Encountering Saint Sophrony the Hesychast, in 1965. at the age of twenty, was catalytic for a theological student who knew very little about the Orthodox Patristic Tradition. Recommended to see him by Father Gilbert Shaw, who loved him dearly, the directness of his wisdom of God-centred personhood was both overwhelming and reassuring, and gave clear direction to a lifetime of spiritual… Read more »
Prayer in Spirit discerns the truth of Christ in the oneness of the hallowed Name, giving voice to the glory that unites heaven and earth. What elders call glorification is the experience of wisdom’s embrace of glory that unites all who turn and see God present here at centre in the midst. The oneness of this voice of glorification unites angels… Read more »
The way of the Name is the way of the unveiled Face, ever-moving, ever still. The Spirit is everywhere present without departing from Christ’s union with the Father for a moment. Wisdom serenely abides in the glory of the Name without separating from Christ or wavering from his union with the Father. The Spirit of wise awareness does not flit around like… Read more »
Wisdom abides in the glory of grace, releasing the divisive opinions of clever sophistry when hearts turn and see God present in the midst. Wisdom purifies the heart of sophistry, to illumine the mind in the heart, centred in the uncreated light of glory, resurrecting saints with the support of ascended elders, opening their glorification to depths and heights that… Read more »
Saints abide in the unfinished glory of God’s hallowed Name, knowing that the glory of the Name they name does not exhaust the ineffable glory of the hidden Name of God. The hidden Name is radiant with the glory that deifies the saints, who never call themselves saints, but sinners who fall short of the glory that deifies them. They neither… Read more »
Christ reveals the Holy Name of God, unveiling the glory of God’s Face. God’s unveiled Face of glory dispels delusion, undoing confusion with the grace of radiant communion, healing division with co-inherent translucence. The Name unveils God as He is, glory wondrous to behold. The unveiled Face of Glory is not, of course, visible as an object of empirical observation, although saints… Read more »
The radiant heart of wisdom beholds the luminous presence of glory, ineffable union of awareness and presence unveiling Holy Trinity as ineffable Godhead. The awakened heart sees as it is seen and knows as it is known, aware of being aware and present to the decisive presence of glory. Awareness pervades every perception, perceiving and perceived, revealing the glory of the Name… Read more »
The witness of the desert is heard in timeless stillness, HESYCHIA, giving Hesychast wisdom a timeless quality. The stages of the growth of spiritual maturation and restoration: purification, illumination and glorification, do appear to manifest in different tenses, purification anticipating illumination, glorification referring back to illumination and illumination to purification, but the sequential drama is more like a temporal play in… Read more »
The invocation, Hallelu Yah, springs from the union of wisdom and glory in the Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the inmost heart, crying ‘Abba, Father,’ ascribing all illumination and insight to the Father through the Son, whose wisdom and glory are trustworthy and true. Christ’s kiss of grace inspires heart and mind with ineffable love, anointing the soul with hallowing fragrance. The Name… Read more »
In his Spiritual Testament, delivered to us in community on the Feast of Saint Antony January 17th 1991, Saint Sophrony the Hesychast shared his vision of monastic life as the unity for which Christ prayed, that we may be one as the Father and the Son are one, that we may be one in the image and likeness of God the… Read more »