The Apostle Paul says that he heard ineffable words when he was caught up in paradise and experienced revelation of unutterable glory (2 Cor 12:2-4). Hesychasts know that the Holy Name is an ‘ineffable word’ of the eternal Word when it reveals God in glory in the midst. But they also know that the words they use to communicate this… Read more »
The Son of Man partakes in what is ours so that the Son of God can give us what is his. Saint Symeon the New Theologian says the Son of God raises us to what is his by regenerating us in the Holy Spirit in his Kingdom. He opens us to the grace of the glory of his Kingdom by… Read more »
Solitude, silence and stillness are three ways in which the glory of the Holy Name reveals itself in the desert, three theophanies of wisdom in the sacred tradition of Orthodox Hesychasm. Solitude is outwardly a way of life in the desert called ihidaya, and inwardly a purification and simplification of the heart which humbles the soul. Silence is outwardly a characteristic… Read more »
The Holy Name ‘I AM’ weds the ineffable openness of God’s ‘I’ with the ever-present Oneness of God’s ‘AM,’ releasing divine glory into timeless freedom. Ineffable openness arises in the midst of uncreated awareness of the timeless presence of uncreated Oneness. ‘I’ awareness and ‘AM’ presence are indivisible, although they appear to separate into subject-object dualisms when division and… Read more »
The Holy Shroud of Edessa, found today in Turin, once resided in the Pharos Chapel in Constantinople where it was called the icon ‘not made with human hands.’ Like every holy relic, the mandylion veils a mystery of ineffable glory, but it is pre-eminent among relics, being an icon of the resurrected Christ bequeathed to us by the glory of… Read more »
Christly wisdom is a tree of life, whose truth is lived as way and whose way of life is union of spirit and truth. There is here a union of truth and way, lived as wisdom’s tree of timeless life. The Name is way, truth and life, divine life being the union of truth, discerned in theoria, and way, lived as praxis of turning, metanoia. Glory… Read more »
Bees mirror the uncreated love which does not seek its own. Such love forgives and gives life, like the uncreated, loving energy of the cross which radiates divine glory from before the foundation of the world. The Church of God circles round Christ, wisdom of God, like bees around their queen. Wisdom births us spiritually like the queen bee births the… Read more »
‘With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light.’ Psalm 36:9. Saint Gregory Palamas bears witness that it is in uncreated light that the glory of uncreated light is seen. In Patristic tradition, there is no created way for creatures to know the uncreated. All created ways and means such as discursive reason fall short of… Read more »
Orthodoxy means right-glorification and Saint Silouan said Orthodoxy is lived as love of enemies. The Apostle Paul bore witness that love’s glory is uncreated grace which wisdom discerns as the glory of the age to come. In Christ, glory is breaking in by grace but Orthodox sinners are painfully aware of falling short of glory, which the Apostle called vainglory. They… Read more »
In the darkness before dawn, the dawn star of wisdom rises all glorious within. When wisdom turns and sees, the noetic intelligence descends into the awakened heart, uniting with the uncreated light of the Holy Spirit praying ‘Abba, Father,’ in our midst. The Kingdom of the dawn star is within us so whoever seeks for it outside will be… Read more »
