Is Christmas a dangerous blasphemy? Those who shouted for Christ to be crucified thought it was. Was Christ’s incarnation a disastrous idolatry? Many monotheists thought so, but they were confused by what they saw as his confusion. Was his crucifixion proof that he was a Jewish heretic? In which case, what did his resurrection prove? Was his ascension really his disappearance… Read more »
Uncreated energy is winged, giving creation grace to rise with heavenly wings into heavenly realms, like angels whose deified lives are winged, or Seraphic flame partaking in winged Cherubic embrace, images of the ineffable that resonate with music of unseen spheres. Uncreated energy is creative, generating wondrous ways of being renewed by the uncreated imagination, deifying elders and saints with uncreated… Read more »
The invocation of the Name revokes the ancient curse as it undoes the fall from grace. It breaks the curse of evil enchantment with the grace of uncreated love, whose glory was hidden when Beauty was asleep. The Beauty of glory sleeps forever unless the kiss of grace breaks the curse of enchantment with genuine love. The dis-enchanting kiss of love awakens beauty… Read more »
Wisdom discerns the union of beauty and glory in paradise, the paradise that transfigures the earth with the union of holiness. Heaven and earth are conjoined as a visible union in the Holy of Holies, whilst the invisible is joined with the visible in the Holiest of Holies. The holy heart of the Holiest conjoins creation with uncreated glory, which his… 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 »
The wisdom hermitage is redundant in monasteries that have forgotten what they are for, although in the desert, Orthodox monasticism began with hermit cells and on the Holy Mountain, the hermitage still survives between the monasteries. The wisdom round cell becomes a place to store whatever has nowhere else to go, when once it had been the place of stillness at the… Read more »
Prophecy and prayer co-inhere without confusion or division because prophecy is the way of the affirmation of images and prayer is the way of the negation of images, both of which are fundamental and indispensable in Holy Orthodoxy. Pure prayer transcends images but the prophecy of prayer employs images, as the Book of Revelation proves. Imageless prayer is union with the uncreated… 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 »
When Dom Henri Le Saux, known in India as Abhishiktananda, awoke to the Name as he was awakened by the wisdom of the Name, he turned as he was turned, recognising the enlightening presence of wisdom. Seeing glory as glory is seen by wisdom, he cried out: “I have found the Grail.” Dying into God, as he almost died of a heart… 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 »