To the silent tongue and the pensive mind Thou drawest near, O Bridegroom of my soul, All-Holy Spirit. From the talkative tongue Thou hidest Thyself, as a swan from a stormy lake. Like a swan Thou swimmest upon the stillness of my heart, and makest it fruitful.
My neighbors, cease with your earthly wisdom. Wisdom is begotten, not created. As Wisdom is begotten in God, so is she begotten also on earth. Begotten wisdom creates, but is not created.
Is it your intelligence you boast of, you boasters! What is your intelligence but much remembering? And if you remember so much, how did you not remember the moments of the wondrous birth of wisdom within you? Sometimes I hear you speaking of great thoughts, which are born in you suddenly and without your labor. Who gave birth to them, O you of great intelligence? How were they born without a father, when you confess that you are not their parent?
Verily I say to you: their father is the All-Holy Spirit, and their mother is the virginal corner of your soul that yet remains, into which the All-Holy Spirit may still enter.
Thus is all wisdom born, both in heaven and on earth: of a Virgin and of the All-Holy Spirit. Over the virginity of the First Hypostasis hovered the All-Holy Spirit, and the All-Man was born, the Wisdom of God.
What the virginity of the Father is in heaven, that the virginity of the Mother is on earth. What the working of the Holy Spirit is in heaven, that His working is also on earth. What the birth of wisdom is in heaven, that the birth of wisdom is also on earth.
O my soul, my eternal surprise! Behold, that which came to pass once in heaven and once on earth must come to pass in you also. You must become a virgin, that you may conceive the Wisdom of God. A virgin you must be, that the Spirit of God may cherish you. All the wonders in heaven and on earth have come forth from the Virgin and the Spirit.
A virgin gives birth to creative wisdom. A dissolute woman creates barren knowledge. Only a Virgin can see the truth, but a dissolute woman can only know things.
O Three-Hypostatic Lord, cleanse the mirror of my soul, and bend Thy face over it. That my soul may shine with the glory of her Master. That the most wondrous history of heaven and earth may be imprinted upon her. That she may be filled with radiance like my lake, when the sun hangs over it at noonday.