The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite — trans. John Parker
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
s the habits of our souls into an aptitude for the reception of the other sacred sayings and doings °, the transmission of our holy and most divine regeneration P. For, as our illustrious Leader used
^ John xiv. 23. o Ibid. i. 13. P Ibid. iii. 5.
on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 75 to say, the very first movement of the mind towards Divine things is the wilHng reception of Almighty God, but the very earhest step of the reUgious reception towards the rehgious performance of the Divine commandments is the unutterable operation of our being 'I from God. For if our^ being from God is the Divine engendering, never would he know, and certainly never perform, any of the Divine instructions, who had not had his beginning to be in God. To speak after the manner of men, must we not first begin to be, and then to do, our affairs ? Since he, who does not exist at all, has neither movement nor even beginning; since he, who in some way exists, alone does, or suffers, those things suitable to his own nature. This, then, as I think, is clear. Let us next contemplate the Divine symbols of the birth in God. And I pray, let no uninitiated person approach the sight ^ ; for neither is it without danger to gaze upon the glorious rays of the sun with weak eyes, nor is it without peril to put our hand to things above us. For right was the priesthood of the Law, when rejecting Osias ^, because he put his hand to sacred things ; and Korah ", because to things sacred above his capacity ; and Nadab ^ and Abihu, because they treated things, within their own province, unholily.
^ rov fhai dftws. r See Baptismal Offices, s C. 2. s. 62. t 2 Chron. xxvi. 16 — 21. ^ Num. xvi.
1—33. ^ Ibid. iii. 4.
76 Dionysius the Areopagite
II. Mysterion of Illiiminaiion.
Section I.
The Hierarch, then, wishing ^ that all men whatsoever should be saved by their assimilation towards God, and come to recognition of truth, proclaims to all the veritable Good News, that God being compassionate towards those upon earth, out of His own proper and innate goodness, deigned Himself to come to us with outstretched arms, by reason of loving-kindness towards men ; and, by the union with Him, to assimilate, like as by fire, things that have been made one, in proportion to their aptitude for deification. " For as many as received Him, to them gave He power ^ to become children of God — to those who believe on His Name, who were begotten, not of bloods, nor of will of flesh, but of God V
Section II.
one, in proportion to their aptitude for deification. " For as many as received Him, to them gave He power ^ to become children of God — to those who believe on His Name, who were begotten, not of bloods, nor of will of flesh, but of God V
Section II.
He, who has felt a religious longing to participate in these truly supermundane gifts, comes to some one of the initiated, and persuades him to act as his conductor to the Hierarch. He then professes wholly to follow the teaching that shall be given to him, and prays him to undertake the superintendence of his introduction, and of all his after life. Now he, though religiously longing for his salvation, when he measures human infirmity against the loftiness of the undertaking, is suddenly seized y I Tim. ii. 4. z John i. 12, 13.
^ Coptic Con. II. 40 ; Ap. C. lib. viii. c. 38.
071 the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 77 with a shivering and sense of incapacity, nevertheless, at last, he agrees, with a good grace, to do, what is requested, and takes and leads him to the chief Hierarch.
Section III. ,
He, then, when with joy he has received, as thesheep upon his shoulders, the two men, and has first worshipped, glorifies with a mental thanksgiving and bodily prostration the One beneficent Source ^ from Which, those who are being called, are called, and those who are being saved, are saved.
Section IV.
Then collecting a full religious assembly into the sacred place, for co-operation, and common rejoicing over the man's salvation, and for thanksgiving for the Divine Goodness, he first chants a certain hymn, found in the Oracles, accompanied by the whole body of the Church ; and after this, when he has kissed the holy table, he advances to the man before him, and demands of him, what has brought him here?
Section V.
When the man, out of love to God, has confessed, according to the instruction of his sponsor, his ungodliness*^, his ignorance of the really beautiful, his insufificiency for the life in God, and prays, through his holy mediation, to attain to God and Divine things, he (the Hierarch) testifies to him, that his approach ought to be entire, as to God Who is All Perfect, and without b Phil. ii. 13. c i^Q^^Tt^Ta^ Malt. vi. 24 ; Eph. iv. 5.
78 Dionysius the Areopagite blemish ; and when he has expounded to him fully the godly course of life, and has demanded of him, if he would thus live, — after his promise he places his right hand upon his head, and when he has sealed him, commands the priests to register the man and his sponsor.
Section VI.
has expounded to him fully the godly course of life, and has demanded of him, if he would thus live, — after his promise he places his right hand upon his head, and when he has sealed him, commands the priests to register the man and his sponsor.
Section VI.
When these have enrolled the names, he makes a holy prayer, and when the whole Church have completed this with him, he looses his sandals, and removes his clothing, through the Leitourgoi. Then, when he has placed him facing the west and beating his hands, averted towards the same quarter, he commands him thrice to breathe scorn upon Satan, and further, to profess the words of the renunciation. When he has witnessed his threefold renunciation, he turns him back to the east; after he has professed this thrice ; and when he has looked up to heaven, and extended his hands thitherward, he commands him to be enrolled under Christ, and all the Divinely transmitted Oracles of God. When the man has done this, he attests again for him his threefold profession, and again, when he has thrice professed, after prayer, he gives thanks, and lays his hand upon him.
Section VII.
When the Deacons have entirely unclothed him, the Priests bring the holy oil of the anointing. Then he begins the anointing, through the threefold sealing, and for the rest assigns the man to the Priests, for the anointing of his whole body, while himself
071 the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. 79 advances to the mother of filial adoption, and when he has purified the water within it by the holy invocations, and perfected it by three cruciform efi'usions of the altogether most pure Muron^, and by the same number of injections of the all holy Muron, and has invoked the sacred melody of the inspiration of the God-rapt Prophets, he orders the man to be brought forward ; and when one of the Priests, from the register, has announced him * and his surety, he is conducted by the Priests near the water to the hand of the Hierarch, being led by the hand to him. Then the Hierarch, standing above, when the Priests have again called aloud near the Hierarch within the water the name of the initiated, the Hierarch dips him three times, invoking the threefold^ Subsistence of the Divine Blessedness, at the three immersions and emersions of the initiated.