The General Epistle

...and be submerged. And they were given as light upon light, so that the soul, moved by natural desire, would not wander in the darkness of groping in its progression.

For he who walks with meditation by day and by night, with the contemplation of the light of the readings, does not stumble by deviating from the path of the intellectual operation of the mind away from the divine play. He does not turn toward the occasions of sin, having escaped from them; he is not caught in the traps of heresies set by the ringleaders of heresy, as he clearly and explicitly marks the hidden snares; and he is not deceived by hypocritical proposals, giving the solution and turning the deception back upon the heads of the deceitful proposers.

For through the holy books breathed by the Spirit, the heart is established, and the mind is taught not to deviate to the right or to the left, but to walk upon the straight and open path. According to this, whatever is manifest is light, and he knows that He who came into the world as light makes all people luminous. He invited everyone to His wonderful light, according to the Holy Apostle Peter.

Then, for each one whose lot is to be rational, and who has the passion of the soul toward divine things, it is necessary to enter into the lot of the Holy Scriptures. And with the tip of the rod, by the showing and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to take the sweetness of the word into the palate of the mind, so that their eyes may be opened through the ever-moving intellectual power, just as Jonathan’s were, even if they receive a commandment from such leaders as Saul to abstain from tasting, under threat of death.

For those who, with willful minds, have turned away from this life-giving source, remaining uncommunicative of the illumination, are fated to wretched blindness and, deprived of life at the end, walk into the eternal darkness.

For which reason, it is necessary to examine the books of the commandment according to the Lord’s word, and to hold the apostolic legacy to Timothy firmly for the salvation of the soul and for the nourishment of its intellectual desire, paying heed to the readings of comfort and doctrine, and not being negligent of the graces...