In his Spiritual Testament, delivered to us in community on the Feast of Saint Antony January 17th 1991, Saint Sophrony the Hesychast shared his vision of monastic life as the unity for which Christ prayed, that we may be one as the Father and the Son are one, that we may be one in the image and likeness of God the… Read more »
Deifying recognition unveils the mysteries of the remembrance of God in the oneness of deifying glorification. The Father is the ground of this oneness of wisdom’s uncreated awareness in recognition and the uncreated presence of glory in remembrance, communicated through the Son and assimilated in the Holy Spirit. Division of good from evil is not willed by God but nevertheless… Read more »
Christ unveils the heart of regenerative prophecy to the desert by giving glory to God in the midst of death, opening the seal of prophetic witness to glorification, which is radical, doxological prayer in the heart. Radix means root, hence, the prayer of the Spirit in the heart is radical because it uproots what is not of God, to root us… Read more »
The Lord’s Prayer bequeaths to desert ascetics the prayer of Name-hallowing, God’s God-centred glorification of God in Holy Trinity, lived as the self-emptying of God through God in God and as the self-emptying of the created into the uncreated in deification. This Name-hallowing is the desert’s ascetical, reciprocating response to God’s self-emptying of the uncreated into the created in his… Read more »
Cherubic wisdom embraces Seraphic glory in the midst, enthroning the hallowed Name which gives birth to the Kingdom of glory. In the Gospel of Thomas, Yeshua says: ‘When you give birth to that which is within yourself, what you bring forth will save you. If you possess nothing within you, that absence will destroy you (Logion 70 Bauman 2002, 2008,… Read more »
Christ embraces his Beloved in stillness, wedding his Beloved Bride, the Church, whose apostles testify to his resurrection, whose prophets unveil the Name and whose saints bear witness to glory in God’s God-centred glorification of God. Christ in our midst sings his Song of Songs that glorifies his Beloved in our midst. Desert wisdom is not a loveless exclusion but a passionate… Read more »
Desert stillness testifies to the Kingdom of glory present in the hallowed Name, whose radiant wisdom hallows the Name in heart and forehead, crowning with glory all who turn with profound metanoia, all who see as they are seen, all whose hearts are sanctuaries of the indwelling Name, temples of the Spirit’s unceasing prayer, ‘Abba, Father,’ witness to the union… Read more »
Jesus said: The light of the body is the eye. If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light (Mt 6: 22). Desert elders interpreted this saying in the light of Jesus’ teaching on turning, metanoia, and the practice of seeing, the praxis of theoria. The single eye is the eye of wisdom, of wholeness and sound… Read more »
Desert elders listen to the Logos that names the Name, wisely agreeing that in the Name, glory unifies difference as hallowing union unveiling ineffable oneness. Elders know that in difference there is no division and that in communion there is no confusion. They know this in Christ, in whom there is difference but no division, communion but no confusion. In the Logos,… Read more »
The revelation of the Name in the Burning Bush on Mount Sinai is God’s self-revelation of glory, ‘I AM WHO I AM,’ to Moses, communicating in the Name ‘I AM,’ ineffable release (Ex 3:14). The revelation of the Name to Elijah on Mount Carmel reveals ‘I AM: He is God,’ ‘I AM: He is God,’ exposing the delusions of Baal with all-consuming… Read more »