There are three states of the Name which look like stages from a temporal point of view but which are states from the timeless point of view of wisdom and glory. As stages, purification, illumination and union proceed from purification of the heart to illumination of mind in the heart, which opens to the union and ineffable openness of deification…. Read more »
God reveals God in three tenses of the Name, ‘I AM He who is, who was and who is to come’ (Rev 1:8). The three tenses of the revelatory Name look like three separate times, time present, time past and time future, but time present is ever-present, breaking into time from the Age to come, transcending time in the age to come. Time present… Read more »
There are three pronouns of the revelatory Name, the first person pronoun of revelatory wisdom, the second person pronoun of revelatory prayer and the third person pronoun of revelatory prophecy. The Name reveals God in all three pronouns of the Name, ‘I AM who I AM,’ ‘THOU ART who THOU ART,’ ‘HE IS who HE IS.’ Wisdom is always awake to God first personally, praying to… Read more »
Holy wisdom suspends optimism and overcomes pessimism as glorification of God transcends desire and despair, enlightening hearts by renewing minds in the heart. Uncreated light is not an impersonal force but a personal energy, dynamically communicating wisdom with dynamic glory, glorifying God with saints in God, communicating liberating freedom. Saint Sophrony the Hesychast handed on a dynamic legacy of freedom that cannot be assimilated… Read more »
The Gospel of glory communicates the glory of grace, revealing the glory of completeness in the midst of incompleteness, completing incompleteness within the perfecting embrace of wisdom. Glory completes incompleteness by overturning time, breaking through time into timeless presence, opening presence with the gaze of wisdom, turning awareness round into the source of awareness, grounding wisdom in glory. The Gospel of… Read more »
The uncreated presence of glory is wisdom’s holy secret, called a precious pearl by Christ, inspiring many centuries of spiritual pearl questing. The myth of the pearl symbolises the awakened heart, which completes the incompleteness of temporal experience. The scope of wisdom is the scope of glory, uncreated presence whose completeness loves wisdom as wisdom loves glory. Uncreated awareness is ever-present in… Read more »
Unknowing knows as it is known, which is wisdom’s way of knowing, not to be confused with nihilistic agnosticism or relativist ignorance, which does not know as it is known. Wisdom’s way of knowing transcends dualistic knowledge, so is described as unknowing, but knows that it humbly knows as wisdom knows, surrendering the controlling desire to know. Love knows in this way, transcending faith… Read more »
Holy Orthodoxy is not an ethnic commitment but a martyr’s costly witness, willingly laying down one’s life for the Holy Name of God. The Name asks, who is it who says I AM? God answers, it is I: ‘I AM HE,’ revealing God, through the Holy Name of God. I am ‘HE WHO IS,’ unveiling God in your midst. I… Read more »
Severance cuts through confusion so that sublation rises above division, curing coonfusion and division in different ways. Both severance and sublation are life-giving acts of uncreated energy, but severance begins with wisdom whilst sublation ends with glory. The Father begets the Son as God from God and light from light, regenerating saints in light through light of glory. Severance separates out… Read more »
Saints are sinners who turn and see God in the midst, turning away from vanity as they turn round into God, painfully incomplete as sinners but trusting the completeness of grace to complete them. Grace loves to make sinners saints, so whilst sin separates them from holiness, grace hallows them with its completeness. Prophecy employs poetic prose to awaken hearts to wisdom,… Read more »