The wisdom of Saint Antony bears witness that true knowledge of self is knowledge of God, not because he confuses the human self with God but because, in true self-knowledge, the self empties itself of what it knows and centres in God who knows (Antony’s Letters 3 & 4 Chitty SLG 1975 pg 9-13). The Name empties God of himself when… Read more »
In his Life of Saint David, written in the late eleventh century, Rhygyfarch drew on older traditions that spoke of three ancient Shamanic symbols in connection with Saint David of Wales, (who is remembered today, March 1st,) namely, the honeycomb, the fish and the stag (Life of Saint David Chapter 1). For Saint David and his monks, the honeycomb was the ancient… Read more »
Elders in the desert hand on the tradition (paradosis) of the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and glorification of Christ, in whom the saints are crucified, resurrected, ascended and glorified with Christ in the Spirit, who illumines the heart, praying ‘Abba, Father,’ imparting grace that crucifies, resurrects, ascends and glorifies the saints in Christ. The sacrament of Baptism empowers grace that… Read more »
The Holy Name unveils the uncreated luminous clarity of uncreated deifying awareness in God the Holy Trinity. Wisdom sees with enlightened awareness the uncreated glory of deifying presence. For wisdom, it is God’s timeless God-centred glorification of God that is decisive, not our temporal ways and means toward God from without. It is not that temporal ways and means are… Read more »
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 »
Cleaving to God in his Name releases into resounding union with God through his Name. The cleaving, devekut, transfigures the human spirit with the deifying resonance of divine life, as it is written, “But you that did cleave to ‘I AM’ your God, are alive every one of you this day” (Deut 4:4). Christ transmits the Name ‘I AM,’ as resounding… Read more »
Eternal life in Christ is liberating release, undoing every reified fixation as way of revelatory truth. It is deifying life lived out of ‘I AM,’ God dwelling in the midst, the uncreated light of Christ overflowing as transforming grace in disinterested love. The Name is God’s liberating presence in our midst, which is our life in God, present in his… Read more »