Letter 774

To the same person. That one ought not, before the appointed time of the divine testing, to force the matter, and that we ought not to press God to display marvelous deeds to all, but rather to await the good pleasure and the will from above: attend to what the Master Christ says to his own disciples: "Remain seated in Jerusalem and do not depart from there, but wait for the promise" [cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4]; and whenever you have been deemed worthy of it, then begin the teaching and the wonders. For indeed even those around the holy apostle Paul were prevented by the worshipful Spirit, for a time, from speaking the word in Asia and in Bithynia [cf. Acts 16:6-7].

Ὅτι οὐ χρὴ πρὸ καιροῦ τῆς θείας δοκιμασίας ἐκ- βιάζεσθαι, καὶ κατασπεύδειν ἡμᾶς τὸν Θεὸν θαυ- μαστὰ πᾶσιν ἐνδείξασθαι πράγματα, ἀναμένειν δὲ ἐσχέεσθαι μᾶλλον τὴν ἄνωθεν εὐδοκίαν καὶ βούλησιν, πρόσεχες, τί ὁ Δεσπότης Χριστὸς φησι πρὸς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητάς· « Καθίσατε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις καὶ μὴ χωρίζεσθε ἐκεῖθεν, ἀλλὰ περιμένετε τὴν ἐπαγγε- λίαν, » καὶ ὁπηνίκα ταύτης ἀξιωθῆτε, τηνικαῦτα τῆς διδασκαλίας καὶ τῶν τεράτων ἀπάρξασθε. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ οἱ περὶ τὸν ἅγιον ἀπόστολον Παῦλον ἐκωλύθη- σαν ὑπὸ τοῦ προσκυνητοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν καιρῷ, λαλῆσαι τὸν λόγον ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ καὶ ἐν τῇ Βι- θυνίᾳ.