1

Deprecationes iiii

OF DAMASCENUS.

The Creator and Sustainer of the heavens, and the Artificer of every cosmic and supracomic creation, of whom no place among all things is a place; if indeed place is defined as that which contains what is within; in you an infant will be created by himself without seed, and he will show you to be a spacious treasury of his divinity which fills all things and alone is uncircumscribed. Whole, impassibly contracted within you, and remaining whole outside? and having himself as an incomprehensible place! from you the sun of righteousness will rise, two natures, though the Acephali rage; one hypostasis, though Nestorius be torn asunder. For the Father will send forth his own Son like a divine, spiritual seed, and the Word will be born as flesh from you unchangeably. And the Father, having impassibly begotten the Son the first time naturally, will impassibly beget the same the second time economically. For like a shell you will conceive in your womb from heaven, from the lightning of the divinity, and you will bear the precious pearl Christ, the only-begotten light, who begets not, but is ever begotten, whose being begotten is his only hypostatic property. In you the laws of nature will also be made new, and things unmixable will come together. For there will be virginity giving birth. A mixture of divinity and humanity, of passion and impassibility, of life and death, so that in all things the lesser may be overcome by the greater. For you will not be a vessel of God's energies, but substantially of God's hypostasis; and the Creator will take a portion from you, the first-fruits of the human mixture, being made flesh from the Holy Spirit and from your blood. Prayer of John of Damascus.}1 Master, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, who alone have authority to forgive sins to men, as you are good and love mankind, overlook all my failings in knowledge and in ignorance, and make me worthy to partake without condemnation of your divine, and glorious, and undefiled, and life-giving mysteries, not for punishment, not for the addition of sins, but for purification, and sanctification, and a pledge of the future life and kingdom, for a wall, and help, and the overthrow of adversaries, for the blotting out of my many transgressions. For you are a God of mercy, and of compassion, and of love for mankind; and to you we send up glory 96.817 with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, now, and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Another prayer of the same John of Damascus. I stand before the doors of your temple, and I do not desist from terrible thoughts. But you, Christ our God, who justified the tax collector, and had mercy on the Canaanite woman, and opened the gates of paradise to the thief, open to me the bowels of your love for mankind, and receive me as I approach and touch you, like the prostitute and the woman with the issue of blood. For the one, having touched the hem of your garment, readily received her healing; and the other, having held your undefiled feet, obtained the remission of her sins. But I, the wretched one, about to receive your whole body, may I not be consumed, but receive me as you did them, and enlighten the senses of my soul, burning away the accusations of my sin. Through the intercessions of her who bore you without seed, and of the heavenly powers; for

1

Deprecationes iiii

ΤΟΥ ∆ΑΜΑΣΚΗΝΟΥ.

Ὁ τῶν οὐρανῶν δημιουργός τε καὶ συνοχεὺς, καὶ παντὸς ἐγκοσμίου καὶ ὑπερκοσμίου Τεχνίτης δημιουργήματος, οὗ τόπος οὐδεὶς τῶν πάντων ἐστίν· εἴπερ τὸ περιέχον τῶν ἐνόντων τόπος ὁρίζεται· ἐν σοὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοῦ ἀσπόρως βρέφος δημιουργηθήσεται, καί σε ταμεῖον εὐρύχωρον δείξει τῆς τὰ πάντα πληρούσης αὐτοῦ καὶ μόνης ἀπεριγράφου θεότητος. Ὅλος ἀπαθῶς ἐν σοὶ συστελλόμενος, καὶ μένων ὅλος ἐκτός; καὶ τόπον ἔχων ἑαυτὸν ἀπερίληπτον! ἐκ σοῦ ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἀνατελεῖ ἥλιος, δύο φύσεις κἂν Ἀκέφαλοι μαίνωνται· μία ὑπόστασις, κἂν Νεστόριος διαῤῥηγνύηται. Οἱονεὶ γὰρ θεῖον σπόρον πνευματικὸν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ Υἱὸν ἐξαποστελεῖ ὁ Πατὴρ, καὶ σὰρξ ὁ Λόγος ἐκ σοῦ ἀτρέπτως γεννήσεται. Καὶ ἀπαθῶς γεννήσας τὸν Υἱὸν ὁ Πατὴρ τὸ πρότερον φυσικῶς, ἀπαθῶς τὸν αὐτὸν γεννήσει, καὶ τὸ δεύτερον οἰκονομικῶς. Ὥσπερ γάρ τις κόγχος οὐρανόθεν ἐκ τῆς ἀστραπῆς τῆς θεότητος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξεις, καὶ τέξεις τὸν πολύτιμον μαργαρίτην Χριστὸν, τὸ μονογενὲς φῶς, τὸ μὴ γεννῶν, ἀεὶ δὲ γεννώμενον, οὗ τὸ γεννᾶσθαι ὑποστατικὸν μόνον ἰδίωμα. Ἐν σοὶ καὶ νόμοι φύσεως καινοτομηθήσονται, καὶ τὰ ἄμικτα συμβήσεται. Ἔσται γὰρ παρθενία τίκτουσα. Μίξις θεότητος καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος, πάθους καὶ ἀπαθείας, ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου, ὡς ἂν ἐν πᾶσιν ἐκνικηθείη τὸ χεῖρον ὑπὸ τοῦ κρείττονος. Οὐ γὰρ ἐνεργείας Θεοῦ ὑπάρξεις δοχεῖον, ἀλλ' οὐσιωδῶς τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ὑποστάσεως· καὶ μοῖραν ἐκ σοῦ προσλήψεται ὁ ∆ημιουργὸς, τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου φυράματος ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ τῶν σῶν αἱμάτων σαρκωθείς. Εὐχὴ Ἰωάννου τοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ.}1 ∆έσποτα Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ, ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ὁ μόνος ἔχων ἐξουσίαν ἀνθρώποις ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας, ὡς ἀγαθὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, πάριδέ μου πάντα τὰ ἐν γνώσει καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ πταίσματα, καὶ ἀξίωσόν με ἀκατακρίτως μεταλαβεῖν τῶν θείων, καὶ ἐνδόξων, καὶ ἀχράντων, καὶ ζωοποιῶν σου μυστηρίων, μὴ εἰς κόλασιν, μὴ εἰς προσθήκην ἁμαρτιῶν, ἀλλ' εἰς καθαρισμὸν, καὶ ἁγιασμὸν, καὶ ἀῤῥαβῶνα τῆς μελλούσης ζωῆς καὶ βασιλείας, εἰς τεῖχος, καὶ βοήθειαν, καὶ ἀνατροπὴν τῶν ἐναντίων, εἰς ἐξάλειψιν τῶν πολλῶν μου πλημμελημάτων. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ Θεὸς ἐλέους, καὶ οἰκτιρμῶν, καὶ φιλανθρωπίας· καὶ σοὶ τὴν δόξαν 96.817 ἀναπέμπομεν σὺν τῷ Πατρὶ, καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν, καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν. Εὐχὴ ἑτέρα τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ ∆αμασκηνοῦ. Πρὸ τῶν θυρῶν τοῦ ναοῦ σου παρέστηκα, καὶ τῶν δεινῶν λογισμῶν οὐκ ἀφίσταμαι. Ἀλλὰ σὺ, Χριστὲ ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ τελώνην δικαιώσας, καὶ Χαναναίαν ἐλεήσας, καὶ τῷ λῃστῇ παραδείσου πύλας ἀνοίξας, ἄνοιξόν μου τὰ σπλάγχνα τῆς φιλανθρωπίας σου, καὶ δέξαι μου προσερχόμενον, καὶ ἁπτόμενόν σου, ὡς τὴν πόρνην καὶ τὴν αἱμόῤῥουν. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ κρασπέδου σου ἁψαμένη, εὐχερῶς τὴν ἴασιν ἔλαβεν· ἡ δὲ τοὺς σοὺς ἀχράντους πόδας κρατήσασα, τὴν λύσιν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐκομίσατο. Ἐγὼ δὲ ὁ ἐλεεινὸς, ὅλον σου τὸ σῶμα πολλῶν δέξασθαι, μὴ καταφλεχθείην, ἀλλὰ δέξαι με ὥσπερ ἐκείνας, καὶ φώτισόν μου τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια, καταφλέγων μου τὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἐγκλήματα. Πρεσβείαις τῆς ἀσπόρως τεκούσης σε, καὶ τῶν ἐπουρανίων δυνάμεων· ὅτι