1While I was walking in the field and noticing an elm and a vine, and was distinguishing them and their fruits, the shepherd appeared to me and said: 'What are you meditating within yourself?'
2'I am thinking, Lord,' said I, 'about the elm and the vine, that they are excellently suited to one another.'
3'These two trees,' said he, 'are appointed for a type for the servants of God.'
4'I desire to know the type of these trees to which you refer,' said I.
5'Do you see,' said he, 'the elm and the vine?' 'I see them, Lord,' said I.
6'This vine,' said he, 'produces fruits, but the elm is a tree without fruits. But this vine, unless it climbs by the elm, cannot produce much fruits, being spread on the ground; and the fruits it produces, it produces them rotten, because they are not hanging on the elm.'
7'But when the vine is cast upon the elm, it produces fruits both from itself and from the elm.'
8'Do you see, then, that the elm also produces much fruits, no less than the vine?' 'How, Lord,' said I, 'does it produce much fruits?'
9'Because,' said he, 'the vine hanging on the elm produces its fruits in abundance and in good condition, but if it is spread on the ground, it produces little fruit and that rotten.'
10'This parable, therefore, is applicable to the servants of God, to the poor and to the rich.'
11'How, Lord?' I asked. 'Listen,' said he. 'The rich has much wealth, but regarding the Lord he is poor, being distracted with his riches, and his prayer and confession before the Lord are very short and weak.'
12'When, therefore, the rich rests upon the poor, and supplies him the necessary things, believing that what he does for the poor can find reward with God — because the poor is rich in prayer and confession, and his prayers have great power before God — the rich supplies all things to the poor without hesitation.'
13'The poor, then, being supplied by the rich, prays for him and gives thanks to God for him who supplies him. And the rich continues even more solicitous regarding the poor, so that nothing may be lacking to him in his life; for he knows that the prayer of the poor is acceptable and rich before God.'
14'Both, then, complete their work; the poor performs the prayer, in which he is rich, which he received from the Lord, and this he returns to the Lord who supplied it to him. And the rich, likewise, supplies to the poor, without hesitation, the wealth he received from the Lord. And this is a great and acceptable work before God.'
15'In the eyes of men, then, the elm seems not to produce fruits, and they do not know nor understand that, if a drought comes, the elm having water nourishes the vine, and the vine having an uninterrupted source of water supplies a double fruit, both for itself and for the elm.'
16'So also the poor, praying to the Lord for the rich, is heard; and his wealth is increased, because he serves the poor from his riches. Both, therefore, become partners in the righteous work.'
17'Whoever, therefore, does these things, shall not be abandoned by God, but shall be written in the books of life.'