Letter 945

To Antiochus. Do not shrink back and put forward unprofitable excuses, and do not on any account refuse to dare to supplicate the Lord because of the poverty of your virtues. For so the poor man cried out: "And the Lord heard him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions" [Psalm 33:7 LXX]. And what could be more grievous than sin, for those who recognize their own faults and are conscious of them?

Μὴ ὄκνου καὶ προφάσεις ἀσυμφόρους προβάλλου, μηδέλλως τολμᾶν ἱκετεύειν τὸν Κύριον διὰ τὴν πενίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν. Οὕτως γὰρ ὁ πτωχὸς ἐκέκραξε, « Καὶ ὁ Κύριος εἰσήκουσεν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκ πασῶν τῶν θλίψεων αὐτοῦ ἐῤῥύσατο αὐτόν. » Τί δ᾽ ἂν εἴη θλιβωδέστερον ἁμαρτίας τοῖς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιγνώμοσι καὶ συν-αισθομένοις;