Union with God pierces heart and mind with cauterising flame, enlightening the mind in the heart, severing glory from vanity by consuming confusion and dissolving division.
Union by grace restores glory to God, purifying the heart by consuming vainglory, illumining the mind in the awakened heart, glorifying saints in the hallowed Name.
Union by grace proceeds through Christ from the Father in the Holy Spirit, communicating union with God the Holy Trinity, embracing all that all may be saved.
Not all embrace grace, though all are called, so elders, like Saint Silouan the Athonite, lovingly nurse refusal back into co-operative joy, enabling freedom to discover freedom.
Grace is uncreated so union is uncreated, not the arbitrary whim of despotic power but trustworthy love that is sure to save, reliable because unconditionally loving.
Union with God proceeds from grace to grace, from glory to glory, inspiring our Amen, our yes, ‘thus so,’ ‘ so be it,’ all yes from first to last, from beginning to end (2 Cor 1:18-20).
God’s yes renews our yes, again and again, from moment to moment, always now, always new, always renewing everything with regenerative grace.
Feast of Saint Silouan the Athonite, died 1938