Edward Curtis (1868-1952), in a photograph of Hollow Horn Bear (1850-1913), taken in 1907, caught him gazing into us out of a sorrow that does not define him, with a serenity that does not confine him, open to ‘I AM’ that transcends him and opening, inspires him, saying: ‘I AM’ is one. ‘I AM’ is closer to him than he… Read more »
Close to a pilgrim’s road in southern Occitania, Santa Majestat has gazed down at weary pilgrims in the cool of Trinity Chapel for nigh on nine hundred years. As gentle radiance of Holy Trinity, his serene gaze has communicated his inexhaustible energies of kindly stillness without demanding from us what we were too tired to give. Instead, he just gives and… Read more »
Prophecy communicates the Word that unveils the revelatory Name, pointing out where God is to be found, so that prayer can assimilate the glory of the Name, which imparts uncreated harmony with consummate completeness. To keep the vision, wisdom turns and sees, letting harmony transfigure what glory completes. Curing confusion that separates us from God, ourselves and one another, the delusion of… Read more »
When we witness the devastation of the environment wrought by oblivious materialistic consumerism, harmony appears to us as a long lost past or as a distant aim that seems irredeemably divided from us. Pre-modern worlds appear as paradise lost and the ruthless rape of the earth’s resources as a brutal dislocation from true harmony. When science is divorced from wisdom,… Read more »
Great harmony and great peace are always already present in wisdom’s discernment of uncreated, creative glory, which raises us from purification through illumination to glorification in the Name. Purification encounters harmonious peace through pure prayer whilst illumination experiences harmonious peace through wisdom’s vision of uncreated light. The experience of glorification, fruit of turned seeing in pure prayer and illumined vision,… Read more »
The Apostle Paul says that he heard ineffable words when he was caught up in paradise and experienced revelation of unutterable glory (2 Cor 12:2-4). Hesychasts know that the Holy Name is an ‘ineffable word’ of the eternal Word when it reveals God in glory in the midst. But they also know that the words they use to communicate this… Read more »