ℹ️ This corpus has no verse-level morphological tagging. Lemmas come mainly from word-level tagging of other books in the same language (not from this verse), falling back to dictionary form-matching for the rest. Rare homographs can still be misread; verify against the original and a specialist lexicon where precision matters.
ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
I give thanks to you, that you have granted me to live, and to know and worship you, my God; for this is life — to know you, the only God, creator and maker of all things, unbegotten, uncreated, without beginning, and alone; and your Son begotten of you, and the All-Holy Spirit who proceeds — the all-hymned triadic Unity — whom to worship devoutly and to serve surpasses every other glory, whether you name it earthly or heavenly.
For what is the glory of angels, or of archangels, dominions, cherubim, seraphim, and all the other heavenly hosts — or the light of immortality, or joy, or the illumination of immaterial life — except the one light of the Holy Trinity, divided threefold yet undivided, which is one in three characters, known unknowably, as much as it wills to be known?
For it is not possible for a creature to know the creator thus, or to behold him wholly with the mind, as he knows himself by nature. But by grace all the angels and every created nature see and understand — not comprehending, but understanding — insofar as the light wills to be known or to appear to the blind, and insofar as they see at all. For the eye without light does not see, but receives the power to see from the light, since it was also created by it.
This is the constitution of things above and things below; this is the order of all intelligible beings; this is the subjection of all visible things. This is what gave the angels firm standing, when they received knowledge and greater fear, seeing Satan falling, and those led astray with him by conceit. For as many as merely forgot this fell, enslaved by arrogance; but as many as kept this again in their knowledge were lightened by fear and by love, cleaving to their own Master.
Hence the recognition of his lordship also produced the growth of love, because they beheld the flashing splendor of the Trinity ever more fully and clearly; and this in turn repelled every other thought, and made unchangeable those who had received a changeable nature at the beginning, as they remained in the height of the heavens.
A monk is one who is unmingled with the world and holds unceasing converse with God alone: seeing, he is seen; loving, he is loved; and he becomes light, illumined ineffably. Being glorified, he seems rather to grow poorer; and being drawn into intimacy, he remains as a stranger.
Because of boundless wealth I am poor; possessing much, I seem to have nothing, and I say: I thirst amid an abundance of waters. Who will give me what I already possess in abundance, and where shall I find him whom I see every day?
Teaching for monks who have newly renounced the world and the things of the world; and concerning what trust one ought to have toward one's own spiritual father.
Take thought for nothing else besides this. Regard even your own body as a stranger, and look downward as one condemned; and as one walking the road toward death, groan always from the depth of your heart, and wash your face with tears alone.
As for your feet, which have run into evils, do not wish to wash them with water at all — yes, indeed. And keep your hands restrained; do not shamelessly stretch them out toward God — the hands you have so often stretched out unto sin.
Restrain, as much as you have strength, a reckless tongue that is easily prone to sin; for by this alone many, even among the great, have strayed from the straight path and lost the kingdom of heaven.
Listen only to the admonitions of your spiritual father; give him humble answers; and as to God, tell him your thoughts, even to the first assault, and hide nothing.
Do not, then, be deceived, or think that you have found it, before you have acquired eyes of the soul, and the ears of your heart have been purified, washed clean of defilement by your tears, and you begin to see and hear spiritually and to become estranged from all the senses. For then you will behold many things beyond expression, and you will hear yet more things, utterly astonishing, which you will not be able to utter with your tongue.
Such a one never entertains anything carnal; he treads the earth as though walking into the air, and he sees all things, even to the depths, and understands all created things. He knows God, is struck with awe, and worships and glorifies him as maker. Great indeed is it to know his lordship — though all suppose they know this, yet most are deceived; do not doubt it!
But O Lord and Creator of all things, who made me, a mortal creature, from earth, and honored me with immortal grace, and gave me to live and to speak and to move and to glorify you, the Master of all — grant me, Master, wretched as I am, both to fall down before you and to ask for what is profitable.
For I do not know how I was brought into the world, nor what these things here are which men suppose to be real. What my own sight is, my God, and what the things seen are, I cannot say — how we, all mankind, have become vain and lack right judgment concerning the things that are.
You reign over the things above and the things below, and I alone do not shrink from opposing you. Grant to the destitute one — grant to me, the all-wretched one — to cast off every wickedness of my soul, which pride and vain arrogance together crush and shatter — woe is me!
Give me humility, give me a helping hand, and cleanse the filth of my soul; and grant me tears of repentance, tears of longing, tears of salvation — tears that cleanse the darkness of my mind and make me, from above, radiant: me who desires to see you, the light of the world, the light of my own eyes, wretched as I am. Grant tears too for a heart full of the evils of this life, full of many afflictions and of the envy of those who contrived my exile — or rather, to speak more truly, of my benefactors, my masters, my truly friends — to whom, in place of evils, grant good things, my Christ: the eternal things, the rich and divine things, which you have prepared unto ages of ages for those who long for you and love you fervently.
An alphabetic acrostic by the same author, twofold in each letter, exhorting and guiding him who has newly withdrawn from the world to run forward unto the perfection of life.
Regard as a gift the saving of us, all mortals — for indeed we were bought with divine blood — a gift that shows us to be gods by the power of him who calls us; for this is the incarnation of the Master, that you may know by experience the outcome of your deeds: the most wonderful of all things seen!
Consider yourself more worthless than all; this above all makes you an heir of the kingdom — a stranger, poorer and more humble than others: truly great things, if you achieve these.
Mourning daily accomplishes all things, for this is sweet beyond food and drink, teaching the knowledge of things transient and things abiding; for it is the first to separate one from the whole world.
Keep always the remembrance of death, for this is the cause of humility. Purified and illumined in heart by these things — O the wonder sought by all! — may you be counted worthy to see clearly the divine light, for it is an immaterial arrow from the Immaterial One. And Christ is perfect love; he who possesses it is God by adoption, illuminating the souls that seek him out. These alone shall live — let no one be deceived!
How do you bear with us? How do you sustain us? How is it that you do not requite us at once? And how, though you are outside all things, do you see all things that are to be done?
A supplication by the same author to God; and how, being united to God and seeing the glory of God operating within himself, he was struck with amazement.
同一作者向神所獻的祈禱；並論他如何因與神聯合、且見神的榮耀在自己裡面運行，而心生驚駭。
1:270
πῶςἐνἐμοίκατανοῶ, ἐνοὐρανῷδὁρῶσε;
How is it that I perceive you within me, and yet see you in heaven?
You who caused the light of your glory to shine forth to me, my God, through your apostle and disciple and servant, the all-holy Symeon — shine upon me also now, and teach me in the Spirit to sing hymns to him, new and old together, divine and hidden, so that through me your knowledge, my God, may be shown wonderful, and your great wisdom may be displayed the more; and all who hear will praise you, my Christ, because by your grace I speak in new tongues.
There is pain for me in not being able to embrace you wholly and to be satisfied as I long to be, and I groan. Yet because I do also see you, this too is enough for me, and it shall be glory and joy and a crown of kingship — beyond all the delightful and desirable things of the world. This will show me equal to the angels, and perhaps, my Master, will make me even greater than they.
For if you are invisible to them in essence, and inaccessible in nature, yet are seen by me, then surely you are also united to me in the essence of your nature; for what is yours is not divided, nor is it split apart at all — but your nature is your essence, and your essence is your nature.
Having partaken, then, of your flesh, I partake of your nature, and I truly share in your essence, becoming a co-partaker of divinity; and moreover, becoming an heir in the body, I understand myself to be greater than the bodiless ones. I become a son of God, as you have said — not to angels, but to us — thus calling us gods: 'I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.'
Glory to your compassion and to your dispensation, that you became man, though God by nature — remaining unchangeably and unconfusedly both this and that — and have made me, mortal by nature, a god by adoption and by your grace, through your Spirit, having as God paradoxically united the things that were separated.
But it is not all whom you see that you also know, my God; rather, by loving them, you know only those who love you, and to them in a special way you manifest yourself. Though a sun hidden from all mortal nature, you rise upon your own, to be seen by them; and there rise in you those who were formerly darkened — fornicators, adulterers, and profligates, sinners, tax collectors.
Those who repent become sons of Your divine light; and light surely begets light, so they themselves too become light — children of God, as it is written, and gods by grace.
As many as shall keep Your divine commandments well, as many as shall renounce the vain and deceitful world, as many as shall hate parents and brothers without [true] hatred, considering them as strangers and wayfarers in this life, as many as shall become stripped of wealth and possessions and utterly renounce attachment to them, as many as shall abhor from the soul empty glory and the praises of men for the sake of the glory above — as many as have completely cut off their own will and become like guileless sheep to their shepherds, as many as have become dead in body to every evil deed, having toiled in the labors of the virtues, and living by the will of their helmsman alone, being put to death through obedience and again brought to life, as many as through fear of God and remembrance of death weep every night and day and fall down in mind at the feet of the Master, begging mercy and forgiveness of their failings — these come to be in a settled disposition of the good through the constant performance of good deeds, mourning each day, and by persistent knocking they draw mercy to themselves.
But since they are unable to find an end of the light, purification is unending for such as these; for the more I shall be purified and made radiant, wretched as I am, and the more the Spirit that purifies me shall appear, it always seems to me a beginning both of purification and of vision.
I know that it is much, but the amount I do not know; I desire more and always groan, because what has been given is little — even though I consider it much — in comparison with that which I surmise to lie far off from me, which, seeing, I desire; and I seem to have nothing, not perceiving at all the wealth given to me.
Listen, believe what I experience: the sun is sweet, ineffably drawing the soul, through conscious perception, into a longing inexpressible and divine.
Seeing it, the soul is inflamed and burns with longing, and wishes to contain within herself the whole of what appears, but she cannot, and she grieves at this, and does not consider it good merely to see or merely to experience it.
When, then, the One who is seen — being uncontainable by all, truly inaccessible — shall will to have mercy on my afflicted and humbled soul, suddenly, just as He appears to me shining before my face, so entire does He appear within me, flashing forth, and wholly fills me, humble as I am, with the whole of joy, with every desire and divine sweetness; sudden is the change, strange the transformation, and what is accomplished in me proves inexpressible.
For if someone were to see this sun, which we all see, having descended within the heart and dwelling there entire and shining just the same, would he not become as one dead with wonder and speechless, and would not all who beheld him be amazed?
But he who sees the Maker of this sun shining within him after the manner of a luminary, acting, speaking — how shall he not be astonished at seeing this, how shall he not tremble, how shall he not love Him who gives life?
The many, having believed from hearing, loved Him, and for His sake the saints died and live; but those who have also partaken of vision of Him and of light, having been known [by Him] and having come to know Him, how shall they not long for Him?
And how shall they not renounce all honor and glory, having come to be above the glory that is on earth and above all honor — they who have desired the Master who is beyond the earth, beyond all things seen, or rather who made all things seen, yes, and the things unseen too, and who have found and received and possess without lack every good thing from Him, and indeed every longing, every desire for the eternal goods, the things divine?
From that ever-living fountain they grew rich; grant, O Master, that we too, and all who seek You and desire You fervently, may be satisfied with it abundantly, so that we too may delight together with Your saints in the eternal goods, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
That he who has become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, being seized by His light and power, is borne above all the passions, not being harmed by their proximity.
Who could worthily go forth according to Your commandments and behold the light of Your face — great, wondrous, not contained at all in this heavy and darksome world — that light which takes the one who beholds it away from the world, even with the body! O strange mystery!
This man who desires the things of the Spirit, this man who in body draws near to other bodies, can nevertheless be holy in spirit; for outside the world and these bodies there is no appetite of fleshly passion, but rather a certain freedom from passion.
He who has loved this freedom from passion, and from that embrace has gained life — even if you should seem to see him behaving indecorously, and as it were deserting to the [carnal] act, know that it is the dead body that does this!
I do not mean apart from the soul, by which the body is moved, but apart from evil desire; for the pleasure of good freedom from passion, and the light that loves me arising from it, ineffably setting my whole mind outside itself, snatches it away, and holding it naked with an immaterial hand, does not let me fall from its love, nor even conceive a thought of passionate attachment, but embraces it unceasingly, and longing sets my soul aflame, and there is in me no other conscious perception.
For by as much as the purest bread is more precious and sweeter than dung, by so much more incomparably are the things above more precious than the things below, to those who have tasted well.
For the simplicity of our words has, in deed, acquired true wisdom, drawing near to God and worshipping Him, from whom all wisdom of life is given, through which I am refashioned, and indeed am deified, beholding God unto the ages of ages. Amen.
I have heard a strange thing, full of amazement: an immaterial nature, harder than stone, has suffered the same as what is called adamant, which, though not softened by fire or by iron, becomes like wax when mingled with lead.
Now at last I believed that a small stream of water, given time, hollows out the hardness of rock, and that truly nothing in this life is unchangeable.
Does God, then, will even now to be seen by sinners — He who long ago ascended above and sat down on His throne, in the paternal heaven, and remains hidden?
For He hid Himself from the eyes of the divine apostles, and only Stephen, as we have heard, afterward saw the heavens opened, and then said: 'I see the Son standing at the right hand of the glory of the Father'; and immediately, as one who had spoken blasphemy, he is stoned by the very teachers of the law, and dies by the law of nature, and lives forever.
Yet he himself was an apostle, and was sanctified, and was wholly filled with the All-Holy Spirit; and it was the beginning of the proclamation, and there was a multitude of unbelievers, who, believing in Christ through the apostles, also received the grace of faith, which is a gift.
But now, what then does this strange thing that is happening in me mean, and what could the fearful astonishment of what is now being accomplished intend to be?
For many have received mercy through divine loving-kindness, yet they too offered something of their own — faith, or indeed other virtues and acceptable deeds; but I, considering myself deprived of all these, am beside myself, and I have not the strength to bear the things that are happening to me — to me, prodigal from the womb — from God who created the whole creation by His word; things which I even shudder to consider, and how shall I set them down in words?
What hand could serve, what reed-pen could write, what word could express, what tongue could tell forth, what lips could speak, the things that are seen happening in me, being accomplished throughout the whole day?
For even in the night itself, and in the very darkness, I see Christ fearfully opening the heavens to me, and Himself bending down and being beheld by me together with the Father and the Spirit — a thrice-holy light, one being in the three, and the three in one.
These are altogether the light, and the light is the three-in-one, which, beyond the sun, illumines my soul and shines upon my mind, darkened as it was.
For my mind, from the beginning, did not see what it later saw, but I was blind, believe me, and not seeing; and for this reason the wonder astonishes me all the more, whenever I consider how He opens the eye of my mind, and how He grants the seeing, and is Himself the thing seen.
For those who see, see in the light of the Spirit, and those who see in this light behold the Son; and he who has been deemed worthy to see the Son sees the Father; and he who contemplates the Father surely sees Him together with the Son.
But just as in a drop the whole nature of the waters is shown — of what quality and what kind the form is — and just as from the edge of a fringe the whole fabric is known, and, as they say, from its claws the beast, the lion, [is known]; so I see the whole, embracing me, in that little drop, and I worship that very One, Christ and my God.
But I had in my mind a small consolation, that I not be utterly consumed by fire, that I not be burned up like wax by fire, as the prophet said — namely, that I remained far off from the unapproachable fire, and stood in the midst of darkness, and hid myself within it, so that, as it were through a small aperture, I could see, though growing dizzy.
While I was engaged in these things, occupying my mind, and, as it were, seeming to gaze fixedly into heaven, and trembling lest, admitting me further, He should consume me — I found that very One whom I had been seeing from afar, whom Stephen saw when the heavens were opened, and whom Paul, seeing later, was blinded by — wholly, in truth, as fire in the midst of my heart.
Being thrown into confusion, then, by the wonder, and trembling greatly, I was beside myself, wholly unstrung, wholly at a loss; and, unable to bear the unbearable weight of the glory, I turned away, and in the night I fled from the perceptions of this place, and, having covered myself with my own thoughts, I hid myself within them, as it were entering into a tomb, and, instead of a stone, having laid this heaviest body upon myself, I was covered over and hid myself, [thinking] as it seemed, from Him who is present everywhere, who once raised me up, dead and buried.
For, shuddering, and not having the strength to look upon His glory, I chose rather to creep in and remain in the tomb and dwell with the dead, myself living in the tomb, than to be utterly consumed by fire and perish entirely.
There, sitting continually, I must mourn unceasingly, and I, the prodigal, must weep, because I have failed to obtain Him whom I longed for, and have become one lying in the tomb.
Yet living though dead, underground, covered over with a stone, I found Life — God Himself, He who gives life — to whom belongs glory and honor now and unto the ages. Amen.
12. Theology concerning the one Godhead in three hypostases, that is one in every respect; and also concerning the things which, employing humility, he says about himself, rebuking the conceit of those who suppose themselves to be something.
Passions of anger and of wrath, from which arises for me a vapor, a mist upon my head, and they work blindness in my noetic eyes; for, alas, they are covered over, and are compelled to close in the murk, and I am deprived of You, my light, whom everyone desires, but few seek out.
But even those who have been deemed worthy to partake of Your ineffable mysteries, and to receive materially, in immaterial conscious perception, of the fearful mysteries — mysteries inexpressible to all — and to know the invisible glory in visible things, and the strange mystery which was accomplished in the world, are altogether very few, I know well; those who came to be in clear contemplation of these things, given by Him who was in the beginning before all the ages, [namely] the Son, God and Word, from the Father together with the Spirit — a threefold light in the one, and one in the three.
For indeed, in both respects, there is one light — Father, Son, and Spirit — being undivided in the three persons without confusion, yet united also themselves according to the divine nature of source, glory, power, and will alike.
And a face without eyes ought certainly not to be called [a face], for it lacks the greater part, or rather, one should say, lacks the whole; for the sun, should it be deprived of the beauty of light, would itself first perish, and then all creation, which has obtained from it its being lit and its seeing.
So too God, in the noetic realm, should He be deprived of one — either the Son or the Spirit — would no longer be Father; nor indeed would He exist as living, having cast off the Spirit, from whom both life and being are given to all.
For no one among men has ever known God's name, nor His nature, nor His form, nor His shape, nor His hypostasis, so as to speak it, and write it, and pass it on to others; but just as the shining sun, sinking into the clouds, is itself not seen at all, nor does it appear with full light, but gives its light only dimly to those on earth, so understand my God to be hidden from us, and a great, deep darkness holds us all.
But understand here, above all, the more wondrous thing: for the light of God is not contracted, as is the sun's, but shines everywhere and illumines all things; yet I, in the midst of all, am enveloped in darkness and am deprived of the light that made me.
Who then would not weep for me, and who would not mourn, and who would not groan over me and shed tears, that God exists in all things and everywhere, and is Himself wholly light, in whom there is altogether no shadow of turning, no presence of night, no obstruction of darkness arising at all — but He is spread out over all, and shines inaccessibly, and yet is beheld as accessible and apprehensible by those who are worthy: little, indeed, as we have said, in comparison with the whole ray and with the sun itself, when it shall appear whole; but altogether much in comparison with those who sit in darkness, because they have been counted worthy to see even a small ray.
But I, wretched man, prefer the darkness, and am anxious about the things in it, and add to the murk, and it becomes thicker for my humble soul, from which the passions are nourished and come to life in me and become for me dragons, and creeping things, and serpents, ever disturbing the members of my soul; for indeed empty and vain glory bites me, and has fixed its teeth in my heart; and, having become weak and utterly undone from it, wild dogs came, a multitude of beasts came, and, finding me lying there, they devoured me.