The Book of Revelation unveils the glory of the life, death and resurrection of Christ in the light of his ascension and glorification, opening the prophetic imagination to the mysteries of his glorification, which are the consummating completion of Biblical prophecy. As the only work of Christian canonical prophecy in the New Testament, the Apocalypse is also the culmination of Christian prophetic… Read more »
The prophetic practice of returning and listening answers the grace of illumination that generates glorification. Glorification is the hallowing of the Name, SHEM, that is cognate with SHEMA, meaning to hear or listen, as in the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, ‘I AM’ is our God, ‘I AM’ is one’ (Deut 6:4). Prophecy reminds prayer: Turn and listen, return and hear God unveiling… Read more »
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 »
Orthodox Christian Hesychasm is not a divisive, sectarian phenomenon but the living wisdom of the hallowing Spirit, awake in Christ to the generous grace of the Father of light and glory. Metanoia turns the light of awareness round to awaken to theoria, seeing that sees who sees at centre, illumined vision of uncreated light that unveils the glory of grace. Saint David’s metanoia… Read more »
Rhygyfarch’s Life of Saint David says that it was angelic prophecy, communicated to his father, Sanctus, and to Saint Patrick thirty years before his birth, that spoke of the honeycomb of Saint David’s wisdom, the fish of his abiding in the seas of uncreated light and the stag of his royal dominion over the ancient serpent. In 1836, Rice Rees, in… Read more »
How was it that the wisdom of Saint David was able to include the ancient Shamanic mysteries of the honeycomb, the fish and the stag without collapsing into paganism? How was it that symbols from the ancient wisdom of Druid Britain were embraced by elders like Saint David and the saints, his spiritual offspring, without betraying Christ and the Spirit? Their… 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 »
The union of the mind and the heart in God empties the mind into God in the heart, a grace of union that unveils the ineffability of God’s self-emptying into us and our self-emptying into God. Wisdom and glory are ineffable both divinely and humanly, but ineffability is not nihilism, neither is self-emptying facile fusion, because ineffability is not confusion… Read more »
Sound grace is normative and pours out its wholeness freely to all without exception, but demonic deception seeks to undermine this from within by demonising what is sound, playing on fears of demonic deception in order to confuse what is clear and to misconstrue what is wholesome. But wholesome grace is sound and it is normal for grace to turn… Read more »
The Gospel of the glory of grace turns the light of awareness round to unite the mind and the heart in the uncreated light of glory. This utterly simple mystery transcends all that thought can grasp, yet Hesychast elders think this through to the end, which is the end of confusion and the beginning of indivisible communion. Ineffability is not… Read more »