Letter 758

To Kyrion. The one who beats his breast on account of his sins is the very person who may be said to praise God "with timbrel and dance" [Psalm 150:4]; for in striking his breast with compunction, and taking along to his supplication the dance of his mourning thoughts, and dipping the reed-pen of repentance into the inkpot of the tears that have been gathered, night-dark, out of gloom and grief, and writing his petition upon the unrolled papyrus of his own heart, and offering it to the Lord, he will not be despised by Jesus Christ, who died on behalf of sinners.

Ὁ διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας τύπτων τὸ στῆθος, οὗτος ὃν λέγοιτο αἰνεῖν τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τυμπάνῳ καὶ χορῷ· πατάσσων γὰρ τὰ στέρνα μετὰ κατανύξεως, καὶ συμπαραλαμβάνων πρὸς ἱκεσίαν τὸν χορὸν τῶν θρηνωδῶν λογισμῶν, καὶ τὸν κάλαμον τῆς μετανοίας βάψας εἰς τὴν πυξίδα τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς στυγνότητος καὶ τῆς λύπης νυκτιχρόων συλλεγέντων δακρύων, γράφων τε τὴν δέησιν εἰς τὸν ἐξαπλωθέντα χάρτην τῆς οἰκείας καρδίας, καὶ προσφέρων Κυρίῳ, οὐκ ἐξουθενωθήσεται ὑπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ ἀποθανόντος ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτωλῶν.