According to Orthodox hesychasm, wisdom purifies the heart with the fire of light and glory. Illumination is not therefore the reward for purification achieved without it, by ascetic effort alone. Although elders speak of purification leading to illumination and to glorification, they know that without the grace of uncreated light, purification remains external. Without the remembrance of God, the heart remains blind… Read more »
Healthy Orthodox Christianity bears witness to Christ as wisdom, renewing tradition through prophecy and assimilating wisdom through prayer. When wisdom is neglected, it becomes impossible to tell the difference between wholesome orthodoxy and heresy. Gnosticism fell into heresy when the Church’s healthy gnosis was lost and divisive confusion broke her wholesome union of communion, causing divisive schism. Ever since the second century,… Read more »
Elijah is the Prophet of Prayer and whenever the word of prophecy opens the eye of the heart to pure prayer, the sacred tradition of Elijah is renewed. The uncreated fire that consumes all that confuses us with God also cures all that separates us from God, because dissipation is determined by demonic division which hallowing communion alone can… Read more »
Humility is Christ-like when there is no trace of self-interest but simply obedience to the divine will, which hallows the Name so the Kingdom comes. The Holy Spirit abides in the Son at the heart of the Church, humbly interceding in the Name, witness to God’s Kingdom in the hallowing. Sacred tradition has nothing to do with pious addictive habits… Read more »
God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide in the Son, so the union of the Father and the Son, which is the mystery of the Holy Name, is opened to us in God. It is not something we observe from without; it is revealed through God, in God, from within. Orthodox tradition sees the Patriarch Enoch as… Read more »
As the prophet of prayer, Elijah turns the hearts of spiritual fathers to their children and the hearts of spiritual children to their fathers, lest the curse of separation overcome us. (Malachi 4: 4-6) The prophet Malachi bears witness to the holy function of Elijah, the function of turning hearts to ‘I AM,’ God’s presence in his self-revelatory Name, imparted… Read more »
Glorification springs from recognition, as when the disciples recognised Christ at the Eucharist in Emmaus and their hearts burned within them when he opened to them the mysteries of glory in the Scriptures, unveiling the glory at the heart of his suffering (Luke 24:13-25) Hearts burn when recognition of the Name sees Christ at centre in the midst. Deep turning… Read more »
Orthodoxy is Catholic and Apostolic when it sings its wisdom songs to transmit its mysteries to the hearts of mankind as a whole, free of all tribal narrowness and self-interested shallowness. It does not exist to tell the ethnic Orthodox they are right to belong to their tribe of ethnic Orthodoxy or to confirm the ethnic Orthodox in their self- interested… Read more »
Wisdom sees things as they are, discerning the glory of the Kingdom come. Prophecy tells things as they are, communicating the glory of the Kingdom come. Prayer lives things as they are, abiding in the glory of the Kingdom come. The bees go about their business in the monastery, bringing blessing with them wherever they go. Wisdom, prophecy and… Read more »
God gives prayer to those who pray in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). The Kingdom comes when the Spirit hallows the Truth of the Name, because when the Name is hallowed in spiritual prayer, the Kingdom comes through Christ’s revelation of the Truth. Pure prayer in Spirit is theoria of the Holy Trinity, which is the highest act… Read more »