Letter 101

To the same person. You have set your reasoning upon a serpent-like envy, upon the bitterness of malice; but you possess the precious wood together with the cross of the Lord, which, if you are willing, is able to sweeten the bitter water of your character. For the great Moses, too, by casting wood into the most bitter water of Marah [Exod. 15:23-25], at once rendered it sweet and exceedingly agreeable. "But we," says the holy Moses, "do not know what we shall sacrifice to the Lord, until we have gone our way three days' journey into the wilderness" [Exod. 5:3, 8:27]. By us sacrifice is understood as prayer, and the wilderness is a certain state stripped of irrational passions, which we define to be perfection. Such a thing, says the Apostle, would be on your behalf; for the saying, "We do not know what we should pray for as we ought" [Rom. 8:26], holds until the state that is both passionless and pure. For surely we shall not even then have such prayers, or such conceptions, as we have now while we are troubled by the adversaries.

Ἐδάφης τὸν λογισμὸν τῷ ὀφιώδει φθόνῳ τῇ πικρίᾳ τῆς βασκανίας · ἀλλ' ἔχεις ξύλον τίμιον σὺν σταυρὸν τοῦ Κυρίου, ἐὰν θελήσῃς, δυνάμενον γλυκᾶναι τὸ πικρὸν ὕδωρ τοῦ ἤθους σου. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ μέγας Μωσῆς ξύλον ἐμβαλὼν εἰς τὸ πικρότατον ὕδωρ τῆς Μερρᾶς, γλυκὺ εὐθέως καὶ προσηνὲς λίαν τοῦτο ἀπειργάσατο. « Ἡμεῖς δὲ, φησὶν ὁ ἅγιος Μωσῆς, οὐκ οἴδαμεν τί θύσωμεν Κυρίῳ, ἕως τοῦ πορευθῶμεν ἡμᾶς ὁδὸν ἡμερῶν τριῶν εἰς τὴν ἔρημον. » Παρ’ ἡμῖν θυσία ἡ προσευχὴ νοεῖται, ἔρημος δὲ κατάστασίς τίς ἐστιν ἐστερημένη παθῶν ἀλόγων, ὅπερ τελειότητα ὁριζόμεθα εἶναι. Τοιοῦτον ἂν εἴη, φησίν, ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, ὁ Ἀπόστολος· τὸ γὰρ, Τί προσευξώμεθα καθ’ ἃ δεῖ, οὐκ οἴδαμεν μέχρι καταστάσεως τῆς ἀπαθοῦς τε καὶ καθαρᾶς. Οὐ γὰρ πάντως καὶ τότε τοιαύτας εὐχὰς, ἢ ἐννοίας ἕξομεν, οἵας νῦν διοχλούμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐναντίων.