The wisdom of the Beloved Disciple inspired the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation in different ways, enabling three epistles to speak of her love of her Beloved who loved her, which is not mere sentiment but the profoundest wisdom. Love of her wisdom regenerates Holy Orthodoxy way beyond the boundaries of the old Byzantine Empire, inspiring many and speaking through… Read more »
The purified heart beholds the vision of God that illumines saints in the age to come, restoring glory to God that was lost when the fall deprived seers of wisdom. The ineffability of wisdom discerns the openness of glory, awakening wisdom to the spontaneous presence of glory in the Oneness of the Name. The Spirit of truth abides with Christ… Read more »
Patristic Hesychasts from earliest times bore witness to the vision of wisdom in uncreated light, which is wisdom’s revelation of the glory of the Name. Wisdom was often spoken of in connection with uncreated light, radiant as if ‘clothed with the sun,’ and the beauty of her holiness was said to pass all description. The kiss of her embrace pierced hearts… Read more »
Prophecy imparts holy images, inspiring imageless prayer of the Holy Spirit in the heart, the Spirit’s unceasing intercession for all in the hidden heart of Christ. Prophecy has nothing to do with self-centred fantasy or self-obsessed day dreams, but with the purified imagination regenerated in the heart by the glory of grace, prophecy working together with imageless prayer to deify… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Conventional religiosity prefers contention without contrition, whereas Saint Silouan the Hesychast taught contrition without contention, preferring the immeasurable measures of love. Contention finds fault with those out there, whilst contrition knows the fault lies nearer home, but does not collapse into the narcissism of self-obsessed self-hatred, for here at home, love dwells where God dwells. Love leaps over the hyper-sensitivity of… Read more »
The co-inherence of Christ and his beloved disciple opens to their right-glorifying communion at the heart of Holy Orthodoxy, but the mystery remains hidden until wisdom unveils it, whose gaze and kiss embraces Christ in the Holy of Holies. Co-inherence is both a Christophanic and Trinitarian theophany but is also key to all the theophanic mysteries of love. Christ’s beloved bears witness… Read more »