An Abandoned Soul

Ἠλλοτρίωται τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ ψυχή σου, καὶ πῶς με προέτρεψας πέμψαι σοι λόγον τινὰ ὠφέλιμον, ἀνθρώπῳ εἰωθότι παίζειν τὰ θεϊα, καθάπερ τὰ βέβηλα; Πῶς γὰρ ἂν καὶ λαλήσω εἰς νενεκρωμένον, καὶ ἀνήκοον οὖς; 'Πῶς ᾄσομαι τὴν ᾠδὴν Κυρίου ἐπὶ γῆς ἀλλοτρίας,' ἔνθα ἐχῖνοι, καὶ ἴβεις, καὶ νυκτικόρακες τῶν πονηρῶν πνευμάτων ἐννοσσεύουσι, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον; ἔνθα ὀνοκένταυροι καὶ δαίμονες ὀρχοῦνται διὰ παντὸς, καὶ κόρακες κράζουσι.  Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολὴ ΜΓ' Φαυστιανῳ

Your soul has been estranged from God and so with what reason do you turn to send to me for assistance, you a man accustomed to jest over things Divine, as over things profane? How shall I speak to one who has died and is deaf of ear. 'How shall I sing a song of the Lord in an alien land,' 1 there where, according to what is written, hedgehogs and goats and night owls take their place in the most wretched of souls? There where monsters and demons dance and the crows cry out. 2  Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 43 To Faustinus 1 Ps 136.4 2 cf Is 34.11-14