Solitude was always persecuted by those who lived in terror of silence and martyred by those who distrust stillness. The original symphony of verbal prayers and stillness was lost when stillness was crucified. Desert seers understand why persecution of stillness was always a martyrdom of silent solitude but also know that glorification of God precedes and succeeds the Cross of loving stillness…. Read more »
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 »
In the beginning, the Logos names the Holy Name upstream from ordinary language, showing us how to turn the light of awareness round to awaken the heart to the glory of God. The Name unveils the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit, crowning saints with uncreated light. Crown and throne are ancient symbols of uncreated glory pointing to… Read more »
The Apostle Paul does not confuse the created words he writes in his Epistles with the ineffable words he heard in the paradise of the third heaven (2 Cor 12: 2-4). The ineffable words of uncreated revelation are uncreated words of uncreated light, not created words of ordinary human language, communicating mysteries of glory rather than human concepts or matters of fact…. Read more »
The eye of faith trusts the Name to save beyond what visual sight can see but awakens its own kind of seeing, wisdom, that sees the glory of God in Christ. The eye of faith trusts wisdom that turns awareness round and beholds the glory of grace. So the eye of faith transcends ordinary sight but sees as wisdom sees, which is God’s… Read more »
The Holy Spirit awakens the heart in Christ to the Name above all names, revealed at centre in the midst, in whom the Father is unveiled in uncreated wisdom, embracing uncreated glory. The practice of wisdom turns light around into union with glory in the Name, which is no ordinary name, because it names God, ‘I AM,’ God’s ever-present awareness, discovered at… Read more »
The Dance of Co-inherence is first of all a dance of God in God through God as Holy Trinity, then a dance of uncreated and created energies in Christ that embraces us by grace in the Holy Spirit, then a dance of wisdom and glory in the Holy of Holies that Biblical prophecy calls the Bridal Chamber. On the natural… Read more »
The wisdom of the Cross and the wisdom of the Name are one manifold wisdom, crucifying confusion and division and resurrecting union and communion. The sign of the Cross is the sign of the Name because they signify the same mystery, the same fulness, pleroma, the same union, henosis. The Name crucifies confusion to resurrect union, dissolving division to raise… Read more »
Wisdom and glory unite in the Holy of Holies, transcending the binary duality of male and female in paradise, which unites heaven and earth in the created, intelligible dance, which unites in turn with the uncreated energies of God. It was Saint Maximus who spelt out these five dimensions of union in Christ in the seventh century, although John 1, 1 John 1, Ephesians… Read more »
Saint Sophrony the Hesychast unveiled the holiness of glory with humour that made the flame of the Name bearable, concealing uncreated fire beneath dancing laughter that conventional correctness could not repress. He unveiled uncreated holiness veiled for a secular age to handle, a grace that hid regenerative glory beneath an aged human exterior, overcoming contemporary ambivalence without compromise. His precision of… Read more »