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

A decorative red ink initial letter O begins the right column.

turning away from the exercise [of writing], which is useful for us in the beginning of the scripture; which they also say is avoided by those who are half-worthy in the mediocratic exercises, repeating these things and as if [to] make a multitude of [things] from the [Word] Greek OCR: χῦ abbreviates Christos/God, and to be dragged along, these new hypocrisies; truly. But how to [be] advocates of the ecclesiastical faith, the ineffable? For the time being, we will not profit by the letter; because of the remaining, the [lack of understanding] of the memories is a great difficulty there, and being engraved far [from] the teacher; my lord, [be] wise; [the one] who is temperate and wise, an advocate of the truth; and instead of these divine dogmas, a fighter; and you ask and the struggle of all heresy, it was possible for those who participated to stand against the foreigners, and we remember the truth as such; and the endurance [of] the willingly accepted things, like one attending, I know how to remember all the correct divine and holy dogmas and [not] the deceptive doctrines; fare well.

A decorative red ink initial letter O begins the column.

It is not according to nature that from which [the] flower, nothing is useful [as] a decoction; but what is a flower, [if] it is brought [as] a becoming flower, because it is not naturally made as tears of joy; but [in] itself [it is] not even [that which] the flower is [as] a knowledge; or [it is] the forming [of] the resulting, to undergo [the] salvation; for it is not peculiar, or of the good [things] [by] the mind; [but] with them [we participate] in the state; for the beginning [is] folly, [but] the having [is] the [thing] brought under [the] God, [the] divine [instruction], becoming [a] folly; not indeed as a good flower, [everything] that [the] God has [is] a full cause of domestic knowledge, but a good [thing] how [the] good [is] more, [as] said according to the state, [but] not [as] something, because [it is] God [who] manifests [the] learning of them; but if this is foolishly captured; those [things] that [are] joy [as] flowers of the state [are] [to be] observed [in] marbles; we happen to be good [by] passing through [things] toward [them] and participating in the state; receive the [one] who happens to be the blessed [one] of God, protecting you, my this blessed [one], carrying [the] words of the divine discourse of the lord [to] Cosmas; a man who is both [to be] saved and [to be] a releaser [from] the folly of [God]; and [to] his own [he] brings him to the [end], [and] to be used [by] the foolish [one] toward Timothy the Pope [as] [he] is according to [God]; we will omit the [thing] that is [to be] a garment, [and] the own [things].