Letter 630

To Felicissimus the Deacon. Do not wish that affairs everywhere should turn out according to your own aim, and especially when you are headstrong and harsh and self-satisfied, and when your own conviction is by no means altogether pleasing to the Lord. Do not, then, want what is being done to happen according to your will, lest you fall into madness and into a derangement beyond all reckoning. But if indeed you spare yourself, and set a high value on peace, which is dear to the Savior, accept rather that what comes to pass should come to pass as the Lord disposes; and you will be shown to be a lover of wisdom, and you will lull to sleep the tempest of your heart, and the death of your despondency, and the disturbance of your mind that has arisen from temptation, and the perplexity that comes from the uprising of your reasonings, and the great wave-surge of your thoughts; and the things hidden in the deep of your heart will be cast out, as it were, from the ship of the body, and you will receive back the calm of your soul.

Μὴ βούλου πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον σκοπὸν πανταχῇ τὰ πράγ-ματα γίνεσθαι, καὶ μάλισθ’ ὅτε αὐθάδης τε καὶ σκληρός, καὶ αὐτάρεσκος εἶ, καὶ οὐ πάντως ἀρέσκει τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡ σὴ πληροφορία. Μὴ οὖν θέλε κατὰ τὸ θέλημά σου γίνεσθαι τὰ πραττόμενα, ἵνα μὴ εἰς μα-νίαν ἐμπέσῃς, καὶ παραπληξίαν ἀνείκαστον. Ἀλλ’ εἴπερ σεαυτοῦ φείδῃ, καὶ περὶ πολλοῦ ποιεῖ εἰρήνην τὴν φίλην τῷ Σωτῆρι, καταδέχου μᾶλλον τὰ γινόμενα γίνεσθαι, ὡς οἰκονομεῖ Κύριος, καὶ δειχθήσῃ φιλό- σοφος, καὶ κατακοιμήσεις τὴν ζάλην τῆς καρδίας σου, καὶ τὴν τελευτὴν τῆς ἀθυμίας σου, καὶ τὴν τῆς διανοίας σου ταραχὴν τὴν ἐκ τοῦ πειρασμοῦ ἐπιγενομένην, καὶ τὴν ἀπορίαν τὴν ἐκ τῆς τῶν λογισμῶν ἐπαναστάσεως, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐννοιῶν τρικυμίαν καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ βυθῷ τῆς καρδίας σου κρυπτόμενα, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου τοῦ σώματος ἐκβληθήσονται, καὶ τὴν γαλήνην τῆς ψυχῆς σου ἀπολήψῃ.