Letter to the Faithful I Recensio prior
Letter to the Faithful I (Former recension) [EpFid I]
(An Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance)
In the Name of the Lord!
[Chapter I] On those who do penance
All who love the Lord with their whole heart, with their whole soul and mind, with all their virtute (cf. Mk 12:30) and love their neighbors as they do themselves (cf. Mt 22:39), and hold thier bodies in hatred with its vices and sins, and receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and bring forth fruits worthy of penance: O how blessed and blest are those men and women, while they do such things and persevere in them, since upon them rests the Spirit of the Lord (cf. Jn 14:23), and they are sons of their Heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:45), whose works they do, and they are spouses, fathers and mothers of Our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Mt 12:50). We are spouses, when by the Holy Spirit the faithful soul is joined with Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are His brothers, when we do the will of the Father who is in Heaven (Mt. 12:50). Mothers, when we carry Him in our heart and body (cf. 1 Cor 6:20) by divine love and a pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to Him by holy work, which should shine upon others as an example (cf. Mt 5:16). O how glorious it is, holy and great, to have a Father in Heaven! O how holy, to have such a Paraclete, beautiful and admirable, as a Spouse! O how holy and how beloved, very pleasing, humble, peacable, sweet, lovable and desirable above all things to have such a Brother and such a Son: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who layed down His soul for His sheep (cf. Jn 10:15) and prayed to His Father saying: "Holy Father, guard them in Thy Name" (Jn 17:11) and "For them I sanctify Myself" (Jn 17:19). Not for them only do I pray, but for those who will believe in Me through their words" (Jn 17:20), "so that all may be sanctified in one" (cf. Jn 17:23) even as We are" (Jn 17:11). And "I wish, Father, that where I am they also may be with Me, so that they may see My Brightness" (Jn 17:24) "in Thy Kingdom" (Mt. 20:21). Amen. Continue reading after advertisement
[Chapter II] On those who do not do penance
However all those men and women, who are not in penance, and do not receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and work vices and sins and who walk after wicked concupiscence and after the wicked desires of their flesh, and who do not observe, what they have promised the Lord, and are slaves to the world in their bodies by carnal desires and by the anxieties of the world and by the cares of this life: (these) ones held back by the devil, whose sons they are and whose works they do (cf. Jn 8:41), are blind, since they do not see the True Light Our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not have spiritual wisdom, since they do not have the Son of God who is the True Wisdom of the Father, concerning whom it is said: "Accursed are those who turn away from Thy commands" (Ps. 118:21). Continue reading after advertisement
They see and do not understand, they know and work wicked things and they themselves knowingly loose their souls. See, blind ones, deceived by your enemies: by the flesh, the world, and the devil; since it is sweet to the body to work sin and bitter to work to serve God; since all vices and sins come forth and proceed from the heart of man, just as the Lord says in the Gospel (cf. Mk 7:21). And you will have nothing in this age nor in the one to come. And you think you will posses the vanities of this age for a long time, but you are deceived, since there will come the day and hour, of which you do not think, know or pay attention; the body weakens, death approches and so one dies a bitter death. And wheresoever, whensoever, howsoever a man dies in culpable sin without penance and satisfaction, if he can make satisfaction and does not, the devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and tribulation, that no one can know it, except him who experiences it. And all talents and power and knowledge and wisdom (2 Chron 1:12), which they thought they had, and he bears it away from them (cf. Lk 8:18; Mk 4:25). And they forsake neighbors and friends and these bear off and divide his substance, having said: "Cursed be his soul, since he could have given us more and acquired what he did not acquire." Worms eat their body, and so they perish body and soul in this short age and they will go into Hell, where they will be tortured without end. All those to whom these letters might have come, we beg in the Love which God is (cf. 1 Jn 4:16), that they receive kindly those abovesaid sweet-smelling words of Our Lord Jesus Christ with divine love. And (for) those who do not know how to read, let them have them read often; and let them keep (these letters) for themselves with holy work even to the end, since these are spirit and life (Jn 6:64). And he who would not do this, will be held accountable on the day of judgement (cf. Mt 12:36) before the tribunal of Our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rm 14:10).
Comments
Post a Comment