209. К Касту, Валерию, Диофанту и Кириаку, пресвитерам антиохийским 154

You write to us, you are the first to send us a letter, you ask us to write to you and tell us not to limit ourselves to the ordinary standard of a letter - all this shows that you love us insatiably and passionately. After that, the desert in which we live can no longer seem like a desert; After that, we cannot help but be encouraged amid the various sorrows that constantly befall us. What, really, can compare with love? Nothing. This is the root, source and mother of all blessings; this is a virtue alien to any kind of deprivation, a virtue associated with pleasure and bringing one continuous joy to those who sincerely assimilate it. We deeply thank you for maintaining such sincere affection towards us. For our part, wherever we have to be, even if we were sent to the very ends of the world, to a country even more desolate than this, we will go everywhere with the thought of you, imprinting you in our minds and enclosing you in our hearts, and neither the vastness of the distance, nor the length of time, nor the deafening noise of disasters has made us more indifferent to your regularity: with the eyes of love we see and contemplate you in front of us as if only yesterday, or recently we were together with you, or, It’s better, as if we were constantly inseparable from you, which is indeed the case. This is love! It is not dissolved by the distances of space, does not fade from the passage of years, is not overcome by a confluence of unfortunate circumstances, but constantly grows upward and spreads like a flame. However, you yourself know this better than anyone, since you know how to love better than anyone, for which we so faithfully please you. We may be pitiful and poor, but God has enough means to reward you for this love all the more highly and much more, since He always rewards you in great abundance for every good deed and word. I would like to see you personally, enjoy being with you and be satisfied with living expressions of your love, but since this is impossible, not due to laziness or negligence on my part, but due to the inevitable conditions of my life in exile, then do not deprive me of at least another means of communicating with you and write to us as often as possible, notifying us about your health. If we constantly receive notifications of this kind from you, we will derive great consolation from them for ourselves, despite living in a foreign country. Do not skimp on such pleasure for us, knowing how much you will oblige us with this and how much joy it will bring us. During a written interview with you, it will seem to us that you are here with us, and our idea of ​​your being with us through a feeling of mutual love will then be much more vivid. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” The present and ten subsequent letters were written from Kukuz, in the year 404. You might be interested in: