The union of mind and heart is not a clever technique but the Spirit’s gift of awakening to the union of the Son with the Father, the Name’s mystery unveiled from God, through God in God. It is the uncreated grace of the Holy Trinity awakening the heart to the union of uncreated awareness and divine presence, God’s ‘I’ and God’s ‘AM,’ which hallows the Name so that the Kingdom comes. God’s will is done when the Spirit illumines the heart. As we glorify God, God glorifies us, and as we are loved so we are freed to love. Just as in the Spirit we know God in God, so through God we are known by God. Glory illumines from glory to glory when Holy Trinity opens the eye of the heart and we enter the place of divine indwelling. The heart is pierced by glory so that the mind is spontaneously drawn down to the heart, where glory dwells, bearing witness to the light. It is this unveiling of the Holy Trinity that awakens knowledge of the mysteries, turning the mind back into the heart.
The icon of the Holy Trinity shows the Son at centre gently beholding the Father on his right, with the Spirit to his left beholding the radiant union of the Father and the Son. This triune mystery draws us into the place of union which deifies all. It is opened by the Spirit who bears witness not to himself but to the Son, who shows us the glory of the Father. This glory transfixes the heart, crucifying all that is not of God in us, purifying the heart so that the heart’s eye sees. The life-giving Cross is the mystery of love’s glory cleansing the heart of impurity so that the mind can descend into the heart’s light through light. There is no end to this vision of uncreated light which reveals God through God in God, communicating Holy Trinity. The Fathers call this ‘mystical theology’ which they do not confuse with academic theology, which is the work of the rational mind exploring the implications of the dogmas or investigating the evidence for this or that. There is a place for both, of course, but it is ‘mystical theology’ that opens the heart to the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Wonder works with wisdom to behold the uncreated light of glory, glory which remains hidden until the heart awakens. As wisdom sees, wonder stills the mind so that it becomes all-seeing. This is God seeing God, not something we can achieve on our own, but something the Spirit transmits as wisdom. It is a blessed gift of God, emptying us of all that separates us from the uncreated grace of the Holy Spirit. It communicates the union transmitted by the Eucharist by illumining the heart with the light transmitted by Baptism. Without light and glory, Baptism and Eucharist are rites without issue. With illumination and glorification, they bear fruit. The Holy Trinity as dogma makes little sense to clever minds but to the wisdom of the heart it is the fountain of light and the radiance of glory. Wonder silences the clever mind so that wisdom, beholding glory, sings.