Saint Silouan the Athonite bears witness to love of enemies as the spiritual criterion of true Orthodox Christian Tradition. Whenever political enmity threatens to divide the Orthodox Church, the mystery of Pentecost speaks to her condition, revealing how love of enemies acknowledges the many warring tongues even as it bears witness to the one Spirit, the one flame of fire… Read more »
The experience of glorification is the revelation of God through God in God, illumining the heart with the uncreated light of the Holy Trinity. It is not some sort of spiritual inflation but rather hallowing simplicity that humbles and purifies the heart. Revelation of God is through God and unveils God in God when the Holy Spirit awakens the eye of the heart, curing… Read more »
The union of mind and heart is not a clever technique but the Spirit’s gift of awakening to the union of the Son with the Father, the Name’s mystery unveiled from God, through God in God. It is the uncreated grace of the Holy Trinity awakening the heart to the union of uncreated awareness and divine presence, God’s ‘I’ and… Read more »
The name Jesus was given to the Christ because his prophetic function was to renew revelation of the saving Name ‘I AM’ and so, by hallowing the Name, unveil the kingdom come. The prophet Isaiah had said long ago that all God’s children shall be taught by ‘I AM’ and great shall be the peace of his children. (Isaiah 54:13… Read more »
Wisdom envisioned glory in some icons of the Virgin of the Unburned Bush as a Virgin of the Flame, whose vermilion glory consumes confusion and division but not the union in difference that characterises paradise restored. She is the burning wisdom of the Spirit’s Pentecostal flame that does not consume wholesome creation but extinguishes the confusion that divides creation from… Read more »
Humility is Christ-like when there is no trace of self-interest but simply obedience to the divine will, which hallows the Name so the Kingdom comes. The Holy Spirit abides in the Son at the heart of the Church, humbly interceding in the Name, witness to God’s Kingdom in the hallowing. Sacred tradition has nothing to do with pious addictive habits… Read more »
The Kingdom of God is unveiled by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, one revelatory Name, ‘I AM,’ three ways that God is arche and telos of all that there is. ‘He who is,’ YHWH, reveals who he is, was and shall ever be in the Name ‘I AM,’ EHYEH, addressing us in the Covenant formula of Theophany as ‘Thou,’… Read more »
The Kingdom of God is unveiled by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, imparting wisdom which discerns the glory of the Name ‘I AM,’ turning hearts back into God seeing God in God, uncreated light opening to uncreated glory in seven heavens. The Kingdom of heaven unfolds as seven heavens, which fall into confusion as seven hells,… Read more »
When Jesus imparted the Name to the Apostles, he fulfilled the Logos of the prophets, revealing glory without vanity, glory free of self-interest. In the Mosaic theophany of the Burning Bush, the Logos of God unveiled the Name, EHYEH, ‘I AM,’ and on Mount Sinai, EHYEH ASHER EHYEH, ‘I AM who I AM.’ The Johannine ‘I AM’ sayings, both with and… Read more »
The Logos, said the Apostle, is not yes and no but always Yes, always Amen, always glory to God, always glorification in God (2 Cor1:18-20). The Logos in the beginning, the Logos with God in the primordial arche, the Logos who is God from God, is always ‘Yes,’ always the primordial ‘Yes,’ the originative ‘Amen,’ the first glory and the very last… Read more »