Gratitude rejoices in grace and in the Spirit that inspires wisdom to discern glory in the ineffable wonder of grace. Confusion gives way to wonder when presence of glory inspires wisdom to sing wisdom songs of inexpressible gratitude, infusing ineffable words of the Spirit giving thanks for the glory of grace. To see who sees here is to behold wisdom’s… Read more »
‘Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord: God is the Lord and hath revealed himself to us’ (Psalm 118: 26-27, Orthodox Liturgy at the elevation of the Chalice OUP p 92). Here, revelation of God follows blessing in the Name, like summer harvests follow spring sowing of the seed. God is the Lord, ‘I AM,’ revealing… Read more »
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 »
Saint Sophrony the Hesychast, canonised by the Patriarch of Constantinople on November 27th 2019, completes what he calls his Confession and Spiritual Autobiography (‘We shall see him as he is.’ 1988) with witness to the Name ‘I AM.’ “Now, O my Christ, in Thee and by Thee…Now – I am” (‘We shall see him’ p 234). This witness cost him… 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 »
Rainbow glory surrounded the throne of glory in the Seer’s vision of heaven in the Book of Revelation (Rev 4:3). The Hesychast tradition is usually silent about the rainbow mysteries that embrace elders surrounding the throne of glory, but the Seer of Revelation does speak of rainbow glory in his prophecy. The mysteries of rainbow enthronement, crowning and glorification are… Read more »
The wisdom of Enoch was present at the heart of Orthodox Hesychasm, although the Book of Enoch was no longer read in monasteries except in Ethiopia. Enoch’s visionary journey had unveiled wisdom to the first Christian prophets long ago, wisdom that opened heaven through clouds of glory and mists of mystery, ascending into realms of angelic, heavenly light, ineffably hallowing the… Read more »
The wisdom of the Beloved Disciple is perhaps the most profound of all living wisdom streams flowing into the mainstream of Orthodox Christian wisdom, watering the living roots of desert Hesychasm, wisdom that beholds the glory of the slaughtered Lamb, full of grace and truth (John 1:14; 1:29; Rev 5:6-14). The Beloved Disciple beheld the glory of the Word made flesh,… 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 »
Orthodox Hesychasm is renewed from within by the Holy Spirit through prophecy and prayer. The prophetic gift is given in extremity when Patristic tradition is hardening into external formalism. The grace of prayer of the Spirit in the heart is given if prayer is degenerating into verbal repetition of formal prayers without any awakening to the mysteries the prayers are expressing…. Read more »