Like it or not, you are a woman in body. Therefore, cease teaching husbands in church, because the Apostle clearly recognized this as "shameful" (1 Corinthians 14:35), although you will assert a thousand times that you are far from the state proper to wives, and after establishing in yourself a virginal way of thinking, you have become firmer than men.

On Accepting Gifts from Rich People

2.83. Monk Onesimus.

If a rich man in the present life thinks that by generosity to you he fully repays gratitude to God, then he is obliged not to wait for your request, but rather to ask and beseech you to deign to accept his gift. Therefore, knowing the baseness of this man's soul, as one who is possessed by demons, do not deign him even a word.

On God's Allowance for the Wicked to Be Glorified by Men

1.71. To Deacon Pompios.

What do you find strange when you see that the most wicked and wicked man is exalted with praise, is unlawfully glorified, and has great power among those who rule? Remember what the Scriptures declare: "the wicked are "given" "into the high places" (Ecclesiastes 10:6), that is, he is allowed to exalt himself in the opinion of this world. And it was allowed not without judgment, but that, being exalted to the utmost and falling from there, he should suffer incurable contrition.

On the Desire for the Death of a Pure Soul

2.81. To Monk Kyriakos.

Others can still be with Christ in the body, according to the words of the Apostle: "I do not live unto him, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). And even more so – having put off this flesh, as the same Apostle writes again: "I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ" (Phil. 1:23). For the soul, as inspired by God into a certain wondrous creation of His, is something imaginable and strives for the imaginable.

For you must be restored to a pure nature, or to a Divine state, ageless, without sorrow, free from all care.

On the Various Conditions of People and on Falls Due to Negligence

2.82. To Monk Kyriakos.

People have states and positions so pure that one takes the place of the sun, another the moon, and a third the stars. And you see that some man was often more glorified than Solomon by wisdom from above, and later for his slumbering, for the weakening of his attentiveness, he was abandoned by God, he rejects reverence and fear of the All-Perfect, and falls into impiety and great sins, so that you can say: the sun has turned away, beyond expectation he has fallen into unlawful deeds! For often such things happen. And zealous people are sometimes afterwards deprived of the protection of the Holy Spirit for negligence, and Nebuchadnezzar goes to war against them, destroys the city with satanic weapons, and blinds the king, I mean the mind, like Zedekiah, and imprisons the youths and leads them to allegorical Babylon, and the holiness of David and Solomon and other kings — all that was in the treasuries of the heart was acquired with great labor and diligence, gathered and prepared, he takes with him, and burns the temple of the Lord, and is ready to trample under unclean feet. And I hear how, lamenting this, the Psalmist cries: "Have mercy on me, for many demons are fighting me from on high, trampling me all day long" (Psalm 55:2, 3); "For thou hast raised up enemies toward" my head (Psalm 65:12). And Jeremiah weeps over the soul, which formerly ruled for its successes, but now by the right of war has been taken, "being under the tribute" (Lamentations 1:7), serving the devil with sins. However, to the one who has fallen into such calamities, if he does not completely neglect himself through faint-heartedness, but, having repented, turns to the Lord and courageously resumes his former pious deeds, the Lord's grace returns again, and about him will speak the prophetic word: "I will turn and "raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen and dug up": and success, and Divine gifts, and inner knowledge "I will raise up and reward" (Amos 9:10), "And the last glory shall be greater than the first, saith the Lord Almighty" (Ag. 10). I have written this in reply to what was contained in your letter.