
We give thanks to you!
Every soul and heart reaches up to you,
o ineffable Name
honoured as “God” and praised as “Father”,
for to everyone and everything you have shown
fatherly kindness, affection, love, and sweetest activity,
granting to us mind, word, and knowledge:mind, that we may understand you;
word, that we may call upon you;
knowledge, that we may know you.We rejoice, for we have been illuminated by your knowledge.
We rejoice, for you have revealed yourself to us.
We rejoice, for you have made us incarnate divine by your knowledge.The thanksgiving of mankind to you is this alone:
that we may know you.O Light of Mind, we know you.
O Life of Life, we know you.
O Womb of every creature, we know you.
O Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father, we know you.
O eternal permanence of the begetting Father, we know you.Thus do we worship your goodness.
— in Asclepius (The Perfect Discourse)
Thus do we ask for one favour: that we be preserved in your knowledge.
Thus do we ask for one protection: that we not fall away from this sort of life.