Desert wisdom beholds the glory of grace which sustains the incomprehensible mysteries of revelation. It understands the dogmas of the Church to be mysteries of grace which wisdom embraces as glory without confusion or division, beyond delusion and separation. The way of doxological negation does not fixate on itself as destructive nihilism but negates negation and so releases nihilism as well… Read more »
The mystical theology of Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm speaks words of wisdom as prophecy which elders impart to awaken prayer, but elders know it is the Spirit that utters ineffable words in the heart that open the eye of the heart. The Apostle Paul says he cannot express what was communicated to him as ineffable utterance in the third heaven (2… Read more »
The Eternal Gospel (Rev 14:6), is unveiled in the desert as the hidden gospel concealed from before the foundation of the world, the primordial gospel unveiling the most ancient of days, the timeless Day of the revealed Name, awareness of wisdom and presence of glory. The Eternal Gospel unveils ‘I AM’ in the midst, inspiring glad tidings that are timeless,… Read more »
The desert interprets the experience of purification and illumination as mystical ascent, completed by glorification, the experience of mystical descent. Ascent purifies the heart by dissolving confusion and burning up impurity, crystallising what is dissolved into translucent clarity. Descent gathers everything into the divine embrace of love, leaving nothing outside the scope of glorification. Seers often liken illumination to a crystalline… Read more »
Desert elders abide in the Holy Name of God, ‘I AM,’ a union of deifying awareness and uncreated presence which reveals the enlightened state of hallowed glorification as wisdom’s living stream to the saints. ‘I AM’ is ever-present as timeless awareness, but without recognition, there is no remembrance of God, only the endless confusion of conditioning thoughts grasping at conditioned phenomena, or… Read more »
The Book of Revelation is the mysterious manifestation of the revelatory imagination, rooted in the living flame of glorification in the Name. The function of the revelatory imagination is to communicate the uncreated energies of light and glory, opening the heart to glorification. For the Johannine tradition, the Name is a door into heaven, the mystery of the Name… Read more »
When the Elder Sophrony was asked what constitutes the living heart of Christian Orthodoxy, he answered healthy glorification, explaining that Orthodoxy means right-glorification. Saint Sophrony the Hesychast pointed out that the living heart of Orthodoxy is God’s God-centred right-glorification of God or the glorification of God in Holy Trinity. For Saint Sophrony, the Spirit’s witness to Christ’s glorification of the Father… Read more »
Christ reveals God’s Name ‘I AM’ in the light of ineffable glory, breathing the Spirit of Truth into resurrected hearts. The Spirit seals the heart with Christ’s wisdom mysteries of ineffable glorification, uniting knower and known in God through God. The uncreated countenance of ‘I AM’ never turns away from those who turn and see. ‘I AM’ does not disown his… Read more »
Many are of the opinion that there is no profound wisdom in Christianity and that wisdom is to be found only in Eastern religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, Sufism or Taoism. This assumption forms part of a profound cultural crisis that sees Christianity as the tool of western imperialist oppression and therefore responsible for most of the world’s ills. The… Read more »
Ineffable release abides at centre in Christ as it rests in peace in this life and in the world to come. Death is release when timeless awareness abides in pure presence on both sides of the great divide. The transition called death is not the catastrophic loss that fear dreads but is rather an ineffable release into love’s blessed consummation…. Read more »