The Great Blessing of the Waters on Theophany Eve renews our baptism in the waters of the Holy Spirit through Christ’s Baptism of the wisdom of uncreated fire, the wisdom of uncreated light and the wisdom of uncreated glory. The fire of wisdom purifies the heart, the flame of uncreated light illumines the mind in the heart and the tongues… Read more »
AD MAJOREM GLORIAM DEI: SOLI DEO GLORIA The heavens declare the glory of God by revealing an eternal dance of love round the grace of love that draws everything into transcendence of time and space. This dance of love bears witness to the Spirit’s… Read more »
‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ John1:1). The Word names God in the beginning, unveiling the Name of completeness that the Holy Spirit knows as Truth, the Spirit of Truth knows as Way and the Way knows to be eternal Life. The Name is timeless life, living uncreated light… Read more »
Wisdom discerns the union of beauty and glory in paradise, the paradise that transfigures the earth with the union of holiness. Heaven and earth are conjoined as a visible union in the Holy of Holies, whilst the invisible is joined with the visible in the Holiest of Holies. The holy heart of the Holiest conjoins creation with uncreated glory, which his… Read more »
Wisdom abides at the heart of glory, delighting in the beauty of her glory’s holiness, rejoicing in the limpid purity of her uncreated energy. She does not neglect those she loves, but embraces them with her in-seeing gaze, seeing through the hardened surfaces of external form to the formless translucence of God’s Holy Name. To love her is to die… Read more »
The wisdom hermitage is redundant in monasteries that have forgotten what they are for, although in the desert, Orthodox monasticism began with hermit cells and on the Holy Mountain, the hermitage still survives between the monasteries. The wisdom round cell becomes a place to store whatever has nowhere else to go, when once it had been the place of stillness at the… Read more »
Gnomic Odes were known in Antioch and Edessa that were remembered by some in Nisibis and Tibet as the Odes of Prester John. They were also known as Odes of Solomon, because they were Christian wisdom’s Song of Songs that were also psalms of peace. They were loved and remembered in the Oriental Eastern churches that had no empire to defend… Read more »
The Song of Songs communicates Holy Conjunction, enclosed by the Seal of Solomon, his hexagram, signifying, ‘as above, so below.’ The seal signifies the Grail, Solomon’s empty vessel, at once Grail chalice filled with the life-blood of Christ and Grail vessel crossing over oceans of existence to the safe havens of God in Holy Trinity. As the vessel of Solomon, the Grail is… Read more »
The Holy Grail is the parousia of Christ’s uncreated presence hidden in the midst of creation, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the parousia of presence that Christ’s Holy Name reveals, Jesus, Yah Shuah ‘I AM saves’. The second coming of Christ is the Grail of eschatological presence that is found when Eucharistic union is unveiled, the Name is… Read more »
Co-companions of glory hallow the Holy Name of God in the midst, acknowledging the love that unites them at centre, in-breathed with the Spirit’s kiss, whose joy is to reveal the Son’s union with the Father, restoring fallen glory to God in Holy Trinity. Bearing each other’s burdens, both die daily into each other’s lives, transforming confusion into union, division into… Read more »