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COMPLETE WORKS, OF MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR *

1st Volume 14 .......................................................................................................................... 1 MYSTAGOGY........................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTERS ON LOVE ................................................................................................. 24 ASCETIC DISCOURSE ........................................................................................................... 61 200 CHAPTERS ON THEOLOGY ............................................................................. 79

1st Volume 14 MYSTAGOGY* Concerning what things are symbols of what is accomplished according to the holy Church during the synaxis

are performed. PREFACE 14__038 How a wise man becomes wiser when he has received an occasion, and a righteous man, having learned

will add to his receiving, according to the divine proverb, you yourself, most honored of all to me, have clearly shown by this experience, teaching by deed that which the divine word wisely suggests. For once having heard me cursorily and briefly, as was possible, relate to a certain other great and truly wise elder in things divine the matters concerning the holy Church and the holy synaxis accomplished in it, contemplated both well and mystically, and as instructively as was possible, you immediately demanded, urging me, to make for you a written account of these things, wishing to have the text as a remedy for forgetfulness and an aid to memory, saying that memory naturally has time that overpowers it; and that time is able imperceptibly through forgetfulness to steal away and completely efface the types and images stored within it, and for this reason it is entirely in need of a renewing way, by which the power of the word, ever flourishing, is by nature able to preserve memory unaffected and undiminished. How much more than simply

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ΑΠΑΝΤΑ, ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ τοῦ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ *

1ος Τόμος 14 .......................................................................................................................... 1 ΜΥΣΤΑΓΩΓΙΑ........................................................................................................................ 1 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΓΑΠΗΣ ................................................................................................. 24 ΛΟΓΟΣ ΑΣΚΗΤΙΚΟΣ ........................................................................................................... 61 ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΑ Σ' (200) ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ ............................................................................. 79

1ος Τόμος 14 ΜΥΣΤΑΓΩΓΙΑ* Περὶ τοῦ τίνων σύμβολα τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἁγίαν Ἐκκλησίαν ἐπὶ τῆς συνάξεως

τελούμενα καθεστήκῃ. ΠΡΟΟΙΜΙΟΝ 14__038 Πῶς σοφώτερος γίνεται λαβὼν ἀφορμὴν ὁ σοφός, καὶ δίκαιος γνοὺς

προσθήσει τοῦ δέχεσθαι, κατὰ τὴν θείαν παροιμίαν, σαφῶς αὐτός, πάντων μοι τιμιώτατε, κατ᾽ αὐτὴν ἔδειξας τὴν πεῖραν, ἔργῳ διδάξας ὅπερ ὁ θεῖος σοφῶς ὑπαινίσσεται λόγος. Ἅπαξ γὰρ ἀκούσας μου κατ᾽ ἐπιδρομὴν ἐπιτόμως, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, ἀφηγουμένου τὰ ἄλλῳ τινὶ μεγάλῳ γέροντι, καὶ ὄντως τὰ θεῖα σοφῷ περί τε τῆς ἁγίας Ἐκκλησίας, καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ ἐπιτελουμένης ἁγίας συνάξεως καλῶς τε καὶ μυστικῶς θεωρηθέντα, καὶ ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα διδασκαλικῶς, ἀπῄτεις με κατεπείγων ἐξ αὐτῆς ἔγγραφόν σοι ποιεῖσθαι τὴν τούτων διήγησιν, λήθης φάρμακον καὶ βοήθειαν μνήμης ἔχειν τὸ γράμμα βεβουλημένος, φυσικῶς τὸν χρόνον ἐχούσης φάσκων δαμάζοντα· καὶ ἀνεπαισθήτως διὰ λήθης τῶν ἐναποκειμένων συλᾷν τε καὶ ἀφανίζειν παντελῶς τοὺς τύπους καὶ τὰς εἰκόνας δυνάμενον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πάντως δεομένης τοῦ ἀνακαινίζοντος τρόπου, καθ᾽ ὃν ἡ τοῦ λόγου δύναμις διὰ παντὸς ἀκμάζουσα συντηρεῖν πέφυκε τὴν μνήμην ἀπαθῆ καὶ ἀμείωτον. Ὅσον δὲ τοῦ ἁπλῶς