Christ’s Holy Cross overcomes death by dying; consequently, to live his resurrected life is to embrace death, conquering death. To cling to life is to die spiritually because the way spiritual death overcomes life is through infecting life with fear of death. Wisdom does not fear death, because wisdom is undying life, timeless life gloriously dying to life-clinging terror of death. Resurrection… Read more »
Wondrous grace inspires awestruck gratitude, dissolving fear into wholesome thanksgiving. Awestruck wonder edges the soul towards turning, metanoia, which generously generates seeing, theoria, contemplation of light in light. Together, turning and seeing purify and illumine the heart, giving wing to glory. Together, purification and illumination cleanse the heart so that God’s Name is hallowed and reign of glory welcomed…. Read more »
Seeking the way of the Name, truth came to reign with glory, seeing life turn light around, planting tender roots sustaining timeless, bright translucency. Love forgives a seeker’s fear of finding he is found, of knowing she is known, releasing fear into the humble blessing of simplicity. The Spirit frees Christ to be who he sees, to be all that he… Read more »
As uncreated grace, awareness turns the light of awareness round, joyously abiding in the glory of the Father’s presence, unveiling love’s glory through the Son, generously sustaining love’s presence in the Spirit’s witness to wisdom, wisdom loving glory at the heart of God’s revelatory Name. One presence, revealed in three different ways, the glory of grace turns the light around to… Read more »
Did prophecy really die out when the Roman Pope agreed with the Emperor of Rome that the price must be paid for the Roman peace? Did prayer of the heart actually agree to die out when verbal prayer presumed to dominate endless services in the cities that extinguished the stillness of the heart? Was the Beast the real power in… Read more »
Hesychasm was a big surprise. Here was wisdom, turning the light of awareness around to behold the presence of glory at the heart of awareness. Here was turning, metanoia, uniting heaven and earth, whilst seeing, theoria, united uncreated light with uncreated glory. The practice of turning the light of awareness around was here still sustaining the practice of seeing to purify… Read more »
In all three synoptic gospels, Jesus speaks of the sin against the Holy Spirit and says any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven except blasphemy against the Spirit (Mt 12: 31-32; Lk 12:10; Mk 3:29). In an age of spiritual confusion and divisive fundamentalism, it is inevitable that spiritual narcissism demonises everything except one’s own egocentric or ethnocentric religion, sect or… Read more »
Encountering Saint Sophrony the Hesychast, in 1965. at the age of twenty, was catalytic for a theological student who knew very little about the Orthodox Patristic Tradition. Recommended to see him by Father Gilbert Shaw, who loved him dearly, the directness of his wisdom of God-centred personhood was both overwhelming and reassuring, and gave clear direction to a lifetime of spiritual… Read more »
Prayer in Spirit discerns the truth of Christ in the oneness of the hallowed Name, giving voice to the glory that unites heaven and earth. What elders call glorification is the experience of wisdom’s embrace of glory that unites all who turn and see God present here at centre in the midst. The oneness of this voice of glorification unites angels… Read more »
The way of the Name is the way of the unveiled Face, ever-moving, ever still. The Spirit is everywhere present without departing from Christ’s union with the Father for a moment. Wisdom serenely abides in the glory of the Name without separating from Christ or wavering from his union with the Father. The Spirit of wise awareness does not flit around like… Read more »