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you keep me unwounded, covering me with your light. But since I stumble very much, sinning every hour, since I am lifted up with pride, since I provoke you, I beg for your merciful chastisement, my Christ, which I also feel intensely happening within me by the withdrawal from me of the unapproachable, Master, and all-bright and divine (371) light that covers me. For just as when the sun sets, night and darkness come, and all the wild beasts go out for food, so when your light uncovers me, O my God, at once the darkness of life, a sea of thoughts envelops me and beasts of passions devour me, and I am wounded by the arrows of all thoughts. But when you again have compassion, when you take pity, when you hearken to my tearful laments and give ear to my groanings and accept my tears and you are willing to look upon the humility of me who has sinned unpardonably, my Christ, you are seen rising from afar like a star, you grow broader little by little, not suffering this yourself but opening the mind of your servant to see. You are seen growing larger little by little like the sun, for as the darkness flees and disappears I reckon that you are coming, you who are present everywhere; but when you encompass me wholly, as before, Savior, when you cover me wholly, when you embrace me wholly, I am freed from evils, I am redeemed also from the darkness and from temptations and the passions and all thoughts, for I am filled with goodness, I am filled with gladness and I am completely filled with joy, with ineffable delight, seeing awesome mysteries, seeing strange wonders, seeing things which eye has not seen nor is a man's able to see, nor ear to hear, and upon the heart of mortals it has not entered at all, and I am exceedingly amazed, I am ecstatic in these things and I am completely estranged from all things on the earth in unceasing voices hymning you, my God, (372) perceiving in myself the strange alteration and the manner of the help of an all-powerful hand, how by the radiance of your light alone and by your appearance you have driven away all sorrow, you have snatched me from the world and having been mystically united to me, straightway to heaven me

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διαφυλάττεις ἄτρωτον, σκέπων με τῷ φωτί σου. Ἐπεί δέ πταίω πάμπολλα, καθ᾿ ὥραν ἁμαρτάνων, ἐπεί δέ κατεπαίρομαι, ἐπεί σε παροργίζω, δέομαι τῆς εὐσπλάγχνου σου παιδεύσεως, Χριστέ μου, ἥν καί σφοδρῶς αἰσθάνομαι ἐν ἐμοί γενομένην τοῦ ἀπροσίτου, ∆έσποτα, καί παμφαοῦς καί θείου (371) ὑποχωρήσει ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ φωτός τοῦ σκέποντός με. Ὡς γάρ ἡλίου δύναντος νύξ γίνεται καί σκότος καί ἐξίασιν ἅπαντα πρός βρῶσιν τά θηρία, οὕτως ἀποσκεπάζον με, ὦ Θεέ μου, τό φῶς σου, εὐθύς τοῦ βίου σκότος με, θάλασσα λογισμῶν τε περικαλύπτει καί παθῶν θηρία κατεσθίει, καί βέλεσι τιτρώσκομαι τῶν λογισμῶν ἁπάντων. Ἐπάν δέ πάλιν σπλαγχνισθῇς, ἐπάν κατελεήσῃς, ἐπάν ἀπακροάσῃ τε τῶν γοερῶν μου θρήνων καί στεναγμούς ἑνωτισθῇς καί δάκρυα προσδέξῃ καί ἐπί τήν ταπείνωσιν ἐπιβλέψαι θελήσῃς ἐμοῦ τοῦ ἁμαρτήσαντος ἀσύγγνωστα, Χριστέ μου, ἀπό μακρόθεν ὡς ἀστήρ ἀνατέλλων ὁρᾶσαι, πλατύνεσαι κατά μικρόν οὐκ αὐτός τοῦτο πάσχων ἀλλά τόν νοῦν τοῦ δούλου σου διανοίγων τοῦ βλέπειν. Μειζόνως ὥσπερ ἥλιος κατ᾿ ὀλίγον ὁρᾶσαι, καί γάρ τοῦ σκότους φεύγοντος καί ἀφανιζομένου ἔρχεσθαί σε λογίζομαι, τόν πανταχοῦ παρόντα˙ ὅτε δέ ὅλον, ὡς τό πρίν, περικυκλώσῃς, Σῶτερ, ὅτε ὅλον σκεπάσῃς με, ὅλον με περιλάβῃς, ἐλευθεροῦμαι τῶν κακῶν, λυτροῦμαι καί τοῦ σκότους καί πειρασμῶν καί τῶν παθῶν καί λογισμῶν ἁπάντων, πληροῦμαι γάρ χρηστότητος, πληροῦμαι εὐφροσύνης καί καταπίμπλαμαι χαρᾶς, ἀφάτου θυμηδίας, ὁρῶν φρικτά μυστήρια, ὁρῶν θαύματα ξένα, ὁρῶν ἅ οὐ τεθέαται ὀφθαλμός οὐδέ βλέψαι ἀνθρώπου ἐξισχύσειεν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ οὖς ἀκοῦσαι, ἐπί καρδίαν δέ βροτῶν οὐκ ἀνέβη οὐδ᾿ ὅλως, καί καταπλήττομαι σφοδρῶς, ἐξίσταμαι ἐν τούτοις καί πάντων τῶν ἐπί τῆς γῆς ὅλως ἀλλοτριοῦμαι ἀκαταπαύστοις ἐν φωναῖς ἀνυμνῶν σε, Θεέ μου, (372) κατανοῶν ἐν ἐμαυτῷ ἀλλοίωσιν τήν ξένην καί τρόπον ἀντιλήψεως χειρός παντοδυνάμου, πῶς λάμψει μόνου σου φωτός καί τῇ ἐπιφανείᾳ πᾶσαν λύπην ἐδίωξας, ἐξήρπασας τοῦ κόσμου καί ἑνωθείς μοι μυστικῶς εἰς οὐρανόν εὐθύς με