Letter 211: We all greatly marvel at the mystery of the Incarnation — and rightly so.

Letter 211. To the same man [Zosimus]. "Woe to those who are with child, and to those who give suck in those days" [Matthew 24:19]. He means, it says, the souls pregnant with divine love but not daring to speak out boldly and to bring forth the confession and the firm stand concerning God; and those who have acquired a childish and immature judgment about the divine long-suffering, and who do not attend to the hope of the rewards, but are slackened by threats or assaults, and are stripped bare of the things to come.

ΣΙΑ΄. – ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ. Οὐαὶ ταῖς ἐν γαστρὶ ἐχούσαις, καὶ ταῖς θηλαζούσαις ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις. Ταῖς ἐγκυμονούσαις, φησί, τὸν θεῖον ἔρωτα ψυχαῖς, καὶ οὐ θαῤῥούσαις παῤῥησιάσασθαι, καὶ τεκεῖν τὴν περὶ Θεοῦ ὁμολογίαν καὶ ἔνστασιν, καὶ ταῖς νηπιώδη καὶ ἀτελῆ περὶ τὴν θείαν μακροθυμίαν γνώμην κεκτημέναις, καὶ τῇ ἐλπίδι τῶν ἀμοιβῶν οὐ προσεχούσαις, ἀλλ’ ἀπειλαῖς ἢ προσβολαῖς χαυνωθείσαις, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων γυμνωθείσαις.