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triad in monad; not another and another, nor another beside another, nor another through another, nor another in another, nor another from another; but the same in itself, and by itself for itself, itself the same and monad and triad, unconfused and having the union unconfusedly, and the distinction indivisible and unpartable; a monad according to the principle of essence, (701) that is, the principle of being; but not by composition or contraction, or any confusion whatsoever; but a triad, according to the principle of how it exists and subsists; but not by division or estrangement, or any partition whatsoever. For the monad is not partitioned by the hypostases, nor is it relatively in them and contemplated in them; nor are the hypostases composed into a monad, or fulfill it by contraction; but the same thing is the same to itself, yet in different ways. For the holy triad of the hypostases is an unconfused monad in essence, and in the simple principle according to it; and the holy monad is a triad in its hypostases and in its mode of existence. The whole selfsame thing is understood as this and that differently, according to one principle and another, as has been said; one and only, indivisible and unconfused, and simple and undiminished and unchangeable divinity; existing as a monad wholly in substance, and the same whole as a triad in its hypostases, and one ray of a triply-radiant light shining forth singly; whereupon the soul also, having received with equal honor as the holy angels the manifest and attainable principles concerning the divinity for creation, and having learned to praise the one divinity triadicly in harmony with them without silence, is led to the adoption as sons by grace through a corresponding likeness; through which, after prayers, having God the Father mystically and alone by grace, it will be gathered together to the one of His hiddenness in an ecstasy from all things; and it will suffer rather than know the divine things; inasmuch as it wishes not to be of itself, nor to be able to be known from itself by itself or by another, but only by the whole God who has wholly assumed it in a manner fitting His goodness, and who impassibly sends his whole self into her whole (his whole self to her wholly in a manner fitting God), and has deified her wholly; so as to be, as the all-holy Dionysius the Areopagite says, an image and manifestation of the invisible light, a pure mirror, most transparent, unblemished, undefiled, unstained, receiving the whole beauty, if it is right to say so, of the archetypal Good, shining divinely and undiminished in the sanctuaries of silence.

CHAPTER 24.

Of what mysteries the abiding grace of the Holy Spirit is effective and completive, through the rites performed during the holy synaxis among the faithful and those faithfully gathered.

Therefore the blessed elder thought it necessary, and did not cease to exhort every Christian, to give his leisure to the holy Church of God, and never to be absent from the holy synaxis celebrated in it, both because of the holy angels who abide in it, (704) and who each time enroll those who enter and present them to God, and who make supplications on their behalf; and because of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is invisibly always present, but especially in a particular way at the time of the holy synaxis, and which transforms and refashions each of those who are present, and truly remodels them toward what is more divine in a way analogous to itself, and leads them toward that which is signified through the mysteries being celebrated; even if he does not perceive it, if he is still among the infants in Christ; and is unable to see into the depth of what is taking place, and that which is signified through

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τριάδα ἐν μονάδι· οὐκ ἄλλην καί ἄλλην, οὐδ᾿ ἄλλην παρ᾿ ἄλλην, οὐδέ δι᾿ ἄλλης ἄλλην, οὐδ᾿ ἄλλην ἐν ἄλλῃ, οὐδέ ἐξ ἄλλης ἄλλην· ἀλλά τήν αὐτήν ἐν ἑαυτῇ, καί καθ᾿ ἑαυτήν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτήν, ἑαυτῇ ταὐτήν καί μονάδα καί τριάδα ἀσύγχυτόν τε καί ἀσυγχύτως τήν ἕνωσιν ἔχουσαν, καί τήν διάκρισιν ἀδιαίρετόν τε καί ἀμέριστον· μονάδα μέν κατά τόν τῆς οὐσίας, (701) ἤτοι τόν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά σύνθεσιν ἤ συναίρεσιν, ἤ τήν οἱανοῦν σύγχυσιν· τριάδα δέ, κατά τόν τοῦ πῶς ὑπάρχειν καί ὑφεστάναι λόγον· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κατά διαίρεσιν ἤ ἀλλοτρίωσιν, ἤ τόν οἱονοῦν μερισμόν. Οὐ γάρ μεμέρισται ταῖς ὑποστάσεσιν ἡ μονάς, οὐδέ σχετικῶς ἔνεστι καί ἐπιθεωρεῖται αὐταῖς· οὐδέ συντέθεινται εἰς μονάδα αἱ ὑποστάσεις, ἤ συναιρέσει αὐτήν ἐκπληροῦσιν· ἀλλά τήν αὐτήν ἑαυτῇ ταὐτόν, ἄλλως μέντοι καί ἄλλως. Μονάς γάρ ἐστι ἀσύγχυτος τῇ οὐσίᾳ, καί τῷ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἁπλῷ λόγῳ ἡ ἁγία τριάς τῶν ὑποστάσεων· καί τριάς ἐστι ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι καί τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς ὑπάρξεως ἡ ἁγία μονάς. Τήν αὐτήν ὅλην τοῦτο κἀκεῖνο διαφόρως, κατ᾿ ἄλλον καί ἄλλον, ὡς εἴρηται, λόγον νοουμένην· μίαν καί μόνην, ἀδιαίρετόν τε καί ἀσύγχυτον, καί ἁπλῆν καί ἀμείωτον καί ἀπαράλλακτον θεότητα· μονάδα κατά τήν οὐσίαν ὅλην ὑπάρχουσαν, καί ὅλην τριάδα τήν αὐτήν ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι, καί μίαν ἑνός τρισσοφαοῦς ἀκτῖνα φωτός μονοειδῶς ἐπιλάμπουσαν· ἐφ᾿ ᾧ καί τήν ψυχήν, ὁμοτίμως τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀγγέλοις τούς ἐκφανεῖς καί ἐφικτούς τῇ κτίσει περί θεότητος δεξαμένην λόγους, καί συμφώνως αὐτοῖς ἀσιγήτως ἀνυμνεῖν μαθοῦσαν τριαδικῶς τήν μίαν θεότητα, ἐπί τήν κατά χάριν δι᾿ ὁμοιότητος ἐμφεροῦς υἱοθεσίαν ἀχθῆναι· δι᾿ ἧς μετ᾿ εὐχάς τόν Θεόν Πατέρα, μυστικόν τε χάριτι καί μόνον ἔχουσα, πρός τό ἕν τῆς αὐτοῦ κρυφιότητος κατ᾿ ἔκστασιν πάντων συναχθήσεται· καί τοσοῦτον πείσεται μᾶλλον, ἤ γνώσεται τά θεῖα· ὅσον μή ἑαυτῆς εἶναι βούλεσθαι, μηδέ ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ὑφ᾿ ἑαυτῆς ἤ ἄλλου τινός γνωσθῆναι δύνασθαι, ἤ μόνου τοῦ ὅλην ἀγαθοπρεπῶς αὐτήν ἀνειληφότος ὅλου Θεοῦ, καί ὅλον αὐτῇ θεοπρεπως ὅλῃ (ὅλον αὐτῇ θεοπρεπῶς ὅλως) καί ἀπαθῶς ἑαυτόν ἐνιέντος, καί ὅλην θεοποιήσαντος· ὡς εἶναι, καθώς φησιν ὁ πανάγιος Ἀρεοπαγίτης ∆ιονύσιος, εἰκόνα καί φανέρωσιν τοῦ ἀφανοῦ φωτός, ἕσοπτρον ἀκραιφνές, διειδέστατον, ἀλώβητον, ἄχραντον, ἀκηλίδωτον, εἰσδεχόμενον ὅλην, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν, τήν ὡραιότητα τοῦ ἀγαθοτύπου, θεοειδῶς καί ἀμειώτως ἐπιλάμπον ἐν ἀδύτοις σιγῆς.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Κ∆´.

Τίνων ἐστίν ἐνεργητική τε καί ἀποτελιστική μυστηρίων, διά τῶν τελουμένων κατά τήν ἁγίαν σύναξιν θεσμῶν ἐν τοῖς πιστοῖς καί πιστῶς συναγομένοις, ἡ παραμένουσα τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος χάρις.

Τοιγαροῦν ᾤετο δεῖν ὁ μακάριος γέρων, καί παρακαλεῖν οὐκ ἐπαύετο πάντα Χριστιανόν, τῇ ἁγίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίᾳ σχολάζειν, καί μή ἀπολιμπάνεσθαί ποτε τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ τελουμένης ἁγίας συνάξεως, διά τε τούς παραμένοντας αὐτῇ ἁγίους ἀγγέλους, (704) καί ἀπογραφομένους ἑκάστοτε τούς εἰσιόντας καί ἐμφανίζοντας τῷ Θεῷ, καί τάς ὑπέρ αὐτῶν δεήσεις ποιουμένους· καί διά τήν ἀοράτως ἀεί μέν παροῦσαν τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος χάριν, ἰδιοτρόπως δέ μάλιστα κατά τόν καιρόν τῆς ἁγίας συνάξεως, καί ἕκαστον τῶν εὑρισκομένων μεταποιοῦσάν τε καί μετασκευάζουσαν, καί ἀληθές μεταπλάττουσαν ἐπί τό θειότερον ἀναλόγως ἑαυτῷ, καί πρός τό δηλούμενον διά τῶν τελουμένων μυστηρίων ἄγουσαν· κἄν αὐτόν μή αἰσθάνηται, εἴπερ τῶν ἔτι κατά Χριστόν νηπίων ἐστί· καί εἰς τό βάθος τῶν γινομένων ὁρᾷν ἀδυνατεῖ, καί τήν δηλουμένην δι᾿