1

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR *

5th Volume 14 D ....................................................................................................................... 1 ON VARIOUS DIFFICULTIES ............................................................................................... 1

5th Volume 14 D ON VARIOUS DIFFICULTIES * OF THE SAINTS DIONYSIUS AND GREGORY TO THOMAS THE SANCTIFIED

PROLOGUE (14∆_012> 1032 To the sanctified servant of God, spiritual Father and teacher, lord

Thomas, Maximus, humble and a sinner, unworthy servant and disciple. Having acquired a disposition of unerring contemplation from a harmonious zeal for divine things,

an unchangeable one, not simply of wisdom, but of its beauty, O you who are greatly beloved by God, you have become a most temperate lover. And the beauty of wisdom is knowledge in practice, or wise practice, of which the character, as being completed through both, is the principle of divine providence and judgment. According to which, having interwoven the mind with sense through the Spirit, you have truly shown how God is by nature disposed to make man according to the image of God, and you have made known the wealth of goodness, showing sumptuously in yourself through the good mixture of opposites God being embodied by the virtues, whose emptying, having measured by its height in imitation, you did not disdain to descend even to me, seeking those things of which one who has suffered them has knowledge. They are chapters of Dionysius and Gregory, of those holy, most renowned and 1033 blessed men, of the truly elect who from of old, according to the purpose of the ages, have been added to God, who truly all

1

ΑΠΑΝΤΑ, ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ τοῦ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ *

5ος Τόμος 14 ∆ ....................................................................................................................... 1 ΠΕΡΙ ∆ΙΑΦΟΡΩΝ ΑΠΟΡΙΩΝ ............................................................................................... 1

5ος Τόμος 14 ∆ ΠΕΡΙ ∆ΙΑΦΟΡΩΝ ΑΠΟΡΙΩΝ * ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ∆ΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΠΡΟΣ ΘΩΜΑΝ ΤΟΝ ΗΓΙΑΣΜΕΝΟΝ

ΠΡΟΛΟΓΟΣ (14∆_012> 1032 Τῷ ἡγιασμένῳ δούλῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, Πατρί πνευματικῷ καί διδασκάλῳ κυρίῳ

Θωμᾶ, Μάξιμος ταπεινός καί ἁμαρτωλός, ἀνάξιος δοῦλος καί μαθητής. Ἀπλανοῦς θεωρίας ἐξ ἐμμελοῦς περί τά θεῖα σπουδῆς ἕξιν λαβών

ἀναλλοίωτον, οὐχ ἁπλῶς σοφίας, ἀλλά τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῆς, Θεῷ λίαν ἠγαπημένε, γέγονας ἐραστής σωφρονέστατος. Σοφίας δέ κάλλος ἐστί γνῶσις ἔμπρακτος, ἤ πρᾶξις ἔνσοφος, ὧν ἐστι χαρακτήρ ὡς δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν συμπληρούμενος, ὁ τῆς θείας προνοίας καί κρίσεως λόγος. Καθ᾿ ὅν αἰσθήσει τόν νοῦν συμπλέξας διά τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἔδειξας ὡς ἀληθῶς πῶς ὁ Θεός κατ᾿ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ποιεῖν πέφυκε τόν ἄνθρωπον, τόν τε πλοῦτον τῆς ἀγαθότητος κατέστησας γνώριμον, πολυτελῶς τῇ καλῇ μίξει τῶν ἐναντίων ἐν σεαυτῷ δεικνύς τόν Θεόν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς σωματούμενον, οὗ τῷ ὕψει συμμετρήσας μιμήσει τήν κένωσιν ἕως ἐμοῦ κατελθεῖν οὐκ ἀπηξίωσας, ἐκεῖνα ζητῶν ὧν πεπονθώς ἔχει τήν εἴδησιν. Εἰσί δέ ∆ιονυσίου καί Γρηγορίου κεφάλαια τῶν ἁγίων ἐκείνων ὑπερευφήμων τε 1033 καί μακαρίων ἀνδρῶν, τῆς ὄντως ἐκλογῆς τῶν ἀνέκαθεν κατά πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων τῷ Θεῷ προσθεμένων, τῶν πᾶσαν ὡς ἀληθῶς