Letter 8010: May the supreme Judge order your prayers favorably.

10. Ennodius to Maximus, a man of standing. May your prayers be well ordered by the judgment of heaven: may he himself come to your wedding who, when the first parent still rejoiced in his native immortality, granted him the gift of blessing. May our Christ cause that for you neither the fruit of preserved integrity nor the gifts of marriage should perish. May virginity so be of profit toward offspring that fruitfulness takes nothing away from your chastity, and that by the wondrous secret of providence you may perish neither to the world, while you are a father, nor to the grace of God, while you are chaste. May there come upon you what Isaac in piety, when brought in, wished for his younger son. Let your wife enter the house under those auspices of a mother-in-law by which the daughter-in-law came to the inner chambers of Tobias. May there be for you a cause of perfect love in your spouse, and in you virginity preserved. Know that she alone has been allotted to you, for whom you kept yourself as if you were not from the dregs of the world. Behold, because I could not come, I am not wanting in prayer. My lord, I hope that, the honor of my greeting having been received, you will deign to accept graciously the things that have been sent by me.

X. MAXIMO V. S. ENNODIVS. Bene disponantur superno uota uestra iudicio: ipse ad nuptias tuas ueniat qui primo parenti, dum adhuc natiua inmortalitate gauderet, benedictionis munus indulsit. faciat tibi Christus noster nec custoditae integritatis fructum perire nec munera nuptiarum. sic uirginitas prosit ad subolem, ut castitati tuae fecunditas nil decerpat et miro dispensationis arcano nec saeculo, dum pater es, pereas nec dei gratiae, dum pudicus. ueniat super te quod Isaac iuniori filio pie inductus optauit. illis domum socrus auspiciis uxor introeat, quibus Tobiae penetralia nurus accessit. sit tibi perfectae causa dilectionis in coniuge, in te uirginitas custodita. solam illam tibi deputatam noueris, cui te, quasi non esses ex Mundi faece, seruasti. ecce quia uenire non potui, oratione non desum. domine mi, spero, ut honore salutationis accepto quae a me directa sunt dignanter accipias.