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and has strangely altered you with a good alteration. This, then, if you do not serve me with all your works, but you receive a small thought in your heart or a dislike for someone, whether reasonably or unreasonably, and moreover an attack of speech or of an evil notion, if you do not repent fervently with tears and banish these things from yourself through repentance, but also every evil thought of the heart, is not wont to remain; for it is the Divine Spirit, with Me and with the Father as consubstantial with Me, and it suddenly flies away secretly, like the sun setting, and having been hidden as in the twinkling of an eye, it is not seen. How then will it exist in a soul not at all purified, which has never come to the perception of repentance? Or how could a soul full of the thorns of passions and sin bear the nature of unbearable fire, how could it contain the substance that is in every way uncontainable, how, being darkness, could it be mixed with the unapproachable light and not be annihilated by its presence? This is not, child, in any way at all possible! For I am separated from all created things; but since I became a creature, I, the creator of all things, was like men only in the flesh, having taken a soul and a mind just like them. For I did not then make all men gods at the same time, but I indeed became a man; but through faith and the keeping of my commandments, and also through baptism, in the divine communion of my awesome mysteries, I grant life to all. And by saying life, I meant my Divine Spirit; but let them know this, as Paul said, (404) those who have my Spirit in their hearts, have it shining and crying out to my Father, and through them it says to me: O Abba, my Father! For they have become children of God and knowing me with boldness they see and call me father; and it says to each of those who now truly have it in themselves: O children, do not be afraid! Behold, as you see, I am within you and am with you, and I free you once and for all from corruption and from death and I show you whose children and friends, behold, I have made you; rejoice in the Lord!

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καί τήν καλήν ἀλλοίωσιν ξένως ἠλλοίωσέ σε. Τοῦτο οὖν, εἰ μή ἅπασιν ἔργοις με θεραπεύεις, ἀλλά μικρόν εἰσδέξῃ λογισμόν ἐν καρδίᾳ ἤ ἀηδίαν πρός τινα εὐλόγως ἤ ἀλόγως, πρός δέ καί λόγου προσβολήν ἤ πονηρᾶς ἐννοίας εἰ μή μετανοήσειας θερμῶς μετά δακρύων καί ἐξορίσεις ἀπό σοῦ ταῦτα τῇ μετανοίᾳ, ἀλλά καί πᾶσαν πονηράν ἐνθύμησιν καρδίας, οὐ παραμένειν πέφυκε˙ Πνεῦμα γάρ ἐστι Θεῖον, ἐμοί συνόν καί τῷ Πατρί ὡς ὁμοούσιόν μοι, λάθρα δ᾿ αἴφνης ἀφίπταται, ὡς ἥλιος εἰσδύσας, καί κρυβηθέν ὡς ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀφθαλμοῦ, οὐχ ὁρᾶται. Πῶς οὖν ὑπάρξει ἐν ψυχῇ μηδ᾿ ὅλως καθαρθείσῃ, μή εἰς συναίσθησίν ποτε ἐλθούσῃ μετανοίας; Ἤ πῶς καί ὑπενέγκοιτο πυρός ἀστέκτου φύσιν ἀκάνθας γέμουσα παθῶν ψυχή καί ἁμαρτίας, οὐσίαν πῶς χωρήσειεν ἀχώρητον εἰς ἅπαν, πῶς σκότος οὖσα συγκραθῇ φωτί τό ἀπροσίτῳ καί μή ἀφανισθήσεται αὐτοῦ τῇ παρουσίᾳ; Οὐκ ἔστι, τέκνον, οὐδαμῶς δυνατόν ὅλως τοῦτο! Ἐγώ κτισμάτων πάντων γάρ εἰμί κεχωρισμένος˙ ἐπεί δέ κτίσμα γέγονα, τῶν ἁπάντων ὁ κτίστης, σαρκί καί μόνον ὅμοιος ὑπῆρξα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ψυχήν ἀναλαβόμενος καί νοῦν ὁμοίως τούτοις. Οὐδέ γάρ πάντας ἐν τἀυτῷ τότε θεούς ἀνθρώπους πεποίηκα, ἀλλ᾿ ἄνθρωπος ἐγενόμην ἐγώ μέν˙ τῇ πίστει δέ καί τῶν ἐμῶν ἐντολῶν τῇ τηρήσει, ἀλλά καί τῷ βαπτίσματι, ἐν θείᾳ μεταλήψει τῶν φρικτῶν μυστηρίων μου πᾶσι ζωήν δωροῦμαι. Ζωήν δ᾿ εἰπών ἐδήλωσα τό Πνεῦμα μου τό Θεῖον˙ πλήν τοῦτο γινωσκέτωσαν, καθώς εἶπεν ὁ Παῦλος, (404) οἱ ἔχοντες τό Πνεῦμά μου ἐν ταῖς αὐτῶν καρδίαις, λάμπον καί κράζον ἔχουσι πρός τόν ἐμόν Πατέρα, καί πρός με λέγει δι᾿ αὐτῶν˙ Ὦ ἀββᾶ, ὁ πατήρ μου! Ὡς τέκνα γάρ γεγόνασι Θεοῦ καί παρρησίᾳ γνωρίζοντές με βλέπουσι καί πατέρα καλοῦσι˙ λέγει δέ καί πρός ἕκαστον τῶν αὐτό νῦν ἐχόντων ἐν ἑαυτοῖς παναληθῶς˙ Ὦ τέκνα, μή φοβεῖσθε! Ἰδού ἐγώ, ὡς βλέπετε, ἐντός ὑμῶν ὑπάρχω καί σύνειμι, καί τῆς φθορᾶς ἅπαξ καί τοῦ θανάτου ἐλευθερῶ καί δείκνυμι τίνος τέκνα καί φίλους ὑμᾶς, ἰδού, πεποίηκ˙ χαίρετε ἐν Κυρίῳ!