Letter 167

To Philagrius the Reader [anagnostes, a lector in minor orders]. If anyone should be able to smell, in his soul, the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, he will be rekindled in his condition as though raised from the dead, and he will marvel from what state into what state he has been transferred, and he will cry aloud the words of Hezekiah: "You raised up my life, and being comforted I lived, and you cast behind me all my sins" [cf. Isaiah 38, the prayer of Hezekiah], so that I may no longer imagine the phantoms of my faults, having obtained a pure heart for the time to come.

Εἴ τις δυνηθείη κατὰ ψυχὴν ὀσφρανθῆναι τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος εὐωδίας, ἀναζωπυρωθήσεται τὴν ἕξιν ὥσπερ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγερθείς, καὶ ἀποθαυμάσεται, ἐκ ποίας καταστάσεως εἰς ποίαν μετετέθη, καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἐζεκίου ἀναφωνήσει « Ἐξήγειράς μου τὴν ζωήν, καὶ παρακληθεὶς ἔζησα, καὶ ἀπέρριψας ὀπί- σω μου πάσας τὰς ἁμαρτίας μου, » ὅπως μηκέτι φαντάζωμαι τὰ τῶν πταισμάτων εἴδωλα, καθαρὰν καρδίαν κτησάμενος τοῦ λοιποῦ.