providing the enjoyment derived from them? Therefore, put aside considerations of plots, injuries, losses of money, continuous migrations, and living in a foreign land, and—trampling these underfoot more easily than mud—consider the treasures laid up for you in heaven as a result of them, and the indestructible business, and the inviolable wealth. But is your body in poor condition from these labors and trials, and have the plots of your enemies worn you down with illness? Once again, you are telling me of another matter, one of great and unspeakable gain. For you know, you know clearly, how great a thing it is to bear bodily illness courageously and with thanksgiving. This, as I have often said, crowned Lazarus; this put the devil to shame in the contests of Job, and revealed that athlete of endurance as more radiant. This proclaimed him even more than his poverty, and his disregard for money, and that sudden loss of his children, and his ten thousand trials, and it stopped the shameless mouth of that wicked demon with great abundance. Therefore, as you continually ponder these things yourself, rejoice and be glad, having finished the greatest contest, bearing the head of temptations meekly, and for these things glorifying the benevolent God, who is able to strike them all down at once, but allows them to happen so that this noble business of yours might become more brilliant. For this reason, we too do not cease to call you blessed. And we were glad that, having been relieved of both lawsuits and affairs, you have, as was fitting for you, put an end to the matter according to the dissolution, neither cowardly casting them aside, nor again holding on and exposing yourself to courts and the evils resulting from them; but you have walked the middle path, and having enjoyed the freedom that is fitting for you, you have displayed great discernment in all things, and endurance, and patience, and have shown the un-deceivability of your intelligence.
To the same person, Epistle XVII
Nothing strange or unbecoming has happened to your reverence, but it is highly likely and consistent that, by the continuity of successive temptations, the nerves of your soul should have become sturdier, and your eagerness and strength for the struggles greater, and that you should reap from this great pleasure. For such is the nature of affliction: when it overtakes a noble and youthful soul, it is its nature to work these things. And just as fire makes gold more tested when it is combined with it, so too does affliction, when it comes upon golden souls, render them purer and more tested. Wherefore Paul also said: "Affliction produces patience, and patience, probity" (Rom. 5:3, 4). For these reasons, we leap and rejoice, and we reap a very great consolation from this bravery of yours in our isolation. For these reasons, even if ten thousand wolves surround you, and many assemblies of evildoers, we fear nothing; but we pray that the temptations which are present may be extinguished, and that others may not be added, fulfilling the Lord's command, which bids us pray not to enter into temptation; but if, in fact, it should be permitted to happen again, we are confident concerning your golden soul, which gathers from this, too, the greatest wealth for itself. For what will they be able to terrify you with, those who dare everything against their own heads? The loss of money? But I know that you consider this to be dust, and cheaper than any mud. But by exile from your country and home? But you know how to dwell in even great and populous cities as if they were solitudes, having lived your whole time in quiet and freedom from business, and having trampled underfoot worldly illusions. But they threaten death? But you, having anticipated this, have studied it for all your life, and even if they drag you to slaughter, they will drag a body that is already dead. Why say much? No one will be able to do any such thing to you, for whose patience they will not find long ago established in you with great abundance. For having always walked the narrow and afflicted path, you have trained yourself in all these things. Wherefore, having practiced this most beautiful science in the training grounds, now in the contests you have appeared more brilliant, not only not being disturbed by what is happening, but even being winged, and leaping, and dancing. For you now handle the contests of those exercises which you previously undertook with great ease, in a woman's body, and one weaker than spiderwebs, trampling underfoot the madness of strong men gnashing their teeth with much laughter, and being more ready to suffer than they are to prepare it. Blessed are you, and three times blessed, for these crowns, or rather, for the contests themselves. For such is the nature of these struggles: even before the prizes, and in the very arena itself, it possesses both the rewards and the recompenses—the pleasure which you are now reaping, the gladness, the bravery, the endurance, the patience, the indestructibility, the unconquerable nature, being higher than all things, having so trained yourself that you can suffer nothing terrible from anyone, having stood on the rock after so many surging waves, and of being borne through the raging sea with great calm. These are the rewards of affliction even here, before the kingdom of heaven. For I know, I know that now you do not even think you are wearing a body, being winged by pleasure, but when the time calls, you will cast it off more easily than others do the garments they wear. Rejoice, therefore, and be glad for yourself, and for those who have died the blessed death, not on a bed, nor in a house, but in prisons and chains and tortures. But lament and weep for those alone who do these things. For this too is worthy of your philosophy. Since you also wish to learn about the health of our body, we have been freed for the time being from the illness that was previously bothering us, and we are now feeling better; unless we are again