Holy Orthodoxy remembers Pentecost first of all as the descent of the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire, then as the revelation of the Holy Trinity, then as the Spirit-filled gathering of all in the Holy Eucharist, initiating hallowed communion in which all things were held in common for the Common Good (Acts 2: 42-47). For desert seers, the revelation of… Read more »
The Communion of Saints holds all things in common for the Common Good, because the glorification of saints looks back at the great revolution which turned everything round, as something already given, as grace already present, a cause for indescribable rejoicing. For the saints, there is no trace left of inequality, of oppression, of widening rifts between rich and poor,… Read more »
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 »
William Morris was prophetic in his witness to radical communion that holds all things in common for the common good, not state socialism but radical democratic communion, not state communism but radical, grass-roots democracy. His vision of co-operative collaboration and shared responsibility was as uncommon in his lifetime as it still is in ours. Yet, without it, there is little hope… Read more »
The Spirit’s unceasing prayer in the heart glorifies the Father with the Son, ascribing glory to God in the midst of all falls from glory. It does not wallow in the falling gravity of endless falls, but undoes the power of falling by reversing it in accordance with the ascending gravity of heaven. The Spirit proceeds from the Father to abide… 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 »
Orthodox saints know themselves to be the worst of sinners, falling far short of glory, but they do not despair, because they trust in God’s grace to save them. This antinomic paradox means they trust God without presumption, recognising their incapacity to save themselves without despair. Faith in God’s grace to save them opens them to the light and glory of… Read more »
The consummation of Biblical prophecy in the Book of Revelation embraces the death, resurrection and ascension of the slaughtered Lamb at the heart of his glorifying union with the Father, putting to death, in the heart of Christ, the universal fall from grace. Raising souls from death to eternal life in the resurrecting heart of Christ, saints are deified in the… 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 »
‘Love is enough,’ for the void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter those lips and those eyes of the loved and the lover (William Morris: ‘Love is Enough,’ A poetic Romance in the form of a Lyric Masque, 1873). For Morris, as for the Song of Songs, ‘love is enough’ because its music of spheres is the song of angels… Read more »