Maximos the Confessor (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.3.48)

towards?
in? brief

...care of the people of the faith, through which we will be able to make the technical sowing of scandals against our holy faith unsuspected by the simpler ones. And let this be found to be a clear and indisputable sign of the loathed end of all things, according to which [those] who are great [are] expecting trials and struggles for the sake of the truth. Those who are preparing themselves through prayers and supplications and many tears and the ways discovered for justice. But you did not apply [yourselves] to the God-moved power of unity [mentioned] in your promise, [so] deign to make known to me, your servant and student—[who is] not yet having [a state of] much trembling and fear—through a letter, as [if] present, I greet your most holy [selves] and all those with you. Asking, through your holy and acceptable prayers, to be placed before Christ our God and Savior of all. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

...reaching, myriads of souls... and honors. And not to me. As much as with Christ [to] all, on the day of glory:

From an epistle written to Lord John the Sophist by Maximus the Monk

A large red initial Omicron (O) begins the text block.

That the letter received, [which is] worthily [addressed] to your magnificence, [is] adorned by nature with every excellence [and] modesty; I admired [it] and at the same time feared. How [should] I, being shaped at the same time according to his own perceptions and reasonings, remain inaccessible to the law, [and] remain [in] the humility of his own mind? For the [divine] state which had been bent towards him [was] unspeakable. Equally from both sides, paradoxically through a most upright word. Towards [those] of my lot. But I will dare to speak [of] your most honorable elevation; therefore, I do not accept [your] command without [difficulty]. For they say... how it is necessary to write a noble word, and with your passages of testimony. If the soul is still an incorporeal substance, [they] are familiar with your teachings; [as if] variously similar things being scorched, you cooled [them]. For what, indeed, are these [people] who assert that the soul is not an incorporeal substance, and [who use] these, your words?