Letter 448

To Euthymius the Monk. For what indeed did you expect when you chose stillness and withdrawal? Assuredly afflictions, and temptations, and the countless assaults and contrivances of cruel demons. How then do you now grow impatient, and chafe, and writhe in distress, pierced in manifold ways by the spears of temptations, and with your own soul threshed into pieces by the saw-toothed wheels of the demons' cart, and chopped like chaff? But endure thankfully and patiently, with an iron resolve, and with constant supplication, and with vigorous wakefulness, and with noble self-control, abiding close to the Mightier One [God], and you shall behold the end.

Τί γὰρ δὴ προσεδόκησας προαιρούμενος τὴν ἡσυχίαν, καὶ τὴν ἀναχώρησιν; Πάντως θλίψεις, καὶ πειρασμούς, καὶ χαλεπῶν δαιμόνων τὰς μυρίας προσπτώσεις, καὶ μηχανάς. Πῶς οὖν νῦν δυσανασχετεῖς, καὶ δυσχεραίνεις, καὶ ἀλύεις κεντούμενος ποικίλως ταῖς τῶν πειρασμῶν λόγχαις, καὶ τοῖς πριστηροειδέσι τροχοῖς τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων ἁμάξης τὴν σαυτοῦ ψυχήν, ἀλοώμενος τμήμασι, καὶ δίκην ἀχύρου κοπτόμενος; Ἀλλ' ὑπόμεινον εὐχαρίστως, καὶ μακροθύμως, φρονήματι σιδαρῷ, καὶ ἱκεσίᾳ πυκνῇ, καὶ ἀγρυπνίᾳ εὐτόνῳ, καὶ ἐγκρατείᾳ καλῇ προσπαραμένων τῷ Κρείττονι, καὶ θεάσῃ τὸ τέλος.