Wisdom discerns the union of mercy and peace in the light of wisdom and glory. The mercy of ineffable openness and the peace of spontaneous presence both bear witness to indivisible oneness. The full spectrum of divine names and qualities is manifest in the revelation of glory, which is the revelation of the completeness of peace in the temporal mercy… Read more »
If wisdom beholds the darkness that covers the Face of the Deep, revealed in the Spirit to be dazzling love, it is little surprise that science does not behold what only wisdom sees, for it is wisdom, not science, that beholds the dazzling light of the glory of love. Wisdom abides with the Spirit in the Son’s love of the… Read more »
Orthodox saints know themselves to be the worst of sinners, falling far short of glory, but they do not despair, because they trust in God’s grace to save them. This antinomic paradox means they trust God without presumption, recognising their incapacity to save themselves without despair. Faith in God’s grace to save them opens them to the light and glory of… Read more »
The consummation of Biblical prophecy in the Book of Revelation embraces the death, resurrection and ascension of the slaughtered Lamb at the heart of his glorifying union with the Father, putting to death, in the heart of Christ, the universal fall from grace. Raising souls from death to eternal life in the resurrecting heart of Christ, saints are deified in the… Read more »
Wisdom remains hidden whilst purification is curing pride, but is revealed when illumination begins to heal the confusions of pride and divisions of vainglory. Self-condemnation to hell without despair condemns pride to hell and so is actually the initial unveiling of the energy of uncreated light, curing pride and opening wisdom to glory purified of vanity. Grace takes this form… Read more »
When pride arose, Saint Silouan the Athonite was given self-condemnation to hell without despair, initiating Saint Sophrony the Hesychast into holy self-hatred with trust in the grace of the Name to save. From the perspective of negative asceticism, wisdom appears to be pride and is condemned together with pride. Whilst pride is arising, wisdom is indeed providentially hidden and so are… Read more »
Standing back from the incompleteness of life’s strains and stresses, wisdom turns and sees the glory of timeless freedom in the hallowed realms of union and communion. Anxiety resists hallowing communion but dissolves when union weds time with timeless wisdom, releasing illumination into glorification. Prophecy regenerates the imagination with new ways of telling old stories, whilst prayer of the… Read more »
The wisdom of Christ holds everything together, including the paradox of time and the timeless. Christ is divine-human, so his wisdom is uncreated yet also created, curing confusion whilst healing division. Gathering what was scattered, wisdom discerns the glory of grace, integrating apparently exclusive opposites. The story is dialectical when it discerns the unfolding of divine-human coherence in time, but paradoxical… Read more »
The Hagioritic Tome (1340) of Saint Gregory Palamas bears witness to the experience of purification, illumination and glorification that inspires Hesychast saints, insisting that the light of purifying illumination and glorification is uncreated because God’s energies of light and glory are uncreated. The noetic awareness of the heart is transfigured with uncreated light and deifying glory, opening hearts to the… Read more »
Saint Antony the Great, in his Letters from the desert, teaches that he who knows himself, in the Holy Spirit, knows God (Chitty, Letter 4 SLG p 12), for to know oneself without confusion is to know God without division. We are all members, one of another, in the Spirit, praying ‘Abba, Father,’ in Christ, because the Spirit proceeds from… Read more »