О церковной иерархии

Symbols of God's priests - with a uniform word You, as one and only, revealed the brilliance of a single light. Co-presbyter Timothy, Presbyter Dionysius Chapter 1. What is the tradition about the church hierarchy and what is its purpose 1. That our hierarchy, O most sacred of sacred sons, is the realization of divinely inspired, divine and idolizing 1019 knowledge, action and perfection, we must show from the most worldly and most sacred Sayings to those who, through hierarchical mysteries and traditions 1020, are perfected in the sacred occult science. But be careful not to make the Holy of Holies an object of ridicule 1021; surround with reverence and almost characteristic of the hidden God with mental, invisible knowledge, keeping it uninvolved and inviolable for the uninitiated, while communicating it - in a manner befitting the sacred, with the help of sacred lights - only to the sacred 1022 of the sacred. After all, Theology conveyed to us, its followers, that Jesus himself, the most divine and super-essential mind 1023, the beginning, essence and most divine power of the entire hierarchy, its sanctification and divine action, shines more clearly and more clearly for the mind with the blessed and better essences of us and, according to their strength, 1024 likens them to their own light. And thanks to our love for good, which we direct towards Him and which directs us towards Him, He makes compatible 1025 our many contradictions 1026 and, having brought us to a uniform and divine life, state and energy, gives us the power of the divine priesthood befitting the sacred, thanks to which, reaching the holy energy of the priesthood, we become closer to the entities above us, becoming similar to the extent their strength to the motionless and unchanging sacred Foundation. And thus, having looked at the blessed and God-primary radiance of Jesus and sacredly, as far as it is possible to behold, having seen Him, and having been enlightened by the spectacle with knowledge 1027, sanctified and sanctified by the mysterious experience, we can become luminous and God-acting, perfect and perfecting. 2. What is the hierarchy of 1028 angels, archangels, super-peaceful principles, authorities, powers, dominions and divine thrones, or entities equal in rank to the thrones, about which theology, calling them in Hebrew cherubim and seraphim, reports that they are eternally nearby around God and with God, about their structure and hierarchical holy ranks and categories, you will find in these our words, although not as it should have been, but as far as this turned out to be possible and in accordance with how this was shown by the theology of the Holy Scriptures, which glorified the hierarchy inherent in those. It is equally necessary, however, to say that this entire hierarchy, which we are now glorifying, has one and the same power in all hierarchical matters, 1029 so that the hierarch himself 1030 in his corresponding being, proportionality and rank must be accomplished through the divine sacraments and be deified and transmit to those below 1031, according to the dignity of each, the sacred deification he has received from God; those below 1032 - follow the best, push forward the weaker and precede them and, to the best of their ability, lead others; and thanks to this hierarchical harmony abiding in God, everyone should, as much as they have the strength, partake of the truly existing Good, Wise and Good. But the entities and orders that are higher than us, about which we have already made sacred mention, are incorporeal, and their hierarchy belongs to the realm of the mind and is supramundane 1033; We see ours, in accordance with ourselves, as a multiplying variety of symbols perceived by the senses, thanks to which we are hierarchically, in our inherent proportionality, raised to a uniform deification, to God and divine virtue. They, like minds, comprehend, as they should, with their minds; we, thanks to sensory symbols 1034, are raised, as far as possible, to divine speculation. In truth, there is One One 1035 Whom all those of the same kind desire, but they partake of Him, the One and the Same One Existing, not alone 1036 , but as the divine courts assign each one their dignity. But in the essay “On What is Comprehensible by the Mind and Senses” 1037 we said this in more detail 1038, but now I will try to say as much as possible about our hierarchy, its beginning and essence, calling on the beginning and end of all hierarchies, Jesus. 3. After all, the entire hierarchy 1039, according to what we honor in our sacred tradition, is the whole meaning of the subject sacred, the fullest 1040 composition 1041 of this hierarchy, or this sacred. Our hierarchy is called and is the total realization of all sacred things inherent to it, in which the accomplished divine hierarch pours out the sacrament of all that is most sacred, as the same name as the hierarchy (hierarchy). After all, just as the one who said “hierarchy” names the totality of everything that relates to the structure of the sacred, so the one who said “hierarch” points to the divine man who abides in God, skilled in all sacred knowledge, in whom the entire hierarchy associated with him is purely accomplished and cognized. The beginning 1042 of this hierarchy, the source of life, the essence of goodness, the only cause of existence is the Trinity, from which being and good being flow through beings through goodness. This most divine bliss, located beyond everything, the trinity Unity, truly existing, incomprehensible to us, for which it itself is cognizable 1043, is characterized by a reasonable 1044 desire for our salvation and beings exceeding us. This can only happen 1045 through the deification of those being saved. And deification 1046 is, as far as possible, likening to God and unity with Him. The general limit 1047 for the entire hierarchy is continuous love for God and the Divine, divinely inspired and uniquely sacred, and before that - complete and irrevocable aversion from the opposite, knowledge of what exists to the extent that it exists, vision and knowledge of sacred truth, communion in God of the unique perfection, tasting, as far as possible, the contemplation of the One Himself, mentally nourishing and adoring everyone who aspires to him. 4. So, we say that God's original bliss, divinity by nature, the Principle of deification, from which the deified have the opportunity to be deified, by divine goodness bestowed a hierarchy for the salvation and deification of all verbal and mental beings. And to the supermundane blessed lots 1048 it was given more immaterially and more intelligibly (not from the outside 1049 because God moves them towards the divine, but mentally 1050, from within illuminating the most divine will for them with a pure and immaterial radiance), but to us what was given to them in unity and integrity is given by God-given Sayings, according to ours possibilities, in variety and multitude of separate symbols 1051. For the essence of our hierarchy 1052 is the God-given Speech. The most revered Sayings we call those that were given to us from our divinely inspired priests 1053 in holy written theological works, as well as those that were transmitted to our mentors by the same sacred men under a more immaterial leadership, close in some way to the heavenly hierarchy, from mind to mind through word 1054 - material, of course, but also immaterial - bypassing Scripture. For the general sacred rite, this was conveyed by the inspired hierarchs not in undisguised thoughts, but in sacred symbols. For not every person is sacred, and “not everyone, as the Sayings say, has knowledge” (1 Cor. 8:7). 5. Of necessity, therefore, the first leaders in our hierarchy, and themselves filled with the sacred gift received from the super-essential God-Superior, and being sent by God’s original goodness to bring it further, as divine people, unselfishly loving the ascension and deification of their followers, they themselves conveyed to us, in accordance with sacred institutions, with the help of images accessible to the senses 1055 - the super-heavenly, through diversity and plurality - the collapsed 1056, in the human - the divine, in the material - the immaterial, in what is peculiar to us - the superessential - were conveyed in written and unwritten initiations 1057 not only because of non-sacred people who are not allowed to touch even symbols, but also because, as I said, our hierarchy, according to ourselves, is in some way symbolic 1058 and needs what is accessible to the senses, so that from this we ascend to more divine, comprehended by the mind. The meaning of the symbols, however, is open 1059 to divine people who are perfect in the sacred, but it is not appropriate to introduce into it those who are still improving, knowing that the legislators of the divinely transmitted sacred established the hierarchy as a solid system of immiscible ranks and sacred destinies, corresponding to the dignity of each one who comes. And therefore, following your sacred consent (there is no harm in reminding you of it), do not convey anything of what was sacredly said above about the hierarchy to anyone else 1060 besides God-like people equal to you in rank, perfect in the sacred. And you convince them to promise, in accordance with the sacred rule, to touch the pure purely, to associate only the sacred with the idolizing, the perfect with the perfect, and the all-holy with the saints. Along with other things said about hierarchy, I also conveyed to you this divinely inspired gift. Chapter 2. About what is accomplished during enlightenment So, we sacredly said that the goal of the hierarchy inherent in us is this: our assimilation to God, as far as possible, and unity with Him. We achieve this 1061, as the divine Orations teach, only through love for the most honorable commandments and through sacred rites. For “he who loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). But what is the beginning of the 1062 sacred rites of the most reverent commandments? The ability to perceive other 1063 sacred words and sacred deeds, forming our spiritual properties; the path that leads us to the super-heavenly lot; a tradition concerning our sacred and most divine rebirth. As our glorious 1064 mentor said, the very first movement 1065 of the mind towards the divine is love for God. And the very initial movement of Sacred Love outward to the sacred action of the divine commandments is the ineffable creation 1066 of us capable of existing divinely 1067 . For if to exist divinely means to be born divinely, then none of the things transmitted by God will ever be known or done by anyone who is not given to be in God. Don’t we (we are talking about human existence) first need to exist, and then act in a manner appropriate to us, since something that does not exist has neither movement nor existence itself, and that which exists in any way does or undergoes only what is characteristic of the image in which it happened to exist? But this, I think, is clear. Next we will look at the divine symbols of the birth of God 1069. And let no one uninitiated approach the spectacle. For just as it is not safe to look at the rays generated by the sun 1070 with weak pupils, it is also not harmless to encroach on what is above us. After all, if only the legal hierarchy is true, it rightly rejected Uzziah 1071 when he encroached on the sacred (see 2 Chronicles 26:16-21), Korah when he encroached on the sacred beyond him (see Num. 16:1-35), and Nadab and Abihu when they used their opportunities unholy (see Lev. 10:1-2; Num. 3:4, 26:61). 1. The hierarch, always, thanks to his likeness to God, “desires that all people should be saved and come to the understanding of the truth” (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4), preaches to everyone the truly good news 1072 that God, merciful to those who live on earth, according to His intrinsic and inherent goodness, Himself [decidedly] out of love for mankind 1073 worthy us of His coming and by union with Him, as fire does, likened 1074 to Himself the united, according to their ability to deify. For “to those who received Him He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe on His name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, but of God” (cf. John 1:12–13). 2. A person who has loved 1075 the sacred communion of such a truly worldly thing, having come to one of the initiates, convinces him to guide him on the path to the hierarch, and he himself promises to fully 1076 follow 1077 what will be transmitted to him, and asks to guarantee for his coming to the Church and to take care of 1078 his entire subsequent life. And the one who sacredly desires his salvation and measures the height of human deeds is immediately seized by fear and bewilderment; finally, however, he plausibly agrees to fulfill the request and, taking it, leads him to the namesake man of the hierarchy 1079. 3. The same one, with joy, “as if on the shoulders of a sheep” (see Luke 15:5), having received both husbands 1080, first of all honors 1081 and sings with mental 1082 thanksgiving and bodily worship the one beneficent Principle, by which both the called are called and the saved is saved. 4. Then, having gathered the entire sacred dispensation 1083 into a sacred place for a joint work and a common celebration of the salvation of the husband and thanksgiving to the divine Goodness, at the beginning, together with all those present in the church, he recites some sacred hymn 1084 found in the Orations, and after that, having kissed the sacred meal, he approaches the husband who has come and asks him what he wanted, he came. 5. And when he, according to the instructions of the recipient, lovingly blasphemes godlessness, ignorance of the truly beautiful and living life outside of God and expresses a desire to achieve God and the divine through his sacred mediation, he testifies to him that joining the Church must be complete 1085, as to the Most perfect and immaculate God; and, having explained to him what life in God is like, having first asked whether he wishes to live this way, after consent, he places his hand on his head and, having sealed it with the sign of the cross, commands the priests 1086 to write down his husband 1087 and successor. 6. After they are written down, a sacred prayer is performed, and when the whole church, following him, completes it 1088, he takes off his shoes 1089 and undresses 1090 with the help of the ministers. Then, placing the newcomer facing the west with his arms extended in the same direction, he commands him to blow on Satan three times, and also to confess renunciation. And when he testifies to the renunciation three times, having confessed it three times, he turns him to the east 1091 and commands him to unite, looking up at heaven and raising his hands, with Christ and with all the sacred sacred words given to God. 7. When he does this, he again testifies to him three times the confession of faith; and when he confesses again three times, after praying, he blesses and lays his hand on him. And when the ministers 1092 completely expose him, the priests bring holy oil for anointing. And he, having begun the anointing with a triple sign and then handing over his husband to the priests to anoint the whole body, he himself approaches the mother of sonhood 1093 and, sanctifying her water with sacred invocations and completing the consecration with a threefold cruciform outpouring of the all-holy world, chanting at the same time, equal to the all-holy overlays of the world, a sacred hymn borrowed from the God-pleasing 1094 prophets inspiration, commands her to bring her husband. And when one priest proclaims the names of the husband and successor from the record, other priests lead him to the water, to the hand of the hierarch, guiding him towards him. The hierarch stands on top; and when again, in the presence of the hierarch, the priests proclaim the name of the one being perfected, the hierarch submerges it three times, with each of the three lowerings and elevations of the one being perfected, proclaiming one hypostasis of the triple divine Bliss. And having taken it, the priests hand it over to the recipient of the acquisition and the mentor. And together with him, having dressed the person being perfected in appropriate 1095 clothes, they again lead him to the hierarch. And he, having marked the husband with the most divinely active 1096 world, then reveals him to be a communicant of the most sacred Eucharist. 8. Having accomplished this, he again extends 1097 from the appearance of the secondary to the contemplation of the primary, since he never in any way turns to anything alien, bypassing his own, but moves from the divine to the divine, always moved by the God-originating Spirit. 9 . This rite of the sacred birth of God, as if consisting of symbols, does not contain anything inappropriate and unsacred, nor any images perceived by the senses, but only fortune-telling of God-worthy contemplation, depicted by physical, human-worthy “mirrors” (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12). Even if the most divine word about those being perfected were silent, with conviction and divine words sacredly arranging the good life of the one who comes and his complete cleansing by a virtuous and divine life from all evil, in what sin would he, this rite seem to be, by physical cleansing with water 1098 announcing something more bodily to him? If the symbolic tradition of the initiates had nothing more divine, it would not even then, I believe, be unsacred as an introductory teaching about the proper life and about complete cleansing from a life of evil, hinting at this through the complete physical cleansing of the body with water. 10. But let this be for imperfect people an introductory spiritual guidance 1099, distributing as it should hierarchical and uniform among the multitude 1100 and measuring - according to the measure of ranks - their harmonious ascent. We, thanks to the sacred ascents, having looked at the principles that guide those being perfected, and are sacredly initiated by them, we recognize what signs they are imprints of and what implicit images. For, as is clearly stated in the work “On Mentally and Sensibly Comprehensible” 1101, what exists sensibly is a sacred reflection of the intelligible, a guide and the path to it, and the intelligible is the beginning and knowledge of what is subject to sensory, corresponding to the hierarchy, perception. 11. So we say 1102 that there is the Goodness of divine bliss, always equally and in the same way possessing the beneficent rays of its own light and generously spreading them to all mental eyes. If, however, the self-willed 1104 autocracy characteristic of the intelligible 1103 1104 retreats from the intelligible light, covering with the love of evil the abilities for enlightenment naturally instilled in her, then she will be separated 1105 from the light inherent in her, which does not depart from her, but shines on her, who has become short-sighted and turns away from what approaches her in a good way. If she boldly tries to transgress the limits of the visible that is proportionate 1106 to her and look at the rays beyond the measure of her vision, then the light will in no way act against what is inherent in light, but she, imperfectly striving towards the perfect, will not achieve what is unusual 1107 for her, and, having recklessly despised it, will lose through her own fault. The Divine light, however, as I said, is eternally open to the mental gaze and can be perceived by it as present and always eminently ready for the dispensing of what is proper to God in a manner befitting God. Like an imprint, imitating this, the divine 1108 hierarch generously extends to everyone the light-like rays of his divine teaching, eminently ready to imitate God to enlighten the one who comes, alien to envy and unsacred anger for previous apostasy or immoderation, but always, abiding in God, with his light-guiding, shrineily shining in decorum and order to those who come 1109 , according to the conformity of each to the sacred. 12. But if the Divine is the Beginning of sacred order, thanks to which sacred minds know themselves 1110, then he who resorts 1111 to the vision of his own nature will first see himself as he is - the first thing he will perceive is this sacred gift due to the inclination of his head to the light. Having well surveyed his condition with dispassionate eyes, he will leave the dim depths of ignorance. As an imperfect person, he will not immediately desire the most perfect union with God and communion, but through what is primary for him, he will soon be sacredly elevated to an even more primary one, through that - in accordance with the order - to the first, and being perfected - to the God-originating Top. The reflection of this 1112 well-ordered and sacred order, where the recipient is the leader on the path to the hierarch, is the reverent fear of the one coming and the understanding of what is characteristic of oneself. The person raised in this way perceives the divine Bliss as His partaker and transmits His light to him as a certain sign, completing his communion with God and with the lot and sacred purpose inherent in those who are partakers of God, the sacred symbol of which is the seal 1113 given by the hierarch to the newcomer and the saving record made by the priests, classifying him among the saved and adding 1114 to the sacred memorial and recipient: one - as a true guardian of the life-giving path to the Truth and a companion 1115 of the divine mentor, and the other - as an unforgettable leader of the God-transmitted instructions following him. 13. But it is impossible for someone who has received some kind of communion with the One to be at the same time a participant in extreme opposites and have two separate lives, if he maintains a strong involvement in the One; so that he must be unconnected 1116 with all separations from the Uniform and uninvolved in them. To which, hinting sacredly, the legend about symbols, as it were, strips 1117 the former life from the one who comes and frees him from the last ties with it, placing him naked and barefoot facing the west; and by pushing away with his hands, he refuses to communicate with dark evil, and, as it were, exhales 1118 the property of dissimilarity that was in him, and professes a complete denial of that which is the opposite of the godlike. Having thus become completely deprived of connections and communication with evil, it transfers him to the east, clearly proclaiming 1119 the future standing in the divine light and viewing it with complete alienation from evil, with love for the truth accepting from him, who has become one in kind, the sacred confessions of complete union 1120 with the One. But, as I believe, it is clear to the mentors in the hierarchical tradition that with constant intense striving towards the One and complete mortification and non-existence in relation to the opposite of Him, mental powers of a god-like nature are strengthened by 1121 immutability. For it is appropriate not only to withdraw from all evil, but also to courageously always remain adamant 1122 and undaunted by the destructive decline inherent in it, so as not to ever find yourself at the end of sacred love for the Truth, but to faithfully and eternally strive for it as much as possible, always sacredly thinking about the ascent to more perfect degrees of God’s Authority. 14. You see their exact images 1123 in what is done hierarchically. For the god-like hierarch begins the sacred anointing, and the priests complete the sacred act of anointing, figuratively calling the one being perfected to sacred feats, thanks to which he finds himself under the judge of the competition 1124, Christ, since He, as God 1125, is the creator of judging, as the Wise One established its laws, and as the Beautiful One made magnificent rewards for the winners. And even more divine is that He, as the Good One among the athletes, sacredly fought with them for their freedom and victory over the power of death and decay. And the perfected person comes to the competitors as to the divine, rejoicing, and remains in the laws of the All-Wise, and according to them he relentlessly fights, confidently having hope for wonderful rewards, placing himself under the patronage of the Good Master and the head of athletic competitions; having risen 1126 with the divine traces of the First 1127 from the athletes and, because of goodness, having conquered the actions 1129 opposite to him and ways of existence 1128 due to his goodness, leading to deification, he, mysteriously speaking, co-dies in baptism with Christ for sin. 15. And understand me well; how useful are the sacred symbols used! Since our death does not mean 1130 the non-existence of the essence, as some believe, but the separation of the united, withdrawing the soul into invisibility 1131 as becoming invisible when deprived of the body - after all, the body, being hidden in the earth, or due to some other changes characteristic of the corporeal 1132, disappears from the image inherent in man - accordingly, complete coverage with water is perceived as an image of death and formless burial. The symbolic teaching mysteriously initiates the baptized person into the fact that by three immersions in water they imitate the God-initiated 1133 with the triday burial of the death of the life-giver Jesus - as far as it is possible for people to imitate God, in Whom, according to the secret and hidden tradition of the Sayings, “the prince of the world found nothing of his own” (see John 14:30). 16. Then the person being committed is put on light-like clothes. For with courageous and godlike dispassion towards the opposite and strong attachment to the One, the disordered is ordered, 1134 and the formless is created, illuminated throughout by light-like life. The perfecting anointing of the perfected one with myrrh makes him fragrant, for the sacred perfection of the birth of God unites what is being perfected with the God-originating Spirit. To know what an intelligibly communicating fragrance and a completely effective visitation is, since it is inexpressible, I leave 1135 to those who are worthy of sacred and idolizing communion in the mind with the divine Spirit. At the end of everything, the hierarch at the most divine Eucharist calls upon the perfect one and teaches him the communion of the perfecting mysteries. Chapter 3. About what is done in the meeting Well, since we mentioned him, really, it is not appropriate for me, having passed him, to sing before him something else from the hierarchical. For, according to our glorious teacher 1136, this is the accomplishment of accomplishments, and one should sacredly write, in accordance with the divine, based on the Sayings, and hierarchical knowledge, having told 1137 before another about it, proceed with the help of the God-primary Spirit to its sacred consideration. And first we will sacredly see why what is common to 1138 and other hierarchical actions is attached to it in a special way, preferentially before the rest, and is solely declared to be communion 1139 and a collection, while each sacred action performed collects our divided lives in a single deification, and, thanks to the God-like union, grants to the divided communion with the One and unity with Him. And we even say that perfection lies in the participation of other hierarchical symbols in his God-initiating and dedicating gifts 1140. For it is almost impossible to accomplish a hierarchical accomplishment without having at the head of each of the celebrations the assembly of the most divine Eucharist, the sacred rite perfected to the One and the God-transmitted gifts of the perfecting sacraments perfecting its communion with God. If, therefore, each of the hierarchical perfections, being imperfect 1142, does not perfectly effect our communion and joining to the One, then due to imperfection it ceases to be perfect. The purpose and chapter 1143 of each accomplishment is the teaching of the divine mysteries to the one being committed, so that, in justice, hierarchical wisdom found for it 1144 the main name of the deeds of truth. In the same way, we glorify the sacred act of the birth of God, since it teaches the original light and is the beginning of all divine illumination, calling it enlightenment, which is accomplished by enlightenment 1145 regarding the truth. Although it is common for all hierarchical initiations to transmit a particle of sacred light to those performed, this first one gave me the ability to see, and its initial light guides me to the vision of another sacred one. Having said this, let us study and hierarchically examine the exact sacred rite and speculation of each most sacred accomplishment. Having made a prayer in front of the divine altar, starting from it, the hierarch 1146 walks around, censing, the entire space of the sacred room and, returning again to the divine altar, begins the sacred singing of psalms, and the entire church community sings the psalmic hymn together with him. Then there is a sequential reading of sacred writings by the ministers 1147. And after this, the catechumens are removed from the sacred room, and with them the possessed 1148 and those in repentance, and only those worthy of contemplating the sacred and communing remain. Of the ministers 1149, some stand near the closed doors of the sanctuary, while others do something else corresponding to their rank. Those who are privileged 1150 from the service community, together with the priests, supply 1151 sacred bread and the “cup of blessing” (1 Cor. 10:16) to the divine altar - after all those present in the church confess the conciliar 1152 hymn, the divine hierarch performs a sacred prayer before them and proclaims holy peace to everyone. And after everyone kisses each other, the sacred memorials (diptychs) 1153 are proclaimed. And after the hierarch and the priests wash their hands with water, the hierarch stands right in front of the divine altar, and only the most advantaged of the servants stand together with the priests 1154. And having chanted the sacred acts of God, the hierarch performs the most divine acts and offers for the contemplation of 1155 all that which is chanted with the help of sacredly offered symbols. And, having shown the gifts of divine actions, he himself is suitable for sacred communion with them, and encourages others. Having received communion and taught the initial communion with God, he ends with sacred thanksgiving, when many adhere to the single divine symbols, and he is constantly, in blissful speculation, hierarchically elevated by the God-original Spirit in the purity of the God-like state to the holy principles of what is being accomplished. 1. Now, beautiful child, from the images 1156, let us ceremoniously and sacredly follow here, to the god-like truth of the prototypes, telling those who are still improving in harmonious soul-guidance that the motley and sacred composition of the symbols 1157 is not useless for them, although it seems so to external people. For the most sacred 1158 songs and readings of the Sayings preach to them the doctrine of a virtuous life, and first of all, complete cleansing from pernicious evil. The most divine common and peaceful sharing of the same bread and cup establishes for them, as those fed on the same food, divine uniformity and brings to sacred memory 1159 the most divine supper, the main symbol of what is being celebrated, during which the Creator of symbols Himself rewarded in the most just manner the one who did not reverently and equally share with Him at the evening the sacred 1160, piously and Godly teaching that He grants to those who come, true in its own nature, 1161 the coming to the divine in communion with its likeness. 2. So, leaving, well, as I said, what is depicted on the doors to the reserved for contemplation by those still imperfect, let us enter from what is caused 1162 to the reasons for what 1163 happens at our sacred meeting, and we will see, with the light-guiding of Jesus, the magnificent speculation of the intelligible - the blessed, clearly shining beauty of the archetypes. But, oh most divine and sacred accomplishment! Having opened the symbols of fortune-telling that fit you like clothes, radiantly show yourself to us and fill our mental eyes with a single unobstructed light. 3. So, it behooves us (being, as I think, inside the all-holy), having uncovered the intelligible content of the primary from the images 1164, to peer into its god-like beauty and intradivinely see the hierarch walking with incense from the divine altar to the boundaries of the sanctuary and, in the end, standing before it again. For everything that exceeds 1165 God's initial Bliss, although it comes from divine kindness for the communion of those who sacredly partake of it, does not appear outside the essentially motionless 1166 standing and abiding. It shines forth to all God-like ones according to their measure, truly remaining within itself and not retreating at all from its identity. In exactly the same way, 1167 the divine accomplishment of the assembly, although it has a single, simple and cumulative beginning, humanly multiplies in the diversity of symbols and reaches every hierarchical image, but again, uniformly from such, it gathers into its own Unit and unites those sacredly erected to it. In the same god-like manner, the divine hierarch 1168, although plausibly reduces his united knowledge of the hierarchy to the lower ones, taking advantage of many sacred hints, but again, as not bound and not restrained by the lesser, returns to his origin without suffering damage and, having completed the entry into his own mental unity, purely sees the uniform logoi of the initiates, completing the philanthropic approach to the secondary and making a more divine return to Primary. 4. The sacred vocabulary of the psalms 1169, which accompanies almost all hierarchical sacraments, should not be alien to the most sacred of all. For every sacred 1170 and sacredly written passage read in the church shows to people deserving of deification either the existence and structure of existence created by God, or the Lawful hierarchy and government, or the endowment and possession of lotions of the divine people, or the mind of sacred judges, wise kings and divine priests, or the wisdom of ancient men, unshakably steadfast in the face of the diversity and multitude of disasters 1171, or the wise concerning proper advice, or songs of divine love 1172 and divinely inspired images, or prophetic predictions of the future, or the courageous deeds of Jesus 1173, or the devoted and God-imitating life and sacred teachings of His disciples, or the hidden and mysterious vision of the beloved and prophetically endowed one of the disciples 1174, or the super-peaceful theology of Jesus - and weaves 1175 these roots with sacred and godlike ascensions of accomplishments. The sacred writing of divine 1176 songs, which has the goal of glorifying all the theologies and acts of God, 1177, praising the sacred words and sacred actions of divine men, makes the chanting and exposition of the divine universal for the perception and transmission of those present at any hierarchical performance, imparting its own property to the divinely inspired ones. 5. When the hymnology, the all-encompassing sacred, brings our spiritual properties into harmonious correspondence with what will be performed sacredly a little later, and with the unanimity of divine songs 1178 legitimizes unanimity in relation to the divine, to ourselves and to each other - as if in a single, unanimous round dance of the sacred - then what is briefly 1179 and secretly said in the mental sacredness of the psalms expands thanks to more extensive and to clearer images and sayings contained in the readings of the most sacred sacred writings. Sacredly in such 1180 the one who looks will see in them a single uniform inspiration delivered by one God-originating Spirit. For what reason is it right that the New Testament is preached 1181 in the world after the more ancient tradition: thereby, in a hierarchical order resting in God, it is revealed, I believe, that what one said about the future 1182 deeds of Jesus, the other fulfilled; and - that one wrote the truth in images, and the other showed It realized. For the fulfillment of the prophecies in this Testament made one believe in the Truth, and the completion of theology 1183 was the action of God. 6. People who do not hear 1184 these sacred accomplishments at all do not see the images, shamelessly rejecting the saving dedication of the birth of God 1185 and responding to their own destruction to the Sayings: “I do not want to know your ways” (cf. Job 21:14). The charter of the holy hierarchy allows the catechumens, the possessed 1186 and those in repentance to listen to the psalm sacred words and readings of the divinely inspired and all-holy Scriptures, but does not call them to further sacred rites and contemplation, only the perfect eyes of the perfect ones. For the God-like hierarchy is full of sacred justice and salutarily gives to each his dignity, sacredly granting to each in proportion and in accordance with time participation in the divine. The last 1187 rite is allocated for the catechumens, for they are not enlightened, do not participate 1188 in any hierarchical perfection and do not have the divine existence provided by divine birth, but are only prepared 1189 by the fatherly Sayings and formed by life-giving images for the life-giving, light-originating and blessed coming from the birth of God. Just as if carnal babies fall imperfect and unformed as premature babies 1190 and miscarriages from the womb that grows them, the fetus will appear on earth unborn, lifeless and unenlightened, and none of the prudent people will say, looking at what has appeared, that, having been released from the womb, it came into the light (the science of bodily healing of our bodies would pompously say that light has its effect only on that which is capable of perceiving light), so the all-wise science of the sacred first prepares them with initial food from the formative, life-giving Sayings, and having completed the formation of their personality for the birth of God, it saves them, according to their rank, with communion with the Light-forming and the Perfectly Acting One. Nowadays, she separates the perfect from the imperfect, prudently taking care of the well-being of the sacred and the birth and life of the hierarchical accomplishments announced in the godlike rite. 7. The multitude of those possessed is unholy 1191 and is second only to the catechumens in terms of distance from the Most High. After all, that which has some involvement in the most sacred accomplishments, but is still seized by harmful spells or unrest, is not the same, as I believe, to be completely unenlightened and not at all involved in the divine sacraments. But even for these people, contemplation of the all-sacred and communion with it is limited, which is quite fair. After all, if it is true that a completely divine man, a worthy companion of the divine, raised in all-perfect and perfecting deification to the corresponding limit of the God-like, will not do works of the flesh, with the exception of those most necessary by nature, and even then by the way, but will be in his ultimate deification a church and servant of the God-original Spirit, affirming like with like, then such a person will never be subject to the influence of harmful fantasies or fears, but will laugh over them, and if they attack, he will defeat them and drive them away, and will rather subjugate than submit, and thanks to his impassivity and lack of relaxation, he will turn out to be a doctor for others during similar attacks. At the same time, I believe, rather, I even know for sure that the highly unalloyed discrimination of what is connected with the hierarchy, before such, knows the extremely vile activity of the possessed 1193, who, having retreated from the God-like life, become like-minded and like-minded with destructive demons, turning away, thanks to extreme and destructive unreason for them, from the truly existing 1194, from immortal acquisitions and eternal pleasures, desiring and realizing not existing, but apparent bliss associated with matter 1195 and the most passionate intoxication, with killing and corrupting pleasures and inconstancy in the alien 1196. So the first to be excommunicated by the separating voice of the minister 1197 are those, which is more fair than those. For it is not appropriate for them to take part in anything sacred, except for the study of the Sayings, which turns to the best. For if the supra-mundane sacred action of the divine, not accepting what is not entirely sacred, is hidden from those who are in repentance, although they have already begun to repent, and proclaims it all blamelessly: “And for those who are in some way weakened in relation to the Limit of the God-like as imperfect, I am invisible and inaccessible” (for in everything the purest voice rejects those who are unable to join those who worthily partake the most sacred), the more so that the multitude of passions 1198 subject to the influence will turn out to be unsacred and alien to any contemplation and communion of the sacred. When 1199 the uninitiated 1200 and the imperfect find themselves outside the divine church and the sacred rites superior to them, and with them - apostates from the sacred life, and after them - those who are subject to harmful fears and visions 1201 due to lack of courage 1202, as not coming for the sake of a strong and immutable union to the immobility and activity of the godlike state; and then, together with them, those who have retreated from harmful life, but have not yet been cleansed of its fantasies by a godlike state and divine and unalloyed love 1203; and after them - not completely uniform and not completely, according to the law, immaculate and impeccable - then the all-sacred 1204 sacred workers of the all-sacred and lovers of contemplation, having looked at the most holy accomplishment in a befitting sacred way, sing in a conciliar 1205 hymn the beneficent and gracious Principle, by which we were shown the saving accomplishments, the sacred deification of those performed. Some call this singing 1206 confession, others the Creed, and others, as I believe, more divinely - hierarchical thanksgiving, as embracing the sacred gifts that come to us from God. After all, it seems to me 1207 that for our sake the whole work of the sung deeds of God was undertaken, and our being 1208 and life was plausibly composed, and our God-likeness was formed by primitive beauties and established in participation in a more divine property and construction; Having seen the deprivation of divine gifts that had befallen us due to inattention, it called us with the blessings prepared 1209 for the former, and with the all-perfect perception of what was characteristic of us, 1210 benefited the most perfect transmission of what was characteristic of it, and thereby granted us communication with God and the divine. 8. After the love of God has been so glorified, the covered divine bread 1211 and the “cup of blessing” (1 Cor. 10:16) are offered, and the divine kiss 1212 and the mysterious and super-peaceful proclamation of the holy memorials are performed. It is impossible for people divided by enmity against each other to come together and be involved in a peaceful union with the One. After all, if, enlightened by the contemplation and knowledge of the One, we became one in the one-kind divine assembly, then we would not suffer falls into private desires, from which 1213 flows passionate hatred 1214 because of material things towards those who are one-type by nature. So I believe that the sacred action of the world lays down the law of such a uniform and indivisible life, establishing like as similar and distancing divine and unitary contemplations from the divided. 9 . The proclamation after the “peace” of the sacred memorials (diptychs) 1215 reveals those who lived reverently 1216 and came unshakable to the completion of a virtuous life, thereby turning and guiding us to a blissful state and godlike repose by assimilating them - announcing them as living, not dead, as theology says 1217, but having passed from death to the most divine life (cf. Wisdom 5:15–16; John 5:24). And note 1218 that remembrances should be sacred, for divine memory does not manifest itself in the imagination, like human memory, during recollection, but, one might say, divinely, in accordance with the revered unchanging knowledge in God of deceased godlike people. “After all, say the Sayings, the Lord knew those who were His” (2 Tim. 2:19) and “honorable in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps. 115:6) (about the death of the saints it is said here instead of “in the reverence of those who have died”). And understand this sacredly - that when the revered symbols 1219, through which Christ is designated and communed, are placed on the divine altar, immediately at a short distance there is a list of saints, which shows their inseparably linked supra-peaceful and sacred unity with Him. 10. When, in accordance with the establishment about which it is said, this will be performed, the hierarch, standing in front of the most holy symbols, together with the revered priestly rite, washes his hands with 1220 water. For, as the Sayings say, “one who has been washed 1221 needs only to wash his extremities” 1222, or extremities (cf. John 13:10); after which utmost purification, gracefully proceeding in the all-holy state of God-likeness to the secondary, he will be uncontained by the secondary and free, as completely uniform and uniquely turned to the One; and pure and undefiled, as preserving the fullness and integrity of the God-like, he will make his return. After all, the sacred 1223 laver was, as we said, under the legal hierarchy, but now it is hinted at by the cleansing of the hands of the hierarch 1224 and the priests. For those who come to the most holy sacred rite must cleanse themselves 1225 even from the outlying fantasies of the soul and approach it, if possible, through likeness. So, after all, the clearer theophanies of the supra-mundane Lordship, which sends its rays 1227 to spread into the brilliance of uniform mirrors 1226, will sparkle more fully and clearly. The washing of the hierarch 1228 and the priests down to the extremities, or extremities, is performed in front of the most holy symbols, as if before Christ, Who sees all of our even most secret thoughts and determines our complete 1229 purification by His all-seeing, most accurate, most just and most incorruptible judgments. Thus the hierarch unites with the divine and, having chanted the sacred deeds of God, performs the most divine sacred acts and makes visible 1230 what is being chanted. 11. Next, it is worth telling what the essence of the 1231 acts of God performed for us is, and we will say about this as much as we can. After all, I am not able to sing them all, nor know them with any clarity, nor be able to guide others in secret. But the fact that the inspired hierarchs are successively sung and sacred in the Sayings - about this, as far as is accessible to us, we will say, calling on hierarchical inspiration as an accomplice. The legacy of human nature, which from ancient times foolishly fell away from divine blessings, was a most passionate life and an end in the form of pernicious death. As a result of this, the disastrous apostasy from real Goodness and the transgression 1234 in paradise of the sacred commandment betrayed the person who was under the life-giving yoke, excited by his own inclinations 1235 and the seductive 1236 harmful deceptions of the enemy, to what is opposite to the divine blessings. And since then he has pitifully exchanged the eternal for the mortal. Having its own beginning in perishable births, it, human nature, was rightly led to the corresponding beginning 1237 end 1238. And having voluntarily fallen away from the divine and upwardly 1239 life, she was led to the opposite extreme - to a multi-passionate change 1240. Straying from the straight path leading to the truly existing God, and submitting to the destructive and evil multitudes, she made a mistake, pleasing not the gods and not friends, but enemies 1241. When they began, in their characteristic unmerciful manner, to treat her mercilessly, she sadly fell into the danger of non-existence 1242 and destruction. The most immeasurable love for mankind 1243 of God's original Goodness did not graciously cease the action of His providence for us 1244, but sinlessly becoming a true partaker of everything inherent to us and uniting our humility with a completely unfused and undamaged own property 1245, granted us, as only begotten, communion with Him and made us partakers of our own beauties. And, as the secret tradition says, having destroyed the power of the apostate multitude over us, not by force 1246, as if by overpowering, but, according to the Word secretly transmitted to us, through judgment and justice (cf. Ps.96:2), and having beneficially rebuilt everything that is characteristic of us to the opposite, It filled the dullness of our mind with the great 1247 most divine light, adorned the formless with God-like beauties 1248, and the dwelling of the soul, to the extent that our essence has not yet fallen, freed us with perfect salvation from nasty 1249 passions and pernicious abominations, showing us how accessible supra-mundane ascent and divine residence with our sacred, as far as possible, assimilation to Him. 12. How else would it become possible for us to imitate God - without constantly renewing the memory of the most sacred deeds of God with the help of hierarchical 1250 sacred words and sacred rites? We do this, as the Sayings say, in remembrance of them (cf. Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24–25). Then the divine hierarch, standing before the divine altar, sings of the mentioned sacred deeds of Jesus in the most divine providence for us, which, according to the Sayings, He performed during the salvation of our race by the favor of the Most Holy Father in the Holy Spirit. Having chanted 1251 and having seen with his mental eyes their honest, intelligible spectacle, he proceeds to their symbolic sacred rite; and he does this according to God's tradition. After this, blessedly, and, moreover, hierarchically, with sacred hymns about God’s deeds, he justifies himself in his sacred rites, first sacredly calling out to Him: You said: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24–25). Further, having asked him to be made worthy of this God-imitating sacred rite and to perform, like Christ himself, the divine, and then to distribute it immaculately and to give holy communion to those who partake of the sacred, he performs the most divine rite and makes what is sung visible through the sacredly offered symbols. For by opening and dividing the covered 1252 and undivided bread into many parts, and dividing the unity of the cup among everyone, symbolically multiplying and distributing unity, he thus performs the most holy sacred act. For the unity, simplicity and hiddenness of Jesus, the most divine Word, by His goodness and love for mankind, thanks to His incarnation for our sake, immutably passed 1253 into complexity and visibility and beneficially realized the one-creating communion of us with Him, ultimately uniting 1254 what is meager in us with what is most divine in Him - if only we, as parts of the body (see. 1 Cor. 12:27), we harmoniously unite with Him in the identity of unshameful 1255 and divine life, not being mortified by corrupting passions, incongruous, incompatible and inanimate with the divine, supremely healthy members. For it is fitting for us 1256, if we desire communion with Him, to look at His most divine life in the flesh and, by assimilating it with sacred sinlessness, ascend to a God-like and unshameful state. For then we will be harmoniously given access to something like this. 13. The Hierarch reveals this by sacredly fulfilling it, making visible the veiled gifts and dividing their unity into many, thanks to the ultimate unity of what is shared with that in which it appears, making them partakers of those participating. Indeed, in them he describes in a way accessible to the senses, bringing from the invisibility inherent in the divine into visibility 1257, as in the icons, Jesus Christ, our intelligible life, thanks to the perfect and unmerged incarnation for our sake, lovingly taking on our appearance 1258 and immutably coming from unity by nature to our divisibility and thanks to this beneficent love of mankind calling the human race to sharing with Himself and His blessings - if only we unite with Him through the most divine life, through our assimilation to Him to the best of our ability, and thus become true sharers of God’s truth 1259 and the divine. 14. Having received communion and having taught the initial communion with God, the hierarch ends the service in sacred thanksgiving 1260 with all those sacredly filling the church. Teaching to others is preceded 1261 by the communion of the hierarch himself, and his communion of the mysteries is preceded by their mysterious division. For the conciliar order and order of the divine are such that the first in communion and filled with what will be given from God to others through him should be the sacred leader, and only then he can pass it on to others. And therefore those who boldly limit themselves 1262 to teaching the divinely inspired 1263 before they have acquired the lifestyle and skills corresponding to it, are completely alien to the sacred law 1264. For just as, in the case of the sun's rays, the subtlest and most transparent essences, being the first to be filled with the radiance pouring into them, sunlikely send forth a light superior to them throughout everything that is behind them, so in everything divine: one who has not become the most divine in all his skills and has not been attested as ruling 1266 by divine inspiration and reasoning should not dare 1265 to guide others. 15. At this point, the entire assembly of sacred persons, hierarchically conducted, having received communion of the most divine, ends with sacred thanksgiving, appropriately recognizing and chanting the grace of God’s actions. But let those who are not involved in the divine and who do not know it come to thanksgiving, although by their nature the most divine gifts are worthy of thanksgiving. But, as I have already said, never wanting to look at the divine gifts because of their inclination to the worst, they remained ungrateful towards the immeasurable grace of God's actions. “Taste, say the Sayings, and you will see” 1267 (Ps. 33:9). For thanks to the sacred initiation into the divine, the initiates will come to know the grace that bestows great gifts and, sacredly contemplating in the sacrament its most divine height and greatness, they will gratefully sing the super-heavenly benefits of the Godhead. Chapter 4. About how the world is accomplished and what is accomplished through it So much relates to the most sacred union! And so beautiful are the intelligible spectacles, hierarchically sacred, as we have often said, our communication and union with the One! But there is another perfect action that is unique to this. Our mentors call it the sanctification of the world. So, having examined its parts in order, according to the sacred images, we will find ourselves raised to its One in this way, through hierarchical contemplations of the parts. In the same way, as during a meeting, the ranks of the imperfect are removed - that is, after the hierarchical circulation of incense throughout the entire church, 1269, as well as psalmic hymnology and the reading of the most divine Orations. Then the hierarch, taking the ointment, places it on the divine altar, covered with twelve sacred wings, and everyone proclaims with the most sacred voice the song of the divinely inspired prophets 1270. After the fulfillment of the final prayer has been performed over it, it is used in the most sacred of sanctifying accomplishments for almost every hierarchical perfection 1271. 1. The mind-elevating lesson of this perfecting sacred act - through what is sacredly performed with the divine world - teaches, I think, this: the sacredness and fragrance of the mind of divine men must be hidden. And this divinely inspired commands sacred men 1272 not to reveal for the sake of empty glory beautiful and fragrant likenesses in virtue to the hidden God. For the fragrant beauties of God, hidden and transcending the mind, are inviolable and intelligibly appear only to mental beings, desiring to create in souls uniform images that are undistorted in relation to virtue. After all, if one contemplates the well-liked image 1273 of god-like virtue, which cannot be described, this intelligible and fragrant beauty, it means that she portrays herself in this way and gives herself an appearance for the best imitation of herself. And just as in the case of images perceived by the senses, if the painter steadily looks at the model, without being distracted by anything else visible, without being distracted by anything, then he, so to speak, creates what is depicted as it is, and shows the truth in the likeness and the model in the image, 1275, despite the fact that one differs from the other in essence. Thus, persistent and unwavering contemplation of fragrant and hidden beauty by people who love beauty, who draw pictures in their minds, gives them its true and most godlike likeness 1276. So, in fairness, 1277 the divine artists, themselves, in accordance with the super-essentially fragrant and intelligible beauty, undistortedly depicting their own mental world, do not perform 1278 anything from the works of their God-imitating god-givers, “so that people can see 1279, according to the Oration” (cf. Matt. 6:1, 23:5), but sacredly see in the divine world, as in an image, that which belongs to the Church, the most sacred and secret. Why do they themselves, having sacredly hidden the sacred and most God-like inherent in virtue within the God-imitating and God-drawing mind, look with their minds only at the Prototype. And not only are they invisible to those unlike them, but they are not inclined to see them. As a result, according to themselves, they love not what for some reason seems beautiful and fair, but what truly is; and they do not look at the glory unreasonably exalted by the multitude, but God-imitatingly judge beauty or badness in themselves, being divine images of the most divine Fragrance 1280, which, in Itself having truly a fragrance, does not turn to what the multitude inappropriately imagines, but with His true images captures only the unfeigned. 2. And, finally, since we have considered the external splendor of all the beautiful sacred rites, let us look at its more divine beauty, at it as such, naked from the veils, contemplating the blissful brilliant radiance that fills us with a fragrance unhidden for mental beings. After all, the complete action over the world that appears is not uninvolved or invisible to those who surround the hierarch, but, on the contrary, having reached them and presented a spectacle that exceeds many others, it is sacredly enveloped by them and hierarchically separated from the human multitude. For the fragrant ray of the All-Holy, which shines purely and directly for men who abid in God, as akin to the mental light, and unveiled for their mental sensibilities, does not in the same way reach what is below, but by them, as secret 1281 contemplatives of the mental, so that the inviolable is not accessible to those unlike them, it is hidden with winged fortune-telling - with the help of which sacred fortune-telling 1282 the well-established ranks below are elevated to their sacred measure. 3. So there exists, as I said, the sacred fulfillment of the perfecting order and power of hierarchical rites 1283, which we now sing. That is why our divine mentors established this as equivalent and identical to the sacred celebration of communion - in many ways with the same images, mysterious orders and sacred words. And here, in the same way, you will see the hierarch carrying a beautiful incense from a more divine place to the outer sacred space and by returning there teaching that the communion of the divine 1284 occurs in all sacred beings according to their dignity, and at the same time it is completely undiminished and immovable and stands steadily within the particularity corresponding to the divine institution. Once again, songs and readings of the Sayings equally contribute to the life-giving adoption of the imperfect, perform the sacred conversion of the possessed 1285, remove hostile intimidation and witchcraft from those unmanly susceptible to their influence, and accordingly reveal the ultimate height of god-like properties and strength. Thanks to this, those people will more easily scare away hostile forces and begin to heal others, remaining godlike, motionless in their beauty, and in the face of hostile intimidation, not only having determination, but also being gifted from above. To those who pass from the worst to the sacred mind 1286, they give the sacred ability not to be immediately captured by evil; those who need to be completely blameless are completely cleansed; the sacred are led 1287 to divine images, their viewing and communion; They completely accept the saints in order to enjoy their uniformity 1288 with the One in blessed speculative visions and to create oneness. 4. So what? 1289 Is it possible that the sacred fulfillment now taking place, visible only by the sacred ranks, and then in images, directly contemplated and sacredly performed only by the all-saints in their hierarchical ascents, by the same way of unification unalloyed those already mentioned, not completely pure ranks? We have said this many times, and it seems to me unnecessary to describe the circles with the same words and not move on to the next one - looking with inspiration at the hierarch with the divine world, covered with twelve wings, performing the all-holy accomplishment over him. So, we say that the composition of the world is a certain combination of fragrant substances, which contains fragrant qualities in abundance, and those who partake of it inhale the aroma according to the extent to which they become involved in the aroma. We are convinced that the most divine Jesus is super-essentially fragrant and, spreading intelligibly, fills our mental part with divine joy. After all, if the perception of aromas 1290 perceived by the senses gives pleasure and nourishes our sense of smell with great joy, if it is not damaged and they mutually correspond with each other with fragrance, similarly, it seems, our mental powers, being in natural strength, our ability to judge 1291, inaccessible to being reduced to the worse, turn out - as the mind acts in God and responds to the divine - to perceive the original fragrance of God and are fulfilled sacred pleasure and the most divine food. Thus, the symbolic composition of the world depicts for us - as an image without an image - Jesus himself, who is the source of divine fragrances that deliver abundance 1292 to our perception, offering to the most God-seeing of mental sensibilities in the God-primary correspondences the most divine vapors, which, enjoying 1293, the minds rejoice, and, filled with sacred perception, partake of mental food, thanks to the availability for their mental senses of the incense spreading with the divine sacrament. 5. I think it is clear that when coming from the Source, the fragrance is in some way closer to beings superior to us as more divine; and to the most transparent of them it reveals itself to a greater extent and spreads more easily into them, and improves the power of their mental perception, generously pouring out and penetrating into them many times. And to those who are lower than the mental ranks and are not as receptive as them, it is transmitted in divine proportionality by the corresponding sacramental vapors, leaving the highest contemplation and participation inviolably hidden. Of the holy beings superior to us, the rank of seraphim, so superior to us, is depicted with twelve wings 1295 - as standing and placed near Jesus, surrendering, as it should, to His most blessed contemplation, sacredly filled in the all-holy containers with intelligible penetration and incessant lips, speaking in images perceived by the senses, chanting polysemantic theology. 1296 For the sacred knowledge of supra-mundane minds is inexhaustible, possesses incomprehensible divine love and is above all evil and oblivion 1297. Why, I suppose, is just that; that they cry incessantly hints at their eternal and unchangeable knowledge 1298 and thinking of the divine in all zeal and thanksgiving. 6. So, 1299, we have, as I think, well examined and presented to your mental eyes the distinctive, body-unrelated properties of the seraphim in the structure of the super-celestial 1300 hierarchies, sacredly described in the Sayings through the senses perceived explanatory images. However, since those who [now] sacredly stand around the hierarch represent for us precisely this highest rank, we will now briefly examine their most godlike beauty with the most incorporeal eyes. 7. Their 1301 myriad faces and many legs indicate, I think, as their distinctive property, their multiplicity of vision during the most divine brilliance and their eternal mobility and multiplicity in the ways of contemplating divine blessings. The sixity, as the Sayings say, in the structure of 1302 wings, I think, contrary to the opinion of some, reveals not a sacred number, but that the first, middle 1303 and last of their mental god-like powers belong to the highest essence of God, an upwardly directed, completely free supramundane rank. Why is it that the most sacred wisdom of the Sayings, writing in sacred terms how 1304 their wings appear, places wings 1305 around their faces, bodies and legs, thereby hinting that they are completely winged and that the power that leads them to the truly Existent is manifold. 8. If they hide their faces 1306 and legs and fly with the help of only the middle wings, sacredly understand that the rank, so chosen among the highest beings, is reverent in relation to the higher and deeper of its speculations and is raised to commensurate with the vision of God by the middle wings, leaving its life to the divine scales and sacredly relying on them for self-knowledge. 9 . What was said by the Sayings “They cried out one to another” (see Is. 6:3) shows, I think, that they generously convey their speculations about the vision of God to each other. And we also consider it 1307 worthy of memory that the Hebrew language of the Sayings calls the most holy beings seraphim with the expressive name of seraphim due to the fact that they are fiery and seething in their divine and ever-moving life. 10. So, if, as they say, explaining the Hebrew words, the most divine seraphim were called by theology “kindlers” and “warmers” - a name that explains the property of their essence 1308 - then, according to symbolic imagery, they have the properties of the divine world for manifesting this and for distributing stronger vapors to those who call. For the fragrant essence, which transcends the mind, loves to stimulate the burning and purest minds to manifest itself and bestows its most divine inspirations in all-blessed expansions on those who so supra-peacefully call upon it. After all, the most divine rank among the super-celestial beings did not know 1309 that the most divine Jesus descended to be sanctified 1310; he thinks of Him sacredly as having brought Himself down by divine and ineffable goodness into what is peculiar to us and, seeing Him in the manner appropriate to man, sanctified by the Father, 1311 by Himself and the Spirit, he recognizes his own Origin, which, wherever it is, acts in a divinely original way, remaining - in what relates to the essence - unchanged. Therefore, the tradition of sacred symbols places the seraphim 1312 around the sanctified divine world, knowing and depicting Christ unchanged in his perfect complete and truly incarnation for our sake. And it is even more divine that the hierarch uses the divine world in the perfection of all that is sacred, clearly showing, according to the Sayings, the One who Sanctifies the sanctified 1313 as always remaining identical with Himself in every divinely original good deed. Why is the fully effective gift and grace of the sacred birth of God realized in the most divine accomplishments of the world. Therefore, as I think, the hierarch, pouring myrrh 1314 into the cleansing baptistery with cruciform strokes, and reveals 1315 to the eyes of the beholders, Jesus, ours, for the sake of the generation of God, completely overthrowing 1316 with the help of the cross death itself with this divine and uncontrollable 1317 descent and splendid image of pulling us out, according to the secret Saying, in His death 1318 from the ancient preoccupation with corruptive death and renewing for divine eternal existence (see Rom. 6:3–5). 11. But the one who himself has accomplished the most sacred accomplishment of the birth of God, the manifestation of the God-originating Spirit, is granted a perfecting anointing with myrrh, by which, as I think, the sacred depiction of symbols hints at Himself, for our sake, Sanctified by the God-originating Spirit in the appropriate way for people 1319, according to the unchangeable property of His inherent divinity, delivering the most divine 1320 Spirit to us. 12. But this is also what we think hierarchically - that the sacred consecration of the divine altar 1321, the foundation of the most holy accomplishments, is fully accomplished by the all-holy libations of the most holy myrrh. But this is the super-heavenly and super-essential action of God, the beginning, essence and perfecting power of all our divine sanctification. After all, if our most divine altar is Jesus 1322, then the divine initial sanctification of the divine minds, in which, according to the Oration, those who are sanctified and mysteriously “burnt” 1323 (see Ps. 50:21), we have access to see with supermundane eyes the most divine Altar Himself, on which what is done is accomplished and is sanctified, by ourselves accomplished by the Most Divine World. For the All-Holy Jesus sanctifies Himself above us and fills us with all the sanctification of that which is economically sanctified in Him, and then beneficially passes into us as God-born. Therefore, as I think, the divine leaders of our hierarchy, in accordance with the hierarchical mind, faithfully call this venerable sacred action of the completion of the world 1324 - according to what is actually performed, one might say - the sacrament of the completion of God, chanting His divine perfection for every mind. For this is His accomplishment, and for our sake He is sanctified in a man-made manner, in order to accomplish everything 1325 and to sanctify what is being done. The sacred song, born of the inspiration of the divinely inspired prophets, as people who know the traditions of the Jews say 1326, is a praise to God, or “Praise the Lord.” And since the entire sacred theophany 1327 and divine action is sacredly depicted by a diverse combination of hierarchical symbols, it is not inappropriate to recall the God-moved hymnology of the prophets. For it teaches in a grace-filled and sacred manner that God’s original blessings are worthy of sacred praise. Chapter 5. About priestly [ranks, their capabilities and actions,] accomplishments 1. This is the most divine perfection of the world. It seems time, after the divine sacred rites, to present the priestly ranks themselves and what they perform 1328, their capabilities, actions and accomplishments, and the triad of lower ranks located under them - so that it is possible to show the structure of our hierarchy, disordered, disorderly and heaped up unmixed by dividing and selecting, and arranged, ordered and well-established manifesting itself in its characteristic correspondences ("analogies") of the sacred officials In the hierarchies we have already sung, we have well, it seems to me, presented the trinitarian division 1329 of the entire hierarchy, saying that, according to our sacred tradition, all sacred work is divided into the most pious rites, their divinely inspired experts and performers, and those who with their help are sacredly improved. 2. So, the most sacred hierarchy of 1330 super-heavenly essences has as its accomplishment (goal) the feasible assimilation to God and the most immaterial understanding of the divine, the all-inclusiveness of God-likeness and, if possible, a God-imitating state; and its light guides and leaders to this sacred accomplishment are the first essences of God, for they plausibly and accordingly transmit to the lower-lying sacred ranks the eternal divine knowledge granted to them through the self-perfecting and wise hierarchy of divine minds. The orders that are below the first essences, through them sacredly raised to the divine radiance of the Godhead, are and are truly called perfectable orders. And after this 1331 heavenly and super-mundane hierarchy, the Godhead, beneficently bringing His gifts to those existing, according to the Sayings, babies, bestowed on them the “legal” 1332 hierarchy (cf. Gal. 3:24), - in vague images of the true and in the most distant reflections from the archetypes, in fortune-telling difficult to interpret, in forms that do not provide an easy opportunity 1333 to contemplate the corresponding light shrouded in them, shining harmlessly for weak eyes. The purpose of such a hierarchy in accordance with the Law of 1334 is the elevation to spiritual service, and the leaders in this are people sacredly initiated into the mysteries of this holy tabernacle, by Moses, the first mystic and leader of the legal hierarchs 1335 - in relation to which sacred tabernacle, introductively writing 1336 the legal hierarchy, showing the icon of the image to him on Mount Sinai, God called everything by Sacred to the law (see Ex. 25–27). Those being perfected are those who are proportionately raised according to the lawful symbols to a more perfect initiation. Theology calls our hierarchy a more perfect initiation 1337, calling it the fulfillment of that and the sacred lot. Both the heavenly and the legal hierarchies exist in communion with it as the middle 1338, occupying the edges, for together with one it participates in mental contemplations, and together with the other it is diversified by symbols perceived through the senses and through them is sacredly elevated to the Divine. And it equally has a trinitarian 1339 hierarchical division, being divided into the holiest of the sacred rites, the godlike servants of the sacred 1340 and by them, accordingly, brought to the sacred. Each of the three parts of our hierarchy - following the legal Old Testament and more than ours, 1341 divine, angelic hierarchies - is arranged in degrees as the first, middle and last - in prudent concern for the sacred conformity of everything and for the universal, ordered, according to order, harmonious and connecting community. 3. After all, the most holy sacred act of accomplishment has as the first god-like ability the sacred 1342 purification of the imperfect, as the middle one - the sanctifying enlightenment of those being purified, and as the last, summing up the previous ones, the improvement of one’s own initiations initiated in science. The rank of priests 1343 in the first degree, through initiation, purifies 1344 uninitiated; on the middle one – light guides; and through the last and most extreme of the sacred abilities, he perfects those who have partaken of the divine light in a perfect understanding of the 1345 illuminations seen. The first 1346 ability of those being perfected is purifying, the middle one, after purification, is enlightening and allows one to contemplate certain sacred things; and the last and more divine than the others - sanctifying those who perfect with the understanding of sacred illuminations, of which a person becomes a spectator. The Trinity 1347 ability of the holy ritual of initiations is glorified when 1348 from the Sayings the purification and enlightening radiance of the sacred birth of God is shown. The meeting and the sacrament of the sanctification of the world complete the divine knowledge and understanding, for the sake of which the one-creating ascent and the most blessed communion with the Godhead are sacredly carried out. And now 1349, further, we should talk about the priestly dispensation, which is divided into purifying, enlightening and perfecting deaneries. 4. The all-sacred law of the Godhead is this: the secondary is raised to the most divine radiance through the primary. Don’t we see the essences of the elements (elements) perceived by the senses, first of all approaching what is most related to them, and through that transferring our attention to something else? It is natural, after all, that the Beginning and Foundation of any invisible and visible improvement first of all makes it possible for idolizing rays to penetrate into more god-like ones and through them, as through minds that are more transparent and more suitable for the perception and transmission of light, shines 1351 and is revealed in the underlying ones in a corresponding manner. To such, the first, therefore, the seers of God, belongs 1352 the opportunity to unenviously show to the second 1353 - in proportion to what is characteristic of them - the divine spectacles sacredly contemplated by them, to initiate into the hierarchical those who, together with perfecting knowledge, turn out to be well initiated into everything divine characteristic of their hierarchy, to initiate those who accept into the possession of the ability of perfect action and to transfer the sacred according to the dignity of those who consciously and fully possess the sacred perfection. 5. So, the divine rank of hierarchs is the first 1354 of the God-seeing ranks; and the extreme and last is again the same, for in it the entire structure of our hierarchy ends and is fulfilled. For just as we see the entire hierarchy completed in Jesus, so we see each of its degrees in its divine hierarch. The power of the rank of hierarchs 1355 extends to all hierarchical wholes and through all sacred ranks carries out the sacrament of its hierarchy. Exclusively to him, bypassing the other ranks, the divine law determined the self-actual performance of the most divine of the sacred rites. These are the essence of 1356 fully effective images of God's original power, bringing all the most divine symbols and all sacred dispensations to perfection. After all, although some of the revered symbols (symbolic actions) are performed by priests 1357, a priest will never create a sacred generation of God without the most divine world, nor perform the sacraments of divine communion, unless the symbols of communion are placed on the most divine altar. He himself will not even be a priest if he does not receive this as an inheritance through hierarchical perfection. Because divine legislation dedicated the dedication of the hierarchical ranks 1358, the consecration of the divine world and the sacred perfection of the altar solely to the 1359 perfect powers of the divinely inspired hierarchs. 6. So, there is a rank of hierarchs, filled with perfecting power, exclusively perfecting the perfect functioning of the hierarchy, explanatoryly initiating into the art of 1360 the sacred and teaching the corresponding sacred states and abilities. The light-guiding rank of priests 1361 guides those being perfected to divine contemplation of accomplishments, being under the rank of divine hierarchs, together with him performing their own sacred rites, in which he himself 1362 performs divine actions, showing them through the most sacred symbols, making those who come as contemplators and participants in the venerable accomplishments and sending people interested in understanding what they saw to the hierarch sacred rites. The rite of the liturgists 1363, which purifies and serves to distinguish what is inappropriate, before the priests go out for sacred rites, cleanses 1364 those who come, making them clean from everything hostile and suitable for contemplation and participation in the sacred rites. For what reason are the liturgists, at the sacred birth of God in 1365, strip those who have come from their old clothes, and also take off their shoes, and place them on the western side, and immediately transfer them to the eastern side [for this is included in the rite and method of purification], ordering them to completely discard the clothes of their former life, showing the darkness of their former existence and teaching them, having renounced everything dark, to move on to the illuminating one. Thus, the order of the liturgists is purifying, elevating the purified priests to the bright sacred rites, purifying and entwining with the purifying brilliance and teachings of the Sayings, and also decisively sending away non-sacred people from the priests. Why did the hierarchical law place it at the sacred gates 1366 hinting that the entrance of those who come to the sacred is possible only in complete purity, entrusting their access to sacred visions and communions to the purifying forces and thereby perceiving them unsullied. 7. So, it is shown 1367 that the rank of hierarchs is performing and perfecting, the rank of priests is enlightening and light-guiding, and the rank of liturgists is purifying and discriminating, while the rank of hierarchs 1368, of course, can not only perfect, but also enlighten and purify, and has in itself the power of the priests along with the ability of enlightenment and purification. For the lower ranks are unable to transfer the lesser to the greater, moreover, they are not allowed such a daring encroachment. And the more divine powers, along with their abilities, also possess their lower sacred knowledge of perfection. But since the priestly 1369 orders are images of divine energies, a well-ordered and unmixed order of divine energies, they reveal in themselves radiances ordered according to the first, middle and last sacred energies and orders. They are established according to hierarchical distinctions and represent, as I have said, the orderliness and immiscibility of the divine energies. For since 1370 the Godhead first purifies those minds in which it is born, then enlightens, and perfects the enlightened for God-like perfection, it is natural that the hierarchical arrangement of divine images divides itself into special ranks and powers, clearly showing that the Godhead energies are well-established and unmixed in the most holy and unmerged ranks. But since we have already, to the best of our ability, spoken about the priestly orders and performances and their powers and energies, let us now, if possible, look at their most sacred accomplishments. The hierarch 1371, having been brought for hierarchical execution, having bowed both knees 1372 before the altar, has on his head the God-transmitted Orations and the hand of the hierarch, and thus his installation is accomplished by the hierarch who perfects him through all-holy invocations. The priest, having bowed both knees before the divine altar, has the right hand of the hierarch on his head, and is thus sanctified through sacred invocations by the hierarch who perfects him. The liturgist, having bowed one knee before the divine altar, has on his head the right hand of the hierarch who perfects him, being perfected by him through perfect invocations to the liturgist. On each of them, the perfecting hierarch is marked with a cross-shaped seal, and a sacred public proclamation 1373 is made about each and a final kiss, and every sacred man present kisses him 1374. And when the hierarch finishes his work, he moves into one of the named priestly ranks. 1. It is common for hierarchs, priests and liturgists to conduct their priestly celebrations by bringing them to the divine altar and venerating 1375 it, laying on the hand of the hierarch, making a cross-shaped seal, proclamation 1376 and a final kiss. What is special and special for hierarchs is the placing of Sayings on the head, which the lower ranks do not have. Priests are required to bow both knees, which is not the case with the ordination of liturgists, for the liturgists, as it is said, bow only one knee. 2. Bringing 1377 to the divine altar and worshiping with them hints to all those being priestly perfected that they must completely submit their lives to the supreme ruler God and bring all their thinking as a whole to Him completely pure, sanctified, epiphanic and, as far as possible, worthy of the God-beginning all-holy and sacred altar, priestly sanctifying the god-like minds. 3. And the laying on of the hand of the hierarch at the same time signifies the initial cover, under which the sacred children are surrounded by paternal care, giving them a priestly state and strength, while expelling forces hostile to them, and at the same time teaches them to carry out all priestly actions, as if they are doing what they do before God and having Him as the leader of their actions in everything. 4. The cruciform seal placed on everyone in general has as its goal the inactivity of carnal lusts, a life imitating God, a steady appeal as a model to the masculine 1378 most divine - right up to the cross and death - life of Jesus, which ended in God's original infallibility, and to a life of living as those who live uniformly with the image of the cross signified His infallibility. 5. The hierarch pronounces the proclamation of 1379 accomplishments and those being perfected loudly, making the sacrament obvious, since he is the God-loving and sacred celebrant of God’s initial choice, not himself, out of his own favor, bringing those being perfected to the priestly accomplishment, but being moved by God in all hierarchical consecrations. So Moses, the priestly celebrant of the Law, did not introduce Aron as brother 1380 into the priestly accomplishment, even believing that he was God-loving and sacred, until he was moved to this by the supreme ruler God (see Ex. 29: 4-9), and then the hierarch performed his priestly accomplishment. But our God-beginning and first Priest 1381 (and this is what the most loving Jesus became for our sake) “did not glorify Himself” (Heb. 5:5), as the sayings say, but He who said to Him: “Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 109:4; cf. Heb. 5:5-6). Why did He 1382, leading the disciples to priestly fulfillment, although He was, like God, the perfect leader 1383, however, hierarchically entrusted the perfect initial perfection to His Most Holy Father and to the God-primary Spirit, announcing to the disciples, as the Sayings say, “do not separate from Jerusalem, but wait for what was promised from the Father, which you heard from Me, that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 1:4–5). And after all, the coryphaeus of the disciples of 1384 himself, together with the hierarchical ten equal to him, having come to the priestly celebration of the twelfth of the disciples, reverently entrusted the election to the Godhead, “Show,” said, “whom You have chosen” (cf. Acts 1:24), and by the divine lot of the divinely indicated one accepted into the hierarchical number of the holy twelve. About the divine lot of 1385, which fell divinely upon Matthias, others responded differently, not piously, as I think, but I myself will express the idea that the Proclamation of 1386 refers to a certain divine gift that reveals the divine election of the hierarchical place indicated for that. In any case, it is clear that the priestly perfection of the divine hierarch should not be performed spontaneously, but they must be perfected by being moved by God, hierarchically and heavenly. 6. Kissing at the end of the priestly ceremony has a sacred explanation. After all, all those present belonging to the priestly ranks, including the perfecting hierarch himself, kiss the one being perfected. Whenever a sacred mind, guided by a predisposition to the priesthood, a corresponding power and a divine calling and sanctification, comes to priestly perfection, it finds itself loved both by its equals and by ranks more sacred than itself, being led into the most divine beauty, ardently loving uniform minds and being sacredly loved by them. Therefore, the priestly kissing of each other is sacred in order to show the sacred communication of like-minded minds and loving joy towards each other - so that they fully preserve the most godlike beauty in the priestly image. 7. These, as I said, are the general elements of the institution of any sacred order. The peculiarity of the installation of the hierarch in 1387 is the sacred placing of the Sayings on his head. After all, since the perfecting power and knowledge of the entire priesthood are bestowed upon the divinely inspired hierarchs by God's original and ultimate Goodness, it is natural to place on the heads of the hierarchs the God-transmitted Sayings, comprehensively and completely containing the knowledge of all theology, God-working, theophany 1388 and theology - in a word, all the divine and holy deeds and words bestowed on our hierarchy by the beneficent Godhead, since The God-like hierarch, who participates in every priestly power, must have true and God-transmitted knowledge of all priestly sacred words 1389 and sacred rites - so that not only he is enlightened, but so that he also transmits to other hierarchical correspondences, and hierarchically perfects with the most divine knowledge and extreme exaltations everything that is most perfect from the entire hierarchy. And for the priests of 1390, what is special in relation to the category of liturgists is the bowing of two knees, since such a one bends only one knee - and in this hierarchical way he perfects himself. 8. Adoration 1391 expresses, after all, the subordinate offering of the offerer, who offers the sacredly offered to God. Since, as we have often said, the three sacredly fulfilling 1392 ranks are established for the sake of the three most holy accomplishments and powers in the form of three perfected 1393 ranks, and all of them sacredly act by bringing them under the saving divine yoke, it is natural that the rite of the liturgists 1394, as only purifying, is sacred only by bringing those being purified, offering them before that divine altar, for on through it, purified minds are sacredly sanctified. The priests 1395 bow both knees because those who are sacredly guided by them are not only purified, but also, having purified their lives in an elevating way through their brightest sacred rites, are sacredly perfected to the state and ability of contemplation. The hierarch, bending both knees 1396, has on his head the God-transmitted Sayings, since he hierarchically leads, by the power of the liturgists, purified and by the power of the priest, enlightened, to an appropriate understanding of the sacred they have seen, thereby perfecting those led to their complete sanctification. Chapter 6. About the rites performed 1. These are the priestly ranks and lots, their abilities, actions and accomplishments. Next, we need to talk about the triad of 1397 ranks being improved under them. So, let's say 1398 that those being purified are ranks that represent sets 1399 of those inadmissible to sacred rites and perfect actions, which we have already mentioned, and one of them is still being formed and formed by the midwives of the liturgists for life-giving birth; the other 1400 is one who is called to the sacred life, from which he has fallen, by the converting teaching of good Sayings; the third 1401 is the unmanly one who is horrified by the enemy’s intimidation and strengthened by empowering words; the fourth - translated 1402 to the sacred energies from the worst; and the fifth is not yet completely and irreversibly brought 1403 to the possession of more divine and unshakable states. These are the ranks of the liturgists purified by the midwife and cleansing power; The liturgists perfect such with their sacred powers in order to transfer them, finally purified, to the enlightening contemplation of the most luminous sacred rites and communion. 2. The middle rite 1404 is contemplative and of certain shrines, respectively, participating in all purity, appointed by the priests for his enlightenment. And, I believe, it is clear that as cleansed from all 1405 unsacred stains and possessing an all-immaculate, motionless affirmation of his mind, he is sacredly transferred to a contemplative state and strength and participates in the most divine symbols peculiar to him, contemplating them and communing with them, filled with all kinds of sacred joy and accordingly inspired by their uplifting powers to the divine love of their knowledge. Such, I say, is the rank of the “holy people” 1406 (see Deut. 7:6, 14:2; Isa. 62:12; Dan. 12:7; 2 Mac. 15:24), that due to the achievement of all purification, they are justly awarded sacred contemplation and participation in the brightest accomplishments. 3. Of the ranks performed, the highest is the sacred rank of monks 1407, which has achieved every purified purity, thanks to the integral strength and perfect purity of its energies in mental contemplation and communion - as far as it is allowed to contemplate all the sacred actions - entrusted to the perfecting forces of the hierarchs, and by their divine illuminations and hierarchical traditions to the understanding of those seen in those related to it sacred actions, sacred accomplishments, taught, and accordingly raised to the most perfect accomplishment of their sacred knowledge. That is why our sacred leaders honored them with sacred names, calling them some therapists 1408, others monks, because of their care and concern for God and the indivisible and integral 1409 life, as one that creates them in the sacred retinues of the divisible 1410 into the God-like monad 1411 and God-loving perfection. That is why the sacred law granted them perfecting grace. Priest 1412 stands against the divine altar, pronouncing the monastic name. And the one being perfected stands behind the priest, neither bowing both knees, nor one of the knees, and not having on his head the God-transmitted Sayings, but only standing before the priest, who pronounces the sacramental name over him. Upon its completion, he approaches the student, first asks him whether he denies all divisions 1413 - not only in life, but also in dreams. Then he points out to him a more perfect life, testifying that he should rise above the average rank. When the one being performed diligently confesses all this, the priest, having sealed him in the form of a cross, tonsures him 1414, calling on the triple 1415 hypostasis of divine bliss, and, having removed all the clothes from him, dresses him in another, and, having kissed him along with other sacred men, as many as are present, makes him a communicant of the divine sacraments 1416. 4. The fact that the person being tonsured does not bend any of the knees, does not have God-transmitted utterances on his head, and stands before the priest when he pronounces the priesthood, shows that the monastic rank is not superior to others, but remains in itself in a solitary and sacred state, following the priestly ranks, which they, as a companion, obediently lead to the divine knowledge of the sacred inherent in it. 5. Renunciation 1417 of the divisible, not only in life, but also in dreams, demonstrates the most perfect monastic wisdom, operating in the knowledge of the one-creating commandments. This, as I said, is not a property of the average of the perfected ranks, but of all ranks superior. Why 1418 much of what people of the middle rank do without condemnation is forbidden in every possible way 1419 to united monks, since they must become one in the One, be reduced to the sacred Monad (Unit) and, if possible, be formed for the priestly life as in many ways having an affinity with It and approaching It more than other perfected ranks. 6. And the seal of the cruciform image, as I have already said, reveals the inactivity of all carnal aspirations in general. The triple renunciation 1420 means a pure and formless life, which does not embellish the ugliness of the mind with any introduced images, but in itself - not with human, but with united and monastic beauties - is elevated to the most divine. 7. Rejection of the previous 1421 clothes and acceptance of another means a transition from an average sacred life to a more perfect one - just as during the sacred generation of God, a change of clothes means an elevation from a purified life to a contemplative and illuminating state. And the fact that even now the priest and all 1422, how many of them are present, kiss the sacred faces of the perfect, understand as the sacred communion of the godlike, with love in divine joy rejoicing at each other. 8. At the end of all, the priest calls the perfected one to communion with the 1423 God-beginning, sacredly revealing that the perfect one, if he has truly come to a monastic and united way of life, will become not only a contemplator of the sacred inherent in him and will not, like an average rank, come to the communion of the most sacred symbols, but will begin the 1424 communion of the 1424 God-beginning communion with the divine knowledge of the sacred of which he receives communion in a different way compared to the sacred people. Why is it that the priestly ranks, during their sacredly perfecting consecrations at the end of their most holy initiations, are given communion by the hierarch who perfected them 1425 - not only because of all the divine sacraments, communion is the head of all hierarchical participation, but also because all the sacred ranks, in the appropriate way for each of them, partake of the most imparting divine gift for their own elevation to deification and improvement. So, it seems to us that holy accomplishments are purification 1426, enlightenment and perfection, that the liturgists are a purifying rite 1427, the priests are an enlightening rite, and the perfecting ones are God-like hierarchs. The rite being purified does not participate in sacred contemplation and communion, as soon as it is still purified. And those who contemplate the rank are a sacred people. The perfect rank is the rank of united monks. Thus, our hierarchy, sacredly blessed with God-given ranks, is homogeneous with the heavenly hierarchies, as it recreates in men the God-imitating and God-like outlines of that one. 9 . But you will say that 1428 the heavenly hierarchies completely lack the ranks of those being purified. For it is inappropriate and incorrect to say that there is some kind of heavenly 1429 hierarchy burdened with crime. I, unless I completely fall away from the most sacred mind, will completely agree with the fact that they are completely intact and have super-peaceful integrity. After all, if any of them turned out to be captured by evil, then it was the one who fell away from the heavenly and unalloyed harmony of divine minds and was carried away by the dark fall of the apostate multitudes. But in relation to the heavenly hierarchy, it will be sacred to say that the purification of the underlying 1430 essences is served by the radiance originating from God, reaching the most ignorant essences, elevating them to a more perfect knowledge of the divine knowledge and purifying them from the ignorance characteristic of those who did not yet have such knowledge - purifying, passing through the first and more divine essences, elevating them to the highest of God-seen ones. and the brightest sparkles. So in the heavenly hierarchy there are enlightened 1431 ranks, and performed, and purified, and enlightened, and accomplished, as belonging to the highest and more divine essences, purifying the lower sacred and heavenly ranks from all ignorance, according to the ranks and correspondences of each of the heavenly hierarchies; filling them with the most divine enlightenment and perfecting them in the all-holy knowledge of the divine illuminations. For we have already said and divinely established by the Sayings that all the heavenly orders are not identical in all the sacred knowledge of God-visible illuminations, but directly from God the first, through them - again from God - those below them are correspondingly illuminated by the brightest illuminations of the God-initial ray. Chapter 7. About what is done to the dead 1. Having determined this, it is necessary, I think, to say something about what we sacredly do to the dead. After all, this is not common to sacred and non-sacred persons, but just as the way of life of each of them is different, so, departing for 1432 death, having lived a sacred life, looking at the true promises of God, as having seen their truth in the resurrection He promised, they go to the limit of death with firm and true hope in divine joy as to the end of sacred struggles, to full and endless life and salvation, to knowing perfectly what will happen to them after the full resurrection awaiting them 1433. For the sacred souls 1434, who during their lives had the opportunity to fall and turn for the worse, in the new birth will have a most God-like and immutable structure. The pure bodies of sacred souls 1435, who bore the same burden with them and walked the same path with them, were assigned to them and fought with them, performing their divine deeds in the sweat of their brow, will receive their resurrection with them when their souls are confirmed in the unchangeable divine life. After all, having united 1436 with the souls with whom they were united in this life, becoming, as it were, members of Christ (see Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 6:15; Eph. 5:30), they will receive a God-like, incorruptible, immortal and blessed inheritance. Thus, the dormition of such sacred persons occurs in joy and unshakable hope for the approaching end of divine struggles. 2. Of the non-sacred 1437, some senselessly think that they will pass into oblivion, and others - that they will once and for all break the union of their souls with their bodies 1438 as unsuitable for them, without noticing, those who are not sufficiently initiated into divine knowledge, the most God-like life that has already begun 1439 in the God-like life and blessed lots in Christ. Others endow souls with conjugation with other bodies 1440, offending, as it seems to me, their bodies, which worked together with divine souls, and at the end of the divine competitions came, it turns out, ungodly deprived of sacred rewards. Others - I don’t know how - having deviated to mundane thoughts, declared that the holiest and most blessed lot promised to the monk was similar in appearance to this life 1441, and they wickedly rejected the food characteristic of beings equal to the angels in that life. But may none of the most sacred men ever fall into such errors! But knowing that all of them, when they come to the end of this life, will inherit the image of Christ, they see more clearly how, having already become closer, their path into incorruption, they sing the gifts of the Godhead and are filled with divine joy, no longer fearing seduction for the worse, but knowing well that they will confidently and eternally possess the acquired beauty. And people, burdened with filth and unsacred stains, even if they turned out to be initiated into something sacred, but they themselves, fatally driving it away from their minds, moved on to pernicious desires, when they come to the end of 1442 this life, then no longer the same as before, not deserving of contempt, the divine establishment of the Sayings appears to them; and having examined the destructive sweets of their passions with different eyes 1443 and praising the sacred life from which they had madly fallen away, they pitifully against their will are torn away from this life, not guided to any sacred hope because of their worst life. 3. None of this happens at the dormition of sacred men. After all, such a person, coming to the end of his struggles, is filled with sacred joy and with great pleasure walks along the path to sacred restoration. With divine closeness and like-mindedness, those close to the deceased, whatever he may be, praise him, with the desire to come to a victorious end, and send songs of gratitude to the Author of the victory, while praying that they themselves will come to a similar lot. And, having taken it, they take it to the hierarch, as if to present sacred crowns. And he joyfully accepts it and performs, in accordance with the statute, what is done to the venerably departed. Having gathered 1444 the sacred face, the divine hierarch, placing the deceased in front of the divine altar, if he belonged to the priestly rank, begins prayer and thanksgiving to God. If he belonged to the pure 1445 monks or to the sacred people, then he places him in front of the honest sanctuary, near the priestly entrance. Then the hierarch makes a prayer of thanks to God, after which the liturgists, having read the false promises of our sacred resurrection found in the divine 1446 Sayings, sacredly sing songs similar in words and identical in meaning to the psalm Sayings. Then the first of the liturgists dismisses the catechumens and pronounces the names of the already deceased saints, with whom he honors the one who has just died with equal glorification, and encourages everyone to ask for the blessed one. Christ's death. Then the divine hierarch, approaching the deceased, performs the most sacred prayer over him, and after the prayer, the hierarch himself, followed by all those present, kiss him. After everyone kisses him, the hierarch pours oil on the deceased and, having made a sacred prayer for everyone, they lay the body in revered peace along with other sacred bodies of equal rank. 4. If non-sacred people see or hear this that we are doing, they will laugh loudly, it seems to me, and will pity us for our delusion. One should not be surprised at this: after all, “if they do not believe what the Words say, then they do not understand” (cf. Is. 7:9). But we, thanks to Jesus’ light-giving 1447, having seen the intelligible meaning of what is being done, let’s say that it is not senseless that the hierarch introduces the deceased and places him in a place of equal rank: after all, he thereby sacredly shows that in the rebirth everyone will be worthy of the same lot that they chose in this life. Thus, if someone had a God-like and most holy life here, as much as it is possible for a man to imitate God, he will be rewarded with divine and blessed lots in the next century; if it is of the lowest extreme godlike form, but still sacred, then he will receive sacred rewards of the appropriate type. Having thanked divine 1448 justice for this, the hierarch makes a sacred prayer 1449 and glorifies the revered hierarchy as crushing the unjust tyrannical power that dominates all of us and transferring us to our own fairest courts. 5. The songs and readings of God's 1450 promises reveal the most blessed abodes (lots), in which those who have acquired divine perfection will be established forever. And the sacred receptions of the deceased serve as an incentive for those still living to a similar death. 6. Please note that not all ranks that are purified in the usual way are now 1451 sent away: only the catechumens 1452 are expelled from sacred places, for such a rank is not fully trained in any sacred service, and it is not proper for him, as someone who is not involved in the visual power of the sacred ranks received thanks to the light-initiating and light-giving generation of God, to look at either the small or the great of what is sacredly performed. The rest of the purified ranks have already been initiated into sacred tradition; Having unreasonably returned to the worst, they must re-commit their path forward, but from the divine visions and communions, as performed with the help of sacred symbols, they are deservedly separated, for those who begin to participate in them unsacredly will harm themselves 1453 and come to greater neglect of the divine and themselves. It is not without reason that they are present at what is happening now, for, clearly taught, they understand here the fearless attitude towards death characteristic of us, and what is the honor sung by the true Sayings to the saints and what, according to them (the Sayings), will be the endless torment of the non-sacred. In the same way, it is useful for them to hear how the liturgical proclamation sacredly proclaims the sacredly deceased as a true companion of the saints who have radiated from time immemorial; and perhaps they too will find a desire for the same and will be taught by liturgical art that truly blessed is the end in Christ. 7. “Then the divine hierarch, approaching the deceased, performs a sacred prayer over him, and after the prayer, the hierarch himself, and after him everyone present, kiss him” (cf. p. 714). In prayer 1454, he asks the divine Goodness to leave the deceased all sins committed due to human weakness 1455, and to commit it in the light and land of the living, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in a place from which “sickness and sorrow and groaning have escaped” (cf. Is. 35:10; Rev. 21.4). 8. So I think the most blessed honors given to saints are obvious. For what can compare with a completely carefree and enlightening immortality? Even those named in the highest degree corresponding to our names 1456, every mind surpasses the promises in their actual 1457 truth, surpassing the names. It should be understood that the saying is true: “Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not considered the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). The depths are, as I think, the most divine and blissful abodes of the blessed patriarchs and all other saints, God-like, perceiving everyone in their inherent eternal and most blissful perfection. 9 . You will agree, perhaps, that this is what we said correctly, but you will object that it is not clear why in 1458 the hierarch, in prayer to God’s original Goodness, asks for the remission of the deceased’s sins and the granting of a brighter lot equal to those of God, when everyone receives reward from divine justice for what he has done good or otherwise in his present life; the deceased has completed his actions in this life; So, with the help of what prayer of the hierarch can he be transferred to another inheritance - contrary to his dignity and reward for this life? That everyone will receive their reward, I know well from the Sayings, for it is said that our Lord concluded in His own way, and “everyone will receive according to what he did while living in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). And that the prayers of the righteous 1459 in this life are effective only in relation to people worthy of sacred prayers, we are taught by the true traditions of the Sayings. Did Saul benefit from Samuel's prayers? 1460 (see 1 Samuel 16:1) And what benefit did the prophet’s prayer bring to the Jewish people? It is the same as if someone, because the sun bestows its light on undamaged eyes, 1461 asks to be a partaker of the sunlight, thereby ruining his vision: in the same way, he who, asking for prayers from the saints, clings to impossible and excessive hopes, and drives out, by inattention to the divine gifts and evasion of the clearest and most gracious commandments, their actions that are sacred in nature. I will say, following the Sayings, that the prayers of the saints are extremely useful 1462 in this life (see James 5:16) in this way: if someone, desiring sacred gifts and having a sacred state that allows him to partake of them, 1463 recognizing his insufficiency, coming to one of the reverend men, prays for him to be an accomplice and a companion of prayer, then he will certainly receive from this all the above benefit. After all, he will accept the most divine gifts that he asks for, because he is perceived by the God-originating Goodness thanks to his own reverent understanding, respect for the saints, and a laudable desire to ask for the requested sacred and corresponding god-like state. And after all, this was decreed by God’s original courts - to bestow divine gifts in the most godlike order to those who are worthy of being partakers, and to teach them through those worthy. And if someone treats this sacred well-being with disdain and, having reached the point of accursed pride, considers himself worthy of God’s initial communion 1464, and neglects the venerable ones, and if he turns to God with unworthy and not sacred petitions, and if his desire for the divine is not strong and corresponding to him, then because of himself his ignorant request will turn out to be in vain. As for the 1465 named prayer, which the hierarch prays over the deceased, we must say about the tradition of our mentors that has reached us. 10. The Divine Hierarch is the proclaimer, as the Sayings say, of God’s initial definitions, for he is “the messenger of the Lord Almighty God” (cf. Mal. 2:7). After all, he knows from the Sayings transmitted by God that those who have lived venerably and worthily are rewarded with the brightest divine life, according to the goodness of God’s original love for mankind, by the fairest standards, disregarding the defilements that befall those due to human weakness, since “no one,” as the Sayings say, “is clean from dirt” (see Job 14:4). The Hierarch knows this, proclaimed by the true Sayings. and prays that this 1467 happen - that sacred rewards be granted to those who lived venerably, and at the same time, in forms of imitation of God, gracefully depicting God, he also asks for gifts for others as his own mercies, and at the same time, knowing the false promises of the future and those present 1468 expressively expressing that what he asks for according to the sacred charter will certainly be given according to the divine life 1469 deceased. After all, the hierarch, the servant of God’s original justice, would never ask for what is not most pleasing to God and what was not divinely promised by Him. Why does he not pray for this for the unholy 1470 deceased - not only so as not to thereby violate the prophetic order and not dare to act independently in a hierarchical matter without being prompted to do so by the Supreme Commander 1471, but also so as not to fail due to inappropriate prayer, and not without reason and not to hear the answer of the fair Saying 1472: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask not for good” (James 4:3). Therefore, the hierarch asks for what is promised by God and loved by God, which will certainly be given, and showing his good condition to the benevolent God, and explaining to those present the gifts that await the saints. Thus, the hierarchs - as exponents of divine justice - have the power, following as servants of the all-wise, reverently say, God's Commander, not by virtue of their wordless aspirations 1473, but as the service-leading Spirit moves them as prophets, to excommunicate 1474 those condemned by God according to their dignity. For “Receive,” says 1475, “the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; those whose sins you retain, will be retained” (John 20:22–23). And to the Holy Father, upon whom divine revelations shone, 1476, the Sayings say: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” ( Matthew 16:19), so that he and all the hierarchs who follow him 1477, in accordance with the revelations of the fatherly definitions that he had, explanatorily and interpretatively accepted the God-loving, and drove away the godless. After all, this sacred theology 1478, as the Sayings say, was not revealed to him in itself, not by flesh and blood (cf. Matthew 16:17), but God is intelligible to him. He taught His own, and He proclaimed. Divine hierarchs must use excommunications and all hierarchical powers as if they were being moved by the initial God's leadership. The rest, in this way, must listen to the hierarchs when they act hierarchically 1480, as moved by God, for “He who rejects you,” He says, “rejects Me” (Luke 10:16). 11. But let us return to what follows the mentioned prayer. Having completed it, the hierarch himself kisses the deceased, and after him all those present, for dear and dear to all God-like people, a person who has died after a divine life. After the kiss, the hierarch pours oil on the deceased. Remember that at the sacred birth of God, before the most divine baptism 1481 (lit.: immersion), the first communion with sacred symbols is given to the person being perfected after the complete removal of previous clothing as anointing with oil; now, at the end of everything, oil is poured onto the deceased. And if then in 1482 the anointing with oil called the person being perfected to sacred competitions, now the pouring of oil reveals the deceased to have labored in his sacred competitions and completed them. 12. Having accomplished this, the hierarch places the body in a revered church along with other equal sacred bodies. After all, since the deceased lived a God-loving life with soul and body, then together with the reverend soul the body that contributed to it will be honored for its sacred sweat. Subsequently, divine justice grants her, together with her own body, the inheritances they deserve, since the body is a companion and participant in her reverend or opposite life. Therefore, the divine law grants both 1484 communion with the God-Superior: the soul - in pure contemplation and knowledge of what is being accomplished, the body - through the most divine, as if in an image, peace and the most sacred symbols of God's initial communion, sanctifying the whole person 1485, sanctifying his complete salvation and proclaiming in the whole, soul and body, the sanctification of his future most perfect resurrection. 13. The perfect invocations (“epicleses”) 1486 and their mysterious meaning should not be interpreted in the scriptures, nor should the forces acting in them sent from God be deduced 1487 from concealment into openness, but, in accordance with our sacred tradition, through undisclosed teachings having learned them and for a more divine state and ascension by divine love and sacred energies, having been perfected, one can be elevated by the perfect initial illumination to their the highest knowledge. 14. As for children who are not yet able 1488 to understand the divine, then when they are partakers of the sacred birth of God and the most sacred symbols of communion with the Divine, this, as you said, seems worthy of healthy laughter to the unsacred, when hierarchs who are unable to hear are taught the divine and sacred traditions are passed on to those who do not understand at random, 1489 and what is even funnier - when instead of them others pronounce renunciations and sacred confessions. Your hierarchical consciousness should not be bothered by those who are lost, but reverently, for the sake of their light-guiding, answer with love the objections they put forward, adding this, according to the sacred charter, that not everything divine fits into our mind, and much that is unknown to us has godlike reasons, unknown to us, but accessible to the knowledge of 1490 ranks better than us. Much is hidden from the highest essences and is precisely known only to the all-wise and wisdom-creating Godhead. However, let’s also say about this what our godlike celebrants, taught by ancient traditions, brought to us. They say, and this 1491 is true, that, according to the sacred law, the babies introduced will come to the sacred state having finished with all delusion (deception) and inexperienced in the unsacred life. Coming to the minds of our divine teachers 1492, this persuaded us to receive babies in such a sacred manner that the natural parents who brought the child would hand over the child to one of the well-trained divine 1493 schoolmasters, and he would further perfect the child as a divine father and guarantor of sacred salvation. The hierarch, having commanded him to raise the child to the sacred life, asks to pronounce renunciations and sacred confessions - not that they, laughing, say that he is teaching the divine to one instead of another, for he does not say: “In place of the child, I pronounce renunciations or sacred confessions,” but that the child renounces and combines, that is: “I promise to convince the child, when he comes to the sacred mind, with my guidance, with God's help, to completely renounce the opposite, to confess and fulfill divine confessions.” There is nothing wrong, I think, in the fact that a child is guided in the divine ascent by having a sacred mentor 1494 and a recipient who imparts to him the skills of the divine and preserves the inexperienced from the opposite. And the hierarch transfers sacred symbols to the child, so that he will be brought up with them and have no other life, but only one that will eternally provide him with the contemplation of the divine and make him a participant in sacred successes, thereby acquiring a sacred state, being sacredly guided by the god-like recipient. This is how beautiful, oh child, are the uniform pictures of our hierarchy that I contemplate, visible by other, perhaps more sighted minds, not only in this way, but much more clearly and more God-like. And to you, as I think, a brighter and more divine beauty will certainly shine upon you if you take advantage of the indicated steps to higher rays. Tell me, friend, then you too tell me about more perfect insights and show my eyes what you can see, the magnificent and more uniform beauty. For I am confident that with what I have said I will fan the sparks of divine fire hidden within you. He calls it idolizing because it acts, or rather, is given to people, from God; and because the Christian hierarchy shapes and creates gods. Note that he received knowledge of the hierarchy from tradition. That is, playfully, carelessly, do not make the divine and secret obvious to all the uninitiated, turning it into an object of ridicule. Note that one should not reveal the holy to the uninitiated, just as one should not cast pearls before swine (cf. Matthew 7:6). Note that the mind is also spoken of in relation to God, contrary to the Nestorians. “Sanctification” refers to purification consistent with holiness. According to the strength of the entities themselves who comprehend and comprehend by the mind; not according to the power of Jesus, for He is infinite in power as God. An explanation of these words is found in the fifth chapter of the book “On Divine Names.” Many contradictions are, I think, called the many kinds of cares associated with carnal desires, which the Lord forbids, and the one-formed and divine life is the search first of all for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which the Lord showed by saying in prayer: “that they may be one” (John 17:11, 22). And he called this quality imparted to the soul a sacred state, which primarily befits those being sanctified. That is, by skillful interpretation of words and teachings about God. Not for simply hearing or pronouncing the Sayings - the words of sacred initiations, but for understanding the thought contained in them and for understanding what is being sung. So, after all, those who live according to God first themselves are dedicated to Him, and then in the same way they deliver the same to others: those who are perfected, in turn, improve. Note that he still talks about the nine ranks that he named above, in his essay “On the Heavenly Hierarchy.” Notice what the power of the entire hierarchy represents. Comparison of celestial and perceptible hierarchy. Sensible symbols are the sacraments explained further, such as baptism, or enlightenment; meeting, or the sacrament of communion; and the rest. It is said instead of “uniformly and in the same way.” It should be noted that the essay he wrote, “On What is Comprehensible by the Mind and Senses,” is not available to us. Said instead of “more extensive.” He says that the hierarchy, as our revered tradition presents it, is that which is universally contemplated in the sacred deeds that are before us or are to be, spoken about, or accomplished. He calls “composition” something that covers everything, just as we call “table of contents” a brief repetition of what was said above. The general is that which embraces the particular. So, he says that when we talk about the entire structure of the hierarchy, the hierarchy is presented as the composition of the most important and close in kind of the entire hierarchy, as, for example, the head of the hierarchy, or rank, of presbyters is the bishop, who must know, purify, enlighten, ordain; The head of the hierarchy of deacons is the archdeacon, who must know the liturgical actions; and so on in order for the rest of the ranks. The composition of the sacred means the conduct of every priestly order. Notice what is the beginning of the hierarchy and what is said about the Trinity. Note that only the Holy Trinity has knowledge of Its existence; so that only She alone knows her own essence, which we are now talking about. Note that angels and people are intelligent beings. Notice what deification is. Notice what the limit of the entire hierarchy is and what paths the hierarch should take. Note also that the end, that is, the goal, of the entire hierarchy, both angelic and human, is, he says, love for God and the divine, and so on, listed below. The expression “only performed sacredly” explains how to consider such service holistically and uniformly. Notice how God moves the intelligible forces and how we are enlightened. People, after all, from the outside, that is, from considering what is characteristic of creation, from teaching words and other similar things, receive true knowledge. And the angels are enlightened from within regarding mental power itself and recognize the divine will, that is, they are formed for the imitation of God and the knowledge of existence, insofar as it exists. One should think about how the divine minds are moved from within, and not from without, by the radiance of God. He said that God enlightens them mentally. Since he who comprehends with the mind is the one who thinks, and what is comprehended by the mind is what is thought about, the intelligible is, as it were, the food and composition of the thinker; in fairness, God, since mental beings are incorporeal, He Himself comprehends for them and is thought by them, insofar as they achieve this, He Himself, being inside them, illuminates them, and the mind, thinking, is nourished. He here calls separate symbols the varied teachings of the Scriptures, especially those which, with the help of symbolic words, interpret the doctrine of the divine nature and intelligible beings, and sometimes those relating to the correction of practical virtues, such as the commands of the Law, understood in the sense of moral allegory. Much more symbols and images can be seen when performing the sacraments. Observe what is the essence of our hierarchy and what are the divine Sayings. He calls the apostles priests, whom he also called leaders; “theological” “records” - the books of the Old and New Testaments; “more” by “immaterial initiation” - the knowledge of the thoughts of Scripture received by the apostles from the Spirit, which he called the “corporeal” word; the teaching of the New Testament consists of initiation into it; “close” “to the heavenly hierarchy” he called the illumination of the Spirit that occurs in a person capable of leading. Look what is through the word and what is mysterious was conveyed through the unwritten word. “Transferred” must be understood in the generally accepted sense. “In sacred” “symbols” he said, meaning the following further presentation of the sacraments, which are worthy of elevating contemplation. Here it is clear what “collapsed” is. Note that the divine is also transmitted to us through unwritten initiations. Note that the hierarchy peculiar to people is symbolic and consists of what is perceived by the senses, that is, we meet here not with the naked divine things themselves, but with what is accomplished through symbols, such as the “cup of blessing”, as the apostle said (1 Cor. 10:16), the bread that we break (cf. Acts 2:42; 20:7), and so on. That is, it is clear, as well as what things and sacraments they point to. Please note that you should speak with caution about things related to the sacraments. That is, likeness to God and unity with Him. He says that the beginning, the path to appropriation to God and the heavenly inheritance, is divine baptism. After all, “unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God” (cf. John 3:5). By this means the inner man is formed for better condition, salvation, and fitness for Godly words and deeds. He says that certain three things are necessary to begin to fulfill the commandments: the perception of divine Words, the teaching of divine faith and regeneration through divine baptism. Well he pointed out that the first of the most revered and exclusive movements of the mind is the love of God, and that a certain beginning of the love of God is our divine creation, that is, regeneration through baptism, thanks to which we begin to exist divinely. For our creation from the seed, although it is from the creating God, it is physical, and that which is from baptism is divine, for “not from blood” and “not from the will of a man” (John 1:13). Just as in physical birth one must first begin to exist in order to be, and then do everything else and endure what is natural to man, equally suitable for the dumb, so in divine regeneration through baptism one must first begin to exist for God, and then realize love for Him and everything else necessary for a good life. He speaks of the blessed Hierotheus, as he has often explained in previous treatises. What an exceptional movement of the mind! That is, by rebirth through baptism. That is, re-creation and regeneration through baptism, as the following shows. Because existence in accordance with some nature is followed by activity in accordance with it. The rays that the sun produces are, clearly, radiance. Notice what concerns Uzziah, Korah and Nadab. What the Gospel truly is. Note: this is about the economy of salvation. It is clear that - for the sake of faith, as he explains further. He speaks of a new believer and a desire to be enlightened; “dedicated” is a Christian, completely faithful. About the now so-called recipient of the newly enlightened. According to what is said in the Law: “In everything we will hear the voice of the Lord” (cf. Joshua 1:17; Jer.42:6). The one asking to perceive, which is why the perceiver is called the receiver. Note that this is how what was said should be composed: “taking both husbands, like a sheep on his shoulders,” so that it is clear: of the two husbands, that is, the recipient and the one who came to the Church, he perceived one as a lost sheep when she returned from wandering. For the recipient was faithful and had no need to be received. Now the priest thanks God. After all, if you take the words “having accepted both husbands” literally, it will be completely wrong. ["Honors" is said instead of "honors."] He calls mental thanksgiving what happens in the mind; and “bodily” means bowing your head and bowing to God. Note that you can bring a hymn to God from all Scripture, not just David’s. Otherwise: “some kind of hymn” means either the song of Miriam, Moses’ sister, “We sing to the Lord” (Ex. 15:21), or the thirty-third psalm of David, or part of it: “Come to Him and be enlightened” (Ps. 33:6). He calls joining wholeheartedly wholeheartedness. Notice that he calls the clergy subordinate to the bishops priests, that is, presbyters, and he also calls deacons that way, for they write down the names of the newly enlightened. Note also what concerns the list of those baptized and recipients. That is, when “Amen” sounds. We are talking about what is performed during divine baptism. In this case, not all clothes are removed, but only one himation; as further shows, this is done by ministers, that is, deacons. Thus he makes him praying and supplicating; and when turning to the west - those who reject the works of darkness. Note that at that time only the deacons exposed those who came to be baptized, while the elders did the rest, which is what deacons do now, as you learned a little earlier. And later you will see that he calls deacons ministers and priests presbyters. He calls deacons ministers. He calls the font the mother of sonhood. So you need to compose the phrase: “the sacred song of the inspiration of the divine prophets,” so that it turns out: And then the bishop, having uttered the sacred song of the Holy Spirit - because the inspiration of the divine prophets is the Holy Spirit - receives the husband. He does not say “the sacred song of the prophets,” for not all the prophets sang the same song. There is, after all, the twenty-eighth psalm, “The Voice of the Lord on the Waters” (Ps. 28:3), and “Hallelujah.” Elsewhere he writes “the most divine.” One should not be surprised by the words of the father in the book “On the Church Hierarchy” if what he says is somewhat different from what is now practiced in church ranks when performing the sacraments. So, it says here that after confirmation there should be the reception of holy communion. This was reasonable when the times of the sacraments coincided; and now it would be more accurate to do this during the perfect liturgy of the divine sacraments, when it is necessary to give communion to the newly enlightened. And the words “again reaches out to the contemplation of the primary” hint that after this either prayer occurs, or the hierarch goes to the divine liturgy. What he is talking about is this: the bishop, who is the image of the universal God, just as God, abiding in His unity and identity, inextricably established in Himself, for the sake of the salvation of all, through providential actions, extends outward to all the radiances of goodness, and, being present in everything, does not leave His own throne, so the bishop, imitating, as far as possible, symbolically God, abiding in his standing, that is, as the ecclesiastical principle, appears according to the providence of love for mankind, in the secondary, that is, going down to the one who turns, and teaches him, anoints him, and seals him, and gives him the holy gift, baptizing him. And all this is secondary to his official duties compared to his superiors. Having completed all the secondary things, he returns again to the altar, standing symbolically before God, because, although providentially going out to the secondary for the salvation of those who came to be baptized, he, however, did not retreat from his work and did not cease to abide in what is characteristic of him, that is, in the heights of contemplation of what surrounds God. But “from the divine” - it is said instead of “from the holy service over the newly enlightened” - again turns “to the divine” - as if to the height of theological contemplation, led to it and moved, obviously, by the Holy Spirit. He says the same thing a little lower when considering the sacrament of communion. For by water the unclean is purified. Note that explanations must be made for those listening, and that many have never heard of these sacraments, which he calls “the multitude.” He calls the God-like one, and the multitude, the many non-sacred. Notice that he created the essay “On Mentally and Sensibly Comprehended” and what it contains. He speaks of two intelligible disasters: either to completely retreat from the divine light, loving evil, or, having despised the measure of illumination given to them, boldly try to surpass it and, having taken on something superior to their strength, weaken and completely lose even what was given to them in moderation, while the divine light remains unchanged everywhere. Observe that all mental sight and power, whether of angels or men, are self-willed and autocratic; and notice how they get into trouble. Just as “to bind” means “to unite,” so “to separate” means to deprive of connection and affinity. It is also possible that the word means “to hang.” Here, however, it is taken in its first meaning. Put what has been said in the form of light perceived by the senses in connection with the moderation of divine understandings, since it is written: “Do not seek the Higher,” but “Understand what is commanded to you” (Sir.3:21-22). He calls the measure in this proportionality. Not suitable for her as superior to her. Notice whose image the hierarch is. So wise is what he teaches to those who listen. Note that the first gift that a person acquires from perfect teaching is knowledge of himself, in order to observe the injunction of the Law: “Take heed to yourself” (1 Tim. 4:16), as the divine Basil said: those who know themselves thereby, while they do this, imitate the angels. He calls vision, contemplation, or knowledge; and to those who resort, fully advanced to sight. He calls the sacred gift the ability to exist, knowing oneself. An explanation of what it means to come through a receiver to a hierarch. Note what is a seal and what is a record. Said instead of “together with him.” As having no connection with the previous life and not involved in separations from the One. For the One is similar to Itself in everything, since It is One; and the plural, as happens in divisions of sins, is unlike itself. Notice why those who come to be baptized undress. Notice what the breath of the catechumen on the devil means. That is, this is what the legend about symbols does. Understand the words “complete union with the One” according to the words of the Lord: “That they may be one” (John 17:11, 21, 22), that is, looking to the One, as it pleases God. What is meant by aspiration is the elevation of the Mind to the Divine and the removal from the mundane. How and why mental properties become unchanged. Relentless, unfeminine, masculine, unshakable, not inclined to any reduction. Know that this is what they say about women who are strong like men and women like men. The syntax of this place is inversion, so there is a big insert here. The words should be combined like this: “...thanks to which he finds himself under the judge of the competition, Christ, and comes, dedicated, to the competitors as to the divine, rejoicing” and so on. That Christ is God is against the Nestorians. He calls the Lord the first of the athletes, as he overcame the power of death only through his own goodness. That is, thanks to the anointing of the divine world. He calls sins and passionate desires and movements actions, and existences the energetic natures of demons. Bad deeds are not contemplated in one’s own being. Note: what is death and that our composition is a union. Some people have said that this invisibility is hell, that is, the invisibly and invisibly occurring removal of the soul to places invisible to those perceiving with the senses. Often the body is transformed not only into worms, but also into other living beings. Pay attention that he calls such a transformation a change, and that death does not mean the non-existence of our essence, and that the soul, leaving the body, becomes invisible and does not hover around the body, as some people have said, and that immersion in water is perfectly perceived as a semblance of death. Note that he calls the three-day burial of the Lord God's first death and says that what the Lord said: “The prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me” (John 14:30) belongs to the Word. He calls Satan the prince of the world and the devilish wills of people, “having the power of death,” according to the apostle (Heb. 2:14). – Since he did not find any of his crime in Christ, “For he committed neither sin nor deception,” as Isaiah says (cf. Is. 53:9). “Therefore it was impossible for Him to be restrained by death,” as Peter says (cf. Acts 2:24), but he was left alone “free among the dead,” according to David (Ps. 87:6). Since darkness is defiled life, according to the apostle (cf. Rom. 13:12-13), it exists as something highly disordered and is formless, not having the appearance of any divine thought. She is, after all, a shadow and a barrier to virtue. Naturally, the one who comes to be baptized is adorned with enlightenment and receives the image of light, becoming a child of the Light and the seed of God, which, according to the divine John (see 1 John 3:9), is the one who has received the light. Among existing things, he called that which has a bad form, without form, and not that which has no form at all, just as we call what is bad in form formless. I believe that the great Dionysius remains silent as ignorant precisely out of humility. For in his letter to the Evangelist John, he made it clear that he had been granted the spirit of providence. However, it seems to me important to note that those who are honored with the divine Spirit everywhere, united with Him, according to the apostle (cf. 2 Cor. 6:6), with purity, feel the fragrance of Christ at his appearance, and this is expressed either in speaking in tongues, or in acquiring the gift of prophecy, or in the ability to heal, and in everything else that is shown in the Acts of the Apostles and accomplished by the most divine Paul. Otherwise: Being spiritual, they think spiritually and measure things with the spiritual (cf. 1 Cor. 2:13); they think the same way about divine spiritual fragrance. How Paul spoke about the fragrance of Christ (see 2 Cor. 2:15) about the preachers of the gospel faith, leading through baptism from a life of faith to life-liberation, about the gift of the Holy Spirit and about the Kingdom of Heaven: achieved through godlike deeds, showing that they too are an intelligible fragrance. For what reason does the divine John see in Revelation bowls of incense filled with the prayers of the righteous (see Rev. 5:8). The stench of the devil is the work of sin, as it is said in the Psalms: “My wounds have become stinking and festered from the face of my madness” (Ps. 37:6), that is, my sin. Why did Christ prophesy after the drink offering of peace (see Matt. 26:12). And the Lord, when offering righteous Noah, smells a fragrant odor (see Gen. 8:21). Hence the Gospel for some is the fragrance of life - that is, for the faithful, and for the unbelievers it is the stench of death, because for the unfaithful and the wicked this smell turns out to be, on the contrary, deadly (see 2 Cor. 2:16): deeds are exposed and condemned to Gehenna in the same way as the most expensive ointment at the same time decorates people, and kills pigs that cannot stand the highest fragrance. He speaks more extensively about the world below, in chapter four. He speaks of Saint Hierotheos. That is, in accordance with the sacred description of what is gloriously accomplished. By omitting the existing distinction. Note that it is impossible to become perfect without communion. That is, in the sense of the most necessary. Note that no congregation is complete without communion. And here “head” is understood as “necessary and important.” Notice why it says “enlightenment” and that this is true. And here the verb “to exist” is perceived by default. During my father’s time, this rite was performed in the same way in local churches. He calls the Old and New Testaments sacred writings. That is, unclean spirits. He calls deacons and those who are now called subdeacons ministers. The predominant ones are the protodeacons, and the priests are the presbyters. This is according to the prevailing custom in Rome. For there are only seven deacons serving at the altar, which, as I think, he calls predominant; and others perform some other service. And note from here the antiquity of the father and - that together with the deacons, the elders supply bread. This happens everywhere when there are few deacons. In Rome, I think, it has always been the custom to serve at the altar only to the preeminent seven. It is possible that in life these seven turn out to have advantages over others. Note that even then some kind of Creed was pronounced, or rather what was then chosen for teaching and habituation to faith. Here, diptychs are not the first to be read among us, but under this father they were read after the kiss, as in the East. Note that some of the first of the deacons stand before the altar, and perhaps they are the ones who are preeminent in life. That is, it clarifies what is being sung, for example, that such and such is Christ’s, and such and such is Christ’s. At the same time, he points to the sacred gifts, saying that they are “for the remission of sins and eternal life” and similar mysterious things. It is also possible that “beholding” means that the Holy Gifts, which remained closed until the time of transubstantiation, are then opened after prayers. Or perhaps he speaks of the raising and blessing of only the divine bread, which the priest raises, saying, “Holy of holies,” which is more true, as you will find said near the end of the chapter. He called what was now happening in the congregation images of the true. Note that these are symbols, not truth. Notice what psalms and readings are. Note that in the midst of supper it is said, “taking bread” (Luke 22:19) and so on, and that by this His death is announced until He comes (cf. 1 Cor. 11:26), according to the apostle and the Lord Himself, who says: “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19) and so on. And note that he called the Lord's Last Supper the main symbol of the current divine sacraments and that no repentance will help one who unworthily receives the bread and cup; rather, he will accept them as condemnation for himself, according to the Apostle (see 1 Cor. 11:29). From what follows we can rightly conclude that Christ conveyed the sacrament to the disciples after Judas left the supper. He's talking about Judas. And note that He gave the mystical bread and cup to him, and the sacraments to the disciples after Judas left the supper, since he was unworthy of them. “By property” here means “by understanding,” that is, possessing it internally, and not only by physical approach, but by approaching the understanding thanks to faith and spiritual feeling. That is, from what is visibly accomplished to the invisible and mysterious, which is the cause and prototype of what is perceived by the senses. Caused is that which has some external cause. Or “from the caused to the causes” means - from symbols perceived by the senses to the intelligible and mental; or - from less perfect to more perfect, for example, from imprints to image, and from image to truth. For what is in the Old Testament is a shadow, but the image is what is in the New Testament, and the truth is the order of the future. The stress should be on the penultimate syllable (in the corresponding Greek word the meaning changes depending on the stress), and it means “and then.” He calls images of the invisible and mysterious, that is, what is accomplished through symbols. Of this, he first named the “sacrament of the assembly,” the intelligible content of which, clarified, that is, in speculation, he promises to reveal. Here is one way of thinking that is characteristic of this chapter. Pay attention to the “essentially motionless standing” and that the bishop is an imprint of God. Note also that the incense takes place in three stages: the hierarch starts from the altar and, having gone through the entire church, stands again in the same place. The third image of the proposed speculation is that what concerns the bishop, starting with one, multiplies. “Not held back by the lesser” means that he does not partake of the worst. Notice what psalms are. Note also the word “accompanying.” However, he added "almost" because it does not connect with each other in essence. But since everything is directed towards one goal, that is, the salvation of people, he said “inherent”, and then immediately added “almost”, limiting the inconsistency of the word. Below he talks about one breath, that is, unanimity, which shows that everyone has one goal. A quick reference to the books of the Old Testament. He talks about the Song of Songs of Love. Here he similarly refers to the books of the New Testament. I believe that he means the Apocalypse of the divine John, or his Gospel, which is more likely. The purpose of the psalms, he says, is to glorify God and His true saints, who possess the inherent inspiring and gathering power of such, which, forcing those who sing to constantly remember the psalms, possesses, he says, everything performed in rituals. Note that the consonance of psalmody teaches unity of mind towards God and ourselves. Note that what is brief, that is, unclear, is clarified by the executed symbols; it means “expands.” And notice that the father says that what is hidden in the psalms is clarified through reading the Scriptures. “In such” - that is, in the Scriptures; He who looks closely at them understands that the same Spirit speaks in all of them. As an explanation of the Old Testament. Notice that what one, the Old Testament, said, the other said. New, done. Notice that he calls the Old Testament theology, and the New Testament the action of God. Completely unannounced people who voluntarily chose to remain unheard of this. We are talking about the catechumens, the possessed, those in repentance and what they participate in. Note that the catechumens are the last ones. Imperfect. Note that among the possessed he also includes those who unrepentantly persist in bodily pleasures, such as fornicators, lovers of spectacles and those involved in similar things, naming which the divine Apostle commands not to eat with such (see 1 Cor. 5:11). He explains this better later. It is appropriate to know that precision in distinguishing and dividing such things does not exist today. Note that a person united with God will not be affected by an unclean spirit. Note that libertines are higher than those possessed by demons. Note that he calls truly existing things virtues. Because matter also changes in many ways. Note that what is alien to us is associated with sin. After all, sin is not natural for us, but suitability for every good work is natural, according to the apostle, and as it is said in the psalms: “And keep Thy servant from strangers” (Ps. 19:14). From here you will understand what the Lord said: “And if you were not faithful in what belongs to others, who will give you what is yours?” (Luke 16:12). That is why this alien thing is called non-existent, because it does not belong to nature, but is false. To do what is characteristic of nature is what exists and is characteristic of us. Otherwise: He calls alien that which is connected with the world, as not someone else’s separately, but passing from one to another, or because this is not always what our existence consists of, but means another life, for the sake of which we appeared. That is, “No one from those possessed by passions,” as he says further. And ridicule from impressions. Notice why he says some of the faithful suffer from demons. This refers to the faithful united with God and with each other. He called the hymnology conciliar, either because everyone sings it, or because it is sung for the sake of conciliar grace. Notice that he called the hymn a symbol, a confession, and a thanksgiving. Notice what limit the symbol tends to. That is, according to the word of the apostle, who said: “Everything is ours” (cf. 1 Cor. 3:22). He calls primitive beauties those seen in the divine nature, to which, if possible, communion was given to people; or what a person has in the image of God, he calls - and in likeness. That is, the benefits He has prepared for us. Notice that he speaks about Christ, that is, about His perfect incarnation, and this is against Apollinaris. Note that the veiled are offered not only holy bread, but also a divine cup, which does not happen today. Notice why kissing is given. Note that passionate wishes are private, separating us from God, and from each other, and perhaps from ourselves. That is, to similar people. Notice why memorials are read after kissing. Please note that in this case only the memorials of the dead are read [and not, as now, the living]. This is from the so-called “Wisdom of Solomon”. And note that this holy father also used it. He says that what the prophets said about remembrance before the Lord should not be understood as if the memory of God is renewed in the imagination of the one who remembers, as is the case with rational beings associated with the flesh, that is, with us; but the memory of God can rightly be called the knowledge of God, in which He knows those who are perfect, who have become godlike in Him thanks to a virtuous life and who have been granted unforgettable knowledge by Him. [Notice how he uses the expression of a psalm]. Notice what it means to wash your hands and when it is done. Notice how the father uses the saying of the Lord: “He who has been washed need only wash his feet” (John 13:10). The phrases include the verb “hints” - so that the meaning of the speech is as follows: what is said here hints at the fact that the washing of hands corresponds to the laver in worship according to the Law in our service. The words “uncontrollable” and “free” show that the hierarch is not associated with a worse ascension or location. Otherwise: if we rearrange the words in this phrase, it will read like this: “For, as the Sayings say, the washed one does not need any other cleansing than the washing of his limbs, or extremities, after which the utmost cleansing, in the all-holy state of God-likeness, he will make a pure and undefiled return, and plausibly approaching the secondary in order to recreate fullness and wholeness God-like, will remain uncontrollably secondary and free as a completely uniform one and again turned solely to the One.” Note that the washed one does not need any other washing than the washing of the limbs. “Secondary” he calls what is perceived by the senses, for which, thanks to fantasy, the soul experiences passion. Please note that there was no laver in the Law and that the author has another essay, “On the Hierarchy Corresponding to the Law,” which has not been preserved. Notice the inspired state of the priest [truly the most perfect]. That is, a divine ritual. He calls the souls of saints mirrors, as they perceive the divine light and reflect the best lot. He composed a phrase, atticizing like an Athenian, saying, “To the lordship that sends forth its rays.” It should, according to the feminine gender, say “The Lordship that sends”, which above, in chapter 7 of the book “On the Heavenly Hierarchy”, we showed in more detail, namely, that this is an Attic turn. So, read there. Notice why the hierarch washes himself in front of the altar, or in front of the saints, that is, facing them. Perhaps the divine gifts remained covered until the time of holy communion; he discovers this a little further. Or - and this is more correct - the hierarch, raising the holy bread, pronounced a blessing, saying: “Holy to saints.” Few people know about all the industries about us, but rather a lot of people know why proskomedia happens. That is, voluntarily. The structure of what was said above is as follows: he says that human nature inherits a multi-passionate life. And everything else is in the middle: between “as a result of this” and “since then he has been miserable.” Since in the beginning we were made up of earth; after all, everything that belongs to our body comes from it. Accordingly, after the crime, we have an end corresponding to the beginning, disintegrating in the earth, since it is said: “You are the earth, and you will go into the earth” (Gen. 3:19). He calls an uplifting life a life that seeks the highest and turns to God. We talked about what change is in relation to bodies in the book “On Divine Names.” They fall into oblivion through sin. For the sinner in some way does not exist, since existence is not characteristic of evil. About the incarnation - that He did it lovingly. Notice the precision of dogma expressed in a great variety of statements, refuting all heretics. After all, the fact that God Himself acted for us in God’s providence shows that God was the Word, and not another in another, as some are raging along with Nestorius. The words “having sinlessly become a true participant in everything that is characteristic of us” refute the Manichaeans, the Eutychians, the Apollinarians, the Acephalians, and in general all those who are heretical. By property here we must understand not some permanent quality, but the preservation of something and stability in something, or the possession of something. Notice that Christ defeated Satan not by force, but by judgment and justice. This is what Gregory of Nyssa says in his “Catechetical Sermon.” And above we said so - that he calls the darkness of ignorance “formless.” It means our liberation. Divine Goodness, as he said at the beginning of the chapter. Blessing that is, the bread and the cup of holy gifts. And notice that he says everywhere that the divine rites are symbolic and that the holy gifts are symbols of that which is higher and more true. This is also said just above - that the divine gifts remain covered until the time of communion, unless it is said that they are covered from many standing outside the altar and are simply hidden from worldly people. Since He took on a rational soul and an earthly body [borrowing our appearance, that is, our image, or nature]. And note that as “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) we are united with Christ. Note also what is said about providence, and who is He who appeared, and what the breaking and distribution of bread means. That is, in the utmost and perfect unity, realized in the true hypostasis. Notice what the purpose of Christianity is. About our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he called “our intelligible life,” he does not say this symbolically. “Perfect” is said because He received both a rational soul and an earthly body. And he said well to the “unfused incarnation,” for He remained God, visible as a man and preserving the characteristics of each nature. And note that this is against the Apollinarians. That is, having perceived our characteristic appearance, or nature. Notice how we become partakers of the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4), uniting with Christ. It is usually said “precedes” or “precedes” because it is fitting that the priest should be the first to receive the gifts and then administer the sacraments to others. So the priest’s communion precedes the communion of the rest, and the communion of the rest is preceded by the preparation of the sacramental separation. Notice what a priest should be like. What he says is this: just as if a priest does not partake first of what he offers, he is not sacred, so those who dare to teach others, without themselves doing what they teach, are not sacred. For you should do what you teach, according to what the Lord said: “Whoever does and teaches, he will be called great” (Matthew 5:19). That is, the manager. The Lacedaemonians called the “ruling” (“garmosti”) the commander whom they installed in the cities they conquered; This refers to the management of people who begin to live according to the laws; why the Athenians called those who commanded to live well “stewards,” which the comedian Plato wisely shows in the drama “The Ambassadors.” And therefore here Dionysius appropriately called the bishop in charge of the church “ruling.” Notice what “Taste and see” means (Ps. 33:9). That is, to the intelligible and spiritual. It is said instead: after the incense of the entire church by the bishop. This means "Holy", or "Hallelujah". After all, every holy thing is accomplished through him. Note the truly divine word - that it is fitting for divine men to hide their deeds of virtue from empty glory. This means - if the image does not distort the sample and is completely similar to it, but in essence, as he says, is different. For one is soulless, and the other is animated; one is a real breathing living creature, and the other is a work of painter's work made of wax and paints. Since, therefore, there is a difference in this, the identity of both and the similarity are different things. This means in relation to divine beauty. Notice how he interprets that we should not loudly proclaim our good deeds. This means that God (this is, after all, “Fragrance”), creating from Himself truly beautiful, does not appeal to everyone, that is, does not care in vain about those who do not perceive the judgments that sometimes come from Him, and does not try to gain glory from people. We have repeatedly explained in the book “On the Divine Names” what is “intelligible” and what is “mental.” He says the same here - that to the bishop, who is holy, as akin to the divine light, God reveals the sacrament of contemplation and the sacrament of the sanctification of the world, not through another teacher, but by sanctifying him himself. Why is it that for the bishop himself the veil is not spread over the divine world, but with a “frank face,” according to the Apostle (2 Cor. 3:18), he contemplates the sacrament. For the imperfect, symbols are required. That is why God’s holy ointment is revealed by the hierarch covered with wings, mediating between God and the people and revealing the symbols through interpretations. He calls bishops “contemplatives,” since among the Hellenes contemplators were people chosen by everyone to ask God about the future, make sacrifices for them and ask for mercy for them. He calls imperfect people from the people “unlike.” This is normal for him. ["For it is not hidden from the intellectual, but is hidden from the scribes" (?).] These ranks are enlightened through riddles and symbols due to their weakness. For everything anointed with the divine oil perfects, as does the communion of the Holy Body and Blood. For everyone to whom the fragrance is made available participates in the divine mystical fragrance according to their own measure. That is, those possessed by demons and given over to debauchery, of which he speaks in the previous chapter. The intimidation that he calls is, as it were, confusion, horror, fear and loss of hope. He says this because of those who are in repentance. Correct disposition and successive ascent from the possessed to the saints. He speaks of uniformity in relation to the One, that is, of that mind which sees the divine, as he says, and is united with the One, and is filled with His unity. Note that the fragrance perceived by the senses nourishes and strengthens the sense of smell. He calls the faculty of judgment the ability of the soul to reason, that is, mental power, which, if, inclined towards the worse, does not remain pure, then, he says, it is unlikely to be capable of perceiving the divine fragrance. It is said instead of “perceiving the fragrance.” “Mental” – in relation to angels. Notice what the 12 wings are an image of. Notice also the greatness of the seraphim. Notice that the father says that the higher powers are not involved not only in evil, but also in oblivion. He connected thinking well with knowledge, for careful thinking about anything develops his knowledge. He talks about what the seraphim trait is and what he said about it above. He talks about this in his work “On the Heavenly Hierarchy.” Consideration of the holy seraphim. Pay attention to this whole place - how in it he allows us to understand what is written in the books of the prophets about the higher powers. “Sixness in structure” means that seraphim have six wings. It was said above how the first, middle and last powers of mental beings should be understood. They don't actually have wings. Notice how he understood what concerns the wings of the seraphim, and that they completely float, having nothing to do with weakness and humiliation. Pay attention to the extremely appropriate and strange explanation why seraphs cover their faces and legs with wings and fly with the help of their middle wings. Explanation of the name of the seraphim. This was explained in the word "On the heavenly hierarchy" - which is the property of the angelic essence - in chapter seven. Note that the holy angels also knew that Jesus, who sanctifies everything, was himself sanctified - both when and how. That is, becoming a person. He says this because there is one energy of the Holy Trinity. Note the incomparable orthodoxy of the great Dionysius and how he maintained the distinction between the divinity of the Lord Jesus and His flesh. For Jesus as God, sanctifying everything, and Himself as man was sanctified by the Father, by Himself - since He is God - and by the Holy Spirit, and the heavenly ranks recognized their own Origin, that is, their Cause and Creator, Jesus - that although He is sanctified, He remains essentially the same unchangeable, for He is God. And note that He knows His beginning from His divine activity. Notice why the divine world is surrounded by six-winged creatures. He called Him unchangeable, either to show that in all our inherent nature He was like us, with the exception of sin, or as not undergoing “change or shadow of change” (James 1:17) in divinity when perceiving humanity. Note also the words “full incarnation” - because of people who say that He had no mind. Rather, it was then that the words “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified” were introduced into the Epistle to the Hebrews (cf. Heb. 2:11). Notice why the myrrh flows into the baptistery in a cross shape. It is said instead of “openly preaches.” For He rose again three days ago, not being restrained by death. For He rose again for three days, not being restrained. For many, the reason for the sacrament is hidden - why baptism occurs into Christ: because it is into His death that we are baptized. Notice here too that Christ as a man receives, being sanctified, the Holy Spirit, and as God gives Him. Note also the words “His inherent divinity,” and that He remained unchanged. If, when we hear about the properties inherent in angels, we do not think about the external qualities acquired by chance, as was said a little earlier and as we explained in the word “On the Heavenly Hierarchy” in the seventh chapter, then all the more so, in relation to the truly supremely existing God, we will think not about the quality that becomes accidentally characteristic of complex beings, but about the property of the being of divinity, which by nature has from itself everything that belongs to goodness. At the same time, note that divinity is not the self-essence of God, but that it is the glory of the essence. Notice that the altar is also sanctified by the world and why. Notice that Jesus is the Altar, and notice the greatness and height of such an altar, which is Christ. An allusion to the end of the fiftieth psalm (see Ps. 50:21). Notice that he called it “making peace” and why. What he says is this: since every divine manifestation and action is revealed through symbols, consider what the hallelujah symbol that accompanies the song of the prophets reveals. Note that this can be used against acephalos. It is clear which psalm we are talking about: one of those where there is “Hallelujah.” He calls this “fulfilled” because each consecrated office has a precisely assigned service in the priesthood, which he cannot transgress. It is clear what the work of the deacon and likewise of other members of the hierarchy is. “Possibilities and actions” in relation to: they can be understood as having the same meaning, as denoting the same thing: for those who are given the opportunity to do this, they say, have the ability to purify and enlighten as a teacher. It is possible, understanding differently, to distinguish between them: “opportunities” - to perceive spiritual gifts and virtues; and “actions” are worship services; “commissions”, after all, clearly, we must understand as dedications, that is, ordination. Further, he explains what the trinitarian division is, and what the trinity of superior ranks is, which was explained above in the first chapter of this work. Note that the church hierarchy is also characterized by a trinitarian division and what kind of division it is. Note what the heavenly hierarchy is and that the completion of the heavenly hierarchy is the acquisition, if possible, of the knowledge of God and the corresponding state. The celebrants of this are the first ranks in relation to God; those being improved are the ranks that follow them and through them are enlightened and taught. What is hierarchy in relation to the two peoples of God. Note that he calls the meaning (literally: “consideration”, “cognition”) and allegory of the provisions of the Law difficult to perceive and interpret. Notice what is the purpose of what is in the Law. According to what was said: “See that you do everything according to the image shown to you on the mountain” (cf. Ex. 25:40). About the new hierarchy that exists in the Church, he says that it is the heir to everything required by the Law. The apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Lord say the same: “I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it” (cf. Matt. 5:17). Notice why the middle ground between the heavenly and legal hierarchies is the church hierarchy and how it participates in these two: one by the Spirit, and the other by the letter, that is, by symbols. Notice why ranks are divided into three categories. That is, for sacred knowledge, teachers and students. Consider the threefold division of hierarchy clearly revealed here. Note that he spoke about what purification is, what enlightenment is and what perfection is in the book “On the Heavenly Hierarchy” in Chapter 3 towards the end, and referring here [says: “the same trinity”]. The first degree tends to purify the uninitiated, the middle is that by which others are initiated into the sacraments, and the task of the last is only to perfect. Instead - a trinity of lower ranks. What is the threefold ability of the priests. From colloquial language “it appears”. Through the divine Scriptures we are purified and enlightened for the sacred birth of God, and through the gathering and mystery of the world we are consciously perfected. Note that the ternary division is explained here in the same way. Like in the case of glass that perceives the sun, which he talked about before. And as can be seen in the example of fire or light: when light shines through a thin and transparent body, something denser and darker is also visible; or when fire burns thanks to easily flammable matter, then through what is involved in it it also ignites substances that are inaccessible to it. Energy, that is, of the hierarchy. "Belongs" must be understood in the usual way, for this word applies to everything in this place. Note that the hierarch is the first to be enlightened by God, then passes this on to those who exist below him, then perfects those to whom he passes on the enlightenment. Notice how the first rank is also the last. About the capabilities of ranks. What has been said must be understood in such a way that everything that is done priestly has an ascent to the hierarch, as if he himself does it through his subordinates, to whom he gives the opportunity to do it. Likewise, by the authority of the consecrated hierarch, and not through the services of others, the sanctification of the world, the dedication of the altar and the laying on of priestly hands are carried out, which he called fully effective images of divine power. He calls all ranks “integrity,” which he immediately explains. That is, to perfect the holy bread into the Body of Christ, the cup into the Holy Blood, the water into holy cleansing, and the unconsecrated into sonhood, and everything else in a similar way. Note that it is not the work of the elders, whom he calls priests, to sanctify and perfect the ointment, nor to perfect the altar, so that this too may be placed on it, nor to ordain. After all, only the hierarch does this, without whom the presbyter will neither baptize nor make the offering, but will officiate in what was previously perfected by the bishop. Note that the teaching power of the sacraments corresponds to the hierarchs. What is the rank of priests, or elders? This refers to the rank of priests. What is the rank of liturgists, that is, deacons. Consideration of purification. Note that it is the deacons’ job to undress and take off the shoes of those being baptized, place them to the west and immediately transfer them to the east. Note that then the deacons were in charge of the doors, and now they are the subdeacons. Note that the bishop also performs the affairs of those below him; and the first do the works of the second and those who are under them, but not vice versa, the second - of the first. What exactly are images of the priestly ranks: they carry out the actions of God among people. Next we will talk about the heavenly ranks - how they perform sacred functions under God. Ordination of bishop, presbyter and deacon. Nowadays this is done differently. Public proclamation is like announcing a name, for, sealing it, the ordaining bishop says, calling him by name: “The name is sealed from presbyter to bishop in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Likewise in the case of the presbyter and the deacon. Note that everyone present at the altar is supposed to kiss the person being ordained. Worship - kneeling. Proclamation is what is now called public naming, or naming. The naming at consecration is as follows: in the case of a bishop: “Of the Holy Father, Bishop is named.” In the case of a presbyter: “About the name of the presbyter” Mark “the manly life of Jesus” and “God’s infallibility.” What is a proclamation? It has been established absolutely immutably and unshakably that no one can make a brother without God. Christ became a bishop as a man. Note that this is against the Acephalians and Nestorians. Notice when the disciples were ordained priests and that Jesus, although He was God, did not ordain Himself, but promised to send the Holy Spirit from the Father, which happened when He appeared to them in the form of tongues of fire. This is what he calls the Lord after his deity. This means, this is clear, St. Peter along with others when he included Matthias among the apostles. Notice what he says about the lot that fell on Matthias, and what he thinks about it. The statement about this in the Acts of the Apostles can be found in some books in the following form: “And he gave them lots,” and in others: “And he gave them their lots” (cf. Acts 1:26). The reading “by them” is consistent with what was now said by the divine Dionysius as meaning some symbol of the lot, by revelation or, equally, by the action of the Holy Spirit falling on the chosen one. For which reason the greatest Peter says about Iscariot: “He received with us the lot of this ministry” (Acts 1:17), although the lot we are accustomed to did not take place in the case of the apostles, because the Lord chose them. This is about the bishop: why only the Holy Gospel is placed on his head. The word “existing” must be implied, since syntax often depends on the default of the word. And notice how many divine benefits the bishop receives. He explains what veneration is. That is, hierarchs, priests and liturgists. That is, purified, enlightened and speculatively improved. About a deacon bending one knee. What does it mean for an elder to bow two knees? What does it mean for a hierarch to bow two knees and why are the Scriptures placed on his head? Please note that there are three ranks to be improved. Who are those being purified and how. That is, the catechumens, the repentant and the possessed. The difference between the penitents is shown later. Consisting of those who have sinned after baptism and those who repent. Consisting of the overwhelmed and possessed. From heresies or from a dissolute life. Consisting of those who have not been finally converted from a dissolute life to sanctification, or of the catechumens. He means the complete cleansing of the people. Note that he calls the middle rank the sacred people, meaning those people who, in the worldly rank, are characterized by integrity and impeccability; he places monks, or therapists, above everyone else. The measure of monastic status. Why were monks called therapists? What is indivisible and integral (united) [monastic] life. He calls everyday things divisible. How does a monk become a monk and why does a monk have his own practice, name and position? Note that he says “priest” and not “hierarch”, and that, according to this father, it is not necessary that the monastic robe be given by the bishop, but it is enough that it is only the presbyter. Pay attention to the “triple hypostasis”. Why is he called a monk and what is the monastic state and occupation? Note that this is against the Lampetians, that is, the Messalians, or Adelphians, or, what is the same, the Marcianists, who, having spent only three years in extreme asceticism, live the rest of their lives so indiscriminately that they fearlessly commit all sorts of outrages, such as adultery and excesses, gluttony and sexual intercourse with each other; and, in general, indulging in all sorts of madness, they tell fables that they do such things dispassionately; and insensibly suffering from passions and not feeling pain, suffering from themselves and the demons living in them, as if possessed by a disease of reason, they rather rejoice at this rather than be upset. Note that a monk is not allowed to do many things that lay people have the right and power to do, such as marriage, military affairs or trade, etc., for which lay people are not condemned. What does the change of his clothes mean? What does kissing symbolize? What does immediate communion mean? Why do those who are ordained immediately receive communion? After all, in a similar way, after ordination, everyone is awarded the divine sacraments, which shows appropriation and unity with God. He explains what deliveries are. Look, here the father more clearly showed which ranks are superior to others, as he reminded above. [And] note that there are no ones in heaven who are being purified, and about angels. Note that there is no vice in any of the heavenly powers, contrary to what Origen and his associates teach, saying that each of the heavenly ranks receives a name and rank corresponding to deviation and is attached to bodies lighter than ours - as punishment for their deviation to the worse. However, of course, the heavenly minds are completely immaculate and incorporeal, as they were created from the very beginning. That the heavenly minds are incorporeal, you will learn from what lies ahead. Otherwise. But not one of the heavenly minds was ever cast out after the demons fell away. We don’t know this from Divine Scripture, and none of the wise fathers said anything like that. And if anyone says that this saint says this out of condescension - that those heavenly minds are all blameless, undefiled and do not need purification, then we will answer this: even if we admit that there was some kind of vice in one of them, then such a defect would certainly turn into hostile forces. So the rest remain just as pure and in the same way do not need to be cleansed. And he clearly showed that this is so, for, speaking in response to the contrary to his opinion and truth, he added: “After all, if someone,” - in the meaning: If someone suggested that any of the heavenly beings has gone astray and fallen from the list of such, - which I do not say, - he says, - but, on the contrary, - that they remain blameless forever, since if I had said otherwise, I would have fallen from established. Let no one of Origen’s co-conspirators think that this statement is consistent with his evil opinion, according to which there is a constant fall, rebellion and change of the heavenly minds, about which Origen in the first word of the book “On the Beginnings” says this: “The whole word, I think, reveals that everything, whatever it may be, mental can come from everything whatever mental,” and a little lower adds: “After the end of everything, the flow and fall again occurs.” (cf.: Origen. On the beginnings. Samara, 1993. Book one. Chapter six. P. 81 ff). Evagrius, in the seventy-eighth chapter of the second centenary, says this: “Each order of heavenly powers is composed either entirely of the lower, or entirely of the higher, or both of the higher and lower.” And in the 19th chapter of the 5th centenary he says this: “From the angelic and archangelic dispensation comes the spiritual dispensation, and from the spiritual dispensation comes the demonic and human, and from the human, angels and demons are born again.” We are talking about the purification and arrangement of the heavenly powers. Otherwise. Note that the purification of the heavenly powers is a shining that imparts more perfect knowledge. Notice also that they succeed in knowledge and that they do not say about demons that they are cleansed, contrary to those who claim that they too will be saved with the saints in the apocatastasis they invented. Notice what is said about angels - how they are enlightened and perfected. About the fact that all those who have died do not go to the same places, and about the resurrection. This means with the body. He talks about the righteous. About the resurrection of bodies. Of those who believe in resurrection and judgment. Notice that bodies are connected to souls. [Note also the general resurrection.] This is about the death of sinners and what the Hellenes, whose opinions he sets out, think about what happens after death. After all, the more senseless among them - Bias belongs to them, not Prieneus, but some other - admit that the soul is not immortal, but mortal and is destroyed, like the body, and goes into oblivion. Others, as if they were more intelligent and philosophized about the immortality of the soul, like Plato and others like him, say that after death the body is not united with the soul, but never returns to that with which it had a connection. This means that the expression he used “once for all”, in the sense of “never again”, will not work, since, they say, the material is not worthy of being co-eternal with the soul, and the soul alone exists immortally. Heretics also say this in different ways, based on fables originating from Simon Magus, Menander, Valentinus, Marcion and Manentus, and now also from Origen, and not on dogmas. And look with whom they want to be counted and what absurd opinions are attributed to the immaculate Christian faith by heretics, hated by God and sensible people. That is, that there will be a resurrection of only souls, without bodies. The Apostle calls our Lord Jesus Christ the guarantee and proof of the general resurrection with bodies (cf. Eph. 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:35-52) and says that in Him our life is now hidden, which will be revealed in God at the new birth (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22). Some heretics, like the followers of Simon Magus and others like him, loudly shouted then that if souls had a body, it would be only an ethereal one. Let it be known that Origen says the same thing in some of his writings, and in others he completely denies it, arguing that all bodily nature will disappear into oblivion. Read Methodius, the holy martyr, and Olympius, bishop of Adrianople in Lycia, who wrote against him about the resurrection, and Antipater, bishop of Bostra, and you will understand the fabulousness and terrible nonsense of his words. He says this, alluding, as I think, to Papias, who then became bishop of Hierapolis in Asia and flourished with the Evangelist John. This Papias, in his fourth book of interpretations of the “Oracles of the Lord,” spoke about the pleasures provided by food after the resurrection, after which Apollinaris [as is clear from his writings] believed in this teaching, called by some “the millennium of the kingdom of God.” How can, as some idle talkers say, the writings of Saint Dionysius, which destroy Apollinaris, belong to Apollinaris? And Irenaeus of Lugdun in the fifth word of the book “Against Heresies” says the same thing and brings as a witness what he says, the named Papias. The end of sinners is terrible and terrible. He speaks of other eyes of the mind, which finally becomes purer, sees what is in hell, and is in a premonition of Gehenna, in which he did not previously believe; this is why death is unbearable for him and he awaits it with anguish, wishing that the future punishments would never turn out to be true. So sinners also rise with the body. About those who have passed away from the priestly rank. About monks, righteous and laity. Notice what is read and sung over the departed monks and laity. He says that after reading the false promises of the resurrection, the liturgists sing songs similar in words and identical in meaning to the psalms. Note that in life there are also places of the dead. Note that it is fair to give life and a resting place accordingly. Why songs and readings? And notice what the ancient order and order over the dead were. Note that during the service over the deceased, neither the possessed nor the penitents are expelled, but only the catechumens, and why. After all, nothing is small in the sacraments performed for us, but everything is great. But if you compare them with each other, they will have a difference in greatness. Compared to what is performed on the deceased, the sacraments of the divine font, enlightenment and communion are incomparably greater. Why did he call what was done to the dead small? However, even those who are still catechumens are unworthy of this. This overtakes those about whom the apostle spoke in the First Epistle to the Corinthians regarding those who receive communion unworthily; here he says that they disdain and treat the divine sacraments (see 1 Cor. 11:20–34). Notice what he prays for. That is, the simplest of sins. “With appropriate names,” he said, “that is, for us, understandable and ordinary, and not with statements and names that exceed our understanding. That is, as far as we are able to think, and using words and names known to us, God named what was perceived there, saying that there is no sorrow, no illness, no sighing, but there is light. However, this is not the blessings there, but something truly unknown and incomprehensible to us here, which “no eye has seen” (1 Cor. 2:9) and so on. But from what we know, the example is bliss. And notice how he interprets the words “in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He is perplexed about the hierarch’s prayer for those who have fallen asleep in sin. Note that only for those who are worthy of God’s bounty are the prayers of the righteous, both for the living and for the deceased, useful, but not for sinners who are worthy of condemnation both here and after death. After all, the praying Samuel did not help Saul, the most evil man (see 1 Samuel 15:30–35, 16:14), nor the Jews, sinful people, Moses, for the Lord told him: “Do not pray for this people” (Jer. 7:16, 14:11). Be careful not to think that he says that the sun gives its light: for how can something soulless give? After all, a gift is a matter of free choice. But for educational purposes he speaks as if the subject were animate. - As if someone imagined the sun saying: “I give light to healthy eyes,” to which one of the sick eyes, suppose, says: “Give it to me, for I am healthy,” and then, having received the light, he will lose the ability to see that he had. In the same way, a sinner, asking a righteous man to pray for him, will suffer, for a blind sinner, perceiving the ray of a righteous man’s prayer, does not allow him to act according to his nature and enlighten, but invites darkness to himself, not turning to God’s gifts through pure living and leaving, or deviating from the enlightening commandments of God. And since the sinner neglects the law of God, none of the prayers of the righteous will benefit him. And that he (the author) thinks so about the sun, he (the author) shows in the book “On Divine Names”, in chapter 4. How and when the prayer of a righteous man benefits only the living. He says that it benefits the repentant, according to the Apostle: “Weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15), - for this saying is also fulfilled: “The prayer of the righteous avails much” (James 5:16), - performed, of course, for the sake of the repentance of those in need of prayer. For if one, that is, the righteous, builds up, and the other, that is, the sinner, destroys, the work remains unfinished, as we know from the example of Saul and Samuel. Here he called disposition towards virtue the sacred state of his life. He wrote “accomplice” instead of “assistant”. Our father keeps us from coming to divine communion easily and from ourselves asking God for what is best and saving, and knowing that the Apostle commands us to pray unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17), being possessed of a certain disdain for the saints, we counted their prayers into nothing. Then he begins to say that prayer is useful for the dead. And note that this paradox had been studied before. What sins of ours does God neglect thanks to the prayer and request of the priest. That is, righteous and pious... That is, whatever a righteous bishop asks lawfully and appropriately, he will receive, but in the case of the righteous. For it was said to Saint Peter: “Whatever you bind on earth” and so on (Matthew 16:19). Bishops are imitators of St. Peter, as he says a little later. Pay attention to the greatness, height and purity of the hierarchy. Notice that he does not pray about this for sinners. That is, the divine Spirit. From the epistle of James this is a saying that teaches us that we should not pray for any evil person or deed. About non-communion and excommunication on the part of the hierarch. He is talking about the powers given to him for rational testing and judgment, through which sinners are separated from the righteous and vice versa. Note that if, contrary to God’s plan, a hierarch excommunicates, divine judgment will not follow him, for he must pronounce this by divine judgment, and not of his own free will. Notice what the Holy Spirit, given to them after the resurrection by the inspiration of the Lord, endowed the apostles with. How should we understand the words of the Gospel “Whatever you bind…” and the following. He calls sacred theology the words: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), which should be noted as testifying against the Basilians, Nestorians, Paulinians and the like. He said “hierarchically” with extreme caution. Note that the first time the holy oil is applied to those who are baptized, and the last time - to the departed. Notice why the anointing of those who are baptized is performed and why oil (mirror) is poured out on the departed. Note that each soul has its own body, with which it receives reward, which is why each partakes of holy things. The colloquial expression is: “Given to both.” That is, divine law. Note that he calls “the whole man” consisting of a rational soul and body, as the words “in pure contemplation and knowledge” show, and that he speaks of “complete salvation” as referring to soul and body. This should be noted so that when he says in other words that “the super-essential Jesus was fully realized in accordance with us,” you will understand that incarnation presupposes a rational soul and body. He refers to the prayers at ordination as perfect invocations. And note why he kept silent about such things, that is, holy invocations and energies. Bring to the public's attention. Notice what the father says about infant baptism. He wrote this because Saint Timothy asked him about it, as is clear from the fact that he wrote the first and other words in response to questions. Note that even then there were those who laughed at our mysterious things, as, for example, at the baptism of infants who cannot speak, when those who bring them renounce in their place and lay [symbols]. He apologizes for the jokes, adding that not everything is known to everyone. Notice that angels don’t know everything either. Accessible to knowledge – that is, knowable. Notice what he learned from his predecessors about children. He calls the apostles mentors. Notice to whom the child is given by the parents after baptism: to the recipient, taught divine things for sacred guidance. Notice that he calls the recipient a mentor.