Letter 950

To Kalliopios. How beautiful and wondrous is the exchange: the man hastening to serve God, and God without delay making His own servant intimate with Himself, as one who runs genuinely and without adulteration toward the good pleasure of the Master. And truly lovely is it to tremble, and to fear being cut off from eternal life and from the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Ὡς καλὴ καὶ θαυμαστὴ ἡ ἀντίδοσις τοῦ μὲν ἀνθρώπου σπεύδοντος τὸν Θεὸν θεραπεύειν, τοῦ δὲ Θεοῦ ἀνυπερθέτως ἐξοκειοῦσθαι τὸν ἑαυτοῦ οἰκέτην γνησίως καί, ἀνοθεύτως τρέχοντα ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρέσκειαν τοῦ Δεσπότου. Ἐράσμια δὲ ἀληθῶς τὸ φρίττειν, καὶ δεδοικέναι μὴ ἀποσχοινισθῆναι τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς, καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος ἐλλάμψεως.