Letter 632

To the same person. Whenever your spiritual father says something grievous or harsh to you, receive it, and accept it in a spirit of philosophy and longsuffering; for he does this not out of passion, but without passion. But if, as you have said, he should even grow faint-hearted and insult you, this comes not from his soul, but from his faint-heartedness, just as a mother out of melancholy will utter a curse against her child. For that she does not curse her own offspring according to her true judgment is plain from this: that a little while afterward the mother at once repents, and grieves when the child has fallen sick.

Ὅταν λυπηρόν τι ἢ τραχὺ πρὸς σὲ εἴπῃ ὁ πνευματικὸς πατήρ, δέξαι, καὶ κατάδεξαι φιλοσόφως καὶ μακροθύμως· οὐ γὰρ μετὰ πάθους, ἄνευ δὲ πάθους τοῦτο δρᾷ. Εἰ δέ, καθὼς εἴρηκας, καὶ μικροψυχήσειεν, καὶ ὑβρίσει σε, οὐκ ἐκ ψυχῆς τοῦτο, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ μικροψυχίας, ὥσπερ μήτηρ ἐκ μελαγχολίας τῷ τέκνῳ ἐπαρωμένη· ὅτι γὰρ οὐ κατὰ γνώμην ἐπάραται τῷ γόνῳ, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ μετ᾽ ὀλίγον εὐθὺς μεταμέλεσθαι τὴν μητέρα, καὶ πενθεῖν ἀῤῥωστήσαν τὸ τέκνον.