Rest in peace usually refers to life after death but stillness, hesychia, even now rests in peace in the midst of life, transfusing it with the undying, resurrecting energy of uncreated grace. The Spirit rests in peace in the Son, who rests in peace in the Father, revealing that rest in peace is the uncreated light and glory of the Holy Trinity, purifying,… Read more »
Saint Sophrony the Hesychast often spoke of the ‘critical tension’ inherent in self-condemnation to hell without despair, which Saint Silouan the Athonite was given to cure pride. This ‘word’ can appear joyless and heavy, but Saint Sophrony was neither, because his experience of the glory of grace was full of joy. He did not despair, because he trusted in God to save him,… Read more »
Holy Orthodoxy bears witness to right-glorification, but ‘philodoxy,’ love of glory, is rarely mentioned, because although vainglory, kenodoxy, loves glory, it does so in self-centred ways, whereas it is wisdom who loves glory in sound and wholesome ways. Since love of glory is wisdom’s ultimate concern, ‘philodoxy’ does not only mean love of one’s own opinions but wisdom’s love of glory… Read more »
The Holy Gospel of grace is hidden with Christ in God in worlds of pride and vainglory, worlds that reject wisdom, but wisdom is revealed in realms of glory that humbly trust the Holy Name to save. Indeed, there is no Gospel of Grace when religion is reduced to individual effort and struggle, when salvation lies in an inaccessible and hidden future…. Read more »
It is self-evident to pride that we must save ourselves by believing right things and doing things right, because being saved by grace is literally inconceivable. Proud self-righteousness is a very anxious business because it is haunted by fear that it is in the wrong, anxious that pride puts it in the wrong by falling short of glory. Pride lives very close to… Read more »
The Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide in the Son, drawing us into his ineffable abiding in the primordial union of the Son with the Father, restoring glory to the Father through the Son. Abiding in God’s ineffable openness, the uncreated oneness of God is spontaneously present as a womb of indescribable glory. Wisdom discerns the wondrous self-emptying of the… Read more »
Wisdom remains hidden whilst purification is curing pride, but is revealed when illumination begins to heal the confusions of pride and divisions of vainglory. Self-condemnation to hell without despair condemns pride to hell and so is actually the initial unveiling of the energy of uncreated light, curing pride and opening wisdom to glory purified of vanity. Grace takes this form… Read more »
When pride arose, Saint Silouan the Athonite was given self-condemnation to hell without despair, initiating Saint Sophrony the Hesychast into holy self-hatred with trust in the grace of the Name to save. From the perspective of negative asceticism, wisdom appears to be pride and is condemned together with pride. Whilst pride is arising, wisdom is indeed providentially hidden and so are… Read more »
The wisdom of Christ holds everything together, including the paradox of time and the timeless. Christ is divine-human, so his wisdom is uncreated yet also created, curing confusion whilst healing division. Gathering what was scattered, wisdom discerns the glory of grace, integrating apparently exclusive opposites. The story is dialectical when it discerns the unfolding of divine-human coherence in time, but paradoxical… Read more »
The prayer of stillness anchored childhood and adolescence in a revelation of love and peace which was newly inspired, in the summer of 1965, by a meeting with Saint Sophrony the Hesychast, prior to a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, at the age of twenty, in the company of my father. Saint Sophrony introduced me to the practice of Hesychast wisdom by communicating… Read more »