In his Third Letter, Saint Antony tells us, “He who knows himself knows God” (Chitty SLG 1975 pg 11). He bears witness in the Spirit that all who know themselves know God and glorify God aright, knowing God’s own God-centred knowledge of God which undergirds God’s God-centred glorification of God. For Antony the Great, desert father of monks and solitaries, it was… Read more »
The wisdom of the desert is the revelation of the Name, which is an Eternal Gospel proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the earth, all nations, tribes, languages and peoples (Rev 14:6). The Name is an Eternal Gospel because it declares the good news of God’s eternal Kingdom in our midst, revealing God’s timeless, sovereign ‘I’ awareness and ‘AM’ presence here… Read more »
The practice of stillness in the desert often fled from writing and reading books in general but not from Lectio Divina, divine reading, which includes the gnomic wisdom Centuries that were treasured in Eastern Christian monastic circles. Saint Gregory Palamas was obliged to write very prolifically because the Hesychast Tradition of gnomic wisdom was under attack in his day and… Read more »
Prophecy in the desert speaks words (logoi) of Logos to communicate the Name, whilst prayer prays ineffable words of awe, joy and wonder that God reveals God through God here, unveiling his Name in the midst. Prophecy says, ‘God is ‘I AM’ unveiling God in the midst. Turn and see!’ Prayer humbly turns and sees who sees here in the… Read more »
Wisdom in the desert regenerates the imagination, inspiring radical transforming vision, renewing the language and imagery of vision for an age that has lost vision. Desert wisdom retells old myths and stories in new, liberating ways, to awaken hearts in times that have lost faith in wisdom. Desert prophecy was always radically counter-cultural, inspiring imagery that regenerates degenerated imagination, imagination conditioned… Read more »
Wisdom, clear as crystal, flows from the glory that enthrones the Name, communicating the life-blood of boundless love that flows forth as grace from the wounds of the slaughtered lamb, restoring healing glory to the Father in his Kingdom. Christ dwells in the midst of this glory, enthroned with the Father at centre, where all centres coincide. He is the wisdom… Read more »
The Revelation of the Name hallows the ground where the bush burns, glorifying all who turn to see, unveiling the Name that consumes confusion whilst abiding in the Name that does not consume (Ex 3:1-14). Christ’s wisdom opens heavens on earth when the Name is hallowed on earth as in heaven, which is why the Lord’s Prayer hallows the Name, that… Read more »
The Book of Revelation opens the mysteries of Christ’s glorification in a series of visions which reveal mysteries of purification in the Lamb, illumination as the Bride of the Lamb and glorification in the Holy City, New Jerusalem, initially unveiling Christ in the midst of the Spirit’s seven lamps (Rev 1: 12-20), his revelatory vision of God the creator (Rev 4:1-11)… Read more »
Desert wisdom imparts the Tetragrammaton, the four letter Name of God, YHWH, and the two letter Name YH or Yah, in the light of the Name ‘I AM’ in Exodus 3:14 and the ‘I AM’ sayings in the Gospel of John. It does so in the tradition of Ezekiel’s chariot-throne vision and the revelation of the three tenses of the… Read more »
Christ the Logos is the meaning of being unveiled as saving grace. Christ covers our repeated falls from glory with saving grace, love’s ineffable glory, addressing our straying and stressing with the radiance of his timeless Name uniting wisdom and glory. When the Name is not hallowed as it is in heaven, an endless range of opinions easily intrude, obscuring… Read more »