Letter 394: Theodore Studite, Letter 394; Greek heading: Λουκιανῷ τέκνῳ.

Our good God, knowing the slipperiness of human nature, and that even if someone seems to walk uprightly, he is tripped up, before he knows it, by being a little careless, has out of his love for mankind bestowed repentance, which recalls man from his fall and restores him to health. Since, then, you too, my brother, have suffered what you have suffered, and have fulfilled the season of a worthy repentance, having propitiated God with much compunction and very many tears, as I have heard, and now seek release [absolution from the penance imposed], as has been declared to me both through the steward [oikonomos, the monastery's administrator] and through the under-steward [paroikonomos, his assistant], may this be granted you by the Lord; and you shall be in good health from this point on, my son, and rejoicing in Christ and prospering in him, no longer giving the Master pledges that you will fall again, but rather dying for him, as he too suffered for you. Earlier, then, by letter, I, the unworthy one, cried out to you tearfully, "Adam, where are you?" - taking up the divine voice [Genesis 3:9], because you had fallen, as it were, from a lofty, paradisiacal way of life; but now it is necessary for me, wretched as I am, to make bold and to say: Peace be to you, arise, Christ commands it, live forever.