Desert Stillness

      No Comments on Desert Stillness

Desert stillness testifies to the Kingdom of glory present in the hallowed Name, whose radiant wisdom hallows the Name in heart and forehead, crowning with glory all who turn with profound metanoia, all who see as they are seen, all whose hearts are sanctuaries of the indwelling Name, temples of the Spirit’s unceasing prayer, ‘Abba, Father,’ witness to the union of the Father and the Son.  Stillness empties out all that resists God so that God may empty out his glory in the midst.  Elders know that uncreated glory enlightens hearts, not shallow sentiments or narrow opinions.  God gives his Name to awaken the eye of the heart to the glory of the slaughtered Lamb enthroned, to enlighten the saints whose God-centred glorification of God through God blesses the desert with the Spirit’s unceasing prayer.  The gates of heaven are opened by the Name, whose glory extinguishes the darkness of delusion.  Confusion turns back into communion, here, where difference is hallowed without division. 

God’s holy ones gather glory from everywhere that wisdom is loved and known.  They restore glory to the Father through the Son, repairing broken worlds from within.  Their reparation is not theirs but God’s, revealed in his hallowing Name.  As prophets, they renew prophecy so that as priests, they may pray the Spirit’s interceding prayer and as kings, bear sovereign witness to God’s radiant reign.  Wisdom discerns a throne of glory everywhere, crowning with glory the Face unveiled.  Wisdom discerns a tree of life with waters of wisdom flowing in the midst.  Of course, stillness does not divulge these mysteries in ways that profane them or reify them.  They are revered in silence with luminous translucency.  Uncreated light illumines from within, transfiguring the desert paradise.  Elders guard these mysteries so that renewed by wisdom, mysteries of glory sustain the saints.  Prophecy regenerates the imagination so that great depths can earth great heights, freeing prayer to become one spirit with the Holy Spirit, whose prayer opens the created to the uncreated and weds the uncreated with the created.  Prophecy is trustworthy because it is true to the Name’s revelation of God in the midst.

Blessed elders do not draw attention to themselves but bear witness to Christ in the Spirit, unsealing mysteries hidden from before the foundation of the world.  They impart these mysteries to the saints not in their own names, but in God’s Name, the Name of names, above all names.  Wisdom’s tree of life bears healing fruits that cure all passions and addictions that beset souls in the desert, hallowing them in their brokenness, even as their wounds are opened to be healed.  Wisdom awakens the eye of wisdom in forehead and heart, crowning with glory what glory enthrones in the midst.  Nothing can overpower the empowering Name, just as nothing can separate the Father from the Son or the Spirit from the Father and the Son.  No created light or conditioned lamp is required when God is the light of earth as well as heaven.  His reign does not impose because his sovereignty is shared with all who turn and see, all who behold the grace of the unveiled Face.  Glory transfigures with grace from within, completing what uncreated light began when its purifying flame pierced the heart.  The saints reign with God, in God, when God-centred glorification of God dawns as glory with the Name in Holy Trinity.  Desert elders sing wisdom songs in their solitary cells, heard by angels and saints whose hearts are attuned to wisdom and glory.  The Name is Thrice Holy, here, where ‘He who is: I AM,’ bears witness in the Spirit to the Father, through the Son.  Holy Trinity breathes life into desert stillness so that wastelands flower again and again in God’s coming Age, his Holiest of Holies hallowing holy ages of ages without end.