Letter 561

To Bebianus the Bishop. To cut away, through hardship, the sting of lust and the pleasures that inflame within the body, and to render them powerless—this is what the divine Apostle [Paul] calls bodily exercise. But godliness is profitable for all things [1 Timothy 4:8]; and this would consist in being able, with God working together with us, to make the passion-laden memories vanish utterly, and thereafter to acquire a firm purity of mind.

Τὸ περικόψαι διὰ κακοπαθείας, καὶ καταργῆσαι τὸν οἶστρον, καὶ τὰς ἐν τῷ σώματι φλεγμαινούσας ἡδονάς, τοῦτό φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος σωματικὴν γυμνασίαν. Ἡ δέ γε εὐσέβεια πρὸς πάντα ὠφέλιμός ἐστιν· αὐτὴ δ’ ἂν εἴη, τὸ δυνηθῆναι τοῦ Θεοῦ συν- εργοῦντος, τὰς ἐμπαθεῖς ἐξαφανίσαι εἰς τὸ παντελὲς μνήμας, καὶ βεβαίαν λοιπὸν καθαρότητα κτήσασθαι διανοίας.