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Saint Simeon the New Theologian speaks to us (†October 12)
Brothers and fathers, I wish to speak to you about matters pertaining to the benefit of the soul, and I am ashamed by your love, knowing my unworthiness. Let us walk on a single path: the commandments of Christ, which lead us together to a single city: the Kingdom of Heaven. Understand, therefore, by the single city, the holy and inseparable trinity of virtues ‒ faith, hope, and love ‒ or, rather, the greatest of all: love, from which and in which all faith is founded and hope is built, and without which nothing of what exists has been or will be constituted.
Allow me, for a start, to speak a little with her, to address her and to offer her my longing. For, as soon as I remembered the beauty of immaculate love, immediately her light was found in my heart and captivated me with its sweetness, I lost the sensation of things, arriving completely outside of this life, and I even forgot the things I held in my hand. But, again, I don't know how, she distanced herself from me and left me to mourn my powerlessness.
Oh, most beloved love, Blessed is he who has embraced you, for nevermore will he passionately desire to embrace any earthly beauty! Blessed is he who is bound by you with a divine love, for he will deny the whole world and, approaching every man, will by no means be defiled. Blessed is he who has kissed your beauties and delighted in them with insatiable longing, for he will be spiritually sanctified by the most pure water and blood that issue from you. Blessed is he who has embraced you with desire, for he will be spiritually changed by the good change and will rejoice in spirit, for you are the ineffable joy. Blessed is he who has attained you, for he will consider all the treasures of the world as nothing, for you are truly the unfailing wealth. Blessed and thrice blessed is he whom you have taken to yourself, for, being deprived of visible glory, he will be more glorified than all the glorified and more honored than all the honored. Praised is he who seeks you, and more praised is he who has found you, and even more blessed is he who has been loved by you, he who has been received by you, he who has been taught by you, he who has dwelt within you, he who has been nourished by you with the food which is Christ our God.
From "Catecheses. Writings II", Deisis Publishing House, 2003
Translation by Archdeacon Ioan I. Ică Jr.