"In whatsoever day I shall have called upon You, behold I have known that my God are You" [Psalm 56:9]. A great knowledge. He says not, "I have known that God You are:" but, "that my God are You." For yours He is, when you He succours: yours He is, when thou to Him art not an alien. Whence is said, "Blessed the people of whom is the Lord the God of the same." Wherefore "of whom is"? For of whom is He not? Of all things indeed God He is: but of those men the God peculiarly He is said to be, that love Him, that hold Him, that possess Him, that worship Him, as though belonging to His own House: the great family of Him are they, redeemed by the great blood of the Only Son. How great a thing has God given to us, that His own we should be, and He should be ours! But in truth foreigners afar have been put from holy men, sons alien they are. See what of them is said in another Psalm: "O Lord, deliver me," he says, "from the hand of alien sons, of whom the mouth has spoken vanity, and the right hand of them is a right hand of iniquity.". ..

We heard the readings of the Scriptures while they were being recited. That is the material that has been given me to talk about. That is what I have to understand, that is from what I have to sow what wisdom I have gotten, with the help of him in whose hand, as it is written, are both "we and our words." Nor is it simply pointless, what is written somewhere else: "I will praise the word, in the Lord I will praise the word." What is praised in the Lord is what the Lord gives. So although I am fairly feeble, I am for all that his instrument. I grasp what I can; I share without grudging what I grasp. May he make good in your minds whatever I have done less well, because even what I do manage to convey to your ears is not worth anything, is it, unless he does the whole work in your minds?

Let us therefore love God, brethren, purely and chastely. There is not a chaste heart, if God for reward it worships. How so? Reward of the worship of God shall not we have? We shall have evidently, but it is God Himself whom we worship. Himself for us a reward shall be, because "we shall see Him as He is." [1 John 3:2] Observe that a reward you shall obtain....I will tell you, brethren: in these human alliances consider a chaste heart, of what sort it is towards God: certainly human alliances are of such sort, that a man does not love his wife, that loves her because of her portion: a woman her husband does not chastely love, that for these reasons loves him, because something he has given, or because much he has given. Both a rich man is a husband, and one that has become a poor man is a husband. How many men proscribed, by chaste wives have been the more beloved! Proved have been many chaste marriages by the misfortunes of husbands: that the wives might not be supposed to love any other object more than their husband, not only have they not forsaken, but the more have they obeyed. If therefore a husband of flesh freely is loved, if chastely he is loved; and a wife of flesh freely is loved, if chastely she is loved; in what manner must God be loved, the true and truth-speaking Husband of the soul, making fruitful unto the offspring of everlasting life, and not suffering us to be barren? Him, therefore, so let us love, as that any other thing besides Himself be not loved: and there takes place in us that which we have spoken of, that which we have sung, because even here the voice is ours: "In whatsoever day I shall have called upon You, behold, I have known that my God are You." This is to call upon God, freely to call upon Him. Furthermore, of certain men has been said what? "Upon the Lord they have not called." The Lord they seemed as it were to call unto themselves and they besought Him about inheritances, about increasing money, about lengthening this life, about the rest of temporal things: and concerning them the Scripture says what? "Upon the Lord they have not called." Therefore there follows what? "There they have feared with fear, where there was no fear." What is, "where there was no fear"? Lest money should be stolen from them, lest anything in their house should be made less; lastly, lest they should have less of years in this life, than they hoped for themselves: but there have they trembled with fear, where there was no fear...."In God I will praise the word, in the Lord I will praise the discourse" [Psalm 56:10]: "in God I have hoped, I will not fear what man does unto me" [Psalm 56:11]. Now this is the very sense which above has been repeated.

"In me, O God, are Your vows, which I will render of praise to You" [Psalm 56:12]. "Vow ye, and render to the Lord your God." What vow, what render? Perchance those animals which were offered at the altars aforetime? No such thing offer thou: in yourself is what you may vow and render. From the heart's coffer bring forth the incense of praise; from the store of a good conscience bring forth the sacrifice of faith. Whatsoever thing you bring forth, kindle with love. In yourself be the vows, which you may render of praise to God. Of what praise? For what has He granted you? "For You have rescued my soul from death" [Psalm 56:13]. This is that very life which he tells out to Him: "O God, my life I have told out to You." For I was what? Dead. Through myself I was dead: through You I am what? Alive. Therefore "in me, O God, are Your vows, which I will render of praise to You." Behold I love my God: no one does tear Him from me: that which to Him I may give, no one does tear from me, because in the heart it is shut up. With reason is said with that former confidence, "What should man do unto me?" Let man rage, let him be permitted to rage, be permitted to accomplish that which he attempts: what is he to take away? Gold, silver, cattle, men servants, maid servants, estates, houses, let him take away all things: does he by any means take away the vows, which are in me, which I may render of praise to God? The tempter was permitted to tempt a holy man, Job; [Job 1:12] in one moment he took away all things: whatever of possessions he had had, he carried off: took away inheritance, slew heirs; and this not little by little, but in a crowd, at one blow, at one swoop, so that all things were on a sudden announced: when all was taken away, alone there remained Job, but in him were vows of praise, which he might render to God, in him evidently there were: the coffer of his holy breast the thieving devil had not rifled, full he was of that wherefrom he might sacrifice. Hear what he had, hear what he brought forth: "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as has pleased the Lord, so has been done: be the name of the Lord blessed." [Job 1:21] O riches interior, whither thief does not draw near! God Himself had given that whereof He was receiving; He had Himself enriched him with that whereof to Him he was offering that which He loved. Praise from you God requires, your confession God requires. But from your field will you give anything? He has Himself rained in order that you may have. From your coffer will you give anything? He has Himself put in that which you are to give. What will you give, which from Him you have not received? "For what have you which you have not received?" [1 Corinthians 4:7] From the heart will you give? He too has given faith, hope, and charity: this you must bring forth: this you must sacrifice. But evidently all the other things the enemy is able to take away against your will; this to take away he is not able, unless thou be willing. These things a man will lose even against his will: and wishing to have gold, will lose gold; and wishing to have house, will lose house: faith no one will lose, except him that shall have despised her.

"Because You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from slipping: that I may be pleasing before God in the light of the living" [Psalm 56:13]. With reason he is not pleasing to alien sons, that are put afar off from holy men, because they have not the light of the living, whence they may see that which to God is pleasing. "Light of the living," is light of the immortal, light of holy men. He that is not in darkness, is pleasing in the light of the living. A man is observed, and the things which belong to him; no one knows of what sort he is: God sees of what sort he is. Sometimes even the devil himself he escapes; except he tempt, he finds not: just as concerning that man of whom just now I have made mention:..."Does Job by any means worship God for nought?" [Job 1:9] For this was true light, this the light of the living, that gratis he should worship God. God saw in the heart of His servant His gratuitous worship. For that heart was pleasing in the sight of the Lord in the light of the living: the devil's sight he escaped, because in darkness he was. God admitted the tempter, not in order that He might Himself know that which He did know, but in order that to us to be known and imitated He might set it forth. Admitted was the tempter; he took away everything, there remained the man bereft of possessions, bereft of family, bereft of children, full of God. A wife certainly was left. [Job 2:9] Merciful do ye deem the devil, that he left him a wife? He knew through whom he had deceived Adam....With wound smitten from head even unto feet, whole nevertheless within, he made answer to the woman tempting, out of the light of the living, out of the light of his heart: "you have spoken as though one of the unwise women," [Job 2:10] that is, as though one that has not the light of the living. For the light of the living is wisdom, and the darkness of unwise men is folly. You have spoken as though one of the unwise women: my flesh you see, the light of my heart you see not. For she then might more have loved her husband, if the interior beauty she had known, and had beheld the place where he was beautiful before the eyes of God: because in Him were vows which he might render of praise to God. How entirely the enemy had forborne to invade that patrimony! How whole was that which he was possessing, and that because of which yet more to be possessed he hoped for, being to go on "from virtues unto virtue." Therefore, brethren, to this end let all these things serve us, that God gratis we love, in Him hope always, neither man nor devil fear. Neither the one nor the other does anything, except when it is permitted: permitted for no other reason can it be, except because it does profit us. Let us endure evil men, let us be good men: because even we have been evil. Even as nothing God shall save men, of whom we dare to despair. Therefore of no one let us despair, for all men whom we suffer let us pray, from God let us never depart. Our patrimony let Him be, our hope let Him be, our safety let Him be. He is Himself here a comforter, there a remunerator, everywhere Maker-alive, and of life the Giver, not of another life, but of that whereof has been said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life:" [John 14:6] in order that both here in the light of faith, and there in the light of sight, as it were in the light of the living, in the sight of the Lord we may be pleasing.