The General Epistle

...of the things that appear to us, having clearly articulated the operation of the soul’s desire with great goodness, we are drawn by love toward Him, saying: "My heart and my flesh have failed; God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." For it is the primary, moving love that brings one to the Divine side, according to Saint Dionysius.

And for this primordial love, the spiritual desire is truly a burning; it is directed straight toward the canon of rectitude, looking entirely toward its archetype. When it gathers the understanding of the mind from all created things unto itself, it naturally shines with divine knowledge through contemplation and meditation. Having been grasped by the senses, it rises from the created and the symbolic to the very-true Beginning, and spiritually unites with God, according to Saint Gregory of Tatev.

Following this, one is able, with ineffable joy—having been captured especially by that unreachable, light-shining brilliance—to speak, as one capable of being grasped: "I have held Him and I will not let go."

This is the very thing the wonderful Paul, having been stirred toward this marvel, said: "I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which I have also been laid hold of by Christ."

This is the perfect joy of the mind, to which there is nothing equal. By the knowledge of God, one encounters those who, by powerfully mastering the sensory breath and the spiritual tabernacle of the body, are viewers of the divinity of the soul, having been perfected according to the measure of man.

For the name "man," according to our Holy Father Nerses of Lambron, is "rational," and the "word" ban reason/word is not the utterance of the tongue, but the meditation of the mind.

And since the meditation of the mind, which is toward the Primary Being, is the special food for the soul’s intellectual desire, and the joy that grants perfection...

Just as in all things created by the Creator of natures, for our rational kind, before the eyes of the senses, and above all things sensible, there is the sun-bright, gold-beaming, and beautifully-shining light. Having the material from the beginning of light, it is lovely and glorious...