so than bodies are present to one another by location. And if merely by being remembered, honored Fathers, you provide such a rebuke to my dishonorable thoughts, visiting invisibly in the spirit, how much more when present before my eyes, and sanctifying my hearing with divine words through your living voice, and brilliantly teaching virtue by your own ways?

For this reason I go about mourning and downcast, longing for and seeking you, the good shepherd and teacher, who knows how to make me, the wandering sheep, to lie down in a place of green pasture; I mean the habit of virtue which drives away the burning heat of the passions through practice; and is able to nourish me beside the water of rest; I mean the grace of knowledge that waters the mind through contemplation, the one who turns my soul from evil to virtue with divine words and examples, and guides it in the paths of righteousness; showing the saving ways according to piety; and wisely comforting with rod and staff, that is, with the memory of eternal punishments, leading away from the entry of evil as with a rod, and with the exhortation of the good things to come, supporting the one progressing in virtue through hope, in the manner of a staff; which the Lord and Savior also, I think, symbolically alluded to, when He poured wine and oil on the wounds of the one who had fallen among thieves. For with fear of the Gehenna of eternal fire, the desire for the kingdom of heaven being mixed in, it preserves the soul unharmed, binding it fast to the love of the Creator; having been cleansed from every passionate thought through this astringency.

But fill then, honored Father, with the divine Spirit even the reed (444) of your teaching, and call, as a shepherd and lovingly, the one who wanders without a shepherd upon the mountains of ignorance and the hills of wickedness; and place him under your right hand, and compassionately bind up the one torn by many evil bites of the wolves of Arabia; that is, of the West; for, as they say, the name of Arabia, when interpreted according to the Greek tongue, signifies the West. But I understand, and perhaps not incorrectly, according to the principles of anagogy, by Arabia, this flesh, the

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Η´. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Ὁ κατά σάρκα πόθος χρόνῳ μαιραίνεσθαι πέφυκε, συναπιών χωριζομένοις τοπικῶς,

τοῖς κατ᾿ αὐτόν πρός ἀλλήλους ἔχουσι τήν συνάφειαν. Περί γάρ τήν αἴσθησιν ἔχειν τήν σύστασιν, τήν μηδαμῶς τῶν μή παρόντων ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι δυναμένην. Ὁ δέ κατά πνεῦμα πόθος, ἀεί συμπαρόντας ἀλλήλοις ἔχει νοερῶς, τούς κατ᾿ αὐτόν συνημμένους, κἄν σωματικῶς ἀλλήλων χωρισθῶσι· τήν κατά χρόνον ἤ τόπον περιγραφήν οὐ δεχόμενος. Περί γάρ τόν νοῦν ἔχει τήν ὕπαρξιν, τό μηδαμῶς τοῖς σώμασιν ἀλλήλων διαιρουμένοις τοπικῶς, συνδιαιρούμενον ἤ συπερικλειόμενον. Τοῦτον τόν πόθον ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς πρός τούς (441) ἁγιωτάτους ὑμᾶς ἔχειν ἀξιωθείς, ἀεί παρόντας ὁρᾷν δοκῶ, καί διαλεγομένων αἰσθάνεσθαι· καί οὐκ ἔστι καιρός ἤ τόπος, ὁ ἀφιστᾷν μέ δυνάμενος τῆς ὑμετέρας μνήμης· διά παντός ὑμᾶς παρόντας πνευματικῶς ὑποδεικνυούσης, καί πάντας τούς ἐν ἐμοί δυσώδεις λογισμούς ἀπελαύνοντας, τῆς ἐν ὑμῖν θείας χάριτος τήν πολλήν εὐωδίαν οὐ φέροντας· καί πείθομαί γε, μή ψιλῶς τήν μνήμην φαντάζεσθαι τούς ἁγιωτάτους ὑμᾶς, ἀλλά παρόντων ἀληθῶς ἐπαισθάνεσθαι· τό γινόμενον πληροφορίαν ἀκριβῆ τῆς ὑμῶν παρουσίας ποιούμενος. Ἡ γάρ ἐν ὑμῖν κατά χάριν Θεοῦ δραστήριος δύναμις, ἅμα τῇ μνήμῃ τούς διοχλοῦντας ἀπελαύνουσα δαίμονας, σαφεστάτην τῆς ὑμῶν παρουσίας παρέχεται δήλωσιν. Καί θαυμαστόν οὐδέν, εἰ τούς ἀπόντας σωματικῶς, παρεῖναι ποιεῖ νοερῶς, ὁ τῶν σημείων καί τῶν τεράτων Θεός· ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, καί οἱ ἐξ αὐτοῦ τά τοιαῦτα θεπρεπῶς ἐνεργούμενοι· καί πλέον ἤ ὅσον τοπικῶς ἀλλήλοις τά σώματα πάρεστι. Καί εἰ μόνον μνημονευόμενοι, τίμιοι Πατέρες, τοσοῦτόν μου τοῖς ἀτίμοις ἐπιτίμιον παρέχετε λογισμοῖς, ἀοράτως φοιτῶντες τῷ πνεύματι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον κατ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς παρόντες, καί τήν ἐμήν ἀκοήν διά ζώσης φωνῆς τοῖς θείοις καθαγιάζοντες λόγοις, καί τήν ἀρετήν τοῖς ἑαυτῶν τρόποις λαμπρῶς ἐκδιδάσκοντες;

∆ιά τοῦτο πενθῶν καί σκυθρωπάζων πορεύομαι, ποθῶν τε καί ζητῶν σε τόν καλόν ποιμένα καί διδάσκαλον, τόν εἰς τόπον με χλόης τό πλανώμενον πρόβατον κατασκηνοῦν ἐπιστάμενον· τήν ἀπωθομένην λέγω τόν καύσωνα τῶν παθῶν διά πράξεως ἕξιν τῆς ἀρετῆς· καί ἐπί ὕδατος ἀναπαύσεως ἐκτρέφειν δυνάμενον· τήν ἄρδουσάν φημι τόν νοῦν διά θεωρίας χάριν τῆς γνώσεως, τόν ἐπιστρέφοντά μου τήν ψυχήν ἀπό κακίας εἰς ἀρετήν θείοις καί λόγοις καί παραδείγμασι, καί ἐπί τρίβους ὁδηγοῦντα δικαιοσύνης· τούς κατ᾿ εὐσέβειαν σωτηριώδεις ὑποδεικνύοντα τρόπους· καί ῥάβδῳ καί βακτηρίᾳ σοφῶς παρακαλοῦντα, τουτέστι, τῇ μνήμῃ τῶν αἰωνίων κολάσεων, καθάπερ ῥάβδῳ τινί τόν εἰσαγόμενον κακίας ἀπάγοντα, καί τῇ προτροπῇ τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν, βακτηρίας δίκην εἰς ἀρετήν τόν προκόπτοντα δι᾿ ἐλπίδος στηρίζοντα· ὅπερ καί ὀ Κύριος καί Σωτήρ, ὡς οἶμαι, συμβολικῶς ὑπῃνίττετο, τοῖς τραύμασι τούς τοῖς λησταῖς περιπεσόντος ἐπιχέων οἶνον καί ἔλαιον. Φόβῳ γάρ τῆς γεέννης τοῦ αἰωνίου πυρός, ὁ τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν πόθος ἐπικιρνώμενος, ἀλώβητον τήν ψυχήν συντηρεῖ, πρός τήν ἀγάπην ἐπισφίγγων τοῦ Κτίσαντος· πάσης ἐμπαθοῦς διανοίας διά τῆς στύψεως ἀποσμηχθεῖσαν.

Ἀλλά πλήρωσον λοιπόν, τίμιε Πάτερ, καί αὐτόν Πνεύματος θείου τῆς διδασκαλίας τόν δόνακα, (444) καί κάλει ποιμενικῶς τε καί φιλανθρώπως τόν ἐπί τά ὄρη τῆς ἀγνοίας, καί τούς βουνούς τῆς κακίας, ἀποιμάντως πλανώμενον· καί ὑπό τήν σήν ποίησον δεξιάν, καί κατάδησον συμπαθῶς τόν πολλοῖς διασπαραχθέντα δήγμασιν πονηροῖς τῶν λύκων τῆς Ἀραβίας· τουτέστι τῶν ∆υσμῶν· ∆υσμάς γάρ, ὥς φασι, δηλοῖ κατά τήν Ἑλλάδα φωνήν ἑρμηνευόμενον τῆς Ἀραβίας τό ὄνομα. Νοῶ δέ, καί τυχόν οὐκ ἔσφαλμένως, κατά τούς τῆς ἀναγωγῆς λόγους, διά τῆς Ἀραβίας, τήν σάρκα ταύτην, τήν