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37. From the same to the same. Again we have received your precious letter with gifts, holy Father; and again we have enjoyed goods equal

to the former ones; with the gifts, quenching the burning of the passions that blackens our soul; for before them we have consumed the intelligible words; believing that these things were not sent by you rashly and in vain, and as it chanced, from one who in all things is moved with reason and spirit; and who makes even the food of the body an instruction for our soul. But in the letter, having found humility, the mother of all virtues, through which both the generation of good things and their preservation is wrought for those who possess it, we wept sufficiently, lamenting how far we have been removed from this path. For your sorrow has become a reproof for the evils in which we are entangled; and has awakened our deeply sleeping mind, and has exercised our memory, which was veiled with the cloak of puffing-up conceit; and has made us aware of ourselves, becoming moderately sensible of the vexation of our own sins. And it has made us in some way partakers of wisdom, having received a diagnosis of our own faults, if he who says, "Those who know themselves are wise," is true. Cease not, therefore, precious Father, both to renew our mind with your word, and through prayer to ask for us deliverance from evils; so that for these things you may receive a reward from God who gives the perfect purification of the soul according to conscience.

38. From the same to the same. We thank you, precious Father, because you have given yourself to us as an excellent model of repentance,

persuading us through confession to lay bare the dark treasures of the passions within ourselves; through which hatred for sin is naturally confirmed. For we are in truth those who harbor the passions, the memory of which after the act brings disgust; loving, like onions, the assent to evil thoughts, by which the soul's vision for virtue and knowledge becomes duller, receiving, as it were, scales, the passionate fantasies of visible things. For onion (krommuon) is the closing of the pupil (korēs musis) according to the etymologists. And like garlic, eating the completion of the passions through their activity, by which the mind, being filled with impurity, breathes out through shameful words and ways the foul odor of the evils it has consumed through action. But teach (633) us, holy Father, how after the rejection of these things we shall love the manna: I mean, the rational bread of divine knowledge, rained down on us from heaven, and we shall keep it incorruptible; neither treasuring it up for the morrow through postponement, lest it breed worms of fleshly passions, decaying through idleness; nor parading it for show, lest it vanish, being melted by vainglory. With such words again nourish us, your disciples, precious Father, and present us through prayer to God, we who are unable to worship without your mediation.

39. From the same to the same. Abundantly you nourish, hallowed Father, both our visible and our

intelligible man. Supplying to the body the things for its sustenance; but giving to the soul the things for its growth in spirit. For God has made you rich in both, having blessed your coming in. For by "coming in" I mean the possession of the charisms supplied to you by God, being multiplied through practice; and by "going out," the [giving] to others

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ΛΖ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Πάλιν σου τίμιον γράμμα μετά ξενίων, ἅγιε Πάτερ, δεδέγμεθα· καί πάλιν τῶν ἴσων

τοῖς προτέροις καλῶν ἀπηλαύσαμεν· τοῖς μέν ξενίοις, τήν μελαίνουσαν ἡμῶν τήν ψυχήν καῦσιν τῶν παθῶν κατασβέσαντες· πρό αὐτῶν γάρ τούς νοητούς λόγους βεβρώκαμεν· οὐκ εἰκῆ καί μάτην, καί ὡς ἔτυχε ταῦτα παρά σοῦ πεπέμφθαι πιστεύσαντες, τοῦ διά πάντων μετά λόγου κινουμένου καί πνεύματος· καί ψυχῆς ἡμῖν παίδευμα ποιουμένου, καί τήν βρῶσιν τοῦ σώματος· τῷ δέ γράμματι τήν πασῶν μητέρα τῶν ἀρετῶν εὑρηκότες ταπείνωσιν, δι' ἧς ἤ τε γένεσις τῶν καλῶν καί φυλακή δημιουργεῖται τοῖς ἔχουσιν, ἱκανῶς ἐδακρύσαμεν, πόσον ταύτης ἀπῳκίσμεθα τῆς ὁδοῦ διαθρήσαντες. Τό γάρ σόν πένθος, τῶν ἐφ᾿ οἷς ἐνεχόμεθα κακῶν ἔλεγχος γέγονε· καί βαθύ κοιμωμένην ἡμῶν ἐξύπνισε τήν διάνοιαν, καί τήν μνήμην ἐγύμνασε κεκαλυμμένην τῷ πέπλῳ τῆς φυσιούσης οἰήσεως· καί πεποίηκεν ἡμᾶς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιγνώμονας, συμμέτρως ἐπαισθομένους τῆς τῶν οἰκείων ἁμαρτημάτων ὀχλήσεως. Καί ποσῶς σοφίας μετόχους πεποίηκε, τῶν ἰδίων πλημμελημάτων λαβόντας διάγνωσιν, εἴπερ ἀληθής ὁ λέγων· Οἱ ἑαυτῶν ἐπιγνώμονες σοφοί. Μή τοίνυν παύσῃ, τίμιε Πάτερ, καί λόγῳ καινίζων ἡμῶν τήν διάνοιαν, καί δι᾿ εὐχῆς τήν τῶν κακῶν ἡμῖν αἰτούμενος λύτρωσιν· ἵνα τούτων λάβῃς μισθόν παρά τοῦ διδοῦντος Θεοῦ τήν τελείαν τῆς ψυχῆς κατά συνείδησιν κάθαρσιν.

ΛΗ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Εὐχαριστοῦμέν σοι, τίμιε Πάτερ, ὅτι μετανοίας ἀρίστης ἡμῖν σεαυτόν δέδωκας

ὑποτίπωσιν, πείθων δι᾿ ἐξαγορίας τούς ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς σκοτεινούς τῶν παθῶν γυμνῶσαι θησαυρούς· δι᾿ ἧς τό πρός τήν ἁμαρτίαν ἐπικυροῦσθαιι πέφυκε μῖσος. Ἡμεῖς γάρ ἐσμεν ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας οἱ τά πάθη περιέποντες, ὧν ἡ μνήμη μετά τήν πρᾶξιν φέρει τήν ἀηδίαν· ὡς μέν κρόμμυα, τήν τῶν πονηρῶν ἀγαπῶντες λογισμῶν συγκατάθεσιν, καθ᾿ ἥν τό τῆς ψυχῆς ὀπτικόν πρός ἀρετήν καί γνῶσιν ἀμβλύτερον γίνεται, λεπίδας ὥσπερ λαμβάνον, τάς ἐμπαθεῖς τῶν ὁρατῶν φαντασίας. Κόρης γάρ μύσις κατά τούς ἐτυμολογοῦντας τό κρόμμυον. Ὡς δέ σκόρδα, τήν δι᾿ ἐνεργείας τῶν παθῶν συμπλήρωσιν τρώγοντες, καθ᾿ ἥν ὁ νοῦς ἀκαθαρσίας πληρούμενος, τοῖς ἔξω πνεῖ δι᾿ αἰσχρῶν ῥημάτων τε καί τρόπων, τήν ὧν διά πράξεως βέβρωκε κακῶν δυσωδίαν. Ἀλλά δίδαξον (633) ἡμᾶς, ἅγιε Πάτερ, πῶς μετά τήν τούτων ἀποβολήν ἀγαπήσομεν τό μάννα· φημί δέ τόν λογικόν τῆς θείας γνώσεως ἄρτον, οὐρανόθεν ἡμῖν ὑόμενον, καί φυλάξομεν ἄφθαρτον· μήτε πρός τήν αὔριον, δι᾿ ἀναβολῆς θησαυρίζοντες, ἵνα μή βράσῃ σκώληκας παθῶν σαρκικῶν, διά τῆς ἀργίας σηπόμενον· μήτε δι᾿ ἐπιδείξεως θριαμβεύοντες, ἵνα μή γένηται φροῦδον τῇ κενοδοξίᾳ τηκόμενον. Τοιούτοις καί πάλιν λόγοις θρέψον ἡμᾶς, τίμιε Πάτερ, τούς σούς μαθητάς, καί παράθου δι᾿ εὐχῆς τῷ Θεῷ, δίχα τῆς σῆς μεσιτείας προσκυνῆσαι μή δυναμένους.

ΛΘ´Τοῦ αὐτοῦ πρός τόν αὐτόν. Ἀφθόνως ἡμῶν διατρέφεις, ἡγιασμένε Πάτηρ, τόν τε φαινόμενον καί τόν

νοούμενον ἄνθρωπον. Τῷ μέν σώματι χορηγῶν τά πρός σύστασιν· τῇ δέ ψυχῇ διδούς τά πρός αὔξησιν τήν ἐν πνεύματι. Πεποίηκέ σε γάρ ὁ Θεός κατ' ἀμφότερα πλούσιον, εὐλογήσας τήν εἴσοδόν σου. Εἴσοδον μέν γάρ λέγω, τήν τῶν χορηγουμένων σοι παρά Θεοῦ χαρισμάτων κτῆσιν, πολυπλασιαζομένην διά τῆς πράξεως· ἔξοδον δέ, τήν ἄλλοις