The letter of St. Maximus to Marinus the presbyter. Part one.

The text, preamble.

Because you have set your mark (as in a race) on acquiring friendship with God, Who is worthy of all hymns, preparing yourself, Godhonored Father, with good discipline, you complete the course.

One the one hand, by the principle (of your nature) you bring full circle the purpose, namely, the nature of all created existences, which nature is the genesis, origin, which concerns virtue.  But on the other hand,  by the mind (nous), you bring about the state which concerns the unwavering union, which marks out the movement of every age and time.   By which the longing for God comes together as more fervent:  
limitlessly,  while you long for a mutual  enlargement for the  motion of your desire,  
incomprehensibly while being longed for. 

The longing from God creates for you the incomprehensible yearning, whose end is God Himself. Who becomes the fullness of longing for those who are worthy,as the self- existent (self hypostatic trans.) enjoyment of good things. Whose principle (of enjoyment, that is. trans.) knows only the graspable (tangible) experience,because it clearly occurs above conceptual  thought, namely, a union, as occurring without any noetic impression whatsoever.