For I do not want you to please people, but to please God, just as you do please Him. I will never again have such an opportunity to attain God, nor will you, if you remain silent, have a better deed credited to you. For if you remain silent about me, I am a word of God; but if you love my flesh, I will again be only a voice.
Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as a libation to God while the altar is still ready. Then, formed into a choir by love, you may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus because God has counted the bishop of Syria worthy to be found at sunset, having summoned him from sunrise. It is good to set from the world toward God, so that I may rise to Him.