Prayer in Spirit discerns the truth of Christ in the oneness of the hallowed Name, giving voice to the glory that unites heaven and earth. What elders call glorification is the experience of wisdom’s embrace of glory that unites all who turn and see God present here at centre in the midst. The oneness of this voice of glorification unites angels with saints in the Spirit, who opens hearts to the truth of Christ by unceasingly bearing witness to his intercession for all as for himself, uniting all in Christ’s unceasing prayer that glorifies God in all and all in God. Without the Spirit’s witness to the truth of this unceasing prayer, we would all be locked into a delusion of hopeless separateness, divided one from another in a way that fatally isolates us from each other. Prayer in Spirit and truth bears witness to Christ interceding for all as for himself, right here in our midst. Christ’s awareness of presence is wisdom whilst Christ’s presence of awareness is glory, Christ in all, interceding for all in Christ. We are all aware when we are present and present when we are aware, but it is Christ’s wisdom that discerns the glory of the revelatory Name ‘I AM,’ of Christ’s awareness of being aware of the presence of presence, of the Spirit’s ‘I’ of awareness and the ‘AM’ of presence saving all who call upon God’s Name. What elders call purification and illumination are already glorification In Christ by grace but the glory of grace is experienced initially as purification and then as illumination.
Prayer in Spirit purifies the heart so that in truth, which is Christ, it is illumined, glory gathering into one all who awaken to God and partake in his oneness. God is always one, as his wisdom and his glory are one, but it is the Father who is the original source of oneness, the Son who is the regenerative communication of oneness and the Spirit who is the agent of spiritual assimilation of oneness, giver of the timeless life of oneness. Each divine person is distinct, although there is no trace of division in this difference or confusion in this oneness. Prayer in Spirit and truth lives the uncreated life of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit bearing witness to Christ, to the glory of the Father in our midst. Christ bears witness to God the Father through God the Son, in God the Holy Spirit, as light from light, in light of glory. The Spirit imbibes timeless life as timeless wisdom and timeless glory, gentle mercy and piercing clarity, kindly love and fierce love extinguishing all that betrays love. Saints are Christ’s own dear friends embraced by his generous grace and burning glory. God is one and his light is one, one in his purification and one in his illumination, consequently one in his glorification also. The divine persons do not divide light between them, but impart light in three different ways. This is the witness of the Orthodox Patristic tradition and of its saints like Saint Simeon the New Theologian, whose Third Theological Discourse is still foundational for Orthodox Hesychasm. For elders like Simeon, it is the oneness of uncreated light that purifies and illumines the heart, opening to the oneness of glory that deifies both minds and hearts.
For Hesychast elders, uncreated light is the life of glory deifying the saints, therefore uncreated light is the throne and crown of glory hallowing the saints in the Holy Name. Prayer in Spirit awakens hearts to the truth of the Name, but it is wisdom that discerns the glory of awareness just as it is glory that awakens the radiance of presence unveiled by the Name. It is wisdom that searches out the difference between union and confusion, beholding the difference between distinction and division. It was Saint Maximus the Confessor who reminded the desert to behold the wisdom of the Chalcedonian Oros everywhere, because it was the desert’s task to see Christ in everything and everything in Christ. It is this wisdom that uncovers the mysteries of glory that unveil Christophany at the heart of deifying theophanies, confirming pure prayer in the Spirit as the truth of glorified life. The light of wisdom unveils all mysteries of glory when prayer in the Spirit awakens hearts to glorification. Saints are at home with angels in Christ, who unites heaven and earth, inspiring countless doxologies both ecclesial and spiritual. Forgiveness communicates the mysteries of glory to our fallenness, uniting the forgiven in the grace that forgives them. Grace overflows with glory when prayer in Spirit rises into the truth of completeness, glorification gently embracing all falls from glory as incompleteness bearing witness to the glory of completeness.