Letter 285: Theodore Studite, Letter 285; Greek heading: Τῷ αὐτῷ.

How long, my child, will you not cease to dignify us with your words? How long will you not leave off exalting us with your praises? But I think you do this for two reasons: one, that you are drawn on by love, by which the truth is also wont, for the most part, to be plundered, as the Theologian [Gregory of Nazianzus] says; and the other, which I rather suppose, that through these praises you may make firm what is slackened in my wretched soul. May the Lord then grant—not according to your exaltations of me (for they are many and exceedingly so), but a little, through your holy prayers—that I may come to be in right conduct and not utterly fall away from the tracking of the footsteps of those who contend nobly. I was stung not a little at your foregoing afflictions, and most of all at the distresses of your body. But what says the Apostle? 'I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities; for when I am weak, then am I strong.' [2 Corinthians 12:10] As for the illness, then, I urge you, make use of remedies; for many have need of you to be in health, and most of all my humble self. For concerning the hidden things, He who is the physician of both souls and bodies would strengthen you, even as He does strengthen you, whenever we grow slack in this unyielding wrestling of the body of our humiliation, and in no way let us lose heart, but rather rise up the more quickly; for the renewing of the contest is a matter of crowns, not of condemnation. May our good God therefore save you in all things, most honored brother.