Letter 55: An Invitation. You flee when I pursue you: perhaps in accordance with the laws of love, to make yourself more valuable. Come then, and fill up at last the loss I have suffered by your long delay.
Gregory of Nazianzus→Nicobulus|gregory nazianzus
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Theological controversy
Gregory to Nicobulus, an invitation.
You flee when I pursue you -- perhaps in obedience to the laws of love, to make yourself more precious by your absence. Come, then, and make up at last for the loss I have suffered through your long delay. And if household matters detain you, you may leave again, and so become an even more desired object of longing.
Ep. LV.
An Invitation. You flee when I pursue you: perhaps in accordance with the laws of love, to make yourself more valuable. Come then, and fill up at last the loss I have suffered by your long delay. And if any home affairs detain you, you shall leave us again, and so make yourself more precious as an object of desire.
9. To Olympius
(Olympius was Prefect of Cappadocia Secunda in 382. One letter to him against the Apollinarians, has already been given; the rest, which are to follow are mainly recommendations of various persons to his patronage.)
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Gregory to Nicobulus, an invitation.
You flee when I pursue you -- perhaps in obedience to the laws of love, to make yourself more precious by your absence. Come, then, and make up at last for the loss I have suffered through your long delay. And if household matters detain you, you may leave again, and so become an even more desired object of longing.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.