The Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the heart glorifies the Father with the Son, ascribing glory to God in the midst of all falls from glory. It does not wallow in the falling gravity of endless falls, but undoes the power of falling by reversing it in accordance with the ascending gravity of heaven. The Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide with the Son in his unceasing glorification of the Father, partaking with him in the Father’s glorification of the Son. It is the Holy Trinity whose unceasing reciprocal glorification undoes the fall from glory, which is shared with us by grace, participating in God’s enlightening glorification. So the centre of gravity for glorification is not the fall but the Spirit’s unceasing prayer of hallowing glorification, turning the light of awareness round into the uncreated light of glory. The centre of gravity of purification might appear to be the fall, but is, in fact, grace which purifies the heart and enlightens the mind in the heart. The centre of gravity of illumination is in between, betwixt grace and glory, so therefore also grace, but as the light and the glory of grace, light ascribing all glory to God. In this way, the unfolding of purification bears witness to illumination and illumination to glorification.
The prayer of the Spirit purifies the heart by illumining it, illumining it by glorifying God, who glorifies the saints. Reciprocal glorification is a synergistic co-operation between divine and human activity, avoiding, with Saint John Cassian, both Pelagian and late Augustinian extremes, uniting without confusion what sustains communion without division. Holy Orthodoxy is right-glorification that liberates from fallen, demonic powers, rising with Christ into his resurrection and ascending with Christ into his glorification. This ascending glorification ceases to fall into addictive falls to the extent that glorification discerns the glory of grace in action through the practice of wisdom in glorification. It addresses addictive fallenness by refusing to let it reign instead of God, hallowing the Name that saves by acknowledging the coming of God’s glorious reign. It is God whose grace saves and glorifies the saints, but it is trust in God that says ‘Amen’ to that grace, assenting to the union that sustains communion.
Refusal to listen to the Spirit separates the heart from wisdom’s discernment of the glory of grace, hardening its stubborn resistance in ways that become addictive and degenerative. Faith trusts the Spirit to open the heart to Christ, dying to death and resurrecting to life eternal, ascending with grace to the glory of grace. Faithless addiction hardens the heart, leaving it without joy or peace. The answer to this is the glorification of God, the remembrance of God that restores glory to God and faith that melts all hardness of heart. Tears are an expression of catalytic faith but not the only one. Love also opens the heart, as does hope, releasing the heart from narrowing fears and shallow addictions. The unceasing prayer of the Spirit in the heart works together with faith, hope and love, releasing the heart from fear that hardens it. Grace unveils its glory to the heart that listens to the Spirit, abiding with Christ in his union with the Father, crying ‘Abba, Father,’ with sighs too deep for words.