Letter 241: It is not to increase your distress that I am so lavish of painful topics in my letters to your excellency. My object is to get some comfort for myself in the lamentations which are a kind of natural means of dispersing deep-seated pain whenever they are produced, and further to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behal...
I am not piling painful topics into my letters to increase your distress. My purpose is twofold: to find some comfort for myself -- lamentation being a natural way to release deep-seated grief -- and to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behalf of the churches.
We know that Moses prayed continually for the people. Yet when his battle with Amalek began, he did not lower his hands from morning to evening. The uplifting of the saint's hands ended only when the fight ended. Let us follow his example. The battle is not over.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Εὐσεβίῳ, ἐπισκόπῳ Σαμοσάτων.]
Οὐχ ὥστε πλείους ποιῆσαι τὰς ἀθυμίας, τῶν δυσχερῶν πολλάκις ἐν τοῖς πρὸς τὴν τιμιότητά σου γράμμασιν οὐ φειδόμεθα, ἀλλʼ ὥστε ἑαυτοῖς τέ τινα παραμυθίαν δοῦναι διὰ τῶν στεναγμῶν, οἳ πεφύκασί πως τὸ ἐν τῷ βάθει ἀλγεινὸν διαφορεῖν, ὅταν γίνωνται· καὶ τὴν σὴν μεγαλόνοιαν πρὸς ἐκτενεστέραν τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν εὐχὴν παρορμῆσαι. ἐπεὶ καὶ Μωϋσῆς ηὔχετο μὲν ἀεὶ ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ δηλονότι· ὅτε μέντοι πρὸς τὸν Ἀμαλὴκ ἀγὼν αὐτῷ συνειστήκει, οὐ καθῆκε τὰς χεῖρας ἐξ ἕω μέχρις ἑσπέρας· ἀλλʼ ἡ ἔκτασις τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ ἁγίου τῷ τέλει τῆς μάχης συναπηρτίζετο.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
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