Translation:Cassian Conferences XXII/Chapter 4

by John Cassian

1. Germanus: We believe that it is by the dispensation of God that this question has been brought before us. For shame has prevented us from having the confidence to ask it, and so we were never able to learn. Now, however, provoked by our timely meeting and the order of the discussion itself, we may dare boldly to ask. If therefore in that time, in which it is proper to approach the holy mysteries, we sense ourselves to have been polluted by an emission during our sleep, should we dare undertake that sacred reception of saving food, or avoid it?