Letter 158

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Retheus
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore urges persistence in the spiritual contest, especially for those who have fallen and gotten up again.

Do not grow weary in the contest. The fight is real, and the opponent is skilled — but he is not invincible, and those who persist outlast those who only make brilliant starts.

The person who falls and rises again is not less than the one who never fell. In some ways he has learned what the one who never fell does not yet know: that the struggle is survivable, and that getting up is possible.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.