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I mean fasting, harsh discipline, labors, unkempt hair, being nailed with irons, a hair-cloth garment, a multitude of calluses on the knees, sleeping on the ground, grass for a bed's bedding, and every other hardship of life? These things are good, if the works of your intellectual and hidden labor are carried out well in knowledge and wisdom and reason; but if, apart from this, you perhaps think something great of those things and seem to be something when you are nothing without it, you are perhaps like lepers, adorned with splendid garments to deceive those who see you. But saying farewell to all external things, hasten eagerly to the interior work alone, in the sweat and labors (421) of divine virtues and holy contests, so that you may appear to me as virgins in your thoughts, with all your mind enlightened, and be united to me, the Word, in the word of my wisdom and superior knowledge. The whole multitude of my holy people, come eagerly to me your Master. Come, be loosed from the bonds of the world, hate every deceit of the senses, flee swiftly the causes of evils, the desire of sight and of the flesh, the arrogance of mind and of life, and every other vain thought. Know that these things belong to the world of iniquity, leading to destruction the one who uses them with passion and attachment in life and who unfortunately becomes an enemy even of me. Receive in your heart the desire for my divine things, for eternal goods, which having become incarnate I have prepared for you as for a friend, so that you may always feast with me ineffably at the table of my kingdom, which is in heaven with all the saints. For know yourself, that you are mortal and corruptible, being a small remnant of life in this world, and that nothing from the world will follow you

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νηστείαν λέγω, σκληραγωγίαν, πόνους, κόμην αὐχμηράν, σιδήρων καθηλώσεις, τρίχινον ἔσθος, τύλων πλῆθος γονάτων, ξηροκοιτίαν, χόρτον εἰς στρῶσιν κοίτης καί πᾶσαν ἄλλην κακοπάθειαν βίου; Καλά γε ταῦτα, εἰ καλῶς ἐκτελεῖται τά τῆς νοερᾶς καί κρυπτῆς ἐργασίας ὑμῶν ἐν γνώσει καί σοφίᾳ καί λόγῳ˙ εἰ δ᾿ ἐκτός ταύτης ἐπ᾿ ἐκείνοις μέγα τι φρονεῖτε ἴσως καί τό εἶναι δοκεῖτε μηδέν δέ ὄντες ἐκείνης χωρίς, τάχα λεπροῖς προσεοίκατε, λαμπραῖς ἐσθῆσιν ἐστολισμένοι τῶν ὁρώντων εἰς πλάνην. Ἀλλά τοῖς ἐκτός χαίρειν πᾶσιν εἰπόντες μόνης γενέσθαι τῆς ἐντός ἐργασίας σπεύσατε θερμῶς ἐν ἱδρῶσι καί πόνοις (421) θείων ἀρετῶν καί ἱερῶν ἀγώνων, ἵν᾿ ὀφθῆτε μοι παρθένοι ταῖς ἐννοίαις, πεφωτισμένοι τήν διάνοιαν πᾶσαν, καί ἑνωθῆτε τῷ Λόγῳ μοι ἐν λόγῳ σοφίας ἐμῆς καί γνώσεως τῆς κρείττω. Τοῦ ἱεροῦ μου ἡ πληθύς λαοῦ πᾶσα, δεῦρο σπουδαίως πρός με τόν σόν ∆εσπότην. ∆εῦρο, τῶν δεσμῶν λύθητι τῶν τοῦ κόσμου, μίσησον πλάνην τῶν αἰσθήσεων πᾶσαν, φύγε τῶν κακῶν τάς αἰτίας ὀξέως, ἐπιθυμίαν ὁράσεως σαρκός τε, ἀλαζονείαν φρενῶν τε καί τοῦ βίου καί πᾶσαν ἄλλην ἐνθύμησιν ματαίαν. Ἅ γνῶθι κόσμου ὄντα τῆς ἀδικίας, εἰς ὄλεθρον ἄγοντα τόν κεχρημένον αὐτοῖς ἐμπαθῶς καί προσπαθῶς ἐν βίῳ καί ἐχθρόν κἀμοῦ δυστυχῶς ἐκτελοῦντα. Λαβοῦ τοῦ πόθου τῶν ἐμῶν ἐν καρδίᾳ θείων πραγμάτων, ἀγαθῶν αἰωνίων, ὧν σοι σαρκωθείς ἡτοίμασα ὡς φίλῳ, ἵν᾿ ᾗς μοι ἀεί συνδαιτυμών ἀφράστως ἐν τῇ τραπέζῃ τῆς ἐμῆς βασιλείας, τῆς ἐν οὐρανοῖς μετά πάντων ἁγίων. Γνῶθι γάρ σαυτόν, ὡς βροτός καί φθαρτός εἶ, ὀλίγον ζωῆς λείψανον ὤν ἐν βίῳ, καί ὡς οὐδέν σοι ἕψεται τῶν ἐκ κόσμῳ