The decisive experience of glorification shatters the divisive dualisms of cause and effect, effort and achievement, opening prevenient grace to unwavering glory. The experience of glorification is inconceivable to those who do not know wisdom, so remains hidden until, by grace, glory breaks through and God’s way of glorifying God is revealed. Uncreated light purifies and enlightens the heart so that uncreated… Read more »
In an early second century Apocalypse, the Ascension of Isaiah, we discover that Christian prophecy was alive and well despite its exclusion from mainstream Christian circles, proving that visionary ascent was not neglected in the wilderness, because wisdom, as it ascended through seven heavens, beheld the glory of the throne in the midst of all seven of them. Glory lay at the heart… Read more »
Wisdom infuses the heart with transfiguring glory, fusing them in a union without confusion in the Holy of Holies. The simplicity of this union centres where stillness dwells, in the union of the Father with the Son, a union which the Spirit discerns and shares with all, opening it to those who hallow and glorify the Name. Wonder completes the lesser… Read more »
Awakening to wisdom generates wonder so that wonder may sustain wisdom. Fairy tales communicate wonder long before wisdom makes sense of religion. Because entry into wonderland empties us of everything, wonder has the magical capacity to raise us from nothing through wisdom. Tales of wonder are true, long before science begins to test its theories against known facts, just as elven… Read more »
Saint Antony the Great, in his Letters from the desert, teaches that he who knows himself, in the Holy Spirit, knows God (Chitty, Letter 4 SLG p 12), for to know oneself without confusion is to know God without division. We are all members, one of another, in the Spirit, praying ‘Abba, Father,’ in Christ, because the Spirit proceeds from… Read more »
Nobody can visually perceive God objectively in the world but theoria turns and sees the glory of God’s reign, initiating seers into the mysteries of contemplative vision by awakening the eye of the heart. For Hesychast saints, theoria is the indispensable and quintessential opening, beyond the visible heavens, into the invisible mysteries of wisdom and glory, the revelation of God’s Name that… Read more »
In his Conversation with Nikolay Motovilov, c1830-31, Saint Seraphim of Sarov said that the true aim of Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God, and means to this end are good only if they are done for Christ’s sake and bring us the grace and fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is the grace of the Holy… Read more »
Christ’s way of the Name is ineffable, transcending all names and ways that are means to an end, liberating temporal incompleteness into timeless completeness. The Spirit communicates the mysteries of Christ as quintessential truth, imparting glorification as wisdom’s timeless way of life. Dazzling darkness opens heaven on earth, piercing the heart, communicating the incommunicable, revealing what was veiled without destroying the… Read more »
Wisdom releases her reifications by liberating the intelligence, the will and the emotions to abide in the timeless freedom of God’s presence. Hells of separation are freed in union with heavens of infinite grace. Extinguishing deception, delusion is extinguished by the Spirit of truth, freeing all things in uncreated light, transfiguring all things in uncreated glory. Hearts are freed in… Read more »
Wisdom makes all things new, always beginning again anew; indeed, the glory of wisdom’s grace is always doing something new, beginning anew, trustworthy and true, creating new heavens and a new earth (Rev 21:5; Isaiah 43:19 & 66:17). This is who Christ is, wisdom renewing creation in glory, sending the Spirit to impart wisdom, restoring the abundant completeness of ineffable… Read more »