When the Jesus Prayer is prayed three times, it becomes an invocation of the twelve letter Name, YHWH, YHWH, YHWH, as in the Priestly Name Blessing. ‘YHWH bless you and keep you. YHWH make his Face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. YHWH lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace’ (Number 6: 24-26). The four letter… Read more »
The Hesychast wisdom of stillness points beyond the world’s strident exteriors to the timeless presence of God in his Name. The Hesychast poetics of prophecy regenerates the degenerated imagination, purifying old prophetic symbolism in the uncreated energies of wisdom and glory, radicalising its prophetic power to awaken the heart, sustaining pure prayer of the Spirit in the midst. Invisible angels listen… Read more »
The Apostle says God makes his mysteries known to the saints in all wisdom and insight (Ephesians 1:8). Insightful wisdom reveals the union of all things in heaven and earth in Christ, the fulfilment of consummate completeness sealed by the Holy Spirit for the glorification of the saints. Desert Hesychasm is a silent witness to the Spirit’s unceasing prayer of… Read more »
The revelation of the Name in us purifies the heart with the presence of glory, the glory of the Son that precedes the foundation of the world. This is purification in the primordial glory of the beginning, the archeological glory out of which creation arises, the original glory of paradise before all falls. God’s Name glorifies the Son in us,… Read more »
Union with God in the Bridal Chamber of wisdom and glory reveals the uncreated light of glory in which the radiance of presence consumes parodied pretense, offering glory to God that restores right-glorification of God. Addictive gods are unseated at centre to enthrone God in the midst in uncreated glory. Elders surround the throne of glory but it is wisdom that… Read more »
The Apostle Paul preached justification by faith in Christ Jesus to Christians in Galatia, implicitly assuring them of the wisdom of faith, in contrast to what he saw as the folly of Jewish Christian reliance on compliance with Jewish Torah (Gal 2:16). He described his profound disagreement and later uneasy agreement with the leaders of the Jerusalem Church, James the brother… Read more »
Desert wisdom springs from Christ, who unites the invisible, angelic realms of heaven with the visible realms of earth, but does not worship angels, because in Christ, God’s true God-centred glorification of God is what inspires wisdom, wisdom that gives glory to God alone. The Book of Revelation is the Book that reveals God’s right-glorifying glorification of God in his… Read more »
Christ, for Orthodox Hesychasm, is the wisdom of God, all-embracing in his expansive openness but utterly specific in his rooted human transfigurement (1 Cor 1:24 & 30). Desert wisdom is intrinsically mystical theology because prophecy and prayer belong in the midst of the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. Prophecy in the desert communicates Christ’s witness to the Name, expressing the wholeness… Read more »
Saint Paul speaks scathingly of the conventional wisdom of reigning, worldly powers, only to insist that he imparts hidden wisdom that discerns the glory of grace, wisdom that glorifies God, glory that glorifies those who awaken to its hallowing glory (1 Cor 1: 2-10). Scholars sometimes speak of the Apostle’s irony at this point but the Apostle’s hidden wisdom is not… Read more »
The wisdom of the desert is the revelation of the Name, which is an Eternal Gospel proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the earth, all nations, tribes, languages and peoples (Rev 14:6). The Name is an Eternal Gospel because it declares the good news of God’s eternal Kingdom in our midst, revealing God’s timeless, sovereign ‘I’ awareness and ‘AM’ presence here… Read more »