THE SEVENTH LETTER TO CTESIPHON: THAT OF THE VIGILS

The Manichaios, the apostle of Jesus the Christ; and all the brothers, the faithful chosen ones who are with me, my fellow travelers, my loved ones who serve me: To Sethel and Timotheos, Abezachias and Simeon and all the bishops and the leaders the teachers and the readers, the elect and the catechumens, the brothers and the sisters, my children, my loved ones; the ones who all read in the dwelling-places, and the ones who are in the places of Ctesiphon, Choche and Seleucia. And everyone who is my child, my loved one and my limb. The favour that is the knowledge of truth shines in his insight, for he has hoped for this hope. This treasure was established in his heart. This faith was strengthened by it. He knew. He understood about the Father. He followed him. Also, he understood that what he preached was why the Father sent him forth. He has shone for the saviour. he calls him, he receives, and he has known him.

Peace through the Father, the God of truth, and our Lord Jesus the Christ, and the living holy spirit. May peace be upon you, my children, my loved ones: All the servants, the chosen and the catechumens, the children of the light-family, the election of the blessed church. The good word that I have taught to you.

He makes me alive; namely our good saviour, our God the Christ Jesus: In his name, I have chosen you, in his hope I have gathered you. I have caused you to be woven together by his sign and his good. I have perfected you by his truth. I have nourished you in his faith. I have made his wisdom and his knowledge shine through your teachings like the sun. He is this blessed name and this strong power.

He is the one who can bless you all, my children, my loved ones. May he place his love in your light-mind. May he appoint his faith in you and your guarding thought. May he establish his perfection in your strong teachings. May he show his long-sufferance in your good counsels. May he set up his wisdom in your piercing considerations. His joy showers and rains upon your faces. he fills you by his glory. His knowledge and his light, his eternality, his splendour, his beauty and his honour. May he heal you through his living, sweet, dewdrops. May he anoint you with his anointing and the joy established through his good graces and useful knowledge. May he pour over you from his living, holy waters; and strengthen you in the faith.
May he make you strong in his truth and set you up in his good. May he strengthen you in his love and build you with his joy. This is like a skilled physician with his great wisdom who finds pain in the light; and he performs charity there, they being holy without fault. And he sows and he nurtures and he throws down the bad tree and plants the new glorious tree. The teaching is the light-mind above. I have sown it in so that it will come about for it in many lands so that it may be free and it rises in what way.

…

For his light creations and his white silver-doves, as you will become for him palaces to his

Light. And he, he can be for you a picture-painter and a wise master-builder in order that he can sculpt and adorn the interior of your images among them.

These glorious images, which are the gods of the heights and the angels of glory; so that you may become gods after the likeness of the gods, which indeed you will be with them. And you become glorious ones after the likeness of these glorious ones from whom you have separated, in my vision after the likeness of your Father; by my peace, when he came forth for you. This is what I wish for you, to be diligent my children, my loved ones, so that you may become like a single vessel with a single spirit in it and cause you to receive a name and glory of my Father whose name is blessed. these great ones of glory for ever and ever. Amen. What do I proclaim to you, my children, my loved ones? Or if I might praise some, I shall praise glorious ones: Blessed are they! You are all free people. You are perfected, for you have all of it from the blessedness of your good Father, he who is glorious and that exists among you as you know, my children, my loved ones, that from the day when I chose you I have purified you. I have praised you. You have become blessedly blessed ones; and blessed is a blessed one! They have life. He will be strengthened by these blessings, because the one who knows will be freed at that hour.

…

I bear witness to you, my children, that I, at every occasion and every hour of my day, I do it night and day: At the time when I am praying before my Father, my loving God. I, myself, beseech for you from the Father. God will give mercy, as I am entreating in his presence for him to give you all much mercy. I am beseeching him by this prayer that he looks after you. He spreads out over you his wings and he guards you at the hour of death, He, and his holy angels, while he know of you, and recognizes you as a wise person. For he is made strong, and a guard he placed over you crushes and he destroys, and he dissuades every evil. I have said, my loved ones, all I can to his diligent word.

… his power also that is glorious and strong, and his wisdom that he can build up. For he will bring to naught before you the wolves of evil, the rippers apart; and the lions, the roarers. He will shield you from all the dangers. The pain of the body and the spirit, so that you are well and made strong in your soul and your body; and it comes upon you, namely a rest and joy. For he receives your joy and your zeal; and you give your faith and you will find his love. And I, I pray among you; and I praise the Mother and you praise the glories and my Father yourselves, and I give joy to you and I praise you. Therefore, I, my loved ones This is my vigil of which I pray to him for you, and my entreaty for you. You, yourselves, my loved ones … your limb.