6. See what dignity Jesus bestows upon you; Thou wast called a catechumen, having been a catechumens from without. He heard the word about hope, and did not know it; he listened to the mysteries, and did not understand them; he listened to the Divine Scriptures, and did not comprehend the depth of them. Now the catechesis is pronounced not outside, but inside you. For the indwelling spirit (James 4:5) makes your mind the temple of God. When you hear what is written about the sacraments, then you will understand what you did not know before.

Do not think that you are getting something of little importance. Being a miserable man, you receive the name of God. Listen to what Paul says: "God is faithful" (1 Corinthians 1:9). Listen to what the other scripture says: God is faithful and just (1 John 1:9). This (i.e. that people are called God's) the Psalmist, foreseeing this, said from the presence of God: "I am God, and all the sons of the Most High" (Psalm 81:6).

But see to it that there is not the name of the faithful, but the will of the unbeliever. He entered the field, the techs; there is no other time like this for you. If the days of thy marriage were approaching, thou wouldst not have despised all the rest, and would thou not have occupied thyself with the preparation of the feast? But desiring to dedicate your soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, do you not renounce the bodily in order to receive the spiritual?

7. You cannot be baptized twice or three times; otherwise I could have said: the first time it was useless for me, so the next time I will correct it. On the contrary, if the first time was useless, then you can't fix it. For there is one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). Only heretics are baptized another time, because they were baptized first, they were not baptized.

8. God does not require anything else from us, except for a good will. Do not tell me how my sins will be cleansed? By will and belief, I tell you. What is shorter than this? However, if your mouth says that you desire this, and your heart does not speak, then the Knower of the Heart is the judge. From this time abstain from every evil deed; let not thy tongue utter disorderly words, let not thy eye sin, and let not it wander in useless things;

9. Let your feet hasten to catechetical teachings. Accept incantations with reverence, and whether they blow on you, whether they conjure you, consider these actions for yourself salvation. Of coarse gold and counterfeit, mixed with various substances, with copper, tin, iron, and lead, when we want to obtain only gold; then without fire, gold cannot be purified from foreign impurities; so the soul cannot be purified without spells.

They are Divine, extracted from the Divine Scriptures. Thy face is hidden, that thy mind may be free; so that the eyes, wandering, and the heart do not make you wander; and the closing of the eyes does not in the least prevent the ear from heeding the salvific teaching. As goldsmiths, by means of certain small tools, fanning the fire, and melting the gold placed in the furnace, intensifying the flame, find what they seek; so it is with exorcists, when by the Spirit of God they produce fear in a person, and in the body, as in a furnace, they warm the soul; then the devil flees; but there remains salvation, the hope of eternal life, and finally the soul, cleansed of sins, receives salvation.

For let us, brethren, be firm in our hope, and having given ourselves over to it, let us trust; that God, the Lord of all, seeing our will, cleanse us from sins; that He may give us the good hope of things, and grant us saving repentance. God has called you, and you are called.

10. Do not shy away from catechetical teachings: no matter how long they are spoken, so that your thought does not weaken someday. For you receive weapons against the opposing forces, against heretics, Jews, Samaritans, and pagans. You have many enemies, try to have many weapons, you place arrows in many, so you must know how to strike a Greek with them, how to fight a heretic, a Jew and a Samaritan.

And now the weapon is ready, and the spiritual sword is even more ready. At the same time, it behooves you to stretch out your right hand by good will, in order to wage war against the Lord, in order to overcome the opposing forces, in order to be invincible in any heretical attack.

11. And I advise you also this: learn what has been said to you, and keep it; do not consider these teachings to be ordinary conversations. For though these also are good and worthy of faith; but if we omit anything in them today, we shall know tomorrow. And what is taught to you in order about the bath of birth, if this day is omitted, then when will it be rewarded? Imagine that it is time to plant trees: if we do not dig up the earth and plant them; then at what other time can it be planted well, that at first it is planted badly?

Imagine that a catechetical instruction is a structure. If we do not strengthen it properly with ties, so that there are no crevices; then the structure will be unstable. But it is necessary, in order, to lay stone upon stone; to tie the coal to the corner; discard the superfluous, and thus elevate the structure. Likewise, we deliver to you as if it were the stones of knowledge. We must hear about the living God, we must hear about judgment, we must hear about Christ, we must hear about the resurrection; many things must be spoken of in order; now this is said separately, and then it will be presented in connection.

But if you do not combine into one, and do not remember the first and the second, then he who builds will build, and your building will be bad.

12. Then, as the catechetical sermon says, if a catechumens ask you, what did the teachers say to you? Don't answer anything to a stranger. For we give thee the mystery, and the hope of the age to come. Keep this secret for the sake of the Rewarder, and do not listen when someone tells you what is the trouble, if I also find out? And the sick ask for wine; but if it is given untimely, then madness is to be produced; from which two evils are born: the sick dies, and the physician remains in ignominy.