Saint Silouan the Athonite bears witness to love of enemies as the spiritual criterion of true Orthodox Christian Tradition. Whenever political enmity threatens to divide the Orthodox Church, the mystery of Pentecost speaks to her condition, revealing how love of enemies acknowledges the many warring tongues even as it bears witness to the one Spirit, the one flame of fire… Read more »
The experience of glorification is the revelation of God through God in God, illumining the heart with the uncreated light of the Holy Trinity. It is not some sort of spiritual inflation but rather hallowing simplicity that humbles and purifies the heart. Revelation of God is through God and unveils God in God when the Holy Spirit awakens the eye of the heart, curing… Read more »
The union of mind and heart is not a clever technique but the Spirit’s gift of awakening to the union of the Son with the Father, the Name’s mystery unveiled from God, through God in God. It is the uncreated grace of the Holy Trinity awakening the heart to the union of uncreated awareness and divine presence, God’s ‘I’ and… Read more »
Archimandrite Sophrony left many gifts to those who revered and loved him, but to some he bequeathed the healing mystery of the Name ‘I AM,’ set like a jewel within the mysteries of self-emptying kenosis and of perichoresis, co-inherence. Recently, in a woodland skete just like many to be found on the Holy Mountain but blessing England with its humble presence… Read more »
The name Jesus was given to the Christ because his prophetic function was to renew revelation of the saving Name ‘I AM’ and so, by hallowing the Name, unveil the kingdom come. The prophet Isaiah had said long ago that all God’s children shall be taught by ‘I AM’ and great shall be the peace of his children. (Isaiah 54:13… Read more »
Wisdom envisioned glory in some icons of the Virgin of the Unburned Bush as a Virgin of the Flame, whose vermilion glory consumes confusion and division but not the union in difference that characterises paradise restored. She is the burning wisdom of the Spirit’s Pentecostal flame that does not consume wholesome creation but extinguishes the confusion that divides creation from… 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 »
Christian Tradition is one in Christ, one in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one in the transmission of the Name, one in the faith that hallows the Name and bears witness to the Kingdom come. Wisdom discerns the unifying glory of the Name as the New Jerusalem, Bride of Christ, transmitting the communion of the Bridal Chamber, the voice of… 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 »