Suffering pierces the soul, opening a blessed wound of love revealing God at centre,’I AM,’ present in glory crying, ‘Glory to God, glorious in angels and saints!’ Desert wisdom remembers its oldest Name for God, ‘YHWH SABAOTH‘, Lord of Hosts, the ‘EHYEH‘ of the glorified ‘ELOHIM,’ the ‘I AM’ of angels in glory, the Name (SHEM) of the deified… Read more »
The glorified are hallowed by the Holy Name of God because in wisdom they glorify God’s Holy Name. The glorification that angels offer sustains creation by participating in the uncreated creative energies of wisdom and glory in the Name. The angelic music of glorification partakes in the ‘Amen’ that says ‘yes’ to the uncreated creativity of God, ‘yes’ to the one… Read more »
Glorified saints sing the Thrice Holy Hymn Isaiah heard in the Temple in BC 742, sung by six-winged Seraphim before the throne in heaven, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory’ (Isaiah 6:3). ‘Lord,’ here, names God’s Name, ‘EHYEH,’ ‘I AM,’ so the Thrice Holy Hymn glorifies God’s Name ‘I AM’… Read more »
Angels glorify God, inspired by wisdom that communicates God-centred glorification. Saints have tended to experience angels as messengers of God but angels transcend what they do as messengers by partaking in the light and grace of unceasing glorification. Angels belong to the invisible creation which Christ unites with our visible creation in his incarnation, a union of illumination and glorification… Read more »
Desert wisdom turns to see, awakening light to glory that illumines as enlightened wisdom vision and resounds as enchanting wisdom song, glorification uniting light and sound. Glory is both wisdom vision and wisdom song, light and sound, visual vibration and audible reverberation. Glorification, in short, is hallowing enlightenment as luminous vision and hallowing enchantment as wisdom song. The Holy Ones, whether angels… Read more »
The Holy Name ‘I AM’ is the pinnacle of paths, as we see when Jesus transmits its glory with wisdom in the words, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM’ (John 8:58). Uncreated glory is what Hesychast tradition lives as glorification of the Name, imparting joyous union of wisdom and glory. But it is also endurance of persecution for God’s Name’s sake,… Read more »
Orthodox Hesychasm received canonical authority from the Hagioritic Tome and the Palamite Councils but its radiant spiritual authority came from from Hesychast saints such as St Symeon the New Theologian and St Gregory Palamas. Contemporary Athonite elders such as St Silouan the Athonite and St Sophrony the Hesychast each imparted this Hesychast tradition in different ways, but their witness was always… Read more »