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being seen and speaking these things to me: Who are you to circumscribe me in the heavens and seek me there and think I dwell there? Why do you suppose me to be on earth and proclaim that I am with all and legislate that I exist everywhere? The ‘everywhere’ therefore attributes magnitude to me, but I exist altogether without magnitude; for know that my nature is beyond magnitude. The ‘on the earth’ signifies circumscription, but I am in every way utterly uncircumscribed. (360) But for you to say that I am with all, you make your own ignorance clear to all; for you hear that I am with the saints, all of me in essence, in perception, and in contemplation, but also by participation, with my Father and the Divine Spirit, and that I clearly rest in them. If then you say we are with each one, you will make us many, divided among many; if you speak of one, how can the one be with each one, or rather, how can the one be both above and below, and how will the same one be with all? He who fills the all, how will he dwell in one, he who is in one, how will he also fill the all? Hear the mysteries of God, unspeakable, ineffable, paradoxical and entirely strange: God truly is, He really exists, all the pious confess this, but he is nothing of what we know at all, nor is he from what the angels know, and in this, God is nothing, I say, nothing of all things as the creator of all things, but beyond the all. For who could say what God is, so that he might say, He is, for instance, this or that? I am altogether ignorant of what kind, what quantity, what sort or what size he is; therefore, I who am ignorant of God, of what form, and appearance, magnitude, beauty, how shall I interpret his energies, how he is seen being invisible to all, how he is with all created nature, how he dwells in all the saints, (361) how he fills the all and is nowhere filled, how he is beyond the all and exists everywhere, for no one at all will be able to say these things. But, O you whom no one of men has ever seen, O King of all, uniquely all-merciful, I thank you from my whole heart,

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ὁρώμενόν τε καί λαλοῦν πρός με ταῦτα˙ Τίς εἰς οὐρανούς εἶναί με περιγράφεις κἀκεῖ τε ζητεῖς καί κατοικεῖν νομίζεις; Τί με ἐπί γῆς εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνεις καί μετά πάντων συνεῖναι διαγγέλλεις καί πανταχοῦ με νομοθετεῖς ὑπάρχειν; Τό οὖν πανταχοῦ μέγεθός μοι προσάπτει, ἀμέγεθες δέ τό παράπαν ὑπάρχω˙ ὑπερμεγέθη γνῶθι γάρ μου τήν φύσιν. Τό δ᾿ ἐπί τῆς γῆς περιγραφήν ἐμφαίνει, πάντως δ᾿ ἀπερίγραπτος καθάπαξ πέλω. (360) Τό δέ λέγειν σε συνεῖναί με τοῖς πᾶσιν, ἄγνοιαν σαυτοῦ δήλην ποιεῖς τοῖς πᾶσι˙ συνεῖναι γάρ με τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀκούεις αὐτόν ὅλον με οὐσίᾳ ἐν αἰσθήσει, θεωρίᾳ τε, ἀλλά καί μετουσίᾳ, σύν τῷ Πατρί μου καί Πνεύματι τῷ Θείῳ, καί ἐπαναπαύεσθαι σαφῶς ἐν τούτοις. Εἰ οὖν καθ᾿ ἕνα εἴπῃς ἡμᾶς συνεῖναι, πολλούς ποιήσεις εἰς πολλούς μερισθέντας˙ εἰ ἕνα φράσῃς, πῶς ὁ εἷς καί καθ᾿ ἕνα, μᾶλλον δέ ὁ εἷς πῶς καί ἄνω καί κάτω, μετά δέ πάντων πῶς ὁ αὐτός συνέσται; Τό πᾶν ὁ πληρῶν πῶς ἐν ἐνί οἰκήσει, ὁ ὤν ἐν ἑνί πῶς καί τό πᾶν πληρώσει; Ἄκουε μυστήρια Θεοῦ ἀφράστου, ἄφραστα, παράδοξα καί πάντῃ ξένα˙ ἔστι μέν Θεός ἀληθῶς, ὄντως ἔστι, τοῦτο εὐσεβεῖς πάντες ὁμολογοῦσιν, οὐδέν δέ ἐστιν, ὧν ἡμεῖς ὅλως ἴσμεν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἐξ ὧν ἄγγελοι ἴσασιν ἔστι, κἀν τούτῳ οὐδέν ὁ Θεός ἐστι, λέγω, τῶν παντων οὐδέν ὡς τῶν ἁπάντων κτίστης, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπέρ τό πᾶν. Τίς γάρ ἄν εἴποι τί ἐστι Θεός, ἵνα καί Ἔστιν, εἴπῃ, τόδε τυχόν ἤ τόδε; Ἀγνοῶ ὅλως ὁποῖος, ὁπόσος, ποταπός ἤ πηλίκος˙ ὁ οὖν ἀγνοῶν ἐγώ Θεόν, ὁποῖος μορφήν, εἶδός τε, τό μέγεθος, τό κάλλος, πῶς ἑρμηνεύσω τάς αὐτοῦ ἐνεργείας, πῶς μέν ὁρᾶται ἀόρατος ὤν πᾶσι, πῶς δέ σύνεστι τῇ κτιστῇ πάσῃ φύσει, πῶς ἐγκατοικεῖ ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις, (361) πῶς πληροῖ τό πᾶν καί οὐδαμοῦ πληροῦται, πῶς ὑπέρ τό πᾶν καί πανταχοῦ ὑπάρχει, ταῦτα γάρ οὐδείς ὅλως εἰπεῖν ἰσχύσει. Ἀλλ᾿, ὦ ἀνθρώπων ὅν οὐδείς ὅλως εἶδεν, ὦ παμβασιλεῦ, ὑπερεύσπλαγχνε μόνε, εὐχαριστῶ σοι ἐξ ὅλης μου καρδίας,