The Protection of the Eagle and the Shield of Truth

Guide your servants and the works of your hands, and those born to us through teaching and the imitation of virtue, being pure and harmonious, onto the path of salvation. For so shall your brightness as God shine upon us, as the sun in your kingdom. Therefore we pray, direct the works of our hands upon us. But those who are bold are those who spread snares and lie in wait, not wanting the works of his hands to be directed toward the evil, but rather to be surrendered to oblivion.

Hunters are in these things, and deceivers and sophists, men attempting to trap people, so that they might go through wisdom into false doctrines. Therefore, he who interprets their trap is a confused speaker; for nothing stirs up and agitates the mind like an argumentative speech. The evil powers are also hunting through a snare, catching souls through harmful desires and other passions; for he says, 'The eye of a prostitute is a snare to the sinner,' and 'For a woman hunts the precious souls of men.' And they hunt through wealth and through those nearby. But the leader of these hunters is the devil, who himself is a snare. It is said concerning someone, 'Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.'

This is in accord with the song of Deuteronomy regarding God: 'As an eagle will cover his nest and upon his young ones he has hovered, spreading his wings he received them and carried them upon his feathers.' All those who, through endurance and the other strength of approaching virtue, soar like eagles, are high-flying, being suspended by the wings of understanding and practical virtue. It is from God that they have come to possess such things; therefore they also are his young ones, as it is said in the prophet, 'But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.'

They shall grow wings like eagles, running and not growing weary. God will cover those who have grown wings like eagles with the young ones of an eagle; for as an eagle covers its young, so God, having desired his young ones, takes them upon his wings to cover them.

And in the present saying, regarding the one dwelling in the help of the Most High, it is said how God takes him up upon his wings to hope and expect good things happening in the wings of God. But it is said: what are the wings of God, and how does one hope, being shaded by them? For it is written: 'In the shadow of your wings I hope' (Ps 90:4c–6).

The defender God, as a shield, and with the side of his truth surrounds all the one guarded by him, so that he may remain unhurt by all those plotting to cast him down, and especially by the one sending out burning arrows. But the one surrounded by the truth of God, having put on the armor of God and having taken up in all things the shield of faith, will not fear even if it becomes night, being illuminated by the circling truth and light that reaches him.

For if ever someone, even having become in ignorance, should seem to be in a nightly state, he will not fear, possessing the light which is the cause of knowledge, which is the same as the truth. And even if night is the harmful and dark things of life, he does not fear even having become in this night, being able to say: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?' (Ps 27:1). For honoring God and therefore being strong, he fears no one except him, having learned: 'Honor God and you shall be strong, but fear no other.' Just as the one in the night does not fear, because he has light and there are those watching the night, so also the one having the one who said: 'Do not fear, for I am with you,' will fear nothing of the aforementioned nightly things.