249

“Your note, our spiritual child, we did receive, but we did not accept it; rather we condemned your great naivete, for having thought such things about us at all, namely that I had thought or considered this: that you held back the paper with some deceit or meddling in order to grieve me. For what deceit is in this, or what affliction would ever befall me, even if I seem to make a great deal of these things? But I was entirely unaware that you had this, and I supposed that perhaps it was lost out of contempt from the one who serves me, either on the road or in some other way, and for this I was grieved; since in your case, whom I once confessed to hold as my very self, and to whom I entrusted all my affairs, hoping also through you that they would be made manifest to all others, just as Christ said to his disciples, 'what you hear in the ear, proclaim on the housetops,' what evil suspicion could I have harbored against you? For I for this reason also ask you to transcribe them in notebooks, so that I may leave all the drafts to you. And how did you suppose me to think such things against you? Nevertheless, may God forgive you this sin, because you judged us to be outside of the love that endures all things and never fails, unless someone willingly tears himself away from it; (443) but she remains uncut, undivided, kindly receiving and genuinely cleaving to all who wish to return and be joined to her again, and often even drawing and calling to herself those who are unwilling, to which I pray that you too, child, may be joined and united, so that you may be able not to reckon evil, whether it is real or not real at all, but to remain perpetually in everything and in all things without stumbling in relation to us and to all. Amen.

249

«Τό πιττάκιόν σου, πνευματικόν ἡμῶν τέκνον, ἐδεξάμεθα μέν, οὐκ ἀπεδεξάμεθα δέ, ἀλλά καί πολλῆς σου τῆς εὐηθείας κατέγνωμεν, ὅτι δή καί τοιαῦτα ὅλως ἐλογίσω περί ἡμῶν, ὡς δόλῳ ποτέ τινι ἤ περιεργίᾳ πρός τό λυπῆσαί με τό χαρτίον σύ ἀπεκράτησας, ἐνεθυμήθην τοῦτο ἤ ἐλογισάμην ἐγώ. Ποῖος γάρ ἐν τούτῳ δόλος ἤ ποία θλῖψίς μοι προσγενήσεταί ποτε, εἰ καί φαίνομαι περί πολλοῦ ταῦτα ποιούμενος; Ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι πάντως ἠγνόουν σε τοῦτο ἔχειν, καί ὑπέλαβον ἐκ καταφρονήσεως τοῦ ὑπουργοῦντός μοι ἴσως τοῦτο ἀπολεσθῆναι ἤ κατά τήν ὁδόν ἤ καί ἄλλως πως, καί εἰς τοῦτο ἐλυπήθην, ἐπεί εἰς σέ, ὅν ὡς ἐμαυτόν ἔχειν ἅπαξ καθωμολόγησα, καί πάντα τά ἐμά σοι ἐθάρρησα, καί διά σοῦ καί πᾶσιν ἄλλοις ἐλπίζων φανερά φανήσεσθαι, καθώς ὁ Χριστός τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μαθηταῖς ἔλεγεν «ἅ εἰς τό οὖς ἀκούσατε, κηρύξατε ἐπί τῶν δωμάτων» ποίαν ὑπόληψιν πονηράν κατά σοῦ εἶχον ἀναλαβέσθαι; Ἐγώ γάρ διά τοῦτό σε καί παρακαλῶ ἐν τετραδίοις μεταγράψαι αὐτά, ἵνα τά σχέδη πάντα σοι καταλείψω. Καί πῶς με τοιαῦτα λογίζεσθαι ὑπέλαβες κατά σοῦ; Ὅμως ὁ Θεός συγχωρήσει σοι τήν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην, ὅτι ἔξω τῆς ἀγάπης ἡμᾶς εἶναι ἔκρινας τῆς πάντα ὑπομενούσης καί μηδέποτε ἐκπιπτούσης, ἐάν μή τις ἑκουσίως ταύτης ἀποσπασθῇ˙ (443) ἐκείνη δέ μένει ἄτμητος, ἀδιαίρετος, πάντας τούς βουλομένους ἐπιστρέφειν καί πάλιν κολλᾶσθαι αὐτῇ εὐμενῶς προσδεχομένη καί γνησίως προσκολλωμένη, πολλάκις δέ καί τούς μή βουλομένους ἑλκύουσα καί προσκαλουμένη πρός ἑαυτήν, ᾗ καί σέ, τέκνον, εὔχομαι κολληθῆναι καί ἑνωθῆναι, ἵνα δύνασαι μή λογίζεσθαι τό κακόν ἤ τό ὄν ἤ καί τό μηδόλως ὄν, ἀλλά μένειν σε διηνεκῶς ἐν παντί καί ἐν πᾶσι πρός ἡμᾶς καί πρός πάντας ἀσκανδάλιστον. Ἀμήν.