After a while he continues: "Do you want me to show you this more clearly and sensitively on the Apostles? Think of Paul, whose garments also had a wonderful effect; remember Peter, whose shadow revealed miraculous power. If they did not bear within themselves the image of the King of Heaven and their splendor were not unapproachable, then their garments and shadows would not reveal such power: for the garment of the King is terrible even for robbers. Do you want to see how their inner light penetrates through their bodies? "Looking upon Stephen, says the Book of Acts, seeing his face as the face of an angel" (6:15). But this is nothing in comparison with the glory that shone within him. For what Moses then had on his face, they bore in their souls. And much more: for what was with Moses was more sensual, and this is spiritual. And just as bodies that have the ability to receive and reflect light, being illuminated by self-luminous bodies, and the light reflected in them themselves pour out on other bodies nearest to them, so it is with the faithful. And for this reason those who experience these things renounce earthly things, and think only of heavenly things. "But alas! it is fitting for us to groan bitterly at this; that when we are vouchsafed nobility, we do not even understand what is said about it, because we soon lose it and deviate to the sensual. This ineffable and terrible glory is in us for one or two days, and then we extinguish it, bringing a storm of worldly affairs and repelling its rays with the density of their clouds" (Discourse 7 on the 2nd Epistle to Corinth).

In another place he says: "The bodies of those who please God will be clothed with such glory as cannot even be seen with these (real) eyes. God was pleased to give some of this sign and unclear traces in both the Old and New Testaments. There the face of Moses was so sown with glory that it was unapproachable to the eyes of Israel; and in the New the face of Christ shone even more brightly."

Have you now listened to the words of the Spirit? Have you understood the power of the sacrament? Have you come to know what are the illnesses of our perfect from the holy font of spiritual regeneration? What are its fruits, fullness and victorious honors? And to what extent is it in our power to multiply or diminish this prenatural grace, that is, to manifest or eclipse? It is overshadowed by the storm of worldly cares and the darkness of the passions born from them, which, like a whirlwind or a wild stream, attacking us and drowning the soul, do not allow it to rest or gaze upon what is truly good and blessed, for which it was created, but all of it, beaten and tormented by the waves and smoke of sensual sweets, darken and plunge into obscenity. And it manifests the opposite of this, that which departs from the God-created commandments, and for those who walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: for, it is said, "Walk in the Spirit, and do not commit the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16), is beneficial to the soul and salvific, raising them, as by a ladder, to the very summit of perfection, to the very last of its degrees, to love, which is God.

6) In holy baptism we do not receive divine grace; but when we close it with passions, then we again purify it by fulfilling the commandments.

In the divine couches, i.e. in the sacred font, we accept the completely perfect divine grace. If, after somehow, through the abuse of temporal things, and through great concern for the affairs of life, we close it with the darkness of passions, then even after this, through repentance and the fulfillment of the God-effective commandments, we can again accept and again acquire its prenatural brightness, and see its clearest manifestation. Its manifestation is revealed to the extent of everyone's zeal to be faithful to the faith, but most of all through the help and goodwill of the Lord Jesus Christ, as St. Mark says: "Christ, as perfect God, gave perfect to those who were baptized the grace of the Holy Spirit, which receives no addition from us, but only reveals itself and manifests itself in us according to the fulfillment of the commandments, and gives us the application of faith, until we attain all to the union of faith, according to the measure of the stature of the fulfillment of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). Wherefore, if we offer anything after we are reborn in Him, it was already hidden in us by Him and from Him."

7) He who lives according to God must go through all the commandments, but devote most of his work to the first of them, as the progenitors of the rest.

Since, therefore, as we have said, the beginning and root of all our proper action is in order to live according to the saving commandments, there is a limit and fruit (which is hoped for from this) in order to rise again to the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which was given to us in the beginning through baptism, which is still in us (for the gifts of God are unrepentant, as the Apostle says, Rom. 11, 29), but is encumbered with passions, and is revealed only through the fulfillment of the God-giving commandments: then we must strive in every possible way, through the all-powerful fulfillment of all such commandments, to purify the grace of the Spirit that exists in us, to bring it into manifestation and to see it most clearly. "A lamp unto my feet," saith the blessed David unto God, "Thy law, and a light unto my paths" (Psalm 118:5); and: the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes (Psalm 18:9); and, "Unto all Thy commandments are directed" (Psalm 118:128). He who reclined on the Lord's face says: "Thou shalt keep His commandments, He abides in Him, and He in Him" (1 John 3:24); and: "His commandments are not heavy" (1 John 5:3). And the Lord Himself teaches: "If you have My commandments, and keep them, you will love Me: but if you love Me, you will be loved by My Father: and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself" (John 14:21); and, "If any man love me, he shall keep my word: and my Father shall love him, and we shall come unto him, and make our abode with him" (ibid., v. 23); and, Thou shalt not love Me, He keepeth not My words (v. 24).

Above all, one should take care of the first of these commandments and the source, which are, as it were, the mother of the rest, and to them devote the greatest part of the action. For in this way, with God's help, we will unstumblingly attain both the goal presupposed at the beginning of good action and the end of our striving, that is, the manifestation in us of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

8) The beginning of every action pleasing to God is the invocation with faith of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with it the peace and love that shine forth from it.

The beginning of every God-pleasing action is the invocation with faith of the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, since He Himself declared: "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5), and with this invocation peace and love: peace, for it is fitting to pray, as the Apostle says, without anger or meditation (1 Tim. 2:8); love, for God is love, and abide in love in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). And these peace and love not only make prayer favorable, but they themselves are born again from this prayer and shine forth like inseparable divine rays, and grow and come to perfection.

9) Each of these three and all three together is given us an abundance of all blessings.

Each of these three, and all three together, is given to us and multiplies in us an abundance of all blessings. "For with faith, by invoking the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we firmly hope to receive mercy and true life, hidden in Him, which, with the frequent invocation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ within our hearts, flow from Him as from some divine source that is ever-flowing. "By those who surpass all intellect and have no limits, we are vouchsafed peace with God and with each other. By love, whose praise is incomparable, since it is the end and head of the law and the prophets, since God is also called love, we are wholly united with God, with the abolition of our sin by the righteousness of God, and with the grace-filled sonship working in us wonderfully through love. For love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8); Love covers all things, eats faith in all things, trusts in all things, endures all things, love falls away (1 Corinthians 13:7).

10) And our Lord Jesus Christ, in the days of the salvific passion, left them to His disciples, as the final commandments and the divine inheritance, also after the resurrection.

When His saving suffering came, He appeared in the following words spoken to His disciples: "If ye ask in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14); and Amen, Amen, I say unto you, that if ye ask of the Father in my name, he shall give it unto you. Hitherto ask nothing in My name: ask and receive, that your joy may be fulfilled (John 16:23, 24). "Again after the resurrection He said to them, 'These signs shall follow them that believe: in My name demons shall come, tongues shall speak anew, and so on.' (Mark 16:17 &c). In agreement with this, the Confidant, John the Evangelist, declares: "Many and other signs, Jesus did before his disciples, which is not written in this book." And this was written, that ye may believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that ye may believe in His name (John 20:30, 31). And St. Paul the Apostle: In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and so on. (Philippians 2:10). And in the Acts of the Apostles it is written: "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, speak wisely to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, as in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Whom ye have crucified, Whom God hath raised from the dead, for this he stands well before you." And a little later: "And there is no other salvation: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, in whom it behooves us to be saved" (Acts 4:8-12). And again the Saviour: "Give unto Me all power in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18). This is also evident from what the God-Man Lord said to the Apostles before the cross: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27); and: "This I say, that in Me there may be peace" (John 16:33); and: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another" (John 15:12); and "Of this all shall understand, that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:25); and as the Father has loved me, and I have loved you, be ye in my love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love: as I have kept the commandments of My Father, and abide in His love (John 15:9, 10). And again, after His resurrection, at various times, He is often seen as giving peace, appearing as His own and saying, "Peace be unto you" (John 20:21). "To Peter the Apostle, to whom He also entrusted primacy over the disciples, He said to Him up to three times: "If thou lovest Me, O Peter, more than others, feed My sheep" (John 21:17), showing that entrusting the care of the flock is a kind of reward for the most ardent love for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. "It will not be far from our goal or our object if someone says that from the three virtues just shown, other three wondrous fruits are born to us, namely: purification of the soul, enlightenment and spiritual maturity.